CN4122 Process Synthesis and Simulation is a 3 MC module which deals with chemical process simulation using Aspen Hysys for the first portion and costing analysis for the second portion. This is not an easy module and requires all the chemical engineering knowledge that you've learnt over the past 5 - 6 semesters in NUS. This module serves as a "prelude" to your design project so it is an extremely crucial module. The thing that I don't really understand is why this module is only 3 MCs as the amount of effort and time I spent on this module is equivalent to any 4 MC module.
Assessment
17% Tutorial participation (which is just attendance), viva, tutorial completion
8% Hysys assignment (individual)
15% Mechanical design and costing project (group)
60% Finals (Closed book, 25 MCQs, 45 minutes)
8% Hysys assignment (individual)
15% Mechanical design and costing project (group)
60% Finals (Closed book, 25 MCQs, 45 minutes)
Lecturer:
Prof IA Karimi (Weeks 1 - 8)
Prof Suraj Vasudevan (Weeks 9 - 13)
Prof IA Karimi (Weeks 1 - 8)
Prof Suraj Vasudevan (Weeks 9 - 13)
Tutor:
Mr Vo Chi Hung
Mr Vo Chi Hung
Textbooks/Readings
1. Chemical Engineering Design, by R Sinnott and G Towler, 5th Edition, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013.
2. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, by R Turton, RC Bailie, WB Whiting, JA Shaeiwitz, D Bhattacharya, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2012.
3. Product & Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Design, and Evaluation, by WD Seider, JD Seader, DR Lewin, S Widadgo, 3rd Edition, John Wiley, 2010.
I would say the textbooks are more important for the second portion of the module when it comes to mechanical design and costing. Having an online pdf version of these textbooks is sufficient. The lecture notes for the first part is sufficient for process simulation on Hysys.
Lectures
There is only a 2 hour lecture weekly for this module since this module is only 3 MCs. Prof Karimi taught the first part of the module on how to use Hysys to simulate our chemical processes. There are 5 lecture notes given by Prof Karami and this is his lecture schedule:
1. Chemical Engineering Design, by R Sinnott and G Towler, 5th Edition, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2013.
2. Analysis, Synthesis, and Design of Chemical Processes, by R Turton, RC Bailie, WB Whiting, JA Shaeiwitz, D Bhattacharya, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2012.
3. Product & Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Design, and Evaluation, by WD Seider, JD Seader, DR Lewin, S Widadgo, 3rd Edition, John Wiley, 2010.
I would say the textbooks are more important for the second portion of the module when it comes to mechanical design and costing. Having an online pdf version of these textbooks is sufficient. The lecture notes for the first part is sufficient for process simulation on Hysys.
Lectures
There is only a 2 hour lecture weekly for this module since this module is only 3 MCs. Prof Karimi taught the first part of the module on how to use Hysys to simulate our chemical processes. There are 5 lecture notes given by Prof Karami and this is his lecture schedule:
Week 1 - Lecture Slides 1 (Module introduction)
Week 2 - Lecture Slides 1 (Analysis of a process) and 2 (Start the very basics of using Hysys - adding components and FPs, Exercise D1)
Week 3 - Lecture Slides 2 (Exercise D1 - D4)
Week 4 - Lecture Slides 3 (Reactions, Exercise D5)
Week 5 - Lecture Slides 3 (Reactions, Exercise D5)
Week 6 - Lecture Slides 4 (Tee, Spreadsheet, Absorber)
Week 7 - Lecture Slides 4 (Distillation, Component Splitter)
Week 8 - Lecture Slides 5 (Recycle, Pump Performance, Exercise D6)
Prof Karimi teaches very well in my opinion. He gives a step by step guide on how to use Hysys, especially for beginners like us. Also, he does have this online questionaire thing where he asks us questions during lectures and we have to answer them by replying to him online. These questions are usually Chem Eng related questions and not about Hysys (like reason for changes in pressure, temperature etc). Usually, he'll expect some form of response before moving on with the lectures. But all responses are anonymous so just feel free to type any answer you want (especially when you're unsure) and you don't have to be embarrassed about it.
