Design and Optimisation of Chemical Plants
A.Y. 2024/2025
Learning objectives
The lectures will provide the students (from an Industrial Chemistry or Chemistry background) the basic concepts for the design of industrial scale chemical processes. The course will provide the fundamentals for sizing and rating of the main equipment found in a chemical process, in order to evaluate efficiency, yield, cost and to provide suggestions for integration and de-bottlenecking. The concepts for sizing and rating will be provided during the course, so no entry level knowledge of chemical plants is required. This makes the course suitable also for those chemists who want to have an idea about the concepts underlying the industrial process design.
Expected learning outcomes
At the end of the course the students should be able 1) to understand the main criteria for sizing and rating of the single reactors and unit operations, as well as of complex integrated plants; 2) to follow heuristic and standard guidelines for a preliminary design of a chemical process; 3) To follow basic methods for the optimization and heat integration of chemical processes; 4) To make a preliminary cost assessment of the solution proposed; 5) To be confident with state of the art software for process simulation.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course will provide the fundamentals for sizing and rating of the main equipment found in a chemical process, in order to evaluate efficiency, yield, cost and to provide suggestions for integration and de-bottlenecking.
The concepts for sizing and rating will be provided during the course, so no entry level knowledge of chemical plants is required. This makes the course suitable also for those chemists who want to have an idea about the concepts underlying the industrial process design.
The lectures will be mixed 1:1 with exercises in informatic lab to learn the use of a specific process simulation package, AspenONE, which is one of the most complete and powerful available in the market. This competence will be precious to our students as a useful visit card for industries.
The specific items that will be proposed during lectures are the following:
- Criteria for sizing and rating of different unit operations (particularly for different types of reactors) 6h
- Heuristic rules for process design 2h
- Integration of process units and criteria for optimization 4h
- Heat exchange network optimisation as a rule for energy saving and economic sustainability 2h
- Criteria for logistics and management of raw materials and utilities 2h
- Cost analysis: how to determine the economic potential of a process 4h
- Control strategy and criteria for "Hazop" 2h
- Unsteady state operation: criticisms during start up and shut-down and preventing reaction run-away 2h
The exercises in informatic lab are as follows:
- Introduction to process simulators. Available tools, limits and potentialities. 1h
- Aspen properties. Which are the compulsory physical chemical properties, what can we do to evaluate the missing ones and where to find literature data? Examples of physical properties evaluation for pure components, for the evaluation of vapor-liquid, liquid-liquid and vapor-liquid-liquid equilibria of selected strongly non-ideal mixtures. Comparison with experimental data. 4h
- Aspen Plus. Let's start drawing a flowsheet. 1h
- Aspen Plus. Examples of separation unit operations: flash vs. rigorous distillation. 2h
- Aspen Plus. Reacting systems: which reactor can be chosen for different purposes. How to express reaction rate and thermodynamics. 4h
- Aspen Plus. Designing compressors, pumps, mixers, splitters and valves. 2h
- Aspen Plus. Heat exchangers, types, integration in the flowsheet and criteria for energy saving. 4h
- Aspen Plus. Integration of the whole process. Criteria for optimization. 2h
- Aspen Cost Evaluator. Let's move to cost estimation. Available tools, databases, uncertainties. 2h
- Examples of process control design in Aspen. 2h
The examples will be guided by the teacher and the students will be hosted in an informatic lab with individual PCs available. Two main streams will be followed. 1) A well assessed example from a conventional refinery, where process optimisation allows the permanence on the market or not; 2) an innovative example taken from biorefinery, where reliable cost analysis and process integration and optimisation defines the success or not of emerging processes.
The concepts for sizing and rating will be provided during the course, so no entry level knowledge of chemical plants is required. This makes the course suitable also for those chemists who want to have an idea about the concepts underlying the industrial process design.
The lectures will be mixed 1:1 with exercises in informatic lab to learn the use of a specific process simulation package, AspenONE, which is one of the most complete and powerful available in the market. This competence will be precious to our students as a useful visit card for industries.
