Sultan Qaboos University

College of Engineering
Department of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering
CHPE5312 Project I
Guidelines for the First Part of the Capstone Design Project (Fall 2016)
(The second part will be carried out in project II)

1. Introduction
Designing a chemical plant, a product, or process can be a highly creative activity. It is actually
the capstone exercise required to obtain bachelor degree in chemical engineering. This year the
students are asked to design a chemical plant or carry a research project that includes a design
of a specified unit assigned by the group supervisor (Please see attached table). The design
works are divided into two semesters: project I (in fall) and project II (in spring).

In project I, the students are expected to accomplish the following tasks:

Introduction
Overview on the project topic: problem statement, main objectives, and practical
significance.

Literature Review
This includes the following:
a. A description of product to be manufactured, including its chemical formula and
physical and chemical properties.
b. A discussion of the role of this product in the industry and trade.
c. A survey of the methods used in manufacturing this product, including the
process being described in this report giving the raw materials, the principal
chemical reactions by-products and intermediates.
d. A consideration of realistic constraints of production methods.
e. An overview of the environmental issues encountered, including the toxicity of
the chemicals, and the potential safety problems.
f. Select capacity for the plant

Process Selection and Flowsheet Synthesis

This includes the following:
a. An explanation of the choice of the production method. This often involves
description of partially synthesized flowsheets and the reasons why these
flowsheets were rejected in favor of the design selected.
b. A complete flowsheet should be drawn. All streams should be numbered clearly
and all of the process units labeled. At some point on the arc for each stream, the
temperature and pressure should appear. Note that software packages are
available to simplify the preparation of flowsheets, most notably those associated
with the process simulators.
c. A discussion of the choice of the production level and plant location.

Mass and Energy Balances

This includes the following:
a. The process flowsheet should contain a material balance block, that is, a table
showing, for each numbered stream: Total flow rate, flow rate of each chemical
species, temperature, pressure, and others (density and enthalpy).
b. It is desirable that the flowsheet and the material balance block appear on a single
sheet for continuous reference and bound with the remainder of the report.
c. In describing most chemical processes, it is desirable to have a section that
discusses the energy requirements of the process and the measures adopted to
improve the plant economics by energy conservation, e.g. heat integration. All of
the heating, cooling, and power demands should be identified (with numerical
values provided), and the methods of satisfying these demands shown.
d. Mass and energy balances have to be done both manually and using
HYSYS/Aspen.

In the second semester, the same group will continue working on the other design
components (detailed guidelines for project II will be distributed at the end of this semester).
The feasibility reports obtained from project I and II will be combined to get a comprehensive
final report.
2. Problem Statement:
As an engineer working for a renowned Omani Chemical consulting company, you have
been selected to work in a design group for the initial work of designing a chemical plant
according to the attached table. Different product routes are suggested in literature for producing
your product. One of the major tasks involved in this activity is to explore the open literature for
possible commercially viable product solutions. The full-scale plant may produce large quantities
of environmentally threatening gases. Your design team should look for possible treatment
technologies to handle the safe and economical disposal of these gases.
3. Grouping and Supervision
A group of 4 students will be assigned a supervisor (faculty member) to coach them
during the project.
Each group members are responsible to select a group leader.
The group leader is responsible to organize group meetings, divide the work and assign
tasks to group members
Prepare a project schedule showing time and tasks to be accomplished and discuss with
your facilitators
It is the responsibility of the group and the supervisor to set a time for meeting and
discuss the results. It is necessary to meet at least once a week.
Each group is responsible about their project in the end it is your work, and supervisors
are here only to help you accomplish your objectives, not to do the thinking for you!
Work hard students are expected to strive to accomplish good design project.
Students are expected to be curious about their work and how to get new ideas that will
enrich the design project.
It is the responsibility of the group and the supervisor to agree on how to review the
progress periodically.
Conduct a thorough literature survey on the primitive design problem. The key
questions/issues to study are:
a. What is the general information associated with the design problem?
b. What are the sources of raw materials; are they available in Oman, can they be
manufactured or need to be imported?
c. Assess the current production, projected market demand and
d. Current and projected market prices.
e. What are the hazard and safety and environmental issues associated with the
process?
f. What is a suitable location for the process in Oman?
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g. Explore different alternative routes or processing methods for the process.

h. Mention their merits and demerits and argue why you choose a particular one.

