Process Design

Recommended Prerequisites

Applied Computing; Transport Phenomena I; Transport Phenomena II; Transport Phenomena III; Mass and Energy Balances; Chemical Reactors I; Chemical Reactors II; Separation Processes I; Separation Processes II; Modeling, Simulation and Optimization; Management and Entrepreneurship; Industrial Facilities and Equipment; Industrial Effluents and Residues; Process Supervision; Introduction to Process Design.

It is also recommended that some students within each group have attended Advanced Modelling and Simulation Techniques, Projects and Operations Management, Process Integration and Intensification.

Teaching Methods

Traditional (more expositive) lectures, relative to the methodologies to be applied, and with the presentation of application examples.

Presentation of case studies, encouraging problem solving skills and a systematic view the activity of process design. Design application developed by groups of 4-6 students under supervision (including short meetings and periodical presentations).

Learning Outcomes

This curricular unit addresses the integration of knowledge and competences acquired throughout the curriculum, creating an opportunity for the students to work in detail a concrete problem related to the design of an industrial unit for the production of a given chemical product. Typically, the work to be developed includes four components: i) evaluation of a business opportunity and market study, ii) selection of the basis technology, iii) technical chemical engineering design (synthesis and analysis of the process diagram and dimensioning of the main units), iv) economic analysis. This design exercise also aims at improving the capabilities of team work, and interaction with technical experts in several areas. In parallel with these demands, the students are also exposed to a set of Process Systems Engineering topics, to provide the design activity with more systematic answers.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

Design of industrial chemical processes. Market studies.

Hierarchic (systematic) methods for the synthesis of chemical processes. Synthesis of specific subsystems (reaction and separation).

Design of discontinuous systems. Interactions between design and scheduling. General methodologies of scheduling and optimization of discontinuous processes (RTN, STN).

Economic analysis in the design of chemical processes. Estimates of investment and operating costs. Economic feasibility analysis.

Optimal equipment design.

Interactions between design and its supervision. Specification of supervision strategies. Plantwide control.

Head Lecturer(s)

Nuno Manuel Clemente de Oliveira

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Synthesis work: 10.0%
Resolution Problems: 10.0%
Project: 80.0%

Bibliography

1. Turton, R.; Bailie, R. C.; Whiting, W. B.; Shaeiwitz, J. A. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, Prentice Hall International, Upper Saddle River, 1998.

2. Biegler, L. T.; Grossmann, I. E.; Westerberg, A.W. Systematic Methods of Chemical Process Design, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1997.

3. Douglas, M. Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1988.

4. Seider, W. D.; Seader, J. D.; Lewin, D. R. Product & Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation, 2ª ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2004.