Chemical Engineering Design Report
8 weeks · 0 milestones
Produce a complete chemical engineering design report for a real or representative process engineering problem, integrating process concept, mass and energy balance, equipment design, and safety analysis into a single coherent document. The report must include: a process description with a PFD and stream data summary, a mass and energy balance summary demonstrating process closure, design calculations for at least one major piece of equipment (reactor, heat exchanger, column, or vessel), a process safety summary identifying the top 3 hazard scenarios and their safeguards, and an economic feasibility note (order-of-magnitude capital and operating cost estimates with documented basis). Preferred proof: a design report for a real process engineering project. Accessible alternative: a comprehensive report using DWSIM for process simulation with free data sources (NIST WebBook for thermodynamics; open process engineering case studies for reference design basis). Proof artifacts: the PFD and equipment design (design artifact), the mass/energy balance and safety analysis (analysis artifact), and the complete design report (documentation artifact). Verification: a chemical engineer reviews the safety summary — 'you identified toxic release as the top hazard; what is the barrier between the release source and the site boundary, and is that barrier active or passive?' — requiring specific reasoning about your own process design.
Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Select a chemical engineering design scenario — this may be a published case study, a university assignment brief, or a real (anonymised) industrial process you have encountered. Define the scope: the feed streams, the target product specification, and the applicable safety and environmental constraints. Produce a process description (600–800 words) and a block flow diagram (BFD) showing the major processing steps, stream flows, and key operating conditions at each block. The BFD must include quantified stream flows (mass or molar) and temperatures at minimum.
Proof required
Submit your process description document and BFD (hand-drawn or produced using free tools such as draw.io, Lucidchart free tier, or LibreOffice Draw) with all streams labelled and quantified. The description must explain the purpose of each processing block and the key operating condition selected.
What gets checked
- BFD includes quantified stream flows on at least the major feed, product, and recycle streams — a qualitative flow diagram with only labels and no numbers is a schematic, not an engineering BFD
- Process description explains WHY each processing step is chosen (reaction conditions, separation sequence, recycle rationale) — not only what happens at each block
- Safety and environmental constraints are stated as specific requirements — operating temperature limits, hazardous material handling constraints, or emission limits, not generic 'safety is important'