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).
Say hello to the new Beakers Committee for 2026, Biochemical Engineering's Postgrad Society
We're pleased to announce the new committee for UCL Biochemical Engineering's postgraduate society, The Beakers! Left to right: Charlie, Lisa, Camilla, Rita-Yara, Hannah, Evie, and Alex.
07 Aug 2026
RESILIENCE wins Gold Award at Learning Technologies 2025
The RESILIENCE project, established by UCL Biochemical Engineering, was recognised by the Learning Technologies Awards as the best learning technologies project in the public and non-profit sector
29 Jul 2026
New PhD training programme aims to bridge the biomanufacturing scale-up gap
UCL is one of three universities joining with industry to give graduates the skills and knowledge needed to scale up the benefits of engineering biology.
29 Jul 2026
