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. Two exercises are mandatory and count for the final grade.

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.

Credit reductions