NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

CN4123/CN4123R DESIGN PROJECT (AY2017-18)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The holistic experience of process design is an essential part of the chemical engineering
curriculum and the main goal of this project-based module. The module gives students an
opportunity to execute an open-ended chemical plant design project, the like of which they
may face in practice. In this project, the students will carry out the major steps involved in the
design and economic evaluation of a chemical manufacturing process. On successful
completion of this module, the students will be able to:

1. Work effectively in a team to develop a process with all members contributing

individually as well as collectively with proper communication and coordination;
2. Apply chemical engineering principles using available data;
3. Make design decisions in a safe, creative, critical and cost-effective manner;
4. Design a process section in detail;
5. Write a detailed report, and present it orally.

DESIGN BRIEF

The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process is a catalytic process for the conversion of synthesis gas
(typically produced by gasification of coal, biomass, or organic waste) into a mixture of
products that can be refined to synthetic fuels, lubricants, and petrochemicals. The flow chart
below describes the process in brief.

Synthesis Gas Fischer-Tropsch Fischer-Tropsch

Generation Process Refining
Carbon-based
feed materials Gasification FT synthesis Oil refining Synthetic
Gas reforming Syngas Gas loop Syncrude Aqueous refining Products
Coal Syngas cleaning Syncrude recovery
Natural gas Fuels
Biomass Lubricants
Organic waste Petrochemicals

Many FT technologies, differing in terms of catalyst type, reactor type, and operating
conditions have been developed. Temperature has the most influence on the FT syncrude
composition. Based on temperature, the FT processes can be classified as low-temperature
Fischer-Tropsch (LTFT) or high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch (HTFT). In general, the HTFT
technologies are preferred for a petrochemical facility for light alkenes and aromatics.

In this design project, you will design a downstream plant to produce C1-C5 alcohols and C3-
C5 ketones starting from the aqueous fraction of the syncrude product obtained from the
HTFT unit. The aqueous refining section consists of three main parts: (1) primary separation,
(2) carbonyl recovery, and (3) alcohol recovery. In the primary separation section, acid water

1
is removed, and (carbonyls + methanol) are separated from (alcohols + water). The stream
containing (carbonyls + methanol) is sent to the carbonyl recovery section to produce, after
aldehyde hydrogenation, C3-C5 ketones and methanol. The stream containing (alcohols +
water) is sent to the alcohol recovery section to produce, after ketone hydrogenation, C2-C5
alcohols.

The plant is to be located in Indonesia and the operation time is 8000 hours/annum. It will
comprise seven major sections. The advisors for the various sections are:
1. Primary Separation – Karimi
2. Aldehyde/Ketone Tower – Rangaiah
3. Aldehyde Hydrogenation – Kawi
4. Acetone Recovery – Suraj
5. Butanone Recovery – Borgna
6. Methanol Recovery – Gautam
7. Bottom Alcohol Recovery – Bhawe

Design Specifications

Feed:

1 2 3 4
Water (Mass fraction) 0.94 0.93 0.94 0.93
Non-water Components 0.06 0.07 0.06 0.07
(Mass fraction)
Mass fraction among the non-water components
Methanol 0.012 0.013 0.014 0.011
Ethanol 0.470 0.442 0.391 0.500
1-Propanol 0.108 0.114 0.125 0.102
2-Propanol 0.025 0.027 0.029 0.024
1-Butanol 0.035 0.037 0.041 0.033
2-Butanol 0.043 0.045 0.049 0.040
Pentanol 0.016 0.017 0.019 0.016
Acetaldehyde 0.015 0.016 0.018 0.014
Propanal 0.013 0.012 0.009 0.010
Acetone 0.090 0.095 0.104 0.085
M-E-Ketone 0.034 0.036 0.040 0.033
Acetic Acid 0.098 0.103 0.113 0.093
Propanoic Acid 0.022 0.023 0.026 0.021
Tartaric Acid 0.019 0.020 0.022 0.018
Total for Non-water 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Components

