Over the years we have observed that many Chemical Engineering and Engineering Chemistry students when they come into the fourth year one term Capstone Process Design course claim that most of the material is completely new to them. Making allowance for the expectations that students would claim this in any case, we believe that there are many advantages to trying to integrate preceding courses as much as possible with the fourth year design course. What we are proposing is to develop a framework process model using a simulator such as PRO/II, UniSim, or ASPEN that would serve as a thread to link assignments in preceding courses such as heat and mass transfer. This model would then be used as the basis for the Capstone design exercise. Although there are several potential advantages to this such as reducing duplication of effort and having a more cohesive design concept throughout the three years, there are bound to be teething problems. One potential problem is a common understanding of design. There are many concepts as to what Chemical Process Design consists of, which reflects the background and experience of the instructors. What we hope to do is to keep in mind the definitions of Science, Engineering and Technology as stated at the Inaugural CDEN conference by Dr. Tom Brzustowski P.Eng., the president of NSERC. This talk clearly pointed out the difference between Research and Development as well as Design. These are a continuum, Research, particularly speculative research is the least expensive and to a large degree the easiest of the three since there is not often the pressure to achieve a specific outcome. Development on the other hand which is primarily an engineering activity is considerably more expensive and usually has a fixed deliverable. Development is a team effort. There is a direct link between development and design since design cannot take place without the engineering development phase. The design and implementation of an artifact is the most expensive item by far and requires inputs from Economics, Environmental Health and Safety as well as knowledge of the market. We are also aware of increasing demands on our engineering graduates from the two perspectives, the increasing competition on a global basis and the expanding core body of knowledge expectations
Activity Modeling for Integrating Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Consideration as a New Element in Industrial Chemical Process Design
