Syllabus

A list of topics covered in the course is presented in the calendar below.

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 4 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

Introduction

Fossil fuels have driven the industrial revolution and will continue to fuel the world economy well into the 21st century. Of all our fossil fuel resources (coal, oil, gas), coal is by far the biggest. In the developed world, it is mostly used for electricity production, employing pulverized coal boilers and steam turbines. In the developing world, similar trends are seen, but coal still has significant usage in the industrial and domestic sectors. One consequence of burning carbon based fuels is the emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) that in turn leads to global warming. While alternatives like solar, wind and biomass have some attractions, they do not, even with large scale expansion, have the potential to address the basic energy, fuel and chemical needs that are currently based on oil and gas. The problem for this class is to address the dilemma: how to burn fossil fuels without the associated environmental impacts?

Course Description

This course introduces students to methods and background needed for conceptual design of continuously operating chemical plants. Particular attention is paid to the use of process modeling tools such as AspenPlus® that are used in industry and to problems of current interest. Each student team is assigned to evaluate and design a different technology and prepare a final design report.

Prerequisites

This course is a senior design course and requires that a student has taken 10.490 Integrated Chemical Engineering I.

Textbooks

This course has no required text. Two references that you might find useful are:

Douglas, J. Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math, 1988. ISBN: 9780070177628.

Seider, W. D., J. D. Seader, and D. R. Lewin. Product and Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis, and Evaluation. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Wiley, 2003. ISBN: 9780471216636.

Organization

At the beginning of the term the course will meet for four 1-hour lectures per week. There are two class sessions one from 10-11 and another 11-12. The same material is covered in both classes. After three weeks the Friday class will be used for meetings of each student group and with the instructor. Occasionally classes will be held in the Department of Chemical Engineering Computer Laboratory. Laboratory sessions will begin on the second week of the term and continue until the end of the module.

Homework, Final Report, and Presentation

There will be approximately 6 homework sets during the beginning of the semester. The homework sets will be due approximately one week after being issued. We strongly encourage students to work in teams. The final solution must be your own work. Shortly after the beginning of the semester you will be formed into teams of four students to work on a design project. Each team will be assigned a different technology to develop/design/evaluate. Each team will write a design report and give a 30-minute presentation to the class and clients.

Policy For Academic Conduct

The homework, weekly summaries of progress and the final report have the primary function of helping you learn the material. The secondary function of these assignments is to aid the staff in assessing your understanding of the material, in particular when the time comes to provide a final grade for the course. To this end, the extent to which you collaborate with your colleagues in preparing this material must be understood and agreed upon by both the student team and the staff. The homework assignments are intended nearly exclusively to serve as a learning tool. As such, we are comfortable with collaboration amongst students on the solving of these assignments provided all collaborators are equal contributors to the solution of the problems. You must be prepared to defend your solutions in person if asked by the instructor.

During the final semester of senior year you may be involved in job interviews, visits to graduate school and as a result you may not be able to attend all classes or have timing conflicts with homework and project meetings. Please make sure that the instructor is made aware in advance of these conflicts, particularly if there is likely be any delays in turning in homework or in meeting with your project team.

Grading Policy

The course grade is based on 200 points. Description of the activities can be found in assignments and projects.

The Design Report grade will be the same for all the group members. No late reports will be accepted. The design report grade includes the presentations to class and clients (30 minutes per group).

The Personal Evaluation grade is a subjective evaluation of each group member and will be composed to two equal parts:

1. An evaluation by the instructor of performance in the weekly design meetings.
2. An evaluation by your team mates.

It is to your benefit neither to miss these design meetings, nor to come to them and just sit in. Also, after you submit the report, you will be able to give us your input on the performance of your group members by filling out an evaluation form. This evaluation will be held in confidence, and it will be taken into account for your subjective evaluation.

Calendar