Process Engineering

General information about courses giving importance.

In this course our aim is to focus on general requirements of the basic skills required to work in a process department of an engineering and construction company, and also serving requirements of a design office of a manufacturing unit. When we identify a chemical product using market survey and collecting data on product applications in consumer market as well as starting material requirements of various industries, the commercial prospects can be summarily put down as a proposal. The volume of sales in existing market with some idea about expansion plans gives us the annual production capacity. One can then proceed with a cost based research project when a molecule is prepared in a laboratory. This may be termed as a new product research plan carried out by higher qualified professionals and utilizing available information in open scientific literature using traditional and new methodologies. Once the kinetic data is collected and chemical synthesis of reactions is done to know all elementary reactions involved, we can begin pilot plant studies to analyze all associated problems in developing the process and how to scale-up the unit to a required capacity. This also includes some specific data on separation steps or unit operations involved. Using this process know-how we can begin the plant design work. A plant design work usually is carried out in number of phases. First we identify the process operations in sequence, by-products coming out if any, and then prepare a process block diagram. A latter step will be to use commercial software such as ASPEN which has a large database of physical properties, to perform material balance calculations. Once we know how much material quantity flows and get processed through the plant, the energy balance step can be carried out. The energy balance calculations tell us about us heat duties of various heat exchanger equipments, steam requirements, water (brine, oil as heating media) requirements. The material balance also tells us about un-utilized streams which can be identified as waste streams if not recycled and reprocessed for recovery of some material. Thus we can prepare a summary of emissions of gases/ vapors, liquid and solid wastes coming out of the plant. Thus follows a separate unit for process water treatment, chemical treatment for waste streams before releasing into a canal, and any treatment for solid waste which may later be incinerated. Thus, apart from main plant, supporting plant providing starting material for this plant, and water and electrical utilities, waste processing plant(s), and other units are required to be erected in one plant location, and, a separate process flow diagram and piping & instrumentation diagram has to be prepared for each of these units. This sets an initial dialogue between the vendors and sub-contractors with the parent engineering procurement and construction company and series of P&IDs are prepared and modified during negotiations which are needed to set up the plant and to know and obtain various clearances from Government agencies. Once the land and utilities (water and electricity supply and waste material disposal) problems are settled with these agencies, we can start

working out the basic engineering package. In fact there are two stages of a plant design project as far as process department is concerned, viz. basic engineering and detail engineering. The basic engineering usually involves preparation of detailed material and energy balances, preparation of first version of P&ID, work out the interlock logic, electrical machinery load requirements, pump and compressor hydraulics (process design part for rotating equipments), and, initial sizing/ rating design calculations for process equipments. The detail engineering includes preparation of plant design details as part of interaction with piping engineering department, civil engineering and architecture department, control and instrumentation department (also includes electrical engineering work) and process machinery and plant equipment design department, which may be a part of the process department as a sub-unit. The preparation of supporting data/ specifications sheets / engineering drawings to help prepare bill of material, bill of quantity, isometrics and material take-off etc. for these individual departments requires certain data forms as inputs from process department. In addition to these any additional information required to operate the plant and fight off process related problems and provide technical solutions again as a technical data to modify plant design constitutes the detail engineering work for the process department. Further views will be clear from the syllabus for the process course. So the students may take a note of the fact that process course knowledge is as rewarding or having a slight edge over the opportunities which exist in the piping engineering department of any large scale engineering, procurement and construction company. The total number of jobs for deserving candidates especially those having basic chemical petroleum, and mechanical engineering degree will prove this to be a professional course beneficial to students in terms of job prospects.

Duration & Fees

The duration of a full time process engineering course is about twelve weeks i.e. about two and a half months (May extend for free time & few more sessions). The duration of week end batch is about 6 months (May extend for free time & few more sessions). Course fees are Rs. 30000.00 per student. (Service charges as tax will borne by the students. There will be 12% service tax + 3 % cess on service tax). To confirm admission on first come first serve basis pay some token money or full amount following commencement of batch (es). At least fifty percent fees should be paid in first two weeks and remaining before end of first month. Fees should be paid by Demand Draft drawn in favor of Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune

How to Enroll
The weblink given below helps you to open an entry form to enroll for the course. Once names and other details are given as a probable candidate, course fees must be paid in time to confirm admission. The admissions are currently based on first-come-first-serve basis. The weblink opens an entry form to register i.e. to inform the Chief Coordinator that you are interested in joining current batch. However, only after payment the student can confirm his admission

Click here to fill up the enquiry form

Batches & Commencement

Depending upon minimum number of students enrolling for course, we intend to start -One full-time batch (total duration two and a half months) between 10.30 to 5.30 pm) and -One Saturday/ Sunday week-end (six and a half months) batch for process engineering course. Our minimum strength is ten students and maximum capacity is twenty five students per batches. Forthcoming batch will start tentatively on 3rd November 2008 subject to at least minimum number of students joining the course for either of batches.

