Welcome to CHEE2001

Process Principles

Week 1 Tutorial 1
Teacher: Bev Coulter
email: b.coulter@uq.edu.au
 Welcome to CHEE2001 and the School
of Chemical Engineering!
Plan for today:
• Introductions
– Teachers
– Groups: exchange contact details
• Our expectations

• CHEE2001 Cookie Challenge!

 Bev Coulter

• Chemical engineer (UQ) with an MBA (London Business School)

• 15+ years experience working in Australia, USA and UK:
– Process engineer at Caltex oil refinery, Brisbane
– R&D metallurgist at Mount Isa Mines, Mount Isa (now Glencore)
– Process metallurgist at ASARCO Ray Copper Mine, Arizona, USA
– Stock broking equities analyst at Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), London
– Metallurgical consultant at Xstrata Technology, Brisbane
– Lecturer at UQ Chemical Engineering with focus on industry engagement

Email: b.coulter@uq.edu.au
Room: Room 304, Don Nicklin Building
 CHEE2001 Expectations
Our expectations:
• Attend lectures or watch online before the tutorials.
• Come to tutorials. Most of our learning happens in these classes.
• Support each other in tutorials and project work.
• Come on Gladstone Industry Tour 19-21 March.

Enjoy the course and learn lots about chemical engineering!

CHEE2001 Gladstone Industry Tour

Thursday 19- Saturday 21 March (week 4)

• Highly recommended by teachers and past students.
• Very relevant to course material and project work.
• Get to know your cohort and Chem Eng staff.
• No cost to students.
To do:
• Read information sheet on Blackboard.
• Complete Personal Info Quiz on BB by next Monday 2 March.
 CHEE2001 Cookie Challenge
Choc Resources manufactures chocolate chips from a cookie feedstock. They
pride themselves on the quality of their product which must meet a specification
> 90% chocolate (by eye). Choc Resources must dispose of any waste material in
an environmentally-conscious way.
Choc Resources has asked your group to devise a process to treat the feed
material to produce an on-spec product and to maximise the recovery of the
chocolate in the feed.

Exercise:
• Process the given feed material (6 cookies) to recover the chocolate product. This
product must meet the necessary product specification.
• Present your product for inspection and weighing.
• Dispose of the waste product thoughtfully.
• Draw the process as a simple process flow diagram. Use solid lines to depict the
material flows, boxes to depict the unit operations and dotted lines to depict the
energy flows.

Group with highest weight of on-spec chocolate product wins a prize!

Equipment: each group will be given 6 chocolate biscuits, 2 cups (one for product and one for
waste), paper for working on and some process equipment .
CHEE2001 – Cookie Challenge
Feed mass approx. 155g
Group Chocolate Waste Mass (g)
Product Mass (g)
Black
Blue
Brown
Green
Magenta
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
White
Yellow
 CHEE2001 Cookie Challenge

Now draw a flowsheet for your group’s

cookie processing.
 Choc Chip Cookie Processing Flowsheet
W W
Choc product

Chocolate
Biscuit

Feed
Crushing Separation
Chocolate Chocolate
Biscuit Biscuit

Waste
Chocolate
Biscuit
CHEE2001 Process Principles

Week 1 Tutorial 2
Teacher: Bev Coulter
email: b.coulter@uq.edu.au
 Tutorial 2 Week 1

Plan for today:

• Warm up exercise

• Thinking about systems, key terminology

• Drawing flowsheets
Warm up exercise
Think of as many products that you use every day/
every week that have been produced by chemical
engineers.
 Defining Systems and Process Operations
Let’s start thinking about systems.

• Streams, unit operations

• Closed versus open systems
• Continuous versus batch systems
• Steady state versus not steady state
• Accumulation versus no accumulation
Recap on systems definitions (from lecture)
Closed vs Open Systems
A closed system: no mass moves across the system boundary, during the
period of time covered by the mass/energy balance.

An open system: mass moves across the system boundary at some point of
time within the period covered by the mass/energy balance.

