Course content

The course is meant to provide the necessary basic knowledge, skills, and understanding to enable the students to do a conceptual design of a process. Knowledge to design sustainable processes for the future that maximized energy and material efficiencies. The following bullets describe the content:

• Conceptual process design; strategies for decision-making, optimization, the design work process, battery limit, design projects, design basis,
• Mass and energy; calculations and solution strategies for mass- and energy balances, equation oriented and sequential modular simulation, shortcut calculation, compressor train design, pumping.
• Computer-aided simulation and design; hands-on training in the use of flowsheeting software as HYSYS or UNISIM, programming in Python or Matlab.
• Heat integration; pinch analysis, heat recovery, external heating, and cooling, design of heat exchanger network for maximum energy recovery.
• Selection and sizing of process equipment.
• Process safety, environmental considerations, and loss prevention.
• Economic evaluation; estimation of major equipment cost and total investment, operating costs, revenues, profitability analysis, and sensitivity analysis.
• The importance of understanding thermodynamics and kinetics
• Industrial examples; methanol production, ammonia production
• New processes; biomass to liquid fuel, power to liquid fuel.

Learning outcome

At the end of the course the student should:

• Be able to use simulation tools to model process systems and do steady-state simulations subject to design requirements and understand the degrees of freedom.
• Construct mass and energy balances and do shortcut calculations manually.
• Do heat integration by applying the pinch analysis, find the maximum possible energy recovery, and design a heat exchanger network that obtains maximum energy recovery
• Calculate the required size of the process equipment.
• Estimate the cost of process equipment based on size or capacity.
• Estimate the total investment costs, operating costs, and do a profitability analysis of projects.
• Understand the effect of material recirculation and why we need a purge.
• Understand process flowsheeting calculations, iteration schemes, and convergence.
• See the difference between kinetics and thermodynamic equilibrium effects when residence time and operational conditions are changed.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, demonstrations, and exercises.

Compulsory assignments

• Exercises

Recommended previous knowledge

Basic knowledge of chemistry and chemical process technology.

Course materials

Sinnott and Towler: Chemical Engineering Design, 5th edition. Supplementary handouts.

Syllabus

Link to reading list in Leganto

Credit reductions