All lectures are webcasted but this may not apply for those taking this module in Sem 2. I feel there isn't exactly a need to attend physical lectures as well since webcast is pretty sufficient. Just that, you have to listen to webcast in school since Hysys can only be used in school. It's best to use Hysys and see how it works while listening to lectures at the same time so that you won't be so lost.
Prof Karimi's lecture notes can be rather messy at first but if you listen to him well during lectures and follow him closely, then it shouldn't be a big issue. The content does get tougher as the weeks go by.
For the second part of the module, there are 5 lecture notes given by Prof Suraj and this is his lecture schedule:
Week 9 - Mechanical Design Part 1
Week 10 - Mechanical Design Part 2
Week 11 - Capital Cost Estimation
Week 12 - Manufacturing Cost Estimation and Economic Analysis
Week 13 - Profitability Analysis
The second part of the module is rather straight forward as it's mainly about mechanical design of vessels and economic analysis of plants. It's mostly about following guidelines and the profitability portion is very similar to the content covered in FIN2704 finance (I mean if you've taken that module too then this part of 4122 should not be a big issue for you).
Just like how he does things in CN3132, there is a video lecture every week for Prof Suraj's portion that he wants us to watch before attending the physical lectures. So, his video lectures cover the first half of the content and the physical lectures cover the other half.
Tutorial
Week 2 - Lecture Slides 1 (Analysis of a process) and 2 (Start the very basics of using Hysys - adding components and FPs, Exercise D1)
Week 3 - Lecture Slides 2 (Exercise D1 - D4)
Week 4 - Lecture Slides 3 (Reactions, Exercise D5)
Week 5 - Lecture Slides 3 (Reactions, Exercise D5)
Week 6 - Lecture Slides 4 (Tee, Spreadsheet, Absorber)
Week 7 - Lecture Slides 4 (Distillation, Component Splitter)
Week 8 - Lecture Slides 5 (Recycle, Pump Performance, Exercise D6)
Prof Karimi teaches very well in my opinion. He gives a step by step guide on how to use Hysys, especially for beginners like us. Also, he does have this online questionaire thing where he asks us questions during lectures and we have to answer them by replying to him online. These questions are usually Chem Eng related questions and not about Hysys (like reason for changes in pressure, temperature etc). Usually, he'll expect some form of response before moving on with the lectures. But all responses are anonymous so just feel free to type any answer you want (especially when you're unsure) and you don't have to be embarrassed about it.
All lectures are webcasted but this may not apply for those taking this module in Sem 2. I feel there isn't exactly a need to attend physical lectures as well since webcast is pretty sufficient. Just that, you have to listen to webcast in school since Hysys can only be used in school. It's best to use Hysys and see how it works while listening to lectures at the same time so that you won't be so lost.
Prof Karimi's lecture notes can be rather messy at first but if you listen to him well during lectures and follow him closely, then it shouldn't be a big issue. The content does get tougher as the weeks go by.
For the second part of the module, there are 5 lecture notes given by Prof Suraj and this is his lecture schedule:
Week 9 - Mechanical Design Part 1
Week 10 - Mechanical Design Part 2
Week 11 - Capital Cost Estimation
Week 12 - Manufacturing Cost Estimation and Economic Analysis
Week 13 - Profitability Analysis
The second part of the module is rather straight forward as it's mainly about mechanical design of vessels and economic analysis of plants. It's mostly about following guidelines and the profitability portion is very similar to the content covered in FIN2704 finance (I mean if you've taken that module too then this part of 4122 should not be a big issue for you).
Just like how he does things in CN3132, there is a video lecture every week for Prof Suraj's portion that he wants us to watch before attending the physical lectures. So, his video lectures cover the first half of the content and the physical lectures cover the other half.
