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 experience in working in groups, an important skill for life after university.  

Students work in groups of four (or three) on this design during semester 2.  Each group must produce an executive report to given specifications and hand in workbooks-folders with this at the completion of the each major section of the design.  The final part is due on or before Monday, 29th October.  Students will make 3 presentations to their design supervisors during the course of their project (one in the third term and two in the fourth term and exam period). They will be group presentations where students in a design group will be given the same mark.  In the final individually written assessment, each student will describe their personal contribution to the design project and will be awarded an individual mark. The project report mark will be biased by peer-, supervisor-, and self-assessment of an individual student’s contribution to the group effort. The basis for the peer assessment will be explained in tutorials.

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 a process flow diagram
  • Quantifying material and energy balances
  • Creating a control strategy
  • Creating of a piping and instrumentation diagram
  • Evaluating the economics of the project
  • HazOp assessment of a major unit operation
  • Evaluating the impact the process will have on the surrounding community

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 - 20 Jul
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 10:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Lecture C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Presentation A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 08:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
28 Jul - 3 Aug
02 Tuesday 08:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
28 Jul - 3 Aug
Presentation B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 17:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
15 Sep - 21 Sep
02 Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
15 Sep - 21 Sep
Presentation C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
20 Oct - 26 Oct
Tutorial A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 10:00 - 13:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Tutorial B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 12:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Tutorial C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 13:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Workshop A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 13:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Workshop B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 13:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Workshop C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 13:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul
Workshop D
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Friday 13:00 - 16:00 CAPE 213 Design Office
21 Jul - 27 Jul

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. There will be a tutorial session on the use of a 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, and presenting their work at regular intervals.

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Matt James Watson

Lecturers

Heon Park and Matthew Cowan

WORKLOAD:
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 including the safety assessment - Due 30 October
3 x Group Presentation (group) 15% Presentation 1 (5%) - Due 7-11 August: Presentation 2 (5%) - Due 11-15 September: Presentation 3 (5%) - Due 9-13 October
Presntation (Individual) 10% Presentation 4 - Individual contribution to the Design Project (10%)

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.

Notes

CONCERNS ABOUT THE COURSE:
Dr Holland should be approached for discussion on any aspect of the course.

GENERAL POLICIES OF THE DEPARTMENT:
Students may obtain the general policies of the University from the website. For example:

Special considerations: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/special-consideration/  

Academic Appeals of Assessments: Students with concerns about assessment processes or grades should be advised to speak first with the relevant lecturer. If the matter cannot be resolved, then the student should meet and discuss the matter with the Head of Department/School and thereafter follow the procedures outlined in the University procedures http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/postgraduate-/Academic-Appeals-Grievances-Principles-Procedures.pdf  and regulations http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/regulations/general-regulations/academic-appeals-and-grievance-regulations/

Reconsideration of grades: If you are concerned that your final grade may be incorrect it is suggested (for CAPE) that you make an informal query to the course coordinator, but you may follow the official procedures: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/study/examinations/result-dates-and-appeals/

Disabilities: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/disability/

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