CHEN20008: Chemical Process Analysis 2

Four assignments spread throughout the semester, each of no more than 1500 words (10% each). My assignments consisted of:
- 10% group oral presentation (NOTE: Marked individually) based on an allocated manufacturing or safety case study. This is exactly the same as the presentation in CPA1.
- 10% HYSYS assignment (individual).
- 10% lab report
- 10% lab report
One written two-hour end-of-semester examination (60%).

This subject is essentially an extension on what you will have learnt from CPA1 which makes sense since those 2 subjects were actually 1 subject before the Melbourne Model ("Chemical Process Analysis"). The core knowledge you will gain from the subject involves energy balances and you basically build up the complexity of such problems you can do over the bulk of the semester (eg. heats of reactions, heats of mixing, shaft work, adiabatic/non-adiabatic, isothermal etc.). In addition, Chris added a new section to the course for S2 which involved thermodynamic cycles (Carnot, Reverse Carnot, Brayton, Otto and Diesel) as well as some process equipment sections which were very interesting.

Lecturers: Chris is for the most part a really good lecturer, however the general consensus among most of the students was that the pace of the subject was too slow. It was great that he wanted to reiterate key sections, however he went a little overboard. Perhaps in future years he will speed up based on feedback however. He does know the course very well, the notes are clear and quite similar to CPA1 and he does try to foster a community sense in the cohort which was really nice (he actually learnt around 80% of the cohort by name).

Assessment: My opinion on the oral presentations and lab reports are exactly the same as those for CPA1, so please see that review for that. In terms of the HYSYS assignment, this was definitely quite difficult for a lot of the cohort as this was essentially the first time we had learnt how to use the program. In addition, Chris had to make revisions to the assignment weeks after it was released multiple times which was slightly annoying, however he did give ample time to complete the task. In terms of the exam, it was very fair and doing the tutorial questions and past exams will be enough to prepare you.

Recommendation: I really enjoyed this subject as the content was interesting to me, and if you have done CPA1, expect a similar experience, especially in terms of the oral presentation assignment (which is identical to the one in CPA1) and the lab reports. As for difficulty, the workload is not extreme, but keeping up with the tutorial sheets is important.

Yes, with screen capture.

Dr. Chris Honig.

Yes, 5+ available from lecturer with some available online. Numerical solutions were given for the 2012 S2 exam.

4.8 Out of 5

The prescribed text is: Shallcross D.C., Physical Property Data Book for Engineers and Scientists, 2004, IChemE. It is crucial you have a copy of this book, or at the very least a set of steam tables on hand. You will be using this almost every time you sit down to do a tutorial sheet, and the steam tables/charts provided in the exam will be the same as those in Shallcross' book, so getting familiar with them early is a good thing. The recommended text is: Felder, R.M., Rousseau, R.W., Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes, 2005, Wiley. This is not crucial for success at all however.

3 x 1 hour lectures per week, 1 x 2 hour tutorial per week (handbook for 2014 lists 1 hour however), 2 x 3 hour laboratory sessions per semester.

2013/S2

H1