Syllabus
Process Engineering Economics and Design II
Spring 2025
Instructor:
- Nam Sun Wang
- Class Hours: Monday 2:00pm-4:30pm, CHE2110
- Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00noon-1:00pm, TA room (CHE1124); Wednesday 3:00pm-4:00pm, Rm 1208 Chemical Engineering Bldg.
- Phone: 301-405-1910 (call for appointment outside the office hours)
- Email: nsw@umd.edu
Teaching Assistant:
- Ebenezer Kobina Sam
- Office Hours: TuTh 3:30pm-4:30pm, TA room (CHE1124).
- Email: esam@umd.edu
Required Textbooks:
- None, but the textbooks from previous chemical engineering courses
contain useful information, including the textbook in CHBE444:
"Product and Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis and Design" 4th Ed.,
Warren D. Seider, Daniel R. Lewin, J. D. Seader, Soemantri Widagdo, Rafiqul Gani, Ka Ming Ng,
Wiley, 2017,
ISBN (print): 9781119282631, 1119282632,
ISBN (eText): 9781119257332, 1119257336.
Prerequisites:
CHBE444.
Course Description:
Application of chemical engineering principles for the design of
chemical processing equipment. Representative problems in the
design of chemical plants will be the focus of this capstone
design class. Comprehensive reports are required.
Course Objectives:
This is the chemical engineering capstone design course, where we
put together all students have learned previously into a
coherent project(s).
This class consists of student teams working on one
major design project during the semester; the students will
reinforce their teamwork and communication skills and will
integrate all previous Chemical Engineering course materials in
the detailed design and costing of complete chemical plants and
in the context of product design problems.
Contribution of the Course to Meeting Professional Component
This course contributes heavily to the professional component of
the Chemical Engineering undergraduate curriculum - it is the
capstone design class with projects chosen from chemical process
plants that currently are under construction or being studied in
the chemical processing industry, and chemical product design
problems chosen from state-of-the-art chemical products. Sources
of projects include: projects developed in conjunction with an
industrial partner; annual AIChE design contest problems and
projects of current industrial interest. In the past, the
projects have included biofuel refining, hydrogen production from
landfill gas, and solar-grade polysilicon production, syngas,
ammonia, sweetening of sour gas, carbon capture/storage, bio-alcohol,
vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, viruses, CAR T cells, cultivated meat, ...
Relationship of Course to Program Objectives
In this course, the most relevant program objectives are:
- the ability to apply knowledge of chemical engineering
fundamentals & STEM to identify and solve complex engineering problems
(Outcome #1)
- the ability to perform step-by-step design of
engineered systems and chemical processes (Outcome #2)
- the ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of audience through
oral presentations and written reports (Outcome #3)
- the ability to successfully participate in teams (Outcome #5)
The design projects in this course also address
- safety and environmental issues as an integral part of the chemical engineering profession,
- professional and ethical responsibilities
- current technological issues
- a broad knowledge necessary to understand the impact
of engineering solutions in a global and societal context
List of Topics Covered
Chemical process design, building on material and energy balance
computations, understanding phase equilibrium and thermophysical
property estimation, short-cut design techniques, process
optimization, process economics, safety and environmental issues,
and energy integration.
Application of other fundamental chemical engineering concepts
in transport, separation, reaction
equilibrium and reactor design, and various chemical process unit
operations.
You are expected to know and apply:
Since this is a capstone design course, you are expected to
have mastered fundamentals of core chemical engineering concepts
in: material/energy balance, computation, thermodynamics,
transport, separation, reaction equilibrium and reactor design,
process control, and various chemical process unit operations.
In addition, you are expected to know the following specific
topics covered in CHBE444.
- Flowsheet synthesis, simple material and energy balances, rapid
evaluation of design alternatives
- Shortcut distillation, absorber column, flash drum, and other
separations unit operations calculations
- Separation sequences using simplified distillation columns,
column hydraulics considerations
- Shortcut reactor sizing using space velocity
- Reactor and pressure vessel, distillation/absorber column,
heat exchanger, pump, and compressor sizing and costing
- Process utility calculations, heat exchanger networks, pinch
design
- Operating and capital costs, return on investment, discounted
cash flow calculations, net present value
- Aspen simulation, selection of thermodynamic models,
detailed designs, elements of process optimization
- Process safety concepts
- project planning (gantt charts, critical path)
Grading:
The outcomes will be measured by individual assignments,
team assignments, i.e., team presentations on assigned review topics at the beginning of the semester,
a number of interim reports, the final oral project presentation,
the final written project report, and the Design Expo at the end of the semester.