Batch vs Continuous:
A batch process: feed is put into the vessel at the beginning of the process,
and products are removed at the end. No mass crosses the system boundary
during the period between feeding and product removal.

A continuous process is one in which inputs and outputs flow continuously

throughout the duration of the process.
 Systems definitions

Steady state vs not steady state

Steady state occurs when variables such as temperatures, pressures,
volumes and flow rates do not change over time (except for minor
fluctuations). No accumulation of mass or energy occur within the system

At steady state: Mass flow in = Mass flow out and Energy in = Energy out

Unsteady state occurs when variables such as temperatures, pressures,

volumes and flow rates change over time.

Accumulation
Accumulation: the gain (or loss) of mass or energy by the system over
time.
No accumulation occurs at steady state (in = out)
System – cookie challenge

System boundary?
Open/ closed?
Steady state/ unsteady state?
Batch / continuous?
Accumulation?
System – cookie challenge

System boundary?
Open/ closed? closed
Steady state/ unsteady state? unsteady
Batch / continuous? batch
Accumulation? yes
System – boiling water in saucepan

System boundary?
Open/ closed?
Steady state/ unsteady state?
Batch / continuous?
Accumulation?
System – boiling water in saucepan

System boundary?
Open/ closed? open
Steady state/ unsteady state? unsteady
Batch / continuous? batch
Accumulation? -ve accum of water in pan
System – oil refinery

System boundary?
Open/ closed?
Steady state/ unsteady state?
Batch / continuous?
Accumulation?
System – oil refinery

System boundary?
Open/ closed? open
Steady state/ unsteady state? steady
Batch / continuous? continuous
Accumulation? no
System – Earth

System boundary?
Open/ closed?
Steady state/ unsteady state?
Batch / continuous?
Accumulation?

Consider humans, CO2 , . . .

System – Earth

System boundary?
Open/ closed? open
Steady state/ unsteady state? unsteady
Batch / continuous? continuous
Accumulation?+ve accum of humans and
CO2

Consider humans, CO2 , . . .

 Getting started with flowsheets

Flowsheets represent a process or system in a graphical form using boxes

or other symbols to represent process units (reactors, mixers, separation
units etc.) and lines with arrows to represent input and output material and
energy flows.

Some key features of a chemical engineering flowsheet include:

• arrowed lines for material flows in and out of a system
• boxes/ diagrams for separate unit operations
• stream numbers and/or labels
• stream component compositions/ flows (mass/ mole)
• system boundary
• legend
 Chemical engineering flowsheet

Have another go at drawing the cookie challenge flowsheet.

Populate with stream data:

• Feed mass = 155g
• Feed composition: 0.40 mass fraction chocolate
• Choc product composition: 0.90 mass fraction chocolate
 Choc Chip Cookie Processing Flowsheet
Wc Ws

Feed
M1 = 155g 1 2 3 Choc product
Crushing Separation xC3 = 0.90
xC1 = 0.40 xC2 = 0.40
xB1 = 0.60 xB2 = 0.60 xB3 = 0.10

4
Waste
xC4 =
xB4 =
Checking:
• arrowed lines for material flows in and out of a system ✓ Legend
• boxes/ diagrams for separate unit operations ✓
• stream numbers and/or labels ✓ M mass g
• stream component compositions and/or flows (mass/ mole) ✓
• system boundary ✓
x mass fraction
• legend ✓ C chocolate
B biscuit
 Another system – sugar milling

Tasks:
1. Read the process description.
2. Represent this description as a flowsheet.
3. Draw appropriate system boundary.
4. Define the unit operations in your flowsheet e.g. batch vs continuous.

Look up Norbert Rillieux, American chemical engineer and inventor of

multiple effect evaporator and pioneer of sugar process.
Sugar Milling flowsheet
CHEE2001 Looking ahead

Week 2: Introduction to degrees of freedom analysis and mass balancing

To do:
• Check Blackboard for announcements

• Read Information sheet on Blackboard under Gladstone

• Complete Gladstone Personal Information quiz on Blackboard before

next Monday 2 March

• Organise clothing and boots (steel-capped, lace-up) for Gladstone

trip.