Tutorial
Tutorials took place once a week, and they were 2 hours long. They are conducted in computer labs andddd it is the most independent kind of tutorial you can get in Chem Eng. There is a tutor in the tutorial which would take our attendance and basically just go around the class to answer any questions we have about Hysys. Then, you'll just be answering the tutorial questions independently or with your friends of course. Yeapp, so there's no tutor or Prof who would explain to you how to approach any of the tutorial questions; it's really just hands on by yourself.
There are 19 tutorial questions given for the entire semester (actual number of questions may differ for your sem). It's given in 2 batches; 11 in the first batch and 8 in the second batch. The last 5 questions are "optional" but strongly encouraged to do (I'll elaborate more about this later). Each question requires the use of Hysys and comes hand in hand with the lecture notes and lecture schedule. Like the lectures cover reactions, then separation units. So, the tutorial questions will cover reactions first then separation units later.
The tutorials start on week 5 and end on week 12. Week 13 will be the viva sessions. Thus, there are about 8 sessions in total to complete 19 questions, thus around 2 - 3 questions can be done per lesson/week. For the tutorial questions, just try them and if you have any issues, you can always just raise your hand and ask the tutor any questions you have. The tutor I have is very helpful and will answer any doubt you have (he is that good at Hysys). And it is "compulsory" to attend tutorials since there is attendance too.
Viva
The viva is basically on the tutorial questions you have attempted. It'll be conducted by your tutor, not the Profs. Around 2 questions will be chosen by your tutor and he will ask you questions related to the question itself. So, this is where the optional questions come into play. Basically, the optional questions you've completed will give you bonus marks so I really encourage you to complete as many questions as you can (although the last few questions are obviously tougher but at least try).
The questions my tutor asked me were not easy in my opinion. My tutor likes to ask questions very specifically on Hysys, like how the equipment works in the system and whether it is physically realizable. Some other tutors ask more concept questions instead. So, it really depends on which tutor you get. For me, I felt I didn't do too well for my viva but managed to get bonus marks as I completed all my tutorial questions.
Hysys Assignment
The Hysys assignment was another eye-opener. It was released in week 7 and the deadline was in week 10. Basically, we had to simulate a separation process involving absorption and distillation and we have to reach a certain purity and recovery target. It is not easy to converge a distillation column so quite a lot of time was spent on this assignment (and it's only 8% of the grade omg). Try to think out of the box for this assignment as well. As you read through the instructions and restrictions given, you'll realize that there are certain things you can do like for example, having 2 distillation columns instead of 1. Plus you can discuss the assignment with your friends too; just don't submit the same thing. We also needed to do a cost analysis as well we had to design it such that the total cost is minimised (which makes the whole assignment super tough). My total cost in the end was around $600+ but the lowest cost given by my tutor was around $200+ so yeap, I was pretty far off. My advice is to just try and submit whatever you have at the end. At least hit the purity and recovery target first even if your costs is very high.
Mechanical Design Project
This is a group project for the second half of the module. Hysys is not the emphasis here and most of the work is done on word. We had to do up a 10 page report which involves the mechanical design + costing (capital and manufacturing costs) of a vessel. Each group will get a different vessel and different feed flow rate. It's basically just applying the formulas from the lecture notes and textbooks, and choosing appropriate materials for the vessel (which again is referencing the textbooks). We had to do an engineering drawing of the vessel as well which my group used AutoCAD software to complete. The main issue with this project is the tight timeline we have. We were given the project outline in week 10 and the deadline was in reading week. We had to rush through the report since we had to revise for other modules as well (for finals).
There are 19 tutorial questions given for the entire semester (actual number of questions may differ for your sem). It's given in 2 batches; 11 in the first batch and 8 in the second batch. The last 5 questions are "optional" but strongly encouraged to do (I'll elaborate more about this later). Each question requires the use of Hysys and comes hand in hand with the lecture notes and lecture schedule. Like the lectures cover reactions, then separation units. So, the tutorial questions will cover reactions first then separation units later.
