CHEN3003 - Process Synthesis and Design Project Group Report Assignment

Assignment Task

Preliminary Information

This project should be done in groups of four people of your own choosing. It has both group and individual components. Postgraduate students have an extra individual extension study to complete. Peer assessment will be used to individualise each person’s mark for the group component; that is, people will get different marks for the group part of the project. This assessment is worth 45% of the overall unit mark.

Project Objectives

The objectives of the project are to:

• Find and summarise information about a specific product and its
• Analyse a nominated manufacturing process from a process synthesis point of
• Construct a Hysys simulation for the given process, clearly documenting the assumptions and choices made, and reflecting on its
• Perform an individual study on a process synthesis and design topic of your choice, explaining its benefits and scope, your method, the results and their
• Present the information in professional

Project Task

Please perform the following tasks and write reports on the work conducted.

1. Product and process information (Group work)

Please provide the following background information about MA (suggested length 2–3 pages):

• Brief description, typical specifications of commercial grades and commercial applications of the product, maleic anhydride. Note that specifications are different from
• Business information on the product, which could include major producers, trends in worldwide production capacity, recent industry news, new projects, upstream and downstream chemicals, typical plant capacities, and historic and current prices, and research / technology developments. Please include at least one reference book or engineering encyclopaedia, one recent business source and one research
• Table that describes and compares one alternative manufacturing process for making MA with the Turton

2. Analysis of the Turton process (Group work)

Please analyse the Turton flowsheet from a process synthesis viewpoint (suggested length 3– 6 pages):

a. Classification of the flowsheet into generic flowsheet blocks (such as Reaction System). Show the generic blocks by drawing your group’s own generic block flow diagram of the Briefly explain the reasoning behind your choice of blocks and classification. It must be clear which equipment items go in which generic block.

b. For the Turton process, use Smith’s Onion model of process synthesis to interpret the issues faced, the decisions made and the reasonable alternatives that you think would have been considered by the process Show your analysis in a series of tables: one table per Onion layer, where each table has three columns (Issues, Decisions, Alternatives) and each row represents the analysis of one issue you identified:

Coming up with the alternatives is a higher-level thinking task. You should use a combination of referring to relevant literature and your own ideas to develop them. Do not list every possible alternative, just what you think are close second choices. For the alternatives you come up with, what, very briefly, would be their advantages and disadvantages? Would there be any recommendations you would make for alternatives that should be investigated further?

3. Process simulation and review (Group work)

You are asked to replicate the Turton Figure B.5.1 flowsheet in Hysys as close as reasonably possible , and compare your simulation with Turton’s work. Replicating existing results is often used to build confidence that your methodology and parameter values are correct before undertaking further studies. However, (1) published works can contain errors and (2) it is inevitable that you will not be able to replicate all the results exactly. Please don’t spend excessive time trying to match Turton’s work. More important is to decide which variables you prioritise matching closely and which ones you allow to deviate more. You’ll be asked to identify why you made the choices you did, and what the implications would be.

This section should include the following (suggested length 10–15 pages, excluding (f)):

a. Construction of a steady state simulation of the Turton Figure 5.1 process in Hysys with the following restrictions as explained earlier, which include:

• A rigorous PFR model must be used for the reactor with the reaction information given by Turton equations (B.5.5)–(B.5.9).
• A Component Splitter must be used for absorber T-601 and a Shortcut Column for distillation column T-602. Don’t use rigorous columns in your group

b. A clear image of the Hysys Refer to Lecture 6B.

c. Well-presented stream tables for the material and energy streams, including compositions expressed in mole Refer to PC Lab 3 and Lecture 6B.

d. A table that reviews, in order of decreasing importance, the major differences between your simulation and Turton’s Minor differences should be excluded from the table, but can be briefly noted in the text.

e. A table that outlines the simulation created:

• Assumptions and decisions made
• Justifications for them, including reasons for prioritising matching one variable over another variable, and any comments about the implications
• Any notes about incorrect or inconsistent information from Turton

f. The table should include not only the equipment, but also the species, thermodynamic method and similar. Developing this table is a higher-level thinking task.