4. Evaluation and Grading Policy

In tandem with ABET (the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)
requirements, the detailed assessment forms will be made known to you at a suitable time.
This will guide you on where to focus your efforts and attention. Here an overall picture will
be given.
Ideally, your work should be evaluated by all academic staff. Due to the large class size, this
is not feasible. However, the following scheme still strives to expose each of you to as many
different academic staff as possible, to achieve objectivity of the assessment.
To give a more balanced assessment, your supervisor will evaluate mostly your progress
throughout both semesters, while others will evaluate the products of your labor, i.e.
presentations and reports. The feasibility report will be evaluated by two academic staff
members. The panel for the oral presentation will consists of two faculty members.
Throughout the semester, you will be interacting on a weekly basis with your supervisor.
Hence it is fair that he will evaluate your progress throughout the semester. Detail breakdown
of the grading scheme and milestones of project I is shown in the following table.

Table 2: Distribution of grades and milestones for project I.

Milestones

Weight, %

15
Progress report:
An executive summary including project
objectives and screening of technology
options.
35
Feasibility report:
Introduction and Literature survey (see
section 1 and 2), Process Selection, Flowsheet
Synthesis and Mass and Energy Balances
(see section 3 and 4)
30
Oral Presentation

Date
Week # 7: Wednesday,
October 19 2016 @ 4:30
P.M.

Week # 14: Wednesday,

December 7, 2016 at
3:00 P.M.
Week # 15: Thursday,
December 15. Schedule
will be announced.

20

Supervisor evaluation

We will be strict with submission deadlines. If you are late by 1 minute, you are still late. So
do not try to be the borderline case and argue about whose clock is more accurate, try to
submit early, e.g. an hour ahead. All late reports will be deducted 10% for the 1st day, 25%
for the 2nd day, 50% for the 3rd day, and 100% after that!
Another important issue in this regard is the case of plagiarism among students. From our
previous experience with submitted final reports, many such cases were detected.The
punishment for such cases will be very severe. You may fail the course if your report shows
major originality issues meaning unscrupulous copying from published materials without
giving credit to the respective authors. Also if anyone is found copying company proprietary
matters, they may face severe disciplinary action over and above receiving just zero marks
as a minimum! Please refer to the university guidelines on plagiarism.

5. Feasibility Report Policy

Each group is required to submit two hard copies of their feasibility report to the project
coordinator.
The project coordinator will forward the two copies to your assessors for evaluation.
The evaluator has one week to correct and evaluate the report.
Each group is responsible to get their corrected report from the project coordinator.
The original copy of the feasibility report (with correction) and the corrected copy
are to be submitted to the supervisor not later than the last day of the semester. The
supervisor then will check for all required corrections before sending the reports to
the coordinator along with his/her marks. If the supervisor is not satisfied with the
corrections, he will return the reports back to his/her students for further
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modifications. Only after the full satisfaction of the supervisor, students will obtain
their grade. Otherwise, an IP grade shall be issued.
All written reports should use the following writing format:
a. Use 12 points Times New Roman Font.
b. Use 1.5 lines spacing for all paragraphs.
c. All pages (including the appendix) should have left and right margins that at 1 in
wide.
d. Give numbers for all Tables and Figures.
e. Give numbers for all equations.
f. Descriptive captions should be placed below figures and captions for tables
should be placed above the table.
g. Number pages at the bottom center (exclude title page).
h. Maximum number of pages for the feasibility report is 50 Pages.
i. Cite references according to the enclosed AIChE format.
j. A large flowsheet that cannot be bound into the report (i.e., larger than A4 size)
should be folded for insertion into a cover pocket which is pasted onto the inside
back cover of the report after the binding is completed.
k. The report should be well-written as to be free from grammatical, typographical
and formatting errors.
l. If computer programs are involved in any report, they should be added to the
project outcome CD-ROM and submit it with the final report.