The tutorials start on week 5 and end on week 12. Week 13 will be the viva sessions. Thus, there are about 8 sessions in total to complete 19 questions, thus around 2 - 3 questions can be done per lesson/week. For the tutorial questions, just try them and if you have any issues, you can always just raise your hand and ask the tutor any questions you have. The tutor I have is very helpful and will answer any doubt you have (he is that good at Hysys). And it is "compulsory" to attend tutorials since there is attendance too.
Viva
The viva is basically on the tutorial questions you have attempted. It'll be conducted by your tutor, not the Profs. Around 2 questions will be chosen by your tutor and he will ask you questions related to the question itself. So, this is where the optional questions come into play. Basically, the optional questions you've completed will give you bonus marks so I really encourage you to complete as many questions as you can (although the last few questions are obviously tougher but at least try).
The questions my tutor asked me were not easy in my opinion. My tutor likes to ask questions very specifically on Hysys, like how the equipment works in the system and whether it is physically realizable. Some other tutors ask more concept questions instead. So, it really depends on which tutor you get. For me, I felt I didn't do too well for my viva but managed to get bonus marks as I completed all my tutorial questions.
Hysys Assignment
The Hysys assignment was another eye-opener. It was released in week 7 and the deadline was in week 10. Basically, we had to simulate a separation process involving absorption and distillation and we have to reach a certain purity and recovery target. It is not easy to converge a distillation column so quite a lot of time was spent on this assignment (and it's only 8% of the grade omg). Try to think out of the box for this assignment as well. As you read through the instructions and restrictions given, you'll realize that there are certain things you can do like for example, having 2 distillation columns instead of 1. Plus you can discuss the assignment with your friends too; just don't submit the same thing. We also needed to do a cost analysis as well we had to design it such that the total cost is minimised (which makes the whole assignment super tough). My total cost in the end was around $600+ but the lowest cost given by my tutor was around $200+ so yeap, I was pretty far off. My advice is to just try and submit whatever you have at the end. At least hit the purity and recovery target first even if your costs is very high.
Mechanical Design Project
This is a group project for the second half of the module. Hysys is not the emphasis here and most of the work is done on word. We had to do up a 10 page report which involves the mechanical design + costing (capital and manufacturing costs) of a vessel. Each group will get a different vessel and different feed flow rate. It's basically just applying the formulas from the lecture notes and textbooks, and choosing appropriate materials for the vessel (which again is referencing the textbooks). We had to do an engineering drawing of the vessel as well which my group used AutoCAD software to complete. The main issue with this project is the tight timeline we have. We were given the project outline in week 10 and the deadline was in reading week. We had to rush through the report since we had to revise for other modules as well (for finals).
Final Exam
Well, finals. 45 minutes, 25 MCQ questions, closed book and there is NEGATIVE MARKING. The toughest part of the module in my opinion since it takes up 60% of the module. That's right, 45 minutes determines 60% of your grade, as compared to the hours and days spent on the project, assignment and tutorial questions. Well, of course the tutorial questions do help you understand Hysys better and will definitely help in preparation for finals.
Each correct answer gives you 3 marks and one wrong answer will minus 1 mark away from you. 20 questions were on the first half of the module and 5 questions were on the second half of the module. The first 20 questions really test you on your understanding of how Hysys works. Questions like why an equipment in Hysys is of a certain colour or why the whole module has not converged will be asked. Usually, there will also be 2 options that seem possible so do read your questions really really carefully. To be honest, if you find 2 options equally possible, then just skip the question first and maybe don't even attempt the question in the end. No tedious calculations are tested (there's still some calculations involved) but concepts from previous modules like CN3132, CN2122, CN2125 and CN2116 will be tested as well so you do need to have a good grasp of your Chem Eng concepts.
