MEng Chemical Engineering with Energy and Environment

Drawing on their studies throughout the first year of the Chemical Engineering course, in this unit students work in groups to prepare an outline design for a complete process. It starts with an introduction to how groups function and hence how to be an effective group member. Then the process is designed over a series of tasks:

• Material and Energy balances for the entire process flowsheet
• Design, particularly sizing, of the major components, such as reactors and evaporators
• Detailed heat exchanger design
• Sizing of pumps and compressors
• Economics

Throughout the design students consider the practical aspects of process design, including: safety, flexibility to adjust production with market conditions, and engineering tolerances.

The final task is a personal reflection on what has been learned and how to improve personal performance in future design groups. 

The unit aims to:

• To demonstrate the application of material and energy balances to a complete chemical process.  
• To integrate material from first year courses on fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics. 
• To provide an introduction to equipment design.

Students will be able to: 

ILO1. Identify principal successive steps required in the commencement of a process design

ILO2. Apply and combine the principles of mass and energy balance, fluid flow, heat transfer, thermodynamics, chemical reactors and physical separations to design specific pieces of equipment and a complete plant.

ILO3. Interact and communicate with his/her peer group when tackling common engineering tasks.

ILO4. Plan and use his/her allotted time to meet task deadlines

ILO5. Demonstrate a capacity for independent critical thinking.

ILO6. Conduct a basic economic assessment of a plant design

The design is broken into five tasks. Each task is of one or two days. Students are given a briefing on the overall process to be designed and then individual briefings for each task. They work in their groups with support from GTAs and submit a report at the end of each task.

The final day begins with a lecture about reflective practice, then the students have the rest of the day to write short reflections on the design process and working in groups.

The course starts with some training exercises for working in groups.

Feedback on coursework reports will be provided  

Briefing sessions followed by problem-based learning.  Coursework to be completed during allocated time.

Feedback on coursework reports will be provided as well as support during the problem solving  

sessions.

Students are expected to expand the concepts presented in the session and online by additional reading (suggested in the Online Reading List) in order to consolidate their learning process and further stimulate their interest to the course.

 

Learning hours for the unit

Lecture - 6 hours

Tutorial (Groupwork Training) - 3 hours

Private Study - 5 hours

Design Project - 55 hours

Coursework (Writing Reflections on the design process) - 6 hours

Total for Module - 75 hours

 

Assessment task	Length	Weighting within unit (if relevant)
Design Projects (Groupwork Coursework) - five assessments	-	80%
Reflections (Individual Coursework)	-	20%

1) Chemical Process  Design and Integration, 2nd Edition, Robin Smith, Wiley (2016) ISBN 978-1119990130

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