Course Content

Programme Content

Detailed Module Description available under Course Details 

Year I (Certificate & Diploma): 

PE1811 Introduction to Chemical Process Engineering

(a) Basic engineering computation, engineering units, SI units, dimensions & conversions, chemical engineering heuristics.

(b) Block Flow Diagrams (BFD), Process Flow Diagrams (PFD), Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID).

PE1812 Material & Energy Balances

(a) Law of conservation of mass, open and closed systems, system boundary, batch and continuous processes, material balance equations, material recycle.

(b) Law of conservation of energy, forms of energy, development of energy balance equations, process applications, reading and using steam tables.

PE1813 Fluid Mechanics & Particle Processing

(a) Properties of fluids, compressible and incompressible, fluid statics, fluid dynamics. Pumps, fans, compressors, piping systems, flow measurement, sampling systems, Bernoulli’s equation, design of pump-pipeline systems.

(b) Particle and powder characterisation, dust fires and explosions, dust separation and air pollution control, powder storage and transport.

PE1814 Heat Transfer & Applied Thermodynamics

(a) Energy, entropy, work, 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics. Heat transfer principles, heat exchanger design, condensers.

(b) Refrigeration, cooling, chilled water systems, cooling towers, combustion, boilers, steam, CHP, generators. CO2 plant, N2 plant, HVAC.

PE1815 Mass Transfer & Separation Processes

(a) Principles of mass transfer, phase equilibria, interphase mass transfer.

(b) Distillation, absorption, solvent extraction, evaporation, drying, crystallization, adsorption, ion-exchange.

PE1816 Process Control & Equipment Integrity

(a) Control theory, measurement & transducers, process control systems, automation in industry, S88 & Gamp4, advances in control systems.

(b) Materials of construction, mechanical properties of metals, polymers & ceramic materials, corrosion, emergency pressure relief & venting, welding of process vessels, safety & process fluid leakage.

Year II (Diploma only):

PE2802 Process Simulation & Optimisation and Occupational Health & Safety in the Process Industries

(a) Process optimisation and continuous process improvement. Overview of a systems engineering approach to process analysis. Identification of the crucial factors that affect a system's response: use of appropriate Design of Experiments techniques, factorial analysis using ANoVA and Pareto analysis. The Taguchi method of robust engineering design for minimising waste and non-conformity costs.

(b) Introduction to health and safety legislation, risk assessment methodologies, safe systems of work, technical/process safety, incident/accident investigation, emergency planning and response.

PE2803 Environmental Engineering & Safety

(a) Environmental Engineering; Pollution and environmental impacts, legislation, Treatment & disposal of wastes: liquid and solid wastes treatment; landfill, incineration and other thermal treatments. Waste minimization. Sustainability.

(b) Engineering safety; plant layout, plant operation, containment, pressure system design, reactor stability, emergency venting, formation & dispersal of vapour clouds, fire, explosion, toxic release.

PE2804 Reaction Engineering and Unit Operations

(a) Reaction Engineering; Introduction to Chemistry, atoms, molecules and how reactions work.  Reaction terminology and the types of different reactors used in industry.  Overview of reaction order, reaction kinetics and reaction thermodynamics.  The influence of temperature and pressure on chemical reactions.  The design and assessment of simple reactor operation. 

(b) Unit Operations: particle characterisation; particle dynamics; elutriation; sedimentation, filtration, charging, dispensing of solids and size reduction; size reduction equipment; membrane separation processes; mixing/blending of powders; oral solids dosage forms.

PE2805 Process & Plant Design

Process design & simulation (using SuperPro Designer/Dynochem) incorporating the concepts of sustainability clean processing. Development of plant design in order to generate data for  process piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID). Overview of, plant location, layout, design and build. Engineering management concepts  of control, evaluation, budgeting and scheduling and closeout. Capital investment/running costs and the methods for their estimation. Profitability analysis (return on investment, pay-back time, discounted cash flow rate of return, net present value.

PE2810 Diploma Project

Project selection; project planning; literature survey; work of theoretical, experimental or computing nature leading to achievement of objectives; preparation of project report.