Postgraduate - UnitCHE5295 - Control of processes and quality

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering
Organisational Unit	Department of Chemical Engineering
Offered	Clayton Trimester 1 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Professor Gil Garnier

Synopsis

This unit will equip students with the ability to evaluate the influence of process control equipment on biorefinery and pulp and paper processes, to identify requirements for improved performance from control equipment and mill wide systems, to analyse the value of new developments in process control, to evaluate energy and water management systems and their current performance, to critically assess quality control systems being used and to make recommendations for improvement and to design and analyse process trials. We will examine the fundamentals and practical aspects of process control in biomass conversion processes, digital automation systems, millwide control, statistical control, predictive systems and specific equipment and systems used in biorefineries and pulp and paper mills. We will study the evaluation of energy and water utilization and systems for their management , the fundamentals of statistics and their application to process evaluation and trials, and the various aspects of quality control in papermaking.

Outcomes

Learning objectives of this unit are that the student will:

Acquire an increased knowledge and understanding of:

Process control fundamentals
Digital automation systems
Process control instrumentation for pulping and papermaking, and biorefineries
Control of various pulp and papermaking operations
Millwide control
Energy management systems
Systems for water management
Elements of the measurement of paper quality
Process/quality trials and the application of statistics

Develop the skills required to:

Analyse the effects of process control systems on product quality
Assess where improvements are required in process control systems
Observe opportunities for improving process models

Demonstrate the ability to:

Undertake in depth research of the literature on a specific aspect of process control, analyse the information obtained and produce a report which demonstrates understanding and insight
Organise practical experiments, make detailed observations of experiments, analyse the results and produce an accurate and detailed report

Assessment

Assignments and reports: 40%
Test: 10%
Final Examination: 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Karen Hapgood

Workload requirements

28 hours lectures and 8 hours laboratory classes in a one week intensive, 115 hours private study