Advanced Process Engineering MSc (formerly known as Process Systems Engineering)

• Dr Vinod Kumar

This module provides you with an overview of the fundamental principles of typical unit operations in process plants.

• Overview of process plant operations:
  • equipment for resource recovery, raw material preparation, downstream processing, effluent control and services.
• Contactors: 
  • stirred vessels (impeller design, flow patterns, flow and turbulence, power input, mixing, gas-liquid and liquid-liquid contact, non-Newtonian fluids), fluidised beds, packed beds, bubbling columns, two-phase flow, pulsed columns, rotating disc and Rushton-Oldshue columns.
• Evaporators:
  • design of heating calandria, climbing film, boiling heat fluxes, multiple effect, scraped film, vapour recompressions.
• Crystallisers:
  • cooling and evaporative, solubilities, primary and secondary nucleation, crystal growth, size distributions, precipitation.
• Dryers:
  • batch drying, constant and falling rates, diffusion in pores, adiabatic saturation, continuous drying, pneumatic dryers, spray dryers, evaporation from single drop, droplet trajectories,  freeze dryers.
• Thickeners:
  • design of sedimentation basins, motion of particles in fluids, Stoke's law, hindered settling, size of basing.
• Filters:
  • review of designs, Darcy's and Ruth's equations, incompressible and compressible cakes constant rate and constant pressure.
• Centrifugal separators:
  • centrifugal principles, basket, disc stack, horizontal bowl, batch and continuous operations.
• Effluent control:
  • gas absorption, packed columns, hydraulics, flooding, mass transfer, solubility, cyclones and hydrocyclones, coalescer designs for liquid-liquid separation, de-misters.
• Services:
  • simultaneous heat and mass transfer in humidification and water cooling, design of water cooling towers.
• Scale-up:
  • general rules and specific procedures.
• Distillation:
  • vapour-liquid equilibrium, types of distillation, distillation with reflux, distillation column design and operation. 
• Case Study: 
  • selection of operating conditions for an ammonia synthesis process.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critically evaluate detailed design features and operating characteristics of the main components of process plants,
• Critically evaluate the limitations and operating difficulties inherent in process equipment and how to overcome operational problems for industrial processes,
• Carry out design calculations for a wide range of process plant equipment,
• Identify the most appropriate equipment components for a given process plant application.

• Dr Dawid Hanak

This module aims to introduce you to the modern techniques and computer aided engineering tools for the design, simulation and optimisation of process systems. Via a large share of process simulation and optimisation case studies, the module will enable you to gather the hands-on experience of using the commercial software.

Process Design
• Overview: Conceptual process design. Process flow-sheeting,
• Process synthesis: Overview of a process system. Recycle structure of the flowsheet. Design of reaction and separation systems,
• Process integration: Basic concepts of process integration for heat exchanger network design,
• Process economic analysis: Equipment capital cost estimation. Process profitability analysis.
Process Modelling, Simulation and Optimisation
• Modelling and simulation: Basic concepts of process modelling. General concepts of simulation. Introduction to steady and dynamic process simulation. Introduction to commercial simulation software packages (i.e, Aspen HYSYS) for process flow-sheeting, design and analysis,
• Process optimisation techniques: Basic principles of optimisation. Presentation of a number of industrial case studies (e.g., heat exchanges network synthesis).
Case Studies (PC Lab and Demonstration Sessions)
• A number of process simulation and optimisation case studies will be carried out using Aspen HYSYS and Aspen Plus.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Formulate strategies to carry out a process design and critically appraise the techniques and major commercial simulation tools for steady and dynamic process simulation,  
• Competently apply the basic principles of process optimisation,
• Design and analyse the performance of a process plant using simulation or optimisation tools.

• Dr Liyun Lao

This modules introduces you to the fundamental concepts, principles, methodologies, and application for the design of advanced control systems for industrial applications.

• System dynamics:
  • modelling of typical physical systems, operating point, linearization, differential equation representation, state space representation of systems, laplace transforms, transfer functions, block diagrams, SISO and MIMO systems, time and frequency domain responses of systems,
• Feedback control:
  • positive and negative feedback, stability, methods for stability analysis, closed loop performance specification, PID controllers, Ziegler-Nichols, self-tuning methods,
• Enhanced controllers:
  • cascade control, feedforward control, control of non-linear systems, control of systems with delay,
• Digital controllers:
  • effects of sampling, implementation of PID controller, stability and tuning,
• Advanced control topics:
  • hierarchical control Kalman filter, system identification, model predictive control, statistical process control, the use of expert systems and neural networks in industrial control,
• Design packages for process control systems:
  • examples including Simulink and MATLAB.
• Case studies:
  • examples will be chosen from a range of industrial systems including mechanical, chemical and fluid systems.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Evaluate and select appropriate modelling techniques for dynamic systems,
• Formulate control methodologies in feedback, feedforward and cascade loops,
• Recognise and critically appraise the key design tools and procedures for continuous and discrete controllers of dynamic systems.

