Process and Power Plant Design

This course provides the fundamentals for conceptually designing processes of chemical and energy conversion plants, where basic unit operations such as reactions, energy conversion, heat and mass transfer, separations, etc. are designed, modeled and optimized.

The conceptual process design involves the design of the flow sheet, creating the topology of the process by the optimizing the sequence of reactors, separation units and energy conversion systems to achieve the required product specification in a sustainable and economically feasible way.

In the course the students learn how to select, sequence and model the different unit operations as well as the selection and rough sizing of the required equipment. In addition the students will learn how to integrate the different units into a process flow sheet, and how to model, optimize and rank of the different design alternatives.

During the course the students get a hands-on experience with modern process design tools (a.o. Aspen Plus), which will be used in a larger assignment in which a conceptual design of a sustainable, and (if possible) economically feasible process will be setup and simulated.

The course includes the following elements:

• Intro; context and scope of conceptual process design;

• Modelling the thermodynamics of mixtures

• Modelling of key unit operations

• Hierarchical approach (Douglas method) to conceptual process design

• reaction and separation systems

• homogeneous systems

• heterogeneous systems

• steam power plant system

• Simulation and optimization

• Superstructures

• Costing and project evaluation

• Safety, Health and Environmental impact considerations

• Flow-sheet design using Aspen

• Presentation (pre-recorded) of the case studies (both block scheme and final flowsheet)