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2006 AIChE Annual Meeting - Short Courses

All short courses are held on Sunday, November 12th unless otherwise noted. Signed certificates of professional development hours will be presented at the conclusion of each course.  Courses will be open to all individuals.

S1:
 
Gravity Sedimentation & Clarification for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Design, Operations, Testing & Scale-up  - CANCELLED
S2: Biorefining: Feedstocks, Processes and Products 
S3: CAPE-OPEN Main Concept and Software Implementation  
S4: Micro and Ultra-Filtration Membranes
S5: Process Development: Necessary Know-how for Managing this Multi-Scale Task  

S1: Gravity Sedimentation & Clarification for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Design, Operations, Testing & Scale-up

CANCELLED

Instructors: Harley Schreiber & Charles Silverblatt

Overview:   This course covers the fundamentals of Gravity Sedimentation & Clarification for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Design, Operations, Testing & Scale-up.  Presentations will include practical information on Clarifiers and Thickeners, Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF), State point Analysis, Solids Contact Clarifiers, and Sedimentation Testing.

Upon Completion of this Course you will:

  • Understand the process functions of Clarifiers and Thickeners as well as methods of coagulation and flocculation used for the most efficient DAF and solids contact clarifier equipment performance.
  • Understand the principles associated with properly sizing, DAF’s, Thickeners and Clarifiers.
  • Have a fundamental understanding of the use of State Point Analysis in the operation and control of secondary clarifiers. 
  • Know the principles of operation and design of Solids Contact Clarifiers.

About the instructors: 
Harley Schreiber graduated from the University of Alberta in 1986 with a B. Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering.   In addition to his plant experience, he has worked for 15 years with WesTech and EIMCO, two leading equipment manufacturers in sedimentation and filtration.  In this time his efforts have been concentrated on the study of sedimentation equipment through a combination of laboratory testing, plant operation, and product management.  His experience also includes involvement in the development of the relatively new sedimentation technologies of Ultra-High Rate and Paste Thickening.  

Charles (Chuck) Silverblatt graduated in 1953 from Northwestern University with a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering.  Throughout his entire career he actively participated in, and managed, the technical development of equipment in the fields of filtration and sedimentation.  Experience has been both domestic and international over most of the period.  He was the co-author of the sedimentation and filtration sections of the Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook. He is currently with WesTech Engineering, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah.

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S2: Biorefining: Feedstocks, Processes and Products

Sunday, November 12, 9:00AM - 12:30PM- $199
AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco
Union Square 21 (Hilton)

Instructors: James Hettenhaus, James D. McMillan and Richard L. Bain

Professional Development Hours: 3.5. Participating in this AIChE short course may qualify as CPC in certain jurisdictions. Attendees will receive a signed Professional Development Hours certificate at the end of the course.

Overview: Biorefineries that convert renewable feedstocks to fuels, chemicals and other value-added products offer many opportunities for applying multi-disciplinary technologies to provide liquid transportation fuels and routes to more economic and sustainable chemicals. Feedstocks are in large supply, and include crop residues like corn stalks and cereal straws that require no more land use.  Energy crops like switchgrass can meet additional industry needs as the market develops. The enabling technologies, their recent improvements, and the commercialization status of this rapidly evolving field will be covered, with ample time for discussion. Course topics will include:

  • Overview of biorefineries
  • Economic, environmental and market drivers
  • Multidisciplinary applications that add value to the supply chain
  • Feedstock supply, sustainable collection and delivered cost
  • Processing routes: Biological, chemical and thermochemical conversions
  • Present commercialization activities
  • Outlook

Who should attend:   All who are interested in sustainable development for the chemical and biofuels industries: chemical, biochemical and process engineers, application development and product engineers, chemists, biochemists, biologists, academic researchers and students.

About the instructors
James Hettenhaus
is the co-founder of Chief Executive Assistance, Inc, a small consulting firm founded in 1993 that specializes in commercializing emerging applications in biotechnology. Since 1997 he has worked with the US Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and private companies to accelerate biomass commercialization to chemicals, fuels and materials.

James D. McMillan is the group manager of Bioprocess R&D and a senior biochemical engineer in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Bioenergy Center where he is a leader in advancing lignocellulose biorefining technology.  Among other related activities, he is co-chair of the annual Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, has co-edited the past five Symposia proceedings volumes and is a past Chair of the AIChE annual topical conference, “Envisioning Biorefineries: Chemicals and Materials from Renewable Resources.”

Richard L. Bain is a Principal Engineer in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Bioenergy Center.  He has extensive experience in the thermal conversion of biomass, municipal wastes, coal, and petroleum. He leads the Biorefinery Analysis Team in the NBC. He is a lead researcher in the area production of transportation fuels via biomass thermochemical conversion; technical advisor to DOE on biomass demonstration projects; and coordinator of NREL efforts managing the DOE Small Modular Biopower Initiative.  He has been a member of the International Energy Agency Biomass Gasification Working Group for 15 years.

