ChE Process Design and Optimization
Dr. Mark Worden
Class Instructor and
Professor of Chemical
Engineering
Austin Rodriguez
Ph.D. Student and
Teaching Assistant of
Chemical Engineering
Course Description
The Chemical Engineering Program’s capstone design sequence includes Process Design and Optimization I and II (433 and 434, respectively). In these courses, students integrate content from earlier courses to solve complex, open-ended design problems. As the students progress through CHE 433, completion of their assignments requires increasingly more effort, initiative, knowledge and individual responsibility. In CHE 434, students typically design an entire commercial-scale chemical plant and perform detailed economic analyses to assess and optimize the plant’s profitability.
For over 50 years, MSU’s CHE 434 students have worked intensively for one to two months solving the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE) Student Design Competition problems, which vary from year to year. CHE 434 uses these realistic, industry-based problems to enhance chemical engineering students’ capstone design experience in three ways: 1) the AIChE problems provide real-world, open-ended design experiences typical of what students are likely to face after graduation; 2) the AIChE problems require students to do self- directed, active learning, including project-specific independent research, to solve the problem; and 3) the AIChE problems serve as a national benchmark for MSU’s chemical engineering students to demonstrate excellence in their professional skills.
As the Chemical Engineering program’s contribution to the College of Engineering’s Design Day, several CHE 434 students typically present posters describing their solutions to the current year’s AIChE Student Design Competition problem. Names and pictures of this year’s presenters are provided at the end of this article.
2025 Design Competition Problem: “Blue Hydrogen”
The “Blue Hydrogen” chemical process designed in this year’s AIChE Student Design Competition problem involves converting natural gas into hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. The H2 can either serve as a fuel that produces no greenhouse gas or a reactant to produce value-added chemicals or fuels. The term “Blue Hydrogen” refers to H2 that is produced from a fossil fuel (e.g., natural gas) by a process that captures the CO2, rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. Thus, a Blue-Hydrogen production process combines the advantages of using an inexpensive and abundant fossil fuel (natural gas), with the low greenhouse-gas emission profile of a “green” chemical process.
This year’s AIChE problem addresses this issue by using excess electrical energy to generate fuel gases, such as hydrogen (H2) and methane (CH4), which can be compressed and stored cost-effectively for use whenever needed. A simplified flow diagram for the Power to Gas process is shown in Fig. 1. Excess electricity would first be used to split water into H2 and O2 gases, and then the H2 would be reacted with the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce CH4. The CO2 consumed would be derived from a waste-gas stream that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. That way, the Power to Gas process would be carbon neutral.
A simplified flow diagram for the Blue Hydrogen process is shown in Fig. 1. Natural gas is delivered into Reactor 1, where a portion of it is burned in a combustion chamber to heat the remainder of the natural gas enough for it to be catalytically converted into synthesis gas, which is a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO), H2, CO2, and water (H2O). In the second reactor, the CO and H2O are catalytically converted into H2 and CO2. The CO2 generated in these reactions is recovered by dissolving it into a water-based solution in an absorber column. That solution is then heated with steam in a second column to strip the CO2 out of the solution. The resulting, nearly pure, CO2 gas is captured, compressed, and either used for some commercial purpose (e.g., hydroponic plant growth) or injected as a supercritical fluid deep into the earth for long-term storage.
After CHE 434 students have optimized their processes, they prepare professional-quality written reports up to 50 pages long. These reports include details of the manufacturing plant’s equipment, operating conditions, personnel needs, capital investment, fixed costs, capital costs, and a detailed economic analysis. The reports are graded based on both their technical quality and their communication effectiveness. Because decisions on major capital investments (e.g., whether to build a new chemical plant) are made by stakeholders having diverse academic backgrounds, the reports are expected to be understood by a wide range of audiences.
National Award in 2024
AIChE Design Competition
Since 1968, MSU has had the best record nationally for winning awards in the AIChE Student Design Competition, and the AlChE national win streak continued in 2024. MSU chemical engineering senior Lauren Petrie received first place in the individual category for designing “Power-to-Gas” process that uses a renewable source of electricity to power conversion of waste CO2 into a gaseous fuel.
In 2024, MSU also won an Outstanding AIChE Student Chapter Award, which is given to student chapters based on exceptional participation, enthusiasm, program quality, professionalism, and involvement in the university and community. Co-Presidents Walter Kretzer and Ryan Stearns accepted the award on behalf of MSU’s Chapter.
Student Poster Presenters on Design Day
The nature of Chemical Engineering students’ capstone design experience is not compatible with small-scale, hands-on models for Design-Day demonstrations. Chemical Engineering seniors’ Design-Day contribution consists of presenting a lay-level poster of their solution to the AIChE Design Competition problem and discussing with prospective students, current students, parents, and others the nature and advantages of careers in Chemical Engineering. Pictures of some of this year’s presenters are shown below. Presenters of team solutions are Jessica Smith (left) and Katie Hector (right) for Team 1, and Joshua Aylward (left) and Tyson Humphries (right) for Team 2. Presenters of individual solutions include Lindsey Piper and Weeam Guetari.
