Section 1a.

Introduction to Design

CBE 3319 (Winter 2026)

Dominic Pjontek, Ph.D., [Link].

University of Western Ontario

Outline

◼ Expectations

◼ Efficient group work

◼ Group meetings

◼ Report writing

◼ Process design

◼ Process development

◼ Reaction pathway considerations

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My expectations for the class

◼ Respect must be mutual between all parties (i.e., instructor, teaching

assistant, and the group members).

◼ Constructive feedback on anything related to the project.

◼ Ask questions if you are unsure about something.

❑ Don’t spend 3 days looking for something… we can help.

◼ Good understanding of what consists of plagiarism; if you are

unsure about it, ask your group members, TA, and/or me.

◼ Awareness and understanding that marking/evaluations in a design

project is subjective.

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My expectations for the class

◼ I want to minimize future conversations similar to:

❑ “Why did you remove marks here. The TA said this, and the
professor said this, so we did the analysis like this.”

❑ If a specific item is of high importance, the question should be

finalized an email that includes the TA, professor, and all group
members.

◼ If it’s important, put it in writing.

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What you should expect from me

◼ Willing and available to assist you with course material and

guidance for your group.

❑ Nonetheless, you are expected to have a general

understanding of the core chemical engineering subjects (or at
least you should know where to find this information)

◼ Treat each question or concern seriously and answer to the best of

my ability (i.e., I will let you know if I don’t know).

◼ Respond to emails within 24 hours during the week (longer over the
weekend).

◼ Fairness in evaluations between groups, and individual members.

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Efficient Group Work
Roles

◼ It is crucial to understand that you all bring unique skills to this

project. This diversity will enhance the generation of ideas, but at
times may hinder some progress.

◼ It can often be useful to discuss some of the typical roles in a group

project (e.g., driver, editor, analyzer, simulator, etc.).

◼ There are different tests available online to identify which type of

worker you are (e.g. Personality test, Myers-Briggs test).

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Efficient Group Work
Project Management
◼ There are many tools available to manage the multiple tasks for
large projects.
❑ Gantt Charts, to do lists, online options...
❑ Microsoft Teams (Office 365)

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Efficient Group Work
Cloud Computing and Data Backup

◼ It is now easier than ever before to share work or documents within

a group:
❑ OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
❑ Software that allows multiple users to work at once (e.g., Office
365, Google docs).

◼ There are advantages and disadvantages to these options.

However, the most important thing is to ensure that you have a
backup somewhere for your work.

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Group meetings

◼ You will have weekly meetings of approx. 10 minutes between the

group members and the teaching assistant or instructor.

◼ A list of tutorial tasks will be provided before the tutorial. During the
tutorial, your TA will meet with each of their groups.

❑ Tasks will be posted by the end of the week before the tutorial.

❑ You are expected to be prepared for the meeting by listing any

additional items you wish to discuss.

◼ I will be available during the tutorials and will try to meet with groups
to review the progress.

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Report Writing
Tips for Microsoft Word
◼ Word (and other word processing software) has many tools designed
for report writing and group work.

◼ If starting from a blank document:

❑ Setup levels for desired headers (Chapter 1, Section 1.1, etc.);
❑ Setup tables of contents and lists of figures/tables;
❑ Make use of proper captions and cross referencing within your
text to make things easier in future reports;
❑ Use Styles correctly so that your formatting is consistent;
❑ Use reviewing tools (i.e., track changes, comments) when editing
the work of your team members;

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Report Writing
Tips for Microsoft Word

◼ There are typically three approaches used when working in groups

for combining the work of multiple members into a single document:

❑ Use a single document online that all can access

simultaneously (prone to crash, but this has been improved)

❑ Have minimal formatting before combining into the single

document and then incorporate the previous tips (more time
consuming but sometimes minimizes errors).

❑ Setup a “blank” document with the final report formatting and

everyone uses it correctly so that combining is relatively
straightforward (longer setup, easier when combining,
sometimes prone to errors).

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Report Writing
Reference Management
◼ A lot of time is spent going through a report and making sure
references are correct and that the bibliography is up to date.

◼ Not surprisingly, there are tools to make this easier:

❑ Options within Word
◼ Typically have to manually enter information for each
reference 
❑ Separate software that can be integrated into Word (e.g.,
Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks, Endnote, etc...)

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Report Writing
Reference Management
◼ Zotero is a free software with a straightforward user-interface
([Link]

◼ These software have common features useful for this type of project:
❑ Easily import reference information from the Web;
❑ Plug-in for Word to easily add references/bibliography;
❑ Rapidly change the referencing style;
❑ Sharing files between group members (limits for free version).

◼ Suggestion: setup a single account and share a password

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Process design

◼ The design of a chemical plant requires all of the knowledge (and

even more) that you have acquired so far in your studies.

◼ The heart of chemical engineering is “process engineering.”

◼ The analysis and synthesis skills developed during this course are
one of the main reasons chemical engineering graduates are sought
out to join interdisciplinary design teams.

◼ The goal of this course is to develop your individual and team

design skills.

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Process design – Bloom’s Taxonomy

Introduction to Design [Link] 15

Process development

◼ Chemical processes typically include several development phases:

1. Bench-scale testing for the process chemistry

2. Conceptual design to determine economic and technical

feasibility

3. Pilot-scale testing for issues during process scale-up

4. Preliminary engineering to determine specifications required

during the construction phases and for a thorough economic
evaluation

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Process development

1. Bench-scale development

Obtaining information required to design the manufacturing process,

such as:

❑ General: screening materials for catalytic effects, corrosion and

its products, feed impurity interactions, etc.