6. Contents of the Progress Report

By the 6th week, each team should conclude a progress report to be presented to the course
coordinators. This report should include a brief summary of the following:

Title page
Table of contents
Introduction
o Problem statement
o Project objectives
Screening and evaluation of available technology options:
o A description of the product, its significance in the industry and national and
international economics, a survey of the methods used to manufacture, an
explanation of the choice of the production method, A discussion on the
reason of entering the market, an overview of the environmental issue
toxicity, HSE.
References

The report may not exceed 15 pages with a write-up format similar to that of the feasibility
report explained above. Table 2 shows an example of the evaluation form used by the assessor.
8

Table 2: Progress report evaluation form

CHPE5312 Project I (Design Type)
Evaluation of Progress Report-Fall 2016

G1-3

G1-4
H1
H2
I
K2

Letter Grade

Rubric

5
3
Understanding of Professional Responsibility
5
2
Understanding of Ethical Responsibility
5
4
Organization and Style
5
3
Format and Aesthetics
Technical Contents and Knowledge : The report should have the following
components:
1. Introduction (Problem statement/Objectives):
15
3
Overview on the project topic: problem statement, main objectives and
practical significance
2.
Literature Review (Process selection): A description of the product,
its significance in the industry and national and international economics, a
survey of the methods used to manufacture, an explanation of the choice of
30
3
the production method, A discussion on the reason of entering the market, an
overview of the environmental issue toxicity, HSE.
5
4
3.
References and Appendices
10
1
Spelling and Grammar
5
4
Public Interest and Societal Impact
5
2
Global Impact
5
3
Need for Life-Long Learning
Ability to use modern engineering tools necessary for engineering
5
3
practice
Total
100 2.85
Marginal

F1
F2
G1-1
G1-2

DESCRIPTION

% Weight

ABET
OUTCOME

TEAM Code: .

B+
C+
AB+
B+

B+

AD+
AC+
B+
B
76

7. Contents of Feasibility Report

The feasibility report should be typed. It should contain tables and illustrations where necessary.
The listing below is an outline form to identify the sections that you will need to include in your
feasibility report. They are in the sequence shown.

Title page
Summary
Nomenclature (if needed)
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Ch1: Introduction
Ch2: Literature Survey
Ch3: Process Selection and Flowsheet Synthesis
Ch4: Mass and Energy Balances
Ch5. Preliminary feasibility evaluation
References
Appendices (if needed)

Table 3 shows an example of the evaluation form used by the assessor

10

Table 3: Feasibility report evaluation form

CHPE5312 Project I (Design Type)
Evaluation of Feasibility Report-Fall 2016

Letter Grade

F1

Understanding of Professional Responsibility

A-

F2

Understanding of Ethical Responsibility

A-

G1-1

Organization and Style

B+

G1-2

Format and Aesthetics

A-

Technical Contents and Knowledge : The report should have the following components:
1. Introduction (Problem statement/Objectives): Overview on the project topic: problem statement,
main objectives and practical significance

B+

2. Literature Review (Process selection): A description of the product, its significance in the
industry and national and international economics, a survey of the methods used to manufacture, an
explanation of the choice of the production method, A discussion on the reason of entering the
market, an overview of the environmental issue toxicity, HSE.

B-

3. Process Selection and Flowsheet Synthesis:

Detail description of the selected process using a PFD. A complete flowsheet should be drawn. All
streams should be numbered clearly and all of the process units labeled. At some point on the arc for
each stream, the temperature and pressure should appear. Note that software packages are available
to simplify the preparation of flowsheets, most notably those associated with the process simulators

10

A-

4. Mass and Energy Balance

The process flowsheet should contain a material balance block, that is, a table showing, for each
numbered stream: Total flow rate, flow rate of each chemical species, temperature, pressure and
others (density and enthalpy). It is desirable that the flowsheet and the material balance block
appear on a single sheet for continuous reference and bound with the remainder of the report. (It is
not a must, each group can use its own way to show the material balance).
In describing most chemical processes, it is desirable to have a section that discusses the energy
requirements of the process and the measures adopted to optimize the plant by energy conservation,
e.g. heat integration. All of the heating, cooling, and power demands should be identified (with
numerical values provided), and the methods of satisfying these demands shown.