There will be no in-class sit-down examinations. The semester
grade will be based on the following assessments.
| Assessment | Weight
|
|---|
|
mid-term & final exams (individual effort) | 0%
|
homework assignments (individual effort) | 0%
|
| interim project reports (team effort) | 20%
|
| presentations (wk2, wk3, team effort, peer evaluated) | 10%
|
| final project oral presentations (team effort, peer evaluated) | 5%
|
| final project written reports (team effort) | 40%
|
| Design Expo (team effort, peer evaluated) | 5%
|
| team-peer zero-sum scoring/adjustment of the above | ±40%*
|
| end-project peer evaluation (by team members) | 20%
|
|
| total | 100%
|
* Through "zero sum" scoring, students redistribute up to 50% of the
team scores. The oral presentation scores are assigned by the students, and
the written report scores are assigned by the TA/instructor.
Without this "zero sum" adjustment, or with everyone working equally hard
and everyone receiving a 0pt adjustment,
the team score is evenly distributed among all team members.
However, with this "zero sum" adjustment, a hardworking team member's exceptional
work is recognized and rewarded, while a slacking team member's poor work
is punished.
You rate each team member (other than yourself) on a -10 to +10 scale,
where 0 represents the team norm, a negative score means a below-average
contribution, a positive score means an above-average contribution, based on
the following criteria: teamwork, initiative, preparation,
amount of work completed, level of challenge, effort/motivation, timeliness, ...
The scores you give to all other team members must sum up to 0.
Example. fractional score for final project presentations+reports given to the team=0.80
Jane Doe Marylyn Monroe Smokey Bear Winnie Pooh Sum
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
score given by Jane Doe x -3 +1 +2 0
score given by Marylyn Monroe +6 x -2 -4 0
score given by Smokey Bear +2 -2 x 0 0
score given by Winnie Pooh 0 0 0 x 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
average score +4 -2.5 -0.5 -1 0
adjustment to fractional score +0.16 -0.10 -0.02 -0.04 0 ... 50% of 0.80 (80%)
fractional score assigned 0.96 0.70 0.78 0.76 3.2=0.80*4
Homework|reports are due electronically at ELMS at the beginning of the class
(or at the individual group meetings with the instructor) on the
specified due date; no late homework|reports will be accepted
unless individually arranged with the instructor before
the due date with a valid excuse. To help facilitate discussion
during individual group meetings with the instructor, bring a
hardcopy of most relevant materials (e.g., process flow diagrams)
to the meeting; in addition, you may present your latest results
on a laptop. Discussion among classmates (within each group or
outside) is allowed in solving individual homework
assignments, but each student must do his/her own work (no
copying!). On the other hand, project reports (both interim and
final) represent a team effort, and the entire team collectively
receives the same grade for each team assignment. How each team
divides up its members' responsibilities within is each team's
own prerogative. Likewise, the team interim/final reports must be
the team's own work -- no copying of other team's work nor work
from beyond this class (e.g., project reports from previous years
or from another school). Adjustment for different team members
is through peer evaluation conducted at the end of each of the
two projects.
We abide by the University of Maryland's policy governing undergraduate students.
Course-Related Policies and Resources for Undergraduate Students
apply too all courses, including this.
Class attendance is required. "Class attendance" refers
to attending the project description lectures, team presentations,
and individual team meetings with the instructor.
Plagiarism and academic dishonesty absolutely will NOT be
tolerated, and suspected incidence will be referred to the
Student Honor Council of the Judiciary Programs. It is
your responsibility to consult the instructor whenever there is
any doubt on the definitions of these terms or on the allowable
materials on each specific homework assignments or reports.
See Policy on Academic Integrity.
For a team assignment (e.g., presentation, reports etc.), if one
team member is guilty of plagiarism, it is likely that the
Student Honor Council will hold responsible every team members
whose name appears on that assignment.
Search for information on-line via search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.) and AI chatbots
(e.g., OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, Meta's Llama, etc.)
is allowed. In fact, the ability to search on-line is an extremely critical aspect
of this course. However, you must properly reference each source
in the form of specific web URLs, specific journal articles, or
prompts to AI chatbots (google "how to cite AI prompts", "how to reference AI", etc.).
In addition to the traditional methods of information gathering
(e.g., figures, reaction rate expressions, model parameters, etc.),
if you find on-line source codes (including Aspen worksheets, spreadsheets,
Matlab programs, etc.) that help you with your project,
you are allowed to use them, but be very clear in your report what is your work and what is "borrowed";
failure to do so constitutes plagiarism.
Whether or not you sign explicitly in each assignment or exam, it
is assumed that you adhere to the following University of
Maryland's Honor Pledge.
"I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any
unauthorized assistance on this assignment/examination."
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic
accommodations with the instructor, please do so as soon as
possible.
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Process Engineering Economics and Design -- Syllabus
Forward comments to:
- Nam Sun Wang
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
- University of Maryland
- College Park, MD 20742-2111
- 301-405-1910 (voice)
- 301-314-9126 (FAX)
e-mail: nsw@umd.edu
©2025 by Nam Sun Wang
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