2
Capacity:

1 2 3 4
Feed Flow Rate (kg/h) 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000

Purity:

1 2 3
Product Purity Methanol 95% Methanol 96% Methanol 97%
(Mass basis) Ethanol 90% Ethanol 92.5% Ethanol 95%

Team Specs:

Team Feed Capacity Purity Team Feed Capacity Purity

1 1 1 1 25 3 1 1
2 1 1 2 26 3 1 2
3 1 1 3 27 3 1 3
4 1 2 1 28 3 2 1
5 1 2 2 29 3 2 2
6 1 2 3 30 3 2 3
7 1 3 1 31 3 3 1
8 1 3 2 32 3 3 2
9 1 3 3 33 3 3 3
10 1 4 1 34 3 4 1
11 1 4 2 35 3 4 2
12 1 4 3 36 3 4 3
13 2 1 1 37 4 1 1
14 2 1 2 38 4 1 2
15 2 1 3 39 4 1 3
16 2 2 1 40 4 2 1
17 2 2 2 41 4 2 2
18 2 2 3 42 4 2 3
19 2 3 1 43 4 3 1
20 2 3 2 44 4 3 2
21 2 3 3 45 4 3 3
22 2 4 1 46 4 4 1
23 2 4 2 47 4 4 2
24 2 4 3 48 4 4 3

ORGANIZATION & ASSESSMENT

The students execute the design project in teams of SEVEN (7) members. The plant involves
the seven sections listed in the Design Brief above. Each lecturer advises one section, and
defines its design scope, physical boundaries, and one major unit for detailed design. Each
student selects and takes charge of one section for his/her team. S/he will develop a complete
process for his/her section, design the one major unit in detail, and do short-cut design of all
other units in the section. In addition, the student will contribute to several team tasks for the

3
design project. Thus, both team and individual contributions are essential for a successful
design project.

The students form teams by themselves, pick a team number, and decide a team leader. Each
team xx must achieve its design specifications listed in the Design Brief above. While there is
no restriction on who can be in a team, teams with fewer than seven students are not allowed.
Students looking for a team and vice versa must post their requests in the Discussion Forum
of IVLE.

CN4123/CN4123R in IVLE has three projects: (1) Team Members, (2) Team Leaders, and
(3) Section X: xxxx, where xxxx is the name of the section advisor. All students in each team
xx must sign up for Team xx in Team Members. Additionally, the leader must sign up for
Leader xx in Team Leaders. Then, each student must sign up for “xxxx xx” in Section X:
xxxx, where xxxx is his/her section’s advisor. The deadlines for signing up and associated
penalties are given in the Deadlines and Deliverables section.

Good design requires proper and timely communication and coordination. All team members
must communicate with each other continually to achieve progress, and a coherent and
feasible final design. The leader coordinates regular team meetings and facilitates effective
communication and teamwork with inputs and cooperation from all members.

The final marks for this module will have two parts. Each student will submit one individual
written report on the design of her/his section, and make an oral presentation on that report.
The report will carry 50% and the presentation will carry 10% of marks. In addition, each
team will submit one interim and one final report. The various parts of these two reports
together will carry the remaining 40% of marks. After submitting the final report, each student
will assess individually the contributions of all his/her team members and the team leader. The
average assessment score earned by a student will determine the marks that s/he gets for the
team tasks (40% marks). Hence, these marks will vary for each team member. In recognition
of his/her extra responsibility, each team leader can get up to two (2/100) additional marks
based on the peer evaluation by his/her team members.

SCHEDULE

E5-03-24 and E5-03-37 are booked for the project work on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
(0800 – 1800). E1-04-09 (PC1) is available on Thursdays and Saturdays (0900 – 1800). E2-
03-06 (PC3) is available on Mondays and Tuesdays (0900 – 1400), and Wednesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays (0900 – 1800). All these clusters have Aspen HYSYS, most have
MATLAB, and E5-03-24 has Visio.

