Course content

-Do an early stage feasibility study.
-Create and draw process flow diagrams
-Calculate mass and energy flows of the entire process
-Chose type of equipment and size unit operations
-Estimate the cost of major equipment
-Estimate the total investment and operating cost
-Do a profitability analysis
-Assessment of environmental impact and safety

Learning outcome

After completing the course, the student will have attained
-Knowledge about biochemical process technologies
-Apply methods for sizing selected process operations or be able to lookup and apply such methods.
-Estimate cost of equipment based on size or capacity.
-Estimate total investment and operating costs.
-Do a profitability analysis of the project and compare alternative projects

Learning methods and activities

Half of the workload is project work. Groups of 3-4 students are assigned a problem to design a biochemical process. Several of the scientific personnel from the department of biotechnology and some from the department of chemical engineering will participate as supervisors. The second half of the work is to follow selected topics from the course TKP4165 process design. The final product of the work is a report that describes the process design and the results of the study. In addition, the results will be presented as a poster or as an oral presentation.

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

General knowledge of process engineering

Course materials

Sinnott and Towler, Chemical Engineering Design, plus handouts

Credit reductions