❑ Reactors: reaction stoichiometry, equilibrium yield, catalyst

performance (selectivity, activity, lifetime), reaction by-products,
kinetics and products/by-products

❑ Separations: vapor pressures for products/intermediates, VLE

for solvents and trace compounds, capacity and regenerative
properties of absorbents/adsorbents

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Process development

2. Conceptual design
◼ Fundamental decisions must be made about:
❑ Process chemistry,
❑ Potential process alternatives,
❑ Sequencing of unit operations,
❑ Operation mode (batch vs. continuous).
◼ These must be defined prior to the collection of detailed data on
reaction kinetics, generation of by-products, or VLE data for the
required separations.
◼ You should be able to demonstrate favourable process economics
under ideal considerations (e.g., maximum yields/conversion).

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Process development

3. Pilot-scale

◼ Demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of a process at

a scale that is commercially meaningful

◼ Determine key process parameters and evaluate their relationship

with process performance when scaling-up

◼ Confirm laboratory results/studies and establish the impact of

process variables that are difficult to scale-up (e.g., heat and mass
transfer, flow distribution, mixing, etc.)

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Process development

4. Preliminary engineering

◼ Provides a preliminary cost estimate (usually ± 30%) and economic

analysis of the process (capital and operating costs).

◼ Major process units are sized and designed, with some

consideration for piping/valve requirements.

◼ Preliminary piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID) are

completed.

◼ Facility site design (i.e., plant layout)

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Reaction pathway considerations
◼ It is difficult as chemical engineers to select an optimal reaction
pathway, typically studied in a laboratory setting, to design a
commercially viable process. This is a complicated task that
involves many interrelated factors, including some of the following:

1. Availability, purity and cost of raw materials

2. Reaction spontaneity
3. Co-products
4. By-products
5. Reaction path complexity
6. Reaction kinetics and yields
7. Reaction conditions
8. Properties of materials
9. Reaction and purification procedures

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Reaction pathway considerations

1. Availability, purity and cost of raw materials

◼ Raw material costs often dictate the economic viability of processes.

What is profitable now may not have been in the past…

◼ Abundance and supply is considered for the next 10-15 years.

◼ Sensitivity of supply to national and international factors (e.g.,

reduced fossil fuel use, wars, etc.)

◼ Raw material purification can significantly impact process

economics

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Reaction pathway considerations

2. Reaction spontaneity
◼ Technical feasibility of a potential process is highly impacted by the
spontaneity, extent and speed of the reaction.
◼ The Gibbs free energy change (ΔG) must be considered:

G = H − TS
G = cGoC + dGDo − aGoA − bGBo = − R T ln(K )
aA + bB  cC + dD

◼ The reaction is feasible if ΔG < 0 kJ/mol.

❑ If the Gibbs free energy change is ΔG < 40 kJ/mol, the reaction
may still be worth considering.
◼ Reaction rate temperature dependence must then be investigated.

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Reaction pathway considerations

3. Co-products

◼ It is desirable to produce a range of products from a given raw

material to meet future market changes and to diversify the process.

◼ Reaction pathways that produce co-products should be considered.

◼ If multiple products are possible, an optimization can be performed

to maximize profits at a given time.

◼ For example, refineries will produce multiple products (e.g.,

ethylene, propylene, benzene, etc.) from the components distilled
from crude oils.

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Reaction pathway considerations

4. By-products

◼ The yield of by-products should be determined immediately, and an

attempt should be made to identify a potential market.

◼ By-products with little-to-no value create problems as these must be

disposed. Possible conversion reactions should be considered.

◼ By-products generally have to be separated from the desired

products, leading to a larger number of separation units and thus
operating costs.

◼ Recycling can result in an accumulation of by-products, impacting

the process operation and feedstock utilization.

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Reaction pathway considerations

5. Reaction path complexity

◼ In general, simple reaction pathways are preferred.

◼ Many reaction steps in series and/or in parallel can lead to reduced

overall yields for the desired product(s). This may also require
additional reactors, separation units, and changes to stream
operating conditions (T, P, phase)

◼ The overall yield is the product of the yields for individual reactions
in sequence:
n
overall =  i
i =1

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Reaction pathway considerations

6. Reaction kinetics and yields

◼ The yield of the most valuable product should be optimized.

◼ Low yields will require recycle stream downstream of the

separations, increasing operating costs.

◼ The reaction rate (kinetics) must be determined accurately as this

determines the residence time and required size for the reactors.

◼ Heat and mass transfer limitations should be considered.

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Reaction pathway considerations

7. Reaction conditions

◼ Reaction temperature influences the equipment design and the

required heating/cooling.

◼ Pressure impacts the equipment design, vessel size, gas phase

concentrations, and safety considerations.

◼ Material phases influence the material handling in the process.

◼ Selection, handling, regeneration and cost of catalysts.

◼ Solvent costs, separations and purification.

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Reaction pathway considerations

8. Material properties

◼ The physical, chemical, biological, safety and toxicity properties of

all materials involved in the process/reaction can significantly
influence the decision.

◼ MSDS for all components in the process should be found.

◼ The relevant material properties should be determined using the

available resources (e.g., textbooks, online database, simulation
software)

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Reaction pathway considerations

9. Reaction and purification procedures

◼ It is common for chemical engineers to consider alternate reaction

procedures to contact reactants and/or purify the products compared
to the methods used by chemists in a laboratory.

◼ The material phases, order and rate of addition for reactants, or

purification modifications should be considered in consultation with
chemists.

◼ The synthesis of the process flow diagram is an iterative and

optimization process.

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