All sessions in LT6 on Thursdays, unless stated otherwise

Date (Week) Activity Time

January 18 Overview of the project and Team-work (by Prof Rangaiah) 13.00
(Week 1) Talk on Design & Sustainability in Practice (by Mr Joe Eades) 14.00

4
January 25 Industrial Reactors and their Design Guidelines 13.00
(Week 2) Industrial Columns and their Design Guidelines 14.00
(Prof Gavin Towler, CTO & VPRD of UOP Honeywell, USA)

February 1 Pump Sizing and Specifications (Mr Tan Kian Hock, Ex-ExxonMobil) 13.00
(Week 3) Small Group Meetings (See the footnote for the venues) 14.00

February 8 Design of Distillation Columns (Ms Lau Sue Ann, Sulzer) 13.00
(Week 4)

February 15 Small Group Meetings (See the footnote for the venues) 14.00
(Week 5)

February 22 Small Group Meetings (See the footnote for the venues) 14.00
(Week 6)
Recess Week
March 8 Report Writing (by Dr Satyen Gautam) 13.00
(Week 7) Small Group Meetings (See the footnote for the venues) 14.00

March 10 PFDs and P&IDs in industrial practice (Mr Satendra Singh, Amec 10.00
(Week 7) Foster Wheeler)

March 15 Small Group Meetings (See the footnote for the venues) 14.00
(Week 8)

March 29 Briefing on Cost Estimation & Economic Analysis (by Prof Linga) 13.00
(Week 10) Briefing on Safety, Health and Environment (by Dr Satyen Gautam) 13.45

March 31 Safety, Health and Environment (Mr Raman Balajee, Ecolab) 10.00
(Week 10)

Venues for Small Group Meetings on Sections (on Thursdays for one hour at the time
shown below): you have to attend these sessions as they will not be webcast; choose your
section carefully.
1. Primary Separation (Karimi): E5-03-20 from 2 to 3 pm
2. Aldehyde/Ketone Tower (Rangaiah): E5-03-22 from 2 to 3 pm
3. Aldehyde Hydrogenation (Kawi): E5-03-21 from 2 to 3 pm
4. Acetone Recovery (Suraj): E5-03-20 from 4 to 5 pm
5. Butanone Recovery (Borgna): E5-03-23 from 4 to 5 pm
6. Methanol Recovery (Gautam): E1-06-01 from 4 to 5 pm
7. Bottom Alcohol Recovery (Bhawe): E5-03-23 from 2 to 3 pm

Industry Talks: Details of the industry talks will be conveyed after the confirmation from
speakers, about one week in advance. These sessions may be on Saturday mornings. In
addition, Prof Towler has kindly agreed to hold some workshops/webinars whose dates will
be announced later.
5
Weekly meetings with team leaders (or their representatives): Every Thursday, from 3 pm
to 4 pm, in E5-03-20 beginning from Week 1
DEADLINES AND DELIVERABLES
Date Deliverables
January 22 Team Formation: Team number, leader,
(Week 2) and members
Penalty: 1% for failure to enrol or
incorrect enrolment
January 25 Section Selection: Section that each
(Week 2) member will design
Penalty: 1% for failure to enrol or
incorrect enrolment
February 22 2-page Interim Report one from each
(Week 6) TEAM
Suggested content: Scope, process
overview, inputs to and targets for each
section, progress in each section, team
work plan and milestones, etc. Present
flowsheet and stream data in additional
pages.
March 29 Section Report - Process Development
(Week 10) and Design (printed and electronic
copies) one from each student
Page limit per report: 35 pages
(including title, table of contents, PFD
and stream data, and appendices, if any)
Penalty: (a) 0.5% for every 2 pages
exceeding the limit, and (b) 2% for not
following the format guidelines.
April 16 Team Report (electronic copy) one from
(Week 13) each team):
Executive summary: ≤ 4 pages
Cost Estimation & Economic Analysis: ≤
6
Instructions for submission
Sign up for Team xx under
IVLE Project: Team Members.
Sign up for Leader xx under
IVLE Project: Team Leaders.
Here, xx is your team number.
Sign up for xxxx xx under IVLE
Project: Section X: xxxx, where
xxxx is the name of your section
advisor.
Upload a SINGLE pdf file into
the folder for IVLE Project:
Team Leaders by 3.00 pm, and
submit a printed copy during the
team leaders’ meeting.
1. Upload a SINGLE pdf file of
the section report into your own
folder under IVLE Project:
Section X: xxxx.
2. Submit one printed copy
(double sided) of the section
report to ChBE Department
office.
Submit both hard and soft copies
by 12.00 noon.
Upload a SINGLE pdf file into
the folder under IVLE Project:
Team Leaders.
Upload one HYSYS file for
 20 pages (including references) complete plant simulation into
SHE: ≤ 25 pages (including references) the folder under IVLE Project:
Team Leaders.
Sustainability: ≤ 5 pages (including
Submit both files by 12.00 pm.
references)
For entire Team Report: ≤ 54 pages
(excluding title page, table of contents,
list of symbols, figures and tables, PFD
and stream data)
Penalty: (a) 0.5% for every 2 pages
exceeding the 54-page limit and (b) 2%
for not following the format guidelines.