The last 5 questions on the second half of the module were definitely easier but do still read the questions very carefully as they can be rather tricky. Both Profs will usually mention what kind of things they will test during the lectures so do listen to them real carefully. Especially Prof Suraj. When he's going through lecture content, he'll mention "this this this... will be tested." ... "this this this... definitely will not test." So, just listen carefully and all will be fine. Although Prof Suraj mentioned that no calculations will be involved for his portion, there are in fact small calculations for his portion so don't believe him entirely as well.
For finals preparation, in my opinion, just look through all your lecture notes and tutorial questions again. Understand how Hysys works (like what will cause inconsistency errors etc) and you should be able to answer most of the questions. For me, since this is a closed book paper, I actually memorised the content, especially for the second half of the module content. It did help me so I'm just leaving this advice out there haha. Do look through the finals MCQ bank provided by the seniors as well as it'll help you get used to the way Prof Karimi likes to set his questions.
Well, finals. 45 minutes, 25 MCQ questions, closed book and there is NEGATIVE MARKING. The toughest part of the module in my opinion since it takes up 60% of the module. That's right, 45 minutes determines 60% of your grade, as compared to the hours and days spent on the project, assignment and tutorial questions. Well, of course the tutorial questions do help you understand Hysys better and will definitely help in preparation for finals.
Each correct answer gives you 3 marks and one wrong answer will minus 1 mark away from you. 20 questions were on the first half of the module and 5 questions were on the second half of the module. The first 20 questions really test you on your understanding of how Hysys works. Questions like why an equipment in Hysys is of a certain colour or why the whole module has not converged will be asked. Usually, there will also be 2 options that seem possible so do read your questions really really carefully. To be honest, if you find 2 options equally possible, then just skip the question first and maybe don't even attempt the question in the end. No tedious calculations are tested (there's still some calculations involved) but concepts from previous modules like CN3132, CN2122, CN2125 and CN2116 will be tested as well so you do need to have a good grasp of your Chem Eng concepts.
The last 5 questions on the second half of the module were definitely easier but do still read the questions very carefully as they can be rather tricky. Both Profs will usually mention what kind of things they will test during the lectures so do listen to them real carefully. Especially Prof Suraj. When he's going through lecture content, he'll mention "this this this... will be tested." ... "this this this... definitely will not test." So, just listen carefully and all will be fine. Although Prof Suraj mentioned that no calculations will be involved for his portion, there are in fact small calculations for his portion so don't believe him entirely as well.
For finals preparation, in my opinion, just look through all your lecture notes and tutorial questions again. Understand how Hysys works (like what will cause inconsistency errors etc) and you should be able to answer most of the questions. For me, since this is a closed book paper, I actually memorised the content, especially for the second half of the module content. It did help me so I'm just leaving this advice out there haha. Do look through the finals MCQ bank provided by the seniors as well as it'll help you get used to the way Prof Karimi likes to set his questions.
Expected Grade: B+
Final Grade: A
Final Comments
I didn't expect to do this well for this module. I think the bonus marks I got from completing all the tutorial questions did help me. And I did a rather rigorous revision for finals as well where I memorised most of the content so I think that helped me a lot as well. It's completely alright to feel totally lost in the beginning of this module as well but eventually you'll do pretty fine.
I'm not going to upload my own notes since it's a big mess and other senior notes floating around the net are really good too in my opinion.
I didn't expect to do this well for this module. I think the bonus marks I got from completing all the tutorial questions did help me. And I did a rather rigorous revision for finals as well where I memorised most of the content so I think that helped me a lot as well. It's completely alright to feel totally lost in the beginning of this module as well but eventually you'll do pretty fine.
I'm not going to upload my own notes since it's a big mess and other senior notes floating around the net are really good too in my opinion.
Stay tuned for more updates.
- Alan
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