Integrated project

Duration

10h Th, 270h Proj., 1d FW

Number of credits

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

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Students will study a chemical process centered on the manufacture of Ethylbenzene as an illustration of integrated project. This project will be sub-divided into several parts. In the first semester, 3 parts are listed:
First, students will individually study mass balances of the process, based on literature assumptions provided by the teachers.They will use speadsheet and calculation software (Matlab, Excel) to build stream tables for the studied chemical process. This part should last 1 week.
Then, students will work in sub-groups on specific chemical engineering tasks, e.g. reaction engineering and kinetics, separation engineering, thermodynamic modeling and energy balances. In this part, students will study with more details the critical physical unit operations that assemble to give the manufacturing processes.Based on justified assumptions, they will build robust simulation models that they need to validate. This part will require interaction between the sub-groups as the expected models are interdependent. This part will last about 2 months (October-November).
In the third part (December), students will switch sub-groups and will use the simulation models built in the second part in order to perform sensitivity studies to assess key process parameters and evaluate their impact on the unit operation results. They will use this opportunity to discuss about model validation.
During the second semester, student will work on 3 main tasks:
1. Build a global flowsheet of the process and optimize the topology (heat integration...) as weel as the operating conditions.
2. Challenge the process assumptions made in the first semester (process flowsheet, operating conditions...). Study the literature to validate these assumptions and identify alternative manufacturing pathways as well as product replacement solutions.
3. Include the process into a broader society overview, including the assessment of the product environmental footprint, raw materials use, market conditions, recyclability, toxicity, cost...

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:  

• Consolidate technical knowledge by integrating and linking the different disciplines of chemical engineering and integrate these disciplines within one unique project.
• Acquire critical thinking and ability to challenge and validate assumptions made. This includes the acquisition of a gut feeling for orders of magnitude typical of engineers.
• Address complex and multi-disciplinary topics centered on chemical industry.
• Develop knowledge about current hot topics in chemical engineering and increase the awareness about the role of science & technology in society.

• Ability to work in large groups (min 6 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 scientific and non-scientific audience: technical presentations to teachers, and final presentation to a larger audience with general engineering background.
• Communication in English, written and oral (all group members must talk).

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 project will be initiated during two kick-off meetings at the start of the semester.
After that, the mentoring will consist in weekly meetings between students and professors responsibles for the different sub-tasks. Meetings arrangements will be initiated by students in sub-groups, and the minutes of each week's meetings will be uploaded into an on-line shared drive.
Each month, plenary sessions will be organized during which students will present the progress of their group work (one presentation per large group) to all professors. Oral feed-back will be given by professors. Plenary presentations will take place on 28/09; 26/10; 23/11 and 17/12.
At the end of each part, an intermediary report (format described in the assignments) will be delivered by students. Group reports will be orally presented at the plenary sessions on 23/11 and 17/12. At the oral presentation of 17/12, it is required that all students orally participate to the presentation. Technical and soft skills feedbacks will be provided by teachers and PSGO at the end of each part (Note: no soft skills feedback after part 1).
In addition, throughout the year, expert presentations will be organized by professors, and initiatives from students to organized such meetings are encouraged.

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Presentations by academic and industrial experts, workshop and group work, written and oral feedback on deliverables, face-to-face meetings with professors, plenary sessions, office hours.

Recommended or required readings

Kick-off presentations and presentations by experts 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 grade will include evaluation of technical and soft skills. The technical assessment is common to the group and is based exclusively on the written reports and oral presentations delivered at the end of each project part.
Soft skills assessment will evaluate each student's involvement in the project. It will focus on the student's efforts to improve his/her competences related to the good working of the group towards the achievement of group's objectives. The grade will include auto- and peer-evaluation by group members at the end of each project part.
Student's individual grade will result from the group technical evaluation and the individual soft skills grade according to following distribution:

• 40% for global results (technical results from final reports and presentations). Group grade.
• 30% for specific tasks. Sub-group grade.
• 15% for soft skills at group level (Presentation skills, Gantt diagram, involvement in PSGO activities). Group grade.
• 15% for soft skills at individual level: peer evaluation (care: Failing to achieve 10/20 for this assessment will result in project failure), soft skills personal improvement throughout the year (in accordance with PSGO). Personal grade.

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

1st quadrimester:
One individual and two group reports are expected.
Report on mass balances: 28/09, 8.00.
Report on second part: to be specified
Report on third part: to be specified

Contacts

Prof. Grégoire Léonard. g.leonard@uliege.be
Dr. Marie-Noëlle Dumont. mn.dumont@uliege.be
Prof. Nathalie Job, Nathalie.Job@uliege.be
Prof. Angélique Léonard, A.Leonard@uliege.be
Prof. Andreas Pfennig, Andreas.Pfennig@uliege.be
Prof. Dominique Toye, Dominique.Toye@uliege.be