Week 13 Oral Presentations: On Process Schedule and venues for the

Development and Design of individual presentations will be announced
sections later.

April 30 Peer evaluation: Each team member will Perform peer evaluation online
be asked to assess the contribution of in IVLE.
other members in his/her team to the
team tasks. This will be taken into
account for grading each student’s
performance.
Team leader evaluation: There will be
only one question; only team members
should answer this question on their team
leader.
Penalty: 2% for failure to complete peer
evaluation.

Penalty for late submissions of any of the above without valid reasons: 2% per day of delay.

REPORTS

The section and team reports should emphasize on the systematic and sound application of
chemical engineering principles to the solution of this project. Justification, where required,
must be clearly presented and discussed for the selection/adoption of the process and process
conditions, raw materials, reaction kinetics, type of equipment and configuration, heat transfer
media. All design equations must be stated and either referenced or derived. Assumptions
should be clearly justified, and any source of uncertainty should be discussed. Data and results
derived from computer programs must be clearly presented.

7
Section Report on Process Development and Design

The Section Report should identify and explore different alternatives of separation
technologies, reactor configurations, process conditions, etc. to achieve an efficient design. It
should investigate opportunities for reducing the environmental impact by conserving water,
fuel and energy and recycling/reusing/treating materials, etc. Students should synthesize and
evaluate several alternate process configurations and identify the best process. The decision
on the best process should use criteria such as safety, cost, profitability, feasibility,
controllability and reliability to evaluate and compare different processes. The Section report
must contain a process flow diagram showing principal equipment, along with a table of
process stream data. As a guideline, refer to Chapter 3 of the book “Chemical Engineering
Process Design and Economics” (Ulrich, G.D., and Vasudevan, P.T., Process Publishing,
2004) for the presentation of PFDs.

Team Report

The Team report must include the following sections:

1. Executive Summary: This summary should describe the main features of the proposed
design such as importance of the product(s), process and major equipment details,
profitability, safety, environmental & operational issues. It should also provide values of
important operating conditions, sizes, total costs, etc. The executive summary must contain
a process flow diagram with stream data.

2. Cost Estimation and Economic Analysis: This section should contain a complete cost
estimation and economic analysis for the whole process and a discussion on the
profitability of the proposed plant. An equipment schedule listing all major equipment
including pumps and tanks should be provided. Equipment schedule and cost estimation of
equipment for each specific unit will be the responsibility of the individual member and
should be presented in separate tables for each unit. The rest of the cost estimation &
economic analysis will be team work.

3. SHE: This section should include an evaluation of safety, health and environmental
considerations in the design, including hazard identification and HAZOP studies. Other
specific topics such as plant layout, operational safety, treatment and disposal of effluent
and personnel protection should also be discussed.