FAQs
Basic contents of courses. The course is divided into three parts. In first month, essential three hour modules are conducted covering all pre-requisite knowledge required to work in a typical process department. This also has some available time slots for giving basic training on software such as ASPEN Plus, PRO-II, HTRI, and so on. The focus on engineering drawings and process data / material specification sheets etc. are very important to do professional work in the industrys process department. In second month, the focus is on software training, which includes products such as AUTOCAD, SmartPlant (3D, P&ID), ASPEN, PRO-II, HTRI, gProms etc. In third month, we conduct several small projects which include simulation and preparation of drawings, data sheets using commercial software. At the end, a two day examination is conducted to evaluate

performance of students to know how they have learnt from the course conducted. Who should apply? The process department usually requires chemical engineers (diploma and degree students), engineers from petrochemical stream, in some small numbers mechanical engineering graduates depending upon plant design requirements (e.g. material processing, cement manufacturing plant, etc. where more mechanical operations are done, and less process- specific knowledge is required.) What is different in this course? We train the students as a finishing touch needed to work in an industry department doing first few steps of process plant design. We do not focus on basics covered in undergraduate education, instead focus on engineering drawings such as P&ID, PFD, process data sheets, material specification sheets and so on to learn about project related work in an engineering and construction company. Proposal preparations, costing of equipment, land, etc. are also taught in the courseware. Also how to interact with Government offices and agencies to obtain NOC and other approvals is too included in the course content. Use of ASME, API, IS, ASTM codes is also included in the training. These are some of the important and attractive features of course, why industries should see a close match between their requirements and content of training as it essentially means less need of rigorous training and cost-cutting for them. Software used. Following commercial software products are used in training viz. ASPEN Plus, PRO-II, gProms, HTRI, AUTOCAD, SmartPlant (3D, P&ID). We may add a couple of sessions on Introduction to software products at the end if time permits. Placement. It is usually an unsaid rule that a continuing education department of an educational Institute or Training School designs a course syllabus trains the students which imparts skill set and makes students proficient with basic work involved in industry department and informs several industries about this course. Currently and even before, the general HR practice of industries is to hire experienced professionals (at least 1/2 years experience) and not spend money and lose time in training fresh engineering graduates, although there are EPC companies which hire fresh graduates. However, such requirements cannot be round the year open positions (usually once a year, if needed) and the best recourse or option left for these trained engineers is to approach and contact HR professionals or job recruitment agencies, which are instrumental in negotiating on behalf of their clients / fresh process engineers. These can yield success

much more early and this is an established market known and acceptable to industries. However, a small number may expect some employment through the parent Institute if avenues open up mainly due to software training as a plus.

Maximum capacity of batches. Our maximum capacity for a batch can be up to 25 students with a minimum intake of 10-15 students so that conducting a batch is possible in financial terms. How many batches in a year? Usually a student can expect about five full time batches over an year and a couple of week-end batches (only on Sunday, for working engineers who cannot find time to attend Lecture / practical sessions on Saturday) every year. Special problems given by industry managers. We do have sufficient number of industry professionals and experienced engineers who can come on Saturday and Sunday every week and give training to students. Remaining three days of week we have internal faculty and Teaching Assistants who conduct Quiz, Tutorials, software training (exercises) and small project problems. Course material. We give sufficient Xeroxed material to course students to study at hostel / home and some homework and material to work out problems for giving practice to perfect the art of process design. About updates, upgrades and future. We do take a feedback from students of every batch, some from related industries and keep changing syllabus contents and problems for every batch, whatever is possible. Opportunities abroad. After you can deliver quality work to companies as a professional in that field there are several job recruiters in the country who can find an opportunity abroad. Usually 5-8 years of experience is counted as desirable by these recruiters; however in gulf countries they may entertain with 2-4 years experience. Future plan for courses. We keep updating our database on requirements of engineering drawings, drafting; also about codes used in Industries, etc. We do have plans to buy more software in due course of time (some from Intergraph USA on layouts and drawings and some process / piping related software.)