(4a) S1: Elements of Economic Analysis (laptop required)

Overview: This course will introduce the basic principles that a Chemical Engineer needs to understand and construct an income statement, and perform an economic analysis of a project, be it a heat exchanger replacement or a petrochemical complex.

You will Learn:

* The details of investment will be addressed: How to estimate the installed cost of a process plant; elements of the owner's cost and heuristic rules for their estimation; impact of project schedule, and methods of estimating the working capital.

* Methods of estimating the variable and fixed costs of production will be reviewed: Raw materials, utilities, maintenance, direct and indirect labor, pricing basis

* The course will discuss the various metrics of measuring the economic feasibility, such as the Net Present Values, Internal Rates of Return, Payback Periods, Breakeven Points, Coverage Ratios, Cash Flow, etc. The time value of money, discounting, weighted average cost of cash financing structure and capitalization are important concepts that will be addressed in a reasonable amount of detail.

* The course will provide instructions on how to construct an income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet, calculate the economic parameters for the project, and measure the sensitivity of the economic parameters to various factors.

* A valuable tool that provides more detailed analysis of competing projects.

The students will have the opportunity to perform many of the above calculations, thus they will need to bring laptops with them.

Professional Development Hours: 7. Participating in this AIChE short course may qualify as CPC in certain jurisdictions. Attendees will receive a signed Professional Development Hours certificate at the end of the course.

Registration Fee: The cost to attend this short course is $499. Please be sure to register either online or by calling AIChE Customer Service at 800-242-4363 or 203-702-7660.

About the Instructor: Dr. Aboul-Nasr is a Technical Director and Senior Fellow at the Chemical Technology Center of Fluor, working with clients in Russia, China, the Middle East and Europe. He has over forty years' experience in academic and industrial research; and process and project development and management. His present interests include technology transfer; licensing; and process economics and technical evaluation of petrochemical projects. He has developed software for the economic evaluation of petrochemical complexes, technology selection, and life cycle cost. Dr. Aboul-Nasr has over 40 publications, including 12 in the process economics area, and nine patents in polymer processes. Before joining Fluor in 1995, he worked for Amoco and Nova, and taught at the Universities of Waterloo, and Western Ontario in Canada. He is a Silver Life Master Bridge Player.