This is the capstone chemical process design course. It is a project-based course where students design a chemical process to solve an open-ended problem. The course integrates knowledge from the entire chemical engineering curriculum and provides students with real-world experience.
Specifically they would: • Conduct surveys for information on available technologies, markets, prices, safety/environment impacts • Develop a process flowsheet based on chemical engineering principles and heuristics • Perform preliminary & detailed economic analysis of the process • Analyse material and energy balances for a complete integrated process using flowsheeting software such as Aspen Plus • Develop a complete process flow diagram (PFD) for a process • Carry out Chemical Engineering design of major items of equipment such as reactors, distillation columns, heat exchangers, pumps, compressors, etc • Carry out Mechanical design of one or more equipment with reference to appropriate codes and design standards • Conduct safety, health, and sustainability analysis of an integrated process
This course covers the scientific principles underlying process safety and the practices prevailing in the process industry
Safety and Loss Prevention; safety, hazard and risk; accident and loss statistics; acceptable risk; nature of accident process; inherent safety; study of major accidents. Toxicology and Industrial Hygiene: Effect of toxicants on biological systems; models for dose and response curves; relative toxicity and threshold limits; Govt. Regulations for industrial safety – Indian and international scenario; MSDS; occupational health hazards and their control. Fires and Explosions: Fire Triangle; definitions; flammability characteristics of liquid and vapour; limiting oxygen concentration; flammability diagram; ignition energy; auto ignition and auto oxidation; adiabatic compression; ignition sources; sprays and mists; explosions; fire protection systems. Designs to prevent fires and explosions: Inerting; static electricity; controlling static electricity; explosion proof equipment and instruments; ventilation; sprinkler systems. Source Models: Flow of liquid from a hole in a tank and pipe; flow of liquid through pipes; flow of vapours through holes; flow of gases through pipes (adiabatic/isothermal); flashing liquids; liquid pool evaporation or boiling; guidelines for selecting process incidents. Accident Investigation: Incident causation theories; investigation methodologies; impact of human factors; building and leading accident investigation team; gathering and analyzing evidence; determining root cause; developing effective recommendations. Toxic Release and Dispersion models: Parameters affecting dispersion; neutrally buoyant dispersion models; dense gas dispersion; toxic effect criteria; effect of release momentum and buoyancy; release mitigation. Accident Case Histories: Lessons learnt through application of fundamentals of chemical process safety in following categories of accidents:System design; chemical reactivity; static electricity; procedures. Process Safety Management (PSM); reliability management. Risk Assessment: Probability theory; event trees; fault trees; LOPA; QRA; practical application of QRA.