• Dr Patrick Verdin

This module introduces you to the CFD techniques and tools for modelling, simulating and analysing practical engineering problems with hands on experience using commercial software packages used in industry.

• Introduction to CFD & thermo-fluids: introduction to the physics of thermo-fluids, governing equations (continuity, momentum, energy and species conservation) and state of the art computational fluid dynamics including modelling, grid generation, simulation, and high performance computing. Case study of industrial problems related to energy, process systems, offshore engineering, and the physical processes where CFD can be used,
• Computational engineering exercise: specification for a CFD simulation, requirements for accurate analysis and validation for multi scale problems, introduction to turbulence & practical applications of turbulence models, introduction to turbulence and turbulent flows, traditional turbulence modelling,
• Advanced turbulence modelling: introduction to Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations and large-eddy simulation (LES),
• Practical sessions: fluid process problems are solved employing the widely-used industrial flow solver software FLUENT. Lectures are followed by practical sessions on single/multiphase flows, heat transfer, to set up and simulate a problem incrementally.  Practical sessions cover the entire CFD process including geometric modelling, grid generation, flow solver, analysis, validation and visualisation.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• assemble and evaluate the different components of the CFD process,
• explain the governing equations for fluid flows and how to solve them computationally,
• compare and contrast various methods for simulating turbulent flows applicable to mechanical and process engineering,
• set up simulations and evaluate a practical problem using a commercial CFD package,
• design CFD modelling studies for use in industrial design of complex systems.

• Dr Mahmood Shafiee

This module introduces you to the principles of risk and reliability engineering, and associated tools and methods to solve relevant engineering problems in industry.

• introduction and fundamentals of risk management and reliability engineering,
• failure distributions: how to analysis and interpret failure data, introduce the most commonly used discrete and continuous failure distributions (e.g. Poisson, Exponential, Weibull and Normal),
• risk management process: hazard identification, assessment, evaluation and mitigation (risk acceptance, reduction, ignorance, transfer),
• risk assessment techniques: risk matrix, Pareto analysis, fault tree analysis (FTA), event tree analysis (ETA), failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), hazard and operability study (HAZOP),
• reliability and availability analysis: system duty cycle, breakdown/shudown, MTTF/MTBF/MTTR, survival, failure/hazard rate,
• reliability analysis techniques: reliability block diagram (RBD), minimal cut-set (MCS), series and parallel configurations, k-out-of-n systems, active and passive redundancies,
• introduction to structural reliability analysis: stress strength interference and limit state function, first-order / second-order reliability method (FORM/SORM), damage accumulation and modelling of time-dependent reliability,
• identification of the role of inspection and structural health monitoring (SHM) in risk reduction and reliability improvement,
• introduction to maintainability and its various measures,
• workshops and case studies: work in groups to determine the risk and reliability of subsea production systems, power distribution networks, wind turbines, gas turbines, etc. 

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• identify and analyse the concepts and principals of risk and reliability engineering and their potential applications to different engineering problems,
• assess and analyse appropriate approaches to the collection and interpretation of data in the application of risk and reliability engineering methods,
• evaluate and select appropriate techniques and tools for qualitative and quantitative risk analysis and reliability assessment,
• analyse and evaluate failure distributions, failure likelihood and potential consequences, and develop solutions for control / mitigation of risks.

• Dr Ali Nabavi

Design of optimum thermal and energy storage systems is one of the key prerequisites to enhance the performance and efficiency of conventional and future energy systems.

This module aims to enable you to combine and apply the principles of heat transfer, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics in the design and optimisation of commercial thermal systems. In addition, the module introduces you to a wide range of challenges and opportunities in waste heat recovery and energy storage, and provides practical approaches and solutions to enhance the system efficiency.

Heat exchanger Design and Operation

• Heat exchangers: classification, theoretical principles and design of recuperative systems (effectiveness, NTU and capacity ratio approach for parallel-, counter- and cross-flow configurations), series cross‑flow arrangements, regenerative heat exchangers (intermittent and continuous systems), pressure‑loss assessment, heat‑exchanger optimisation (optimal pressure drop and surface area to maximise economic returns),
• Process integration: heat-exchanger network, utility systems, fundamentals of pinch analysis and energy analysis.

Waste Heat Recovery and Thermal Storage

• Waste‑heat recovery: sources of waste heat, heat recovery for industrial applications, energy density considerations, economics of waste-heat recovery,
• Thermal storage: principles and application to hot and cold systems, storage duration and scale, sensible and latent heat systems, phase-change storage materials, application to source and load matching.

