• Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom
• Soft Skills

The course aims at forming a chemical engineer capable of designing and simulating a whole plant based on a specific process.

The main focus of the course is putting together the single items/bricks learnt in the previous exams of industrial chemistry and chemical plants together with the knowledge of chemical principles to make the student aware and capable of designing and simulating a process flow diagram with the details of single pieces of equipment.

Therefore, the design level moves from single process units to the set of process units that must be selected, quantified, and put in the process layout while accounting for the interaction problems.

The student becames expert of the conceptual design topics which lay their foundations on the quantitative assessment of both CAPEX and OPEX terms.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to design a chemical plant from an optimal economic point of view.

Both environmental and social elements for the sustainability of the plant will be covered.

The student will become an expert in the use of commercial process simulators and capable of critically selecting the optimal alternatives that the corresponding process is offering.

Process Systems Engineering

prof. Davide Manca – Politecnico di Milano

Master course in Chemical Engineering – Ten Credits

Concise program

1. Introduction to the Process Systems Engineering. History of the Computer Aided Process Engineering. Design from scratch, revamping, and process intensification.
2. Steady state and dynamic simulation of industrial processes. Cost estimation. Economic assessment of the CAPEX and OPEX terms. Classical conceptual design of an industrial process and evaluation of the economic potential terms. The use of superstructures to optimize the plant layout. Mixed integer linear and non-linear programming for design purposes.
3. Dynamic conceptual design: time-series analysis of price/cost of commodities and utilities. Cost indexes for CAPEX terms. Discounted back approach to OPEX terms and dynamic simulation of future scenarios according to market demand, and price/cost fluctuations and uncertainties. Feasibility study under market fluctuations.
4. Economics: fixed capital investment and working capital. Evaluation of the capital investment. Short accounts on interest and investment, takes and insurance, depreciation, profitability, cash flow, breakeven point.
5. Data reconciliation. Gross error detection. Model identification. Coaptation.
6. Process optimization: design mode; on-line mode; management/supervision. Hierarchical approach. The objective function and the structure of multidimensional continuous/discontinuous problems. Short accounts on scheduling, planning, and supply chain management (for batch and continuous processes).
7. Operator Training Simulators: conventional and advanced. Virtual Environments, Virtual Reality and Augmented Virtual Reality. Integration of dynamic process simulation and dynamic accident simulation.

Labs

The labs are based on the design and simulation of a chemical plant with UNISIM Design™. The use of Matlab and Excel as support tools for numerical computations is optional. Any other similar pieces of software are allowed and welcome.

Note: the course is in English and all the didactic material is in English as well.

The knowledge of numerical calculus together with design and simulation of single unit operations is mandatory.

The knowledge of basic industrial chemistry and in-depth chemical principles is as well highly recommended.

The exam is based on an oral test with the discussion of a final report based on the labs focused on the design of a whole chemical plant, together with a deepening on the theoretical topics.