g. The Input Summary generated by Hysys (to be placed in an appendix). You can see examples of Hysys Input Summaries at the end of each week’s PC lab

4. Study on a process synthesis and design topic (Individual work, all students)

Before selecting a topic, please think carefully about the information or data you might need, how it could be obtained or approximated, and have a go at finding it before making a final decision about what topic you do. Some topics may require further research and self-study; some topics you may need to replace simplified units by rigorous units. Original thinking is strongly encouraged in this individual study . It is open-ended and is meant to engage higher- level thinking skills. Each person needs to write up their individual study in an individual report, which should not exceed 15 pages.

Please note the following important points:

• The study needs to be quantitative and must involve using or adapting the Hysys simulation developed by the
• The intended study and the proposed methodology have to be appropriate. A study, no matter how thorough, that investigates something unhelpful or applies an unsuitable method will not gain a good Please check with your lecturer if unsure.

You are free to select any one of the topics here to investigate the process further; however,

each person in your group must do a different study :

• Checking the appropriateness of the fluid package and its
• Investigating alternative reactor configurations and operating conditions, possibly including different temperature control
• Simulation and exploration of the molten salt heat transfer
• Rigorous simulation of the absorber or distillation column, and exploration of its
• Alternative separation systems, including different separation processes and/or different separator
• Investigating alternative solvents, which will also involve rigorous simulation of the
• Heat exchanger network analysis, synthesis and
• Comparing the set-up and capabilities of simulating the process, or parts of it, in Hysys with another simulator, such DWSIM or Aspen
• Economic analysis, including sensitivity and scenario analyses. The Aspen Economic Analyzer may not work effectively, so manual calculations may also be
• Investigating and improving the sustainability of the This may sound appealing, but you need to think very carefully about what quantitative study you can do that uses Hysys.
• Another topic of your choice related to process synthesis and design that interests you. You can be creative here. This option is encouraged, but you must check with your lecturer for the topic’s feasibility before starting the

For your selected individual study please:

• Clearly outline the intended scope of the study. Explain the significance and potential benefits of conducting Suggested length: 0.5–1 pages.
• Describe the methodology you will use for conducting the study, referring to the literature as Suggested length: 1–2 pages.
• Show the results of the work performed: flowsheets, tables, graphs,
• Discuss the results with respect to the literature if possible, including the reasons for the behaviour, the implications, the limitations of the study and recommendations coming from the
• Reflect on the project overall: both group and individual tasks, both technical and non- technical issues, including working in a team and using the peer assessment What are the main lessons or insights you gained from the project, technical and non- technical? Realistically, what will you try to do so you can work more effectively in the future? Suggested length:

5. Postgraduate extension study (Individual work, CHEN5072 students only)

The Turton flowsheet in Figure B.5.1 produces around 95 mol% pure MA in Stream 13, but 99.9 mol% purity is required for sale. Turton suggests that two extra distillation columns are needed to complete the separation. You are asked to consider the options for treating the 95 mol% MA stream, and then to implement and investigate one of them:

• First, let’s assume that you must produce 9 mol% MA, but you are free to decide how to achieve that and what to do with the other species present in Stream 13.
  • Describe and briefly explain the rationale for at least two alternative flowsheets that could process Stream 13
  • Sketch simple drawings of the alternative flowsheets
  • Outline the possible advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives
  • Which alternative would you recommend using? What is the key information that you need to make this decision?

Suggested length: 1–2 pages, including flowsheet drawings and possibly a table.

• Choose ONE of the alternative flowsheets you thought of in (a), not necessarily the one you Attempt to implement the flowsheet in Hysys:
  • Explain briefly any assumptions you made and any extra information you used to build the simulation
  • Provide clear images and stream tables for the Hysys flowsheet
  • Briefly explore some of the flowsheet’s behaviour; for example, in a case study
  • Comment on the strengths and shortcomings of your simulation as you see them

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