Chemical Engineering Capstone: Plant Design
A team capstone that designs a complete plant converting ethanol from a corn ethanol plant in Sarnia, Ontario into sustainable aviation fuel by the alcohol-to-jet route: client brief and team planning, design basis, market and process selection, flowsheet and balances, dehydration and oligomerization reactor design, the separation train, pinch analysis and utilities, equipment sizing and data sheets, plantwide control and P&IDs, HAZOP, LOPA, relief and siting, permits and carbon intensity, and a class 4 estimate with discounted cash flow, risk and a professional recommendation.
CHE-499 Year 4 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 38 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Chemical Engineering
This is the Canadian version of this course. See the American version.
What you'll learn
- Organize a capstone design team, interpret a client brief into requirements, preferences and context, and plan the work by the critical path method.
- Write a design basis memorandum covering capacity, on-stream factor, feed and product specifications, site data, utilities, codes and economic basis, and control changes to it.
- Screen candidate products by economic potential and a weighted decision matrix, test the ranking's sensitivity to the weights, and select a process route.
- Develop a conceptual flowsheet with closed material and energy balances, including element checks and recycle loops with purges.
- Design endothermic and exothermic catalytic reactors, including adiabatic beds with reheating and cooled multitubular reactors checked for parametric sensitivity.
- Sequence and size a separation train using separation heuristics, the Kremser equation and shortcut distillation methods.
- Set energy targets by pinch analysis, design a heat exchanger network and its utilities, and compare heating options on cost and emissions.
- Size major equipment to feasibility accuracy, set design conditions and materials, and write process specification sheets and an equipment list.
- Develop a plantwide control strategy, tune key loops from simple models, and draw preliminary P&IDs with safety instrumented functions and alarms.
- Carry out a HAZOP and LOPA, size relief for credible scenarios, and use inherent safety and facility siting to reduce risk.
- Identify a plant's releases and permits, and calculate the life-cycle carbon intensity of its products and the credits it earns.
- Prepare a class 4 estimate and discounted cash flow evaluation with sensitivity and risk analysis, and present a conditional recommendation honestly in a professional report.
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 38 min total · final exam
- 1 The capstone, the team and the client brief 25 min · quiz
- 2 Project basis and the design basis memorandum 25 min · quiz
- 3 Market and process selection 22 min · quiz
- 4 Conceptual flowsheet and material and energy balances 23 min · quiz
- 5 Reactor design 24 min · quiz
- 6 The separation train 23 min · quiz
- 7 Heat integration and utilities 23 min · quiz
- 8 Equipment design and specification sheets 23 min · quiz
- 9 Process control and P&IDs 22 min · quiz
- 10 Safety: HAZOP, relief, LOPA and siting 23 min · quiz
- 11 Environment, permits and carbon intensity 21 min · quiz
- 12 Economic evaluation, risk and the final report 24 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
A team capstone that designs a complete plant converting ethanol from a corn ethanol plant in Sarnia, Ontario into sustainable aviation fuel by the alcohol-to-jet route: client brief and team planning, design basis, market and process selection, flowsheet and balances, dehydration and oligomerization reactor design, the separation train, pinch analysis and utilities, equipment sizing and data sheets, plantwide control and P&IDs, HAZOP, LOPA, relief and siting, permits and carbon intensity, and a class 4 estimate with discounted cash flow, risk and a professional recommendation.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 4.