Design Project in Chemical Engineering
The objective of the course is to give an overview of preliminary plant design. The course covers acquiring source information for design, practical design methods with innovations, cost and profitability estimation, life cycle analysis, business aspects, and presenting design work results.
The course requires prior knowledge on various topics such as equipment design, reactor technology, process chemistry, mass and energy balances, process simulation, process control, process safety, cost and profitability estimation, sustainability, business aspects, etc. These topics are not taught in this course but are considered as the background knowledge of participating students.
The course has previously partnered with e.g. AFRY, Andritz, Fazer, Kemira, Metso and Neste.
What can the company expect from taking part in this project?
The practical design project includes:
- Market study and process alternatives
- Process selection and innovative plant design
- Cost estimation and profitability study
- Sustainability assessment
- Business model
The design project topics are practical and sourced from industry or research institutes. They are real projects, which are generally implemented by the company by their own recourses.
The project targeted for a participating company runs for 9-10 months and includes investigating the process concept, developing flow diagrams, performing mass and energy balances, dimensioning of main equipment, EHS considerations, cost and profitability analyses, sustainability analysis, and evaluation of business potential. If required, the students make personal NDA’s with the companies, so that all the knowledge and reports created can be kept undisclosed.
The project is to be carried out in groups of 5-6 students, and its extent is 270 h/student (10 credits). Each student acts as a project manager in turn. The group prepares 5 reports per project. As a whole, the project consists of over 1500 hours of group work by the students and supervisors.
Aino Pesola, Development Engineer, Andritz Oy, project partner in 2023Participating in the course got us acquainted with educational programmes and students, and we also got to see what kinds of skills and knowledge the students have. These courses also provide a good path for getting students to know our company better and to find motivated producers of master's theses, or permanent employees.
What is required from the company?
The participating company is required to provide a specialist who is available to contribute and give supervision for the group work, and to attend 5 project group meetings. Meetings can be arranged online or face-to-face. The participating company is also required to cover the cost of 600 EUR per student.
What do the students receive?
After completing the course, students
- Acquire advanced practical knowledge on process design and preliminary plant design with innovations
- Can perform market study of raw materials, products, material margin and process alternatives
- Can calculate material and energy balance and simulation of the process
- Can draw PFD, PI-diagrams, lay-out and analyze the process safety
- Can define utilities, emissions, wastes and conduct life cycle assessment
- Can size the equipment and define equipment list, specification and instructions
- Can calculate capital investment, operating cost, production cost, analyses profitability
- Can create a business model and financial planning for it
- Can demonstrate team work, presentation, management and leadership skills in practical plant design
Course details
- Contact: Prof. Rofice Dickson, rofice.dickson@aalto.fi; Sarwar Golam, D.Sc.(Tech.),
(University senior lecturer), golam.sarwar@aalto.fi, +358 50 4349075 - Project duration: February 2027 – December 2027
- Number of students per project: 5-6
- Project fee for a company: 600 € / student
- Application period for companies: by the end of December 2026
Chemical engineering design project brings mutual benefit to companies and students
The Design project in chemical engineering lets groups of students draft a preliminary implementation plan on topics offered by companies collaborating in the course.