The specific items that will be proposed during lectures are the following:
- Criteria for sizing and rating of different unit operations (particularly for different types of reactors) 6h
- Heuristic rules for process design 2h
- Integration of process units and criteria for optimization 4h
- Heat exchange network optimisation as a rule for energy saving and economic sustainability 2h
- Criteria for logistics and management of raw materials and utilities 2h
- Cost analysis: how to determine the economic potential of a process 4h
- Control strategy and criteria for "Hazop" 2h
- Unsteady state operation: criticisms during start up and shut-down and preventing reaction run-away 2h
The exercises in informatic lab are as follows:
- Introduction to process simulators. Available tools, limits and potentialities. 1h
- Aspen properties. Which are the compulsory physical chemical properties, what can we do to evaluate the missing ones and where to find literature data? Examples of physical properties evaluation for pure components, for the evaluation of vapor-liquid, liquid-liquid and vapor-liquid-liquid equilibria of selected strongly non-ideal mixtures. Comparison with experimental data. 4h
- Aspen Plus. Let's start drawing a flowsheet. 1h
- Aspen Plus. Examples of separation unit operations: flash vs. rigorous distillation. 2h
- Aspen Plus. Reacting systems: which reactor can be chosen for different purposes. How to express reaction rate and thermodynamics. 4h
- Aspen Plus. Designing compressors, pumps, mixers, splitters and valves. 2h
- Aspen Plus. Heat exchangers, types, integration in the flowsheet and criteria for energy saving. 4h
- Aspen Plus. Integration of the whole process. Criteria for optimization. 2h
- Aspen Cost Evaluator. Let's move to cost estimation. Available tools, databases, uncertainties. 2h
- Examples of process control design in Aspen. 2h
The examples will be guided by the teacher and the students will be hosted in an informatic lab with individual PCs available. Two main streams will be followed. 1) A well assessed example from a conventional refinery, where process optimisation allows the permanence on the market or not; 2) an innovative example taken from biorefinery, where reliable cost analysis and process integration and optimisation defines the success or not of emerging processes.
Prerequisites for admission
Good knowledge of stoichiometry, mass and energy balances.
Students coming from different Bachelor degrees from Industrial Chemistry can contact the teacher for on-demand learning of prerequisites.
The concepts for sizing and rating will be provided during the course, so no entry level knowledge of chemical plants is required. This makes the course suitable also for those chemists who want to have an idea about the concepts underlying the industrial process design.
Students coming from different Bachelor degrees from Industrial Chemistry can contact the teacher for on-demand learning of prerequisites.
The concepts for sizing and rating will be provided during the course, so no entry level knowledge of chemical plants is required. This makes the course suitable also for those chemists who want to have an idea about the concepts underlying the industrial process design.
Teaching methods
The lectures will supply the main models and methods for the design, integration and optimisation of chemical plants, which will be then applied to different case histories taken from the basic chemicals production and current innovative Processes in the Green and Sustainable Chemistry field. Simulations will be carried out with the most up to date professional process simulator available on the market, i.e. Aspen Plus.
Teaching Resources
All the books, video tutorial, slides, examples will be available on the Ariel site of the course.
Books:
J.M. Douglas, "Conceptual design of chemical processes", McGraw Hill
W.L. McCabe, J.C. Smith, P. Herriot, «Unit Operations of ChemicalEngineering», McGraw-Hill.
Books:
J.M. Douglas, "Conceptual design of chemical processes", McGraw Hill
W.L. McCabe, J.C. Smith, P. Herriot, «Unit Operations of ChemicalEngineering», McGraw-Hill.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The examination will be in oral form.
On choice of the student, the examination may either consist in a "traditional" assessment of the understanding of main concepts through two questions of different topics covered by the course or be based on the discussion of an original projects elaborated by the student. In this latte case, the evaluation will be based on the discussion of a project carried out by each student on a specific topic, aiming at evaluating the economic potential of a unit operation or a chemical plant. The specific topics will be chosen by the students based on their interest, in collaboration with the teacher. Group works may also be admitted for complex integrated processes.
On choice of the student, the examination may either consist in a "traditional" assessment of the understanding of main concepts through two questions of different topics covered by the course or be based on the discussion of an original projects elaborated by the student. In this latte case, the evaluation will be based on the discussion of a project carried out by each student on a specific topic, aiming at evaluating the economic potential of a unit operation or a chemical plant. The specific topics will be chosen by the students based on their interest, in collaboration with the teacher. Group works may also be admitted for complex integrated processes.
ING-IND/25 - CHEMICAL PLANTS - University credits: 6
Lessons: 48 hours
Professor:
Rossetti Ilenia Giuseppina
Shifts:
Turno
Professor:
Rossetti Ilenia GiuseppinaEducational website(s)
Professor(s)
Reception:
Everytime upon appointment by mail
Office of the teacher or MS Teams