Pacific School of Engineering

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced. In its original sense, nanotechnology refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products.

Distillation is the most widely-used method of separating fluid mixtures on a commercial scale; it is thus an important part of many processes in the oil and chemical industries. The advantages of distillation are high purity products; economies of scale; well-established technology and competitive supply of equipment; use of low temperature, low cost energy; well suited for energy integration into the surrounding process.

A unit operation is a basic step in process industries. Unit operations involve a physical change or chemical transformation such as distillation, fluid transportation, heat and mass transfer, evaporation, extraction, drying, crystallization, filtration, mixing, size separation, crushing and grinding, and conveying.

Process design is the choice and sequencing of units for desired physical and/or chemical transformation of materials. Process design is central to chemical engineering, and it can be considered to be the summit of that field, bringing together all of the field's components.

Process simulation is a model-based representation of chemical, physical, biological, and other technical processes and unit operations in software. Basic prerequisites for the model are chemical and physical properties of pure components and mixtures, of reactions, and of mathematical models which, in combination, allow the calculation of process properties by the software.

Solid-waste management; the collecting, treating, and disposing of solid material that is discarded because it has served its purpose or is no longer useful. Waste management is all about how solid waste can be changed and used as a valuable resource.

Process Heat Transfer is a reference on the design and implementation of industrial heat transfer equipments; heat exchanger, evaporator, boiler, etc.. It provides the background needed to understand used by professional engineers in the design and analysis of heat exchangers and the related equipments.

The students were made familiar with the sweetening process of crude in which sour gas containing significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) are removed through different techniques. The processing sequence of  Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) extraction, fractionation, and treatment to separating ethane, propane, butane, naphtha, ATF, SOK, Diesel, Kerosene, etc were explained.

The term pervaporation is derived from the two steps of the process, permeation through the membrane by the permeate, then its evaporation into the vapor phase. This process is used by a number of industries for several different processes, including purification and analysis, due to its simplicity and in-line nature. The membrane acts as a selective barrier between the two phases: the liquid-phase feed and the vapor-phase permeate. It allows the desired component(s) of the liquid feed to transfer through it by vaporization. Separation of components is based on a difference in transport rate of individual components through the membrane.

Batch processes play a very significant role in the chemical process industry. Because of their great flexibility, they are extensively used in the production of fine and specialty chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Polymers, and bio- products, as well as other products for which efficient and continuous production is not feasible. Thus, batch processes contribute to a significant proportion in the world’s chemical production (especially in value). They are used for liquid phase reaction that requires fairly long reaction time. The batch reactors are used for beverage processes. The increasing technological trends towards the manufacturing of specialty chemicals make the efficient design and operation of batch processes even more important.

The talk covered interactive conversations about various petrochemicals, refining industries. The two most common petrochemical classes are olefins (including ethylene and propylene) and aromatics (including benzene, toluene and xylene isomers). Various process of cracking crude to attain valuable petroleum products was depicted. The students were also provided knowledge about types of distillation used in refining industries.

Modeling and simulation are extremely important tools in chemical Engineering. DWSIM is
an open source chemical process simulator. It features a Graphical User Interface, advanced
thermodynamics calculations, reaction support and petroleum characterization / hypothetical
component generation tools. DWSIM can simulate steady-state, vapor-liquid, vapor-liquidliquid,
solid-liquid and aqueous electrolyte equilibrium processes and has been built in
thermodynamic models and unit operations.

The expert lecture was organized to understand the waste water treatment process. The methods that can be used for the treatment of the water or waste water from the chemical industries was described in brief. 

The expert Prof. William Koshy, form VVP Rajkot was invited for the expert lecture. The lecture was regarding the basic concept of chemical engineering and the importance of mass transfer in chemical industries. The mass transfer operation is very important for chemical reaction to take place. In short, the lecture was very useful to understand the concept of mass transfer and chemical engineering. 

The lecture regarding the Advanced process control was organized to get the brief idea about the various control systems used in the industries. Expert Prof. Vaishali Umrigar, Assistant Prof. from SCET, Surat was invited for the lecture.  In the lecture,  the control systems such PI, PID, PD etc. were explained and their uses in the chemical industries were also given. In short the expert lecture was knowledgeable and worthful.

The expert lecture was organized regarding the basic details about the distillation column. Mr. Bhavin Shah, from Essar Oil Ltd., Jamnagar, deputy manager of the company was invited for the lecture. The operation of distillation column, types of trays, its efficiency all basic details were provided in this session. In short, the lecture was very knowledgeable.