Study Programmes 2016-2017
PROJ0012-1  
Integrated project
Duration :
10h Th, 270h Proj.
Number of credits :
Master in chemical and materials engineering (120 ECTS)10
Lecturer :
Marie-Noëlle Dumont, Nathalie Job, Angélique Léonard, Grégoire Léonard, Andreas Pfennig, Dominique Toye
Coordinator :
N...
Language(s) of instruction :
English language
Organisation and examination :
All year long, with partial in January
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents :
Students will study the production of biomethane in the Walloon Region. Two pathways will be studied:
  • Biomethanisation (biological route)
  • Syngas to methane (chemical route)
The integrated project will be sub-divided into 3 parts.
First, students will identify and quantify available resources and demands. They will identify suitable chemical engineering processes to achieve the deployment of the technology and they will retrieve process balances and efficiencies. They will propose a global energy scheme, with quantification of materials and energy flows.
In the second part, they will study with more details the critical physical unit operations that assemble to give the processes they identified in the first part. In particular, they will have a closer look at kinetic phenomena, and they will design, model and evaluate efficiency and balances of reactors, process upstream and downstream sections (reactants preparation and products purification respectively). They will also propose a conceptual model of the global flowsheet, evaluate the heat integration potential, and develop flowsheet convergence strategies.
In the last part, the students will implement the conceptual models developed in the second part into a simulation tool such as Aspen Plus and they will evaluate the process efficiency and balances.
In addition to the technical skills, students will receive support and coaching from the PSGO (Psychologie Sociale des Groupes et Organisations) in order to improve their soft skills such as work in team and positioning within the team structure.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit :
The goal of the integrated project is to promote the acquisition of soft skills and to consolidate technical knowledge by integrating and linking chemical engineering disciplines usually taught separately.
Technical skills:
  • Acquire critical thinking and feeling for orders of magnitude typical of engineers to address complex and multi-disciplinary topics => Part I
  • Consolidate technical knowledge by integrating and linking chemical engineering disciplines taught in other classes of the degree => Part II&III
  • Develop knowledge about current hot topics in chemical engineering and increase the awareness about the role of science & technology in society.
In parallel to technical skills, the students will increase their soft skills :
  • Ability to work in large groups (min 5 students, random selection of members)
  • Management of project and deadlines
  • Writing of technical reports in English, with written feed-back from teachers after each report
  • Communication to non-scientific audience: redaction and publication of a general audience report
Oral presentations in English (all group members must talk) with oral feed-back by teachers, and videoscopy feedback by the PSGO team.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
See list of pre-requisite and co-requisite classes. Basics of chemical engineering (transport phenomena, physical unit operation design, catalysis, process modelling ...) are required.
Pre-requisite courses : CHIM0286, CHIM9306
Co-requisite courses : CHIM0022, CHIM0695, CHIM0696, CHIM0009, CHIM0081, CHIM9299, CHIM9300, CHIM0697, CHIM0080, CHIM9277
 
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
The mentoring will consist in:
-           First project part: 4 intermediate written reports (5000 characters max) and presentations (15' max) to teachers. Students will receive feed-back after the oral presentations.
-           Second project part: 4 round tables with teachers. Students need to prepare questions specific to the field(s) of expertise of teachers. These questions will be discussed during round tables.
-           Third project part: 2 round tables with teachers. Students need to prepare questions specific to the field(s) of expertise of teachers. These questions will be discussed during round tables. In addition, support for the use of the simulation software will be provided.
In addition, academic and industrial experts will make presentations throughout the year.
At the end of each part, an intermediary report (max 30 pages + 10 pages of annexes) will be delivered by students. This reported will be presented as well (max 30' presentation). Technical and soft skills feedbacks will be provided by teachers and PSGO at the end of each part.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
Presentations by academic and industrial experts, workshop, written and oral feedback on deliverables, round tables, office hours.
Recommended or required readings :
Kick-off presentations and presentations by experts will be uploaded on e-campus. Other literature :


  • M. Douglas : Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes, New York: McGraw-Hill (1988).
  • R. Turton et al, Analysis, Synthesis and Design of Chemical Processes, Prentice Hall 2013, ISBN 0-13-570565-7
Assessment methods and criteria :
The assessment is based on the 3 written reports and 3 oral presentations delivered at the end of each project part. The evaluation grid of the previous year will be communicated to students at the project kick-off to give an idea about how the evaluation may be performed (not binding). The grade will include evaluation of technical and soft skills. A common technical grade will be issued for the group at the end of each project part. Soft skills will be assessed on the basis of peer-evaluation by group members at the end of each project part. Failing to achieve 10/20 for this assessment will result in project failure. Student's individual grade will result from the group technical evaluation and the peer-evaluation grade. Feedback on the written English language will be offered by the ISLV.
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
Kick-off meeting: September 23, 14.00.
All AM meetings will start at 9.00, PM meetings at 13.30.
Oral presentations will take place on:


  • Part 1: 28/11 AM
  • Part 2: 29/03 PM
  • Part 3: 17/05 PM
Written reports must be delivered so to leave 3 full work days for teachers to read them. For instance, if presentation is on Friday PM, report must be handed out on Monday midnight the latest.
Contacts :
Prof. Grégoire Léonard. g.leonard@ulg.ac.be
Dr. Marie-Noëlle Dumont. mn.dumont@ulg.ac.be
Prof. Nathalie Job, Nathalie.Job@ulg.ac.be
Prof. Angélique Léonard, A.Leonard@ulg.ac.be
Prof. Andreas Pfennig, Andreas.Pfennig@ulg.ac.be
Prof. Dominique Toye, Dominique.Toye@ulg.ac.be