(510a) Computer-Aided Tools for Teaching Sustainable Product-Process Design

Computer-Aided
Tools for Teaching Sustainable Product-Process Design

Deenesh
K. Babi

Department
of Chemical and Bio-chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark,
Søltofts Plads, Building 229, DK-2800, Kgs. Lyngby Denmark

In
teaching a course for performing (sustainable) process-product design,
different computer-aided tools for generation, selection (and screening) and
verification/simulation should be incorporated within the framework of the
course. For example, consider the computer-aided process design of a chemical
where mass and energy balance data (obtained from the rigorous models) are used
for performing a sustainability and LCA analysis. These analyses identify process
limitations that are translated into design targets that, if matched, removes
and/or eliminates the process limitation, thereby improving the design. This is
the approach implemented in teaching (sustainable) process design at the
Technical University of Denmark, Department of Chemical and Bio-chemical
Engineering. For the sustainability and LCA analysis, the model proposed by the
IChemE for calculation of sustainability metrics and the cradle to the gate
approach based on ISO framework (ISO 14040) are used, respectively (Carvalho et
al., 2013, Kalakul et al., 2014).

In
generating a feasible product-process design, it is imperative that the student
understands concepts related to phase equilibria, reaction engineering and
separation processes. In teaching a course at an advanced level related to product-process
design, it is important to disseminate within the course current concepts
applied in both R&D and industry. For example, consider the following: given
a set of customer/market needs (constraints) for a product, design a
prototype product that satisfies the design constraints (product design) or given
a CO₂ rich stream as part of a power plant effluent, design a
chemical process that has a negative net CO₂ emission (objective
function, process design). The student can use a 3-stage approach for
performing product-process design. In stage 1, for product, needs are
translated into target properties that must be satisfied and, for process, feasible
reactions are selected that utilizes CO₂. In stage 2, for product, using
property models, compounds (that will constitute the final product) are
selected that satisfy property/stability constraints and, for process, flowsheet
alternatives are generated for the selected CO₂ reactions. In stage
3, for product, the product is verified trough experiments and /or model based
calculations and, for process, the best process for CO₂ utilization
is selected based on the calculation and ordering of the objective function followed
by process optimization.

In
each stage, computer-aided tools are utilized. In stage 1, a database is used
(for example, ICAS database). In stage 2, computer-aided molecular design tools
are used, for example, ProCAMD (Gani et al., 1997), property prediction tools
using group contribution methods, for example, ProPred (Gani et al., 1997),
simulation tools, for example, VPPD (the product simulator), PROII (process
simulator), etc. In stage 3, model-based tools, for example, MoT (Gani et al.,
1997).

In
this presentation, a product-process design problem will be formulated and
solved, presenting the various computer-aided tools utilized in courses related
to (sustainable) product-process design and separation process design. The
presentation will interactively highlight the input and output of each tool through
examples of different design problems posed to students.

References

Carvalho,
A., Matos, H. A., & Gani, R. (2013). SustainPro?A tool for systematic
process analysis, generation and evaluation of sustainable design alternatives.
Computers
& Chemical Engineering, 50, 8?27.

Gani,
R., Hytoft, G., Jaksland, C., & Jensen, A. K. (1997). An
integrated computer aided system for integrated design of chemical processes.
Computers & Chemical Engineering, 21(10), 1135?1146.

Kalakul,
S., Malakul, P., Siemanond, K., & Gani, R. (2014). Integration
of life cycle assessment software with tools for economic and sustainability
analyses and process simulation for sustainable process design. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 71, 98?109

Mattei,
M., Yunus, N. A., Kalakul, S., Kontogeorgis, G. M., Woodley, J. M., Gernaey, K.
V., Gani, R., (2014). The Virtual Product-Process Design Laboratory for
Structured Chemical Product Design and Analysis, Computer Aided Chemical
Engineering33, 61-66