4. Sustainability: The sustainability assessment of a downstream plant to produce alcohols

and ketones from the aqueous fraction of the syncrude product from HTFT unit should be
carried out in a location different from Indonesia (to be chosen by each team). This section
does not require extra cost calculations, and only a qualitative discussion on sustainability,
considering economic, environmental and societal aspects, should be included.

8
Format

The report must use A4-size paper, Times New Roman font (size 12 or equivalent), 1.5 line
spacing, and 2.5 cm margins on all sides. Graphs and drawings in the report should be clear,
easy to read and in an appropriate size. References should be given in a consistent format and
should be clearly cited in the appropriate place of the main text. All results must be in SI units,
and all symbols must be clearly defined. Further details and guidelines for the report
organization will be discussed in the “Report Writing” session.

The report should be the personal and unassisted work of the student or his/her team.
Plagiarism in any form will not be tolerated. All submitted reports will be checked for
plagiarism. Source codes, algorithms and/or printouts of all computer programs written by the
students should be submitted with the report. Students may use legally permitted or published
process simulators and computer programs for numerical techniques and graphics. When
using application software such as process simulators, the student must clearly demonstrate a
good understanding of the methods and fundamental principles used in these programs, and it
should be clearly stated in the report where these programs are used. It is also essential to
clearly show calculation or justification for all input specifications to process simulators. A
brief description and/or an illustrative sample calculation should be included to demonstrate
understanding of the commercial packages.

REFERENCES

Recommended Texts
1. Towler, G., and Sinnott, R., “Chemical Engineering Design: Principles, Practice and
Economics of Plant and Process Design”, 2nd Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford,
2013 (TP155 Tow 2013).
2. Turton, R., Bailie, R.C., Whiting, W.B., Shaeiwitz, J.A., Bhattacharyya, D., "Analysis,
Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes", 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2013 (TP155.7
Ana 2013).
3. Seider, W.D., Seader, J.D., Lewin, D.R., Widagdo, S., “Product and Process Design
Principles: Synthesis, Analysis and Design”, 3rd Edition, Wiley, 2010 (TP155.7 Sei 2010).

General References
4. Douglas, J.M., “Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes”, McGraw Hill, 1988 (TP155.7
Dou).
5. Biegler, L.T., Grossmann, I.E., Westerberg, A.W., “Systematic Methods of Chemical
Process Design”, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 1999 (TP155.7 Bie).
6. Silla, H., “Chemical Process Engineering Design and Economics”, 2003 (TP155 Sil 2003).
7. Green, G.W., and Perry, R., “Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook”, 8th Edition,
McGraw-Hill, 2008 (TP151 Per 2008).
8. Couper, J.R., Penny, W.R., Fair, J.R. and Walas, S.M., “Chemical Process Equipment:
Selection and Design”, 3rd Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 2012 (TP157 Chem).

9
9. Peters, M.S., Timmerhaus, K.D., West, R.E., "Plant Design & Economics for Chemical
Engineers", 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2003 (TP155 Pet 2003).
10. Wankat, P.C., “Separation Process Engineering”, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, NJ, 2012
(TP156 Sep.Wa 2012).
11. Lee, S., “Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing”, Taylor & Francis, New York, 2006 (TP9
Ency 2006).

Specific References
12. Klerk, Arno de, “Fischer-Tropsch Process”, published online Jan 2013, Kirk-Othmer
Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Wiley Online Library.
13. Klerk, Arno de, “Fischer-Tropsch Refining”, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,
Germany, 2011.
14. Dry, M.E., “The Fischer-Tropsch Process: 1950-2000”, Catalysis Today, 2002, 71, 227-
241.
15. Oldenburg, C.C., and Rase, H.F., “Kinetics of Aldehyde Hydrogenation: Vapor-phase
Flow System and Supported Nickel Catalyst”, AIChE. Journal, 1957, 3 (4), 462-466.
16. Dry, M.E., and Steynberg, A.P., “Commercial FT Process Applications”, Studies in
Surface Science and Catalysis, 2004, 152, 406-481.

10