ENCH494-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025

Process Engineering Design 3

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

A group project, where students have the opportunity to go through all the steps of designing a process plant including feedstock and process selections, mass and energy balances, control strategy, project economics, process safety, environmental impact, and community engagement.

This course provides students with a close to real world experience of process engineering.  It is built around a major design project where students have the opportunity to go through all the steps of a real design project as outlined in the learning outcomes below.  The major project also provides the experience of working in groups, an important skill for life after university.  

Students work in groups of four (sometimes five or three) on their design projects during semester 2.  Each group must produce an executive report and hand in their working appendices at the completion of each major phase of the design. There are three report phases: two during the semester and the complete report (all phases) is due in mid-October (more details below).  Students will make 3 assessed presentations to their design supervisors and course coordinator during their project (see schedule below). They will each be a group presentation where all the students in the design group will be given the same mark.  In addition there will be weekly, unassessed, round table meetings and formal presentations as you might give to your boss at a consultancy.  You will be provided feedback after each of these meetings that is meant to help facilitate continuous improvement for the team but will not contribute to the grade.  The project report mark will be biased by peer- and supervisor-assessment of an individual student’s contribution to the group effort. The basis for the peer assessment will be explained in tutorials. There will also be an individual contribution assessed based on the specific contributions to detailed design, and other factors as outlined in the Marking Schedule document.

Learning Outcomes

  • To apply the design process in a team environment to a real chemical engineering project including
  • Determining the best choice of process
  • Creating process engineering diagrams such as process flow diagrams, piping and instrumentation diagrams, and plant layout diagrams
  • Quantifying material and energy balances
  • Creating a control strategy
  • Creating a detailed design of a select unit operation
  • Evaluating the economics of the project
  • HazOp assessment of a major unit operation
  • Evaluating the impact the process will have on the surrounding community
  • Practice professional skills such as working in a team, effectively communicating technical data in written and oral presentations, and time management.

Prerequisites

a pass in all compulsory Second Professional Year courses, ENCH496 and ENCH497

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 10:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
14 Jul - 27 Jul
Lecture C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
14 Jul - 20 Jul
Presentation A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 08:00 - 16:00 CAPE 114 Student Briefing
28 Jul - 3 Aug
02 Tuesday 08:00 - 16:00 CAPE 114 Student Briefing
28 Jul - 3 Aug
Presentation B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 17:00 CAPE 114 Student Briefing
15 Sep - 21 Sep
02 Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00 CAPE 114 Student Briefing
15 Sep - 21 Sep
Presentation C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 17:00 E5 Lecture Theatre
20 Oct - 26 Oct
Presentation D
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Friday 09:00 - 17:00 CAPE 114 Student Briefing
18 Aug - 24 Aug
Workshop A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 10:00 - 11:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
14 Jul - 20 Jul
Workshop B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
14 Jul - 20 Jul
Workshop C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 10:00 - 11:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
14 Jul - 20 Jul
Workshop D
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Workshop E
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 11:00 - 13:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
18 Aug - 24 Aug

Timetable Note

There will be initial tutorials to assign groups of students to projects and project supervisors, explain assessment and to begin the design. There will be a series of workshops on working in teams and a workshop on time management. There will be tutorial sessions on the use of process modelling software (UniSim), and there will be a seminar and small group session on Te Ao Māori.  During the semester, students will work in groups on their projects, meeting regularly with their project supervisors (typically weekly), and presenting their work at regular intervals.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Matt James Watson

Major project report and presentations and safety assessment case.  Students should expect to work for 20 hours a week during semester 2 on their major design project.

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Executive Report 75% Executive Report 3(3 phases) 6 August 2025, 1 October 2025, 17 October 2025
Team Work and Time Management 3% Weeks of 14th and 21st July 2025
Individual Contribution Memo 10% 31st October 2025
3 x Group Presentation (group) 12% Presentation 1 - 28th/29th July Presentation 2 - 16th/17 September Presentation 3 - 20th October

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

Towler, Gavin P. , Sinnott, R. K; Chemical engineering design :principles, practice, and economics of plant and process design ; 2nd ed; Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013.

J M Douglas, Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes, McGraw-Hill.
Sinnott and Towler, (2019) Chemical Engineering Design, 6th ed, Butterworth-Heinemann

Notes

A pass in all compulsory Second Professional Year courses, ENCH496 and ENCH497.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $2,537.00

International fee $12,475.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Chemical and Process Engineering .

All ENCH494 Occurrences

  • ENCH494-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025