Refrigeration and Air Conditioning

• Application of refrigeration and air conditioning.
• Vapour-compression refrigeration systems: simple systems, multi-stage compressor systems, multi-evaporator systems,
• Refrigerants: halocarbon refrigerants, CFC alternatives, refrigerant-selection criteria,
• Refrigeration compressors: reciprocating compressors, rotary screw compressors, scroll compressors, vane compressors, centrifugal compressors,
• Absorption refrigeration: the absorption process, properties of fluid-pair solutions, the basic absorption cycle, double-effect systems, advances in absorption-refrigeration technology,
• Psychrometry and principle Air-conditioning processes: psychrometry, heating, cooling, humidification and dehumidification processes.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Analyse and design heat exchangers, competently applying the principles of heat transfer, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics,
• Construct optimised heat exchanger networks by applying principles of process integration,
• Recognise and debate  the issues related to the efficient use of thermal energy and appraise  techniques and technologies employed,
• Design and analyse the performance of refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

• Dr Liyun Lao

This module introduces you to a systematic approach to the design of measurement systems for industrial process applications. The fundamental concepts, key requirements, typical principles and key applications of the industrial process measurement technology and systems will be highlighted.

Principles of Measurement System
• Process monitoring requirements: operating conditions, range, static performance, dynamic performance,
• Sensor technologies: resistive, capacitive, electromagnetic, ultrasonic, radiation, resonance,
• Signal conditioning and conversion: amplifiers, filters, bridges, load effects, sampling theory, quantisation theory, A/D, D/A,
• Data transmission and telemetry: analogue signal transmission, digital transmission, communication media, coding, modulation, multiplexing, communication strategies, communication topologies, communication standards, HART, Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus,
• Smart and intelligent instrumentation. Soft sensors. Measurement error and uncertainty: systematic and random errors, estimating the uncertainty, effect of each uncertainty, combining uncertainties, use of Monte Carlo methods,
• Calibration: importance of standards, traceability,
• Safety aspects: intrinsic safety, zone definitions, isolation barriers,
• Selection and maintenance of instrumentation.




Principles of Process Measurement
• Flow measurement: flow meter performance, flow profile, flow meter calibration; differential pressure flow meters, positive displacement flow meters, turbine, ultrasonic, electromagnetic, vortex, Coriolis flow meters,
• Pressure measurement: pressure standards, Bourdon tubes, diaphragm gauges, bellows, strain gauges, capacitance, resonant gauges,
• Temperature measurement: liquid-in-glass, liquid-in-metal, gas filled, thermocouple, resistance temperature detector, thermistor,
• Level measurement: conductivity methods, capacitance methods, float switches, ultrasonic, microwave, radiation method,
• Multiphase flow measurement: general features of vertical and horizontal multiphase flow, definition of parameters in multiphase flow, multiphase flow measurement strategies, water cut and composition measurement, velocity measurement, commercial multiphase flow meters, developments in multiphase flow metering,
• Density and viscosity measurement,
• Case study: flow assurance instrumentation/ environmental measurement/ measurement issues and challenges in CO₂ transportation.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Critically assess the factors affecting the operation of a process sensor and the types and technologies of modern process sensors,
• Examine the factors which have to be considered when designing a process measurement system,
• Propose the most appropriate measurement system for a given process application.

The importance of technology leadership in driving the technical aspects of an organisations products, innovation, programmes, operations and strategy is paramount, especially in today’s turbulent commercial environment with its unprecedented pace of technological development. As demand for ever more complex products and services has become the norm, one of the challenges for today’s manager is to deal with uncertainty, to allow technological innovation and change to flourish, whilst also remaining within planned parameters of performance. This module helps to develop your understanding of management processes within an organisational context, so that when you seek employment you are equipped with both the extensive subject/discipline knowledge and the ability to relate it to a management context.

• Engineers and Technologists in organisations:
  • the role of organisations and the challenges facing engineers and technologies,
• People management:
  • understanding you, understanding other people, working in teams and dealing with conflicts.
• The Business Environment:
  • understanding the business environment; identifying key trends and their implications for the organisation.
• Strategy and Marketing:
  • developing effective strategies, focusing on the customer, building competitive advantage, the role of strategic assets.
• Finance:
  • profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, cash flow forecasting, project appraisal.
• New product development:
  • commercialising technology, market drivers, time to market, focusing technology, concerns.
• Business game:
  • Working in teams (companies), you will set up and run a technology company and make decisions on investment, R&D funding, operations, marketing and sales strategy,
• Negotiation:
  • preparation for negotiations, negotiation process, win-win solutions.
• Presentation skills:
  • understanding your audience, focusing your message, successful presentations, getting your message across.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Recognise the importance of teamwork in the performance and success of organisations with particular reference to commercialising technological innovation,
• Operate as an effective team member, recognising the contribution of individuals within the team, and capable of developing team working skills in yourself and others to improve the overall performance of a team,
• Compare and evaluate the impact of the key functional areas (strategy, marketing and finance) on the commercial performance of an organisation, relevant to the manufacture of a product or provision of a technical service,
• Design and deliver an effective presentation that justifies and supports any decisions or recommendations made,
• Argue and defend your judgements through constructive communication and negotiating skills.