PM Group Design Award 2018

This award was presented by 

Peter O’ Sullivan, Process Group Manager

In Attendance 

• Kevin Gibson Process Engineer
• Paul Ryan Deputy CQV Department Manager.
• Philip Healy Lead Process Engineer & Mentor for Kevin’s Design Project

PM Group is an Irish success story. In 2018 the company reached a milestone of having 2,500 people worldwide. PM Group Cork is globally recognised as the technical centre of excellence for biopharmaceutical design and project delivery. PM Groups involvement in the UCC Process and Chemical Engineering awards is part of our core activities and complements our mentoring program for Process & Chemical Engineering final year design projects.

Best individual design memo Graduate of 2018 is Kevin Holland who completed a design memo for:-
Kevin Holland worked in a group that proposed a design for manufacturing a bioplastic, Polylactic acid, from dairy waste. In addition to his contribution to this overall design, he also did a detailed design of one of its core unit operations, a large scale fermenter, where selected micro-organisms convert the lactose present in the dairy waste stream to lactic acid.
In order to do this design, he considered the microbial kinetics, using Lactobacillus casei as a basis, and developed his own mathematical model combining these kinetics with mass balances. This then enabled him to simulate the process and apply a suitable algorithm to establish the optimum operating conditions for the vessel. He then proceeded to do the detailed mechanical design of the vessel, its instrumentation, control and operability (including the HAZOP).
Kevin is currently based in Eli Lilly as a Process Engineer.

Bespoke (solid silver) Medal to the value of €300 and a €1,000 Cheque