Process Engineering

Process Engineering

Process engineering focuses on the design, operation, control, and optimization of chemical, physical, and biological processes. Process engineering encompasses a vast range of industries, such as chemical, petrochemical, agriculture, mineral processing, advanced material, food, pharmaceutical, software development and biotechnological industries.

 Process engineering involves translating the needs of the customer into typically production facilities that convert "raw materials" into value-added components that are transported to the next stage of the supply chain, typically "packaging engineering".

  Some larger volume processes such as petroleum refining tend to transfer the products into transportation trucks or rail that are then directed to distributors or bulk outlets. The design work of process engineering begins with a "block diagram" showing raw materials and the transformations/unit operations desired. The design work then progresses to a Process flow diagram (PFD) where material flow paths, storage equipment (such as tanks and silos), transformations/Unit Operations such as distillation columns, receiver/head tanks, mixing, separations, pumping.

Accomplishments made in Process Systems Engineering

• Process design: synthesis of energy recovery networks, synthesis of distillation systems, synthesis of reactor networks, hierarchical decomposition flow sheets, superstructure optimization, design multiproduct batch plants. Design of the production reactors for the production of plutonium, design of nuclear submarines.
• Process control: model predictive control, controllability measures, robust control, nonlinear control, statistical process control, process monitoring, thermodynamics-based control