25

B+

5
10
5
5
5
5
100

3
4
4
4
4
3
3.5

B+
AAAAB+
87

ABET
OUTCOME

Rubric

% Weight

TEAM NO.: AB.

G1-3

G1-4
H1
H2
I
K2

DESCRIPTION

5. References and Appendices

Spelling and Grammar
Public Interest and Societal Impact
Global Impact
Need for Life-Long Learning
Ability to use modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice
Total

11

8. Oral Presentation
The intention of the oral presentations is to assess your ability to distil, transmit and defend
the essence of your work clearly, effectively and convincingly, e.g. to the management who
might not have time for page-by-page reading. Since this skill is critical to the survival of any
engineering design, its weight age is pegged high at 30%.
In the first semester, the oral presentation is done as a group, and each member must do part
of the talking. Assessment will be for the group. In the second semester, each of you will be
assessed individually, though you will still present in sequence to the same panel. Use of
audio-visual materials (e.g. PowerPoint slides) to clarify and strengthen the presentation is
encouraged, but not mandatory. Table 4 shows an example of the evaluation form used by
the assessor.
Table 4 Presentation evaluation form
G2 G2 G2
F1 F2 1
2
3
Student
Name
4
4
5
5
10

G2

G2

G3

G3

H1 H2 I

30

10

10

K2 MAR
K
5
100

81

81

81

81

9. Citing References using AIChE Format

Book chapter:

Perry, R. H., and D. W. Green, Eds., "Mass Transfer and Gas Absorption," Chapter 14,
in "Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook," 6th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York (1984).
Homoki, G. G., and K. N. Vernekar, "Materials Selections for Sludge Incinerator Heat
Exchangers," in "Materials Performance in Waste Incineration Systems," G. Y. Lai and
G. Sorell, Eds., NACE International, Houston, TX, pp. 20-1 to 20-8 (1992).

Conference paper:

Trebilcock, R. W., "Reduction of Distillation Waste Streams," presented at the AIChE

Summer National Meeting, Seattle, WA, Paper No. 5b (Aug. 1993).
Kuhn, L. A., and E. N. Ruddy, "Comprehensive Emissions Inventories for Industrial
Facilities," Proceedings of the Air and Waste Management Association's 85th Annual
Meeting and Exhibition, Kansas City, MO, Paper No. 92-139.12 (June 1992).
12

Dissertation:

Liu, Y.-L. "Effects of the intermediate principal stress on the strength and stiffness of a
reinforced sand," thesis, presented to University of Cincinnati at Cincinnati, OH, in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (1988).
Thomas, R. F. "Accumulation of air toxics in the U.S. Arctic," thesis, presented to
University of Cincinnati, at Cincinnati, OH, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (1994).

Government report:

Gallagher, V. P., and N. Lerner, "A model of visual complexity of highway scenes."
Report FHWA/RD-83/083, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington, D.C. (1983)

Journal article:

Schaich, J. R. , "Estimate Fugitive Emissions from Process Equipment," Chemical

Engineering Progress, 87 (8), pp. 31-35 (Aug. 1991).

Patent:

Cartland, W. H. (To Rheem Manufacturing Company), "Solar heater freeze protection

system," U. S. Patent 4,138,996 (February 13, 1979).

Society Paper:

Bhutta, V. A., and C. H. Lewis, . "Aerothermodynamic performance of 3-D and bentnose RVs under hypersonic conditions," AIAA Paper 90-3068, American Institute for
Aeronautics and Astronautics, New York, N.Y. (1990).

Tech report:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Compiling Air Toxics Emissions

Inventories," U.S. EPA, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Research Triangle
Park, NC, EPA/450/4-86-010, NTIS No. PB86-238086 (July 1986).

Website: (citing from websites should be kept to the minimum)

"The Abnormal Situation Management Joint Research and Development Consortium,"

available via http://www.iac.honeywell.com/Pub/
Tech/asmwww/html. [Accessed 10/02/01.]
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