• 051758 - CHEMICAL PROJECTS MANAGEMENT

The Course aims at giving students the necessary knowledge and technical tools to critically approach Chemical Projects Engineering and Management. A relevant interaction/involvement from a large EPC contractor is planned to be a key issue of the course, so as to provide students the highest connection with the real Chemical/Petrochemical/Oil&Gas Projects, and their Engineering and Management.

In particular, the course starts from (1) the feasibility study of any initiatives – (large) projects included – in which (2) further develops technical aspects of relevant phases of the basic engineering (from the process selection to the cost estimation), then (3) encompasses a critical picture and evolution of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) industry and the relevance of chemical engineering within it, provides (4) some basics of Project Management (PM), and enforces a practical approach to the overall issue by means of three voluntary project works (in teams of 5÷8 students) to be performed during the course, having professionals in the EPC sector as tutors.

The course targets the following Goals, within the broader context of the Programme, so as to empower the Student capabilities to:

- Understand context, functions, processes and performance with reference to chemical plants and related projects

- Design solutions applying a scientific and engineering approach with reference to chemical plants and related projects

With reference to the selected Goals at the Programme level, the Expected Learning Outcomes of the course relate to each Student being able to:

- Identify in a systematic way the relevance of the contextual factors, functions and processes with respect to the performance of a project, of a plant as a whole, or of a component, based on the general principles and laws/methods/models for project/plants engineering and management

- Set up and solve a problem related to a project, to plant as a whole, or to a component, applying the general principles and laws/methods/models for project/plants engineering and management

Chemical projects/plants: introduction and general concepts.

General principles of plant design: cost of downtime, bottleneck management and distributed vs. centralized capacity design.

Feasibility study – in the view of a (large) chemical project/plant: project strategy (scope), sales programme (and marketing concept), material inputs, location, site & environment, technology, engineering & layout (from a conceptual viewpoint, tackling bottleneck management and decentralized capacity design) later issue within the course), plant organization, human resources, project implementation (later issue within the course), investment appraisal.

Insights on plant engineering: project requirements and documents: overview of the tools, documents, workflow methods and procedures used in plant layout and piping design. Effective arrangement of equipment, also taking into account process needs, process integration, safety, environmental considerations, constructability, maintainability and operability. Simulation tools used for process, equipment and plant design. Lessons are organized using one or two case studies on plant design for chemical/petrochemical/oil&gas processes, and will include specific inputs and contributions by engineers of a large EPC company.

A view on (from) the industry: insights on the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) industry and their projects/plants, with a special focus on chemical ones, through seminars and test cases held by experts in both technical and managerial/strategic aspects.

Project management: Introduction to Project Management, Scope Management, Work Breakdown Structure, Time Planning (Bar Chart, Network Diagram, CPM).

A practical approach is enforced by means of three voluntary Project Works.

None.

The final grade will be based on a written exam, on an oral exam, and - when applicable - on the project works.

The written and oral exams have to be held in the same call, whilst the results of the project works keep their validity for the whole academic year.

The written exam consists of a set of quantitative problems to solve, and questions to answer; their assessment equally takes into account the formal development and the quantitative/qualitative content, so as to appraise the capability of each Student to:

- Identify the relevance of either contextual factors, or functions or processes with respect to the performance of a project, or of a plant as a whole, or of a component

- Set up and solve a problem related to a project, or to plant as a whole, or to a component

The oral exam starts with the discussion of the written exam, then focuses on the knowledge and understanding of the content of the course, as well as of the general principles and laws/methods/models for project/plants engineering and management

The voluntary project works (teams of 5÷8 students) result into reports; their assessment equally takes into account the formal development and the quantitative/qualitative content, so as to appraise the capability of each Student to:

- Set up and solve a problem related to a project, or to plant as a whole, or to a component