CENG 301 Project

Fall 2003

 

Objectives

This design project will help you learn how to

·        analyze a typical chemical engineering process; 

·        solve mass/energy balance problems for a complicated process using appropriate software;

·        learn more about the current situation of the energy industry and its future; and

·        work with other students as a team.

 

 

Groups

 

 

Group

Majority College

Student 1

Student 2

Student 3

Student 4

1

Brown

Chen

Flatow

King

Robles

2

Jones

Brooks

Esterholm

Mathur

Pond

3

Martel

Duplan

Eng

Kelvin

Louie

4

Hanszen

Bhakta

Lewinski

Li

Robinson

5

Wiess

Barth

Chong

Dani

Maldonado

6

Will Rice

Haseltine

Jones

Jorgensen

Setty

7

Baker

Dunsheath

Walker

Youngless

 

8

Sid Rich

Jauregui,

Kapadia,

Roos

 

 

 

Assignment

·        Calculations

 

·        Presentation

On Dec. 1, Dec. 3 or Dec. 5, each group will give a 15-minute presentation to showoff your work. The presentation should include, but not restricted to:

□        A background introduction on the energy industry. The pros and cons of using the coal as a power-generating source.

□        A description of the process in which coal is used to generate electricity. The importance of the SO2 scrubber.

□        Important results from the calculation, such as the amount of coal needed, the amount of limestone needed, and the cost on the coal and the limestone.

□        The effect of the electricity conservation method that you chose to work on.

 

 

Life-Saving Tips

·        Start as early as you can!

·        Split the work (the calculations, the presentation, the search for necessary information on the electricity conservation, the report…) among the group members and corporate closely with each other.

·        Do your work in the computer (use Excel, Matlab or whatever software you like) in a way so that when one input parameter (e.g. the feeding rate of the air to the furnace) is changed, all the calculations will be done automatically. This will save you a lot of time on redoing the same calculation with a calculator for different numbers.

·        Check out the Q&A page frequently for my answers to some of the typical questions on this project. This may help you to avoid the mistakes other students have made.

·        Turn in the parts of the report (one for each group) at the following dates so that you won’t wait until the last two weeks only to find that it’s too late to finish:

Part

Contents

Due date

First

14.1-14.10

5:00PM, Oct. 31th, 2003

Second

14.11-14.20

5:00PM, Nov. 14th, 2003

Final

14.1-14.20, cost estimation, and results for the electricity conservation

5:00PM, Dec. 5th, 2003

 

·        If you find one problem very difficult to solve, don’t get stuck in there. Move on and try to solve the other problems since they may not depend on the answers for previous problems.

·        More to come …

 

 

Grading

·        Report (60% of the score for this project): Each group needs to turn in one report in which you should clearly show your steps in solving each problem and mark your answers with rectangles. If you need to use any physical or chemical properties of a material (e.g. vapor pressure of water at 53 oC), make sure to specify their sources. See the Q&A page for more detailed requirements on the format of the final report.

·        Presentation (20% of the score for this project): Each presentation will be graded by the instructors and the TAs according to both the contents of the presentation and the presentation skills.

·        Team Evaluation (20% of the score for this project): While the entire outcome of your group will be the basis for each person's grade, a Team Evaluation Form will let us adjust grades according to individual effort contributed to the whole. Each member of the team will fill out this form and turn it in with your final report. The instructor or TA will meet with individuals whose scores vary widely to understand the discrepancy. Individuals who receive very low scores from other group members will receive a reduction in points.

 

 

TA

Gang Cheng, gang@rice.edu, x3621, Keck Hall 131B

Jon Surratt, jsurratt@rice.edu

Laura Hall, lhall@rice.edu

John Cliver, cliver@rice.edut

Shannon Duffy, snduffy@rice.edu

 

You are encouraged to discuss with the TAs any questions related to this project.