OVERVIEW

The course aims to provide students with the design tools necessary for the dimensioning of the main unit operations according to the main technical/economic optimization criteria.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide students the knowledge and understanding applied to engineering analysis, acquiring judgment in choosing the most appropriate criteria for the design and analysis of the equipment covered by the course. The course also aims to train students in order to make them autonomous in the choices of engineering practice, acquiring the ability to integrate knowledge relating to the sizing of a chemical plant even in complex industrial situations.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Attendance and participation in the proposed training activities (lectures, exercises and numerical exercises) and individual study will allow the student to acquire:
- design criteria and optimization of heat exchange networks for energy integration; the operating principles and design criteria for liquid-liquid extraction and extraction with supercritical fluids; operating principles and design criteria for an adsorption/desorption column; understanding and reading process diagrams.
- be able to choose and use the most appropriate criteria for the design and analysis of the equipment covered by the course.
- know how to set up the equipment project in relation to the system in question, in order to achieve the design objective with the tools and time available; in running the plants, knowing how to interact with the equipment, through the set of process parameters, to achieve the desired operating conditions.
-refine the technical language concerning unit operations and heat exchange networks and become aware of the existence of specific communication protocols.
-know how to apply the acquired knowledge to different contexts from those presented during the course, and deepen the topics covered, specializing them to the specific topic under examination.

TEACHING METHODS

The teaching includes about 60% of methodological and theoretical lessons in the classroom, about 40% of calculative exercises in the classroom.

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Professor Federico Scarpa (federico.scarpa@unige.it  ), the Polytechnic School's disability liaison.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN :

From the idea to the project, from the idea to the identification of plausible and possible projects. identification of the project to be developed.

The project specifications. Philosophy of the project and its reference duration. Climate and site specifics; product and by-products specifications; specifications of raw materials, consumption; specifications on the operational flexibility of the plant: minimum, nominal and design flow; other specifications relating to the plant and materials, equipment and control system to be used. The economic evaluation. Process engineering: processing of the PDF. Relations between process engineering and dimensioning. The meaning and utility of the P&ID in plant design and management. P&ID content and symbolic representation. P&ID symbols and reading examples.

INTEGRATION OF THERMAL EXCHANGE NETWORKS (LINNHOFF OPTIMATION):

The plant, the process, the utilities. Hot and cold fluids. The composite curves. The overall balance sheet of a plant. The determination of the pinch point. The graphs of the plant currents. The golden rules. Exchange network with maximum energy recovery.

Existing plants. Reduction of the number of exchangers. Energy implications. Excellent economic between investment costs and consumption.

LIQUID-LIQUID EXTRACTION:

The principles of extraction. Experimental construction of a ternary diagram. Design of an extractor: analytical and graphic methods. Extraction with supercritical fluids. Properties of supercritical fluids. Thermodynamic overview of high pressure systems. Extraction from solid or liquid matrix through the use of a supercritical solvent. Examples of extractions mediated by supercritical fluids.

ADSORPTION/DESORPTION:

Description and typical applications. The equilibrium isotherms. Descriptive equations and mechanisms. Design of an adsorption/desorption unit. Material budgets. Breakthrough curves. Desorption. Adsorption/desorption cycles. Pressure swing absorption (PSA).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. PERRY'S CHEMICAL ENGINEERS' HANDBOOK - MC GRAW-HILL INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS

2 INTRODUCTION TO PINCH TECHNOLOGY, LINNHOFF MARCH, WWW.LINNHOFFMARCH.COM 
IAN C KEMP, PINCH ANALYSIS AND PROCESS INTEGRATION, SECOND EDITION (2007), ELSEVIER3. MC CABE, SMITH AND HARRIOT: UNIT OPERATIONS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, MC GRAW - HILL CHEM. ENG. SERIES

3.COULSON AND RICHARDSON'S: CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, VOLUMEII, PARTICLE TECHNOLOGY AND

SEPARATION PROCESSES, BUTTERWORTH-HEINEMANN

4. D.M. RUTHVEN ET AL., PRESSURE SWING ADSORPTION; PRINCIPLES OF ABSORPTION AND DESORPTION PROCESSES

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PAOLA COSTAMAGNA (President)

CHIARA BUFALINI

ROBERTA CAMPARDELLI (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

 https://corsi.unige.it/corsi/10376/studenti-orario

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The achievement of the teaching aims is certified by a written test lasting 180 minutes, consisting of the resolution of two exercises on two different unit operations with 3 questions per unit operation of the value of 5 points per question. These points are assigned in full if the question is answered correctly in the numerical value, at 80% if there is a calculation error, from 10% to 70% if the answer is well set but suffers from more or less serious conceptual errors (zero if the answer is not answered or is approached in a wrong way). The achievement of sufficiency (18/30) allows access to the oral exam.

An oral interview is scheduled of about 40 minutes to verify the general knowledge of the design elements and any uncertainties related to the written test. The outcome of the oral exam can not replace the positive result of the written test.

Excellence (30/30 cum laude) is achieved by demonstrating the ability to master the subject, being able to use the concepts learned and apply them to different types of problems than those discussed in the classroom.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Details on how to prepare for the exam and on the degree of detail of each topic will be given during the lessons. The written test focuses on 2 exercises with three questions each, concerning the topics presented during the course. The oral exam includes questions regarding the underlying theory and the sizing criteria of unit operations. The quality of the presentation, the correct use of technical terminology and the ability to critical reasoning will also be assessed.

The evaluation in the final exam will take into account the following criteria:

a) knowledge and ability to solve the main problems that require the application of expressed concepts;

b) knowledge of the basic hypotheses;

c) ability to extend the application of basic problem solving concepts to new applications,

d) language properties with particular reference to the specific terminology of the discipline.

The exam test will be evaluated as sufficient when the student is able to set up the design of the unit operation, when he demonstrates sufficient knowledge of the lexicon of the subject. The student who projects correctly, who has full and prompt perception of the effects of the variables on the project and who shows mastery of the vocabulary of the subject is evaluated as excellent.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Working students and students with DSA disability or other special educational needs certification are advised to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course to agree on teaching and exam methods which, in compliance with the teaching objectives, take into account individual ways of learning.