Runzhang Qi wins PSE Process Design Award 2019

In the 4th year Design Project MEng design, students were asked to work in teams to consider the design and simulation of a process for the production of cumene, and then to individually design one of the units. In his design project, Runzhang developed a dynamic model in gPROMS for the benzene recycle distillation column of the cumene production plant. 

The developed mathematical model included mass & energy balances and detailed thermodynamics for describing vapour-liquid equilibria. He performed a comprehensive sensitivity analysis study and a perturbation study to evaluate the effect of potential disturbances (particularly in the feed specification) on the column operation. Finally, he optimised the design of the column considering both operating and capital costs.  

The award was presented by PSE’s Costas Pantelides (Managing Director) and Mark Matzopoulos (Marketing Director and Deputy MD).