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A new guide to capital cost estimating
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clarification, are barely mentioned. Inevitably the choice of subjects covered in a text of this type is a matter of opinion. The very large use of solid-liquid separation in public health engineering and its particular problems are not considered apart from a clear, if brief, account of deep bed filtration by Ives. The styles range from very clear to tortuous and, although it is necessary that books of this type be clearly subdivided, the use of a four figure decimal subdivision with sections as brief as seven words might be considered excessive. Several chapters contain useful worked examples of design calculations based on laboratory test data, although the precision of the results in predicting plant performance is not always discussed. The book is well produced and illustrated, has a useful index and does not contain too many minor errors, although the reviewer was somewhat disturbed to learn that the wellknown expression of Stokes for the terminal velocity of a sedimenting sphere is only valid when expressed in SI units. R. J. AKERS
A New Guide to Capital Cost Estimating published by The Institution of Chemical Engineers, Rugby, Gt. Britain, 1977; 76 pp.; Price: 83.00 plus postage and packing 3Op (Gt. Britain), 45p (overaeas); corporate members 15% discount, students 35% discount,
When I reviewed [l] the Institution of Chemical Engineers’ first (1969) Guide to Capital Cost Estimation, I said that it was useful, instructive, poorly presented and good value for money, especially at 4Op for students. The New Guide to Capital Cost Estimating, by a joint working-party of the dnstitution and the Association of Cost Engineers, is still useful, even more instructive, far better presented, but poor value for money, in spite of containing advertisements. It is not so much that a cost index of $+3.00/ Cl.20 = 250 (1969 = 100) is to be deduced, since that is at least less than for plant aonstruction, but that for students the index is L2.25/;EO.40 = 562.5 even without postage. I
understand the reasons, but the booklet was particularly valuable to students. For their $2.25 plus 3Op postage they will be all too conscious that they are still only getting a slim offset-printed stapled paperback, so that I cannot with the best will put in a bulk order and students will not get the full benefit of a much improved booklet. It broadly follows the .chapter headings of the 1969 guide, and often is similarly worded, but in most areas the coverage is extended, brought up to date or simply tidied up. For instance, cost data are now dated and cost indices are treated more thoroughly. (The authors were perhaps not aware of the index published in Engineering and Process Economics.) The cost file does not cover exactly the same equipment and there appears to be nothing now on distillation columns and trays, but I grant that the intention is to give examplesrather than to be comprehensive. A bigger loss is the graph relating overall Lang factors to average cost of main plant items. The chapters on project evaluation have had some of the idiosyncrasies of the earlier version eliminated and wisely touch on sensitivity analysis and the probabilistic treatment of uncertainty. From at least a theoretical point of view, however, more might have been made of the net present value in the example; and is not DDT an unhappy choice of project? If we disagree with any of the views or dislike the style, then the author of each chapter is now identified, but most of the views have stood the test of the first Guide and the style is not excessively turgid. G. L. Wells’s chapters are in fact commendably crisp. The line diagrams are less coarse than previously and the typeface is dramatically more legible. But it is a shame about the cost: I suppose we shah have to buy ten copies and lend thep out. How about that 66.6% discount for stu-dents instead? A. FOORD
Reference 1 A. Foord, Chem. Eng. J., 2 (1971) 222.
clarification, are barely mentioned. Inevitably the choice of subjects covered in a text of this type is a matter of opinion. The very large use of solid-liquid separation in public health engineering and its particular problems are not considered apart from a clear, if brief, account of deep bed filtration by Ives. The styles range from very clear to tortuous and, although it is necessary that books of this type be clearly subdivided, the use of a four figure decimal subdivision with sections as brief as seven words might be considered excessive. Several chapters contain useful worked examples of design calculations based on laboratory test data, although the precision of the results in predicting plant performance is not always discussed. The book is well produced and illustrated, has a useful index and does not contain too many minor errors, although the reviewer was somewhat disturbed to learn that the wellknown expression of Stokes for the terminal velocity of a sedimenting sphere is only valid when expressed in SI units. R. J. AKERS
A New Guide to Capital Cost Estimating published by The Institution of Chemical Engineers, Rugby, Gt. Britain, 1977; 76 pp.; Price: 83.00 plus postage and packing 3Op (Gt. Britain), 45p (overaeas); corporate members 15% discount, students 35% discount,
When I reviewed [l] the Institution of Chemical Engineers’ first (1969) Guide to Capital Cost Estimation, I said that it was useful, instructive, poorly presented and good value for money, especially at 4Op for students. The New Guide to Capital Cost Estimating, by a joint working-party of the dnstitution and the Association of Cost Engineers, is still useful, even more instructive, far better presented, but poor value for money, in spite of containing advertisements. It is not so much that a cost index of $+3.00/ Cl.20 = 250 (1969 = 100) is to be deduced, since that is at least less than for plant aonstruction, but that for students the index is L2.25/;EO.40 = 562.5 even without postage. I
understand the reasons, but the booklet was particularly valuable to students. For their $2.25 plus 3Op postage they will be all too conscious that they are still only getting a slim offset-printed stapled paperback, so that I cannot with the best will put in a bulk order and students will not get the full benefit of a much improved booklet. It broadly follows the .chapter headings of the 1969 guide, and often is similarly worded, but in most areas the coverage is extended, brought up to date or simply tidied up. For instance, cost data are now dated and cost indices are treated more thoroughly. (The authors were perhaps not aware of the index published in Engineering and Process Economics.) The cost file does not cover exactly the same equipment and there appears to be nothing now on distillation columns and trays, but I grant that the intention is to give examplesrather than to be comprehensive. A bigger loss is the graph relating overall Lang factors to average cost of main plant items. The chapters on project evaluation have had some of the idiosyncrasies of the earlier version eliminated and wisely touch on sensitivity analysis and the probabilistic treatment of uncertainty. From at least a theoretical point of view, however, more might have been made of the net present value in the example; and is not DDT an unhappy choice of project? If we disagree with any of the views or dislike the style, then the author of each chapter is now identified, but most of the views have stood the test of the first Guide and the style is not excessively turgid. G. L. Wells’s chapters are in fact commendably crisp. The line diagrams are less coarse than previously and the typeface is dramatically more legible. But it is a shame about the cost: I suppose we shah have to buy ten copies and lend thep out. How about that 66.6% discount for stu-dents instead? A. FOORD
Reference 1 A. Foord, Chem. Eng. J., 2 (1971) 222.