Study program

• Objectives

  At the end of this course, students should be able to understand, model, simulate and dimension a distillation plant operating in batch or continuous mode. The equations involved in this undertaking will be solved using advanced numerical tools such as Python and Matlab, and the various process variables (concentrations, flow rates, separation efficiencies) will be able to be visualized for different operating conditions.

  In particular, students should be able to:

  • understand and explain phase equilibria between liquid and vapor, and use phase diagrams representing these equilibria in the context of distillation.
  • understand and explain the design and limitations of a multi-component flash distillation system.
  • write and solve material balances and equilibrium relations for continuous binary rectification using the McCabe-Thiele method.
  • simulate a complex distillation problem using Python, Matlab or AspenTech.
  • understand the challenges of batch distillation and model some simple situations with Python, Matlab or AspenTech.
• Content

  This Chemical Engineering course deals with various aspects of the separation of chemical compounds by thermal separation processes. The main theme of this module will be distillation, a thermal separation process of major industrial importance. Various topics related to distillation will be covered.

  The course structure is as follows:

  • Thermodynamics of liquid-vapor phase equilibria
  • Flash distillation of a complex mixture
  • Continuous rectification
  • Introduction to batch distillation and its challenges

  The didactic model used in this course will be that of a flipped classroom. Students will be required to view and/or read the documentation distributed prior to the course, in order to be able to work effectively on the various projects and exercises solved in class. For a preliminary introduction to what a flipped classroom is, the following video explains the principle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMx2p9aGAU

Type of teaching and workload

Course specification

Evaluation methods

• Continuous assessment Written work

Course grade calculation method

The continuous assessment mark corresponds to the weighted average of all of the semester's exams. In case of a revision exam, the course's final mark corresponds to the arithmetic average of the continuous assessment and the revision exam marks.

Reference work

Intructor(s) and/or coordinator(s)

Thierry Chappuis