Abstract
Projects thematically focused on simulation and statistical techniques for designing and optimizing chemical processes can be helpful in chemical engineering education in order to meet the needs of engineers. We argue for the relevance of the projects to improve a student centred approach and boost higher order thinking skills. This paper addresses the use of Aspen HYSYS by Portuguese chemical engineering master students to model distillation systems together with statistical experimental design techniques in order to optimize the systems highlighting the value of applying problem specific knowledge, simulation tools and sound statistical techniques. The paper summarizes the work developed by the students in order to model steady-state processes, dynamic processes and optimize the distillation systems emphasizing the benefits of the simulation tools and statistical techniques in helping the students learn how to learn. Students strengthened their domain specific knowledge and became motivated to rethink and improve chemical processes in their future chemical engineering profession. We discuss the main advantages of the methodology from the students’ and teachers perspective
Highlights
Engineers have the distinctive role of solving economic, environmental, and societal problems through the use of machines, devices, systems, materials and processes
In this paper we explore the use of Aspen HYSYS to model the distillation systems and statistical design of experiments (DOE) in order to improve the systems
This case consists of studying the optimal conditions for the fully thermally coupled distillation columns, FTCDC, through process simulation with Aspen HYSYS and statistical experimental design to separate a mixture of 2-methylpropan-1-ol, butan-1-ol and butan-2-ol
Summary
Engineers have the distinctive role of solving economic, environmental, and societal problems through the use of machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. After the selection of a case study from the literature the students need to implement and simulate the distillation system, in order to establish the initial conditions which are the conditions described in the literature (see Fig.2) By using this type of tools students learn to be conscious of what information they already know about the problem in hands, what information they need to know to solve the problem and the strategies to use. The selected problems are based on distillation since this remains the primary separation process used in industry for the separation of liquid mixtures The challenge of both projects are to study alternatives in terms of configuration and design of distillation structures to improve the efficiency of the process and reduce energy consumption which is of growing concern nowadays. Several distinct configurations of thermal coupling systems can be implemented in commercial process simulators, but the challenge is to find optimal or near optimal solutions for the problem due to the large number of design variables of those systems which lead to tedious iterative simulations in order to find a proper structure
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