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S3: CAPE-OPEN Main Concept and Software Implementation

Sunday, November 12, 9:00am – 5:00pm - $399
AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco
Union Square 5 & 6 (Hilton)

Instructors: Michel Pons and Alain Vacher

Professional Development Hours: 8. Participating in this AIChE short course may qualify as CPC in certain jurisdictions. Attendees will receive a signed Professional Development Hours certificate at the end of the course.

Overview: Usage of simulation and calculation software (commercial, academic or developed in-house) is now common in the process industries. The general evolution of these types of software leads toward the integration of detailed expertise in dedicated applications of relatively small size. The requirement for improved interoperability and easier integration of these applications is increasingly important as the engineer wishes to be able to choose the most reliable and relevant elements according to the issues he/she is working on, and to assemble them to create a tailored process simulator.

CAPE-OPEN is the industry standard that defines rules and interfaces that allow applications or software components to interoperate. The objective of this course is to introduce the main concepts of the CAPE-OPEN standard and to provide software developers with a first insight into how to implement it. The course addresses in particular the specifications common to software objects and domains, as well as the specifications required to access thermodynamic and unit operation calculations.

Who should attend:  This course is particularly relevant for the people involved in software development who wish to make their existing codes comply with the CAPE-OPEN standard, in order to allow them to interact with other applications developed in-house, by universities, by third parties or commercially available.  For educators and researchers who are interested in simulation, this course will help in understanding the fundamental aspects of CAPE-OPEN technologies that constitute the basis of tomorrow’s calculation tools.

About the instructors:

Michel PONS, Chief Technology Officer, CO-LaN
Michel worked for over 20 years at TOTAL oil & gas company, serving in his last position as process simulation manager within the Engineering Division of the chemical branch. He has been involved in CAPE-OPEN activities for the last 10 years on behalf of the TOTAL group and is now working for CO-LaN, the organization supporting the CAPE-OPEN standards. Author of more than 60 publications, recipient of the Recent Achievement Award of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering CAPE Working Party.

Alain VACHER, IT Manager, ProSim
Alain is in charge of software architecture and development and of maintaining ProSim's software at the highest technological level. His competences in the information technology field and his sound understanding of chemical engineering software architecture make him a recognized expert in the European industry.

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Short Course S4: Micro and Ultra-Filtration Membranes

Sunday, November 12, 9:00am – 5:00pm - $399
AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco
Union Square 1 & 2 (Hilton)

Instructors: Scott Yaeger

Professional Development Hours: 8. Participating in this AIChE short course may qualify as CPC in certain jurisdictions. Attendees will receive a signed Professional Development Hours certificate at the end of the course.

Overview:  This Short Course will define and cover General Membrane Filters with focus on Microfiltration, Ultrafiltration, Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis.  Various types of Membrane filters will be explained including Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic, Isotropic, Anisotropic, Asymmetric and Sheet, Hollow Fiber filters.  Polymeric, metallic and ceramic materials and both reinforced and non reinforced Supports will be described.  Applications of Membrane Filtration will be summarized including Microelectronics, Food and Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Medical, Laboratory and others.

Upon Completion of this Course you will understand (1) the differences between the types of Membrane Film Formation: Liquid Phase Inversion, Vapor Phase Inversion, Stretching, Etching, Substitution and Sintering (2) the typical ratings, determination and testing methods for Pore Size and the types of  Pore Structures, e.g. Sponge Like, Web Like, Cylindrical, Sintered, Film (3) important terms and concepts related to filtration membranes such as Retention Efficiency, Sterilizing Grades – the bacterial challenge and log reduction value (LRV), Surface Modifications – Hydrophilicity, Hydrophobicity, Zeta Potential, Ion Exchange and Affinity (4) Retention Mechanisms including Sieve Retention, Inertial Impaction, Adsorption and Cake as well as Flow Rate vs. Pressure Drop  (5) the importance of and relationships between Pore Size, Thickness, Structure, Pore Size Distribution, Fluid Characteristics, Life Cycle, Surface Area and Device Geometry- Dead End / Cross Flow

About the instructor:

Scott Yaeger has 30 years of experience in filtration and separation, the majority of which was in the development, manufacture, sales, marketing and application of membrane filters. He has had experience in virtually all types of membranes, including their application into the Pharmaceutical, Microelectronic, Food & Beverage, Medical, Chemical, Water and Waste Water, Coatings, and Industrial Processes. An author of over 30 papers and presentations at technical conferences, such as the American Filtration and Separation Society, NAMS, ASM, Membrane Technology Conference, World Filtration Congress, etc. He is currently a consultant to filtration and separation manufacturers and users through his company Filtration and Separation Technologies LLC.

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Short Course S5: Process Development: Necessary Know-how for Managing this Multi-Scale Task

Sunday, November 12, 9:00am – 5:00pm - $399
AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco
Union Square 3 & 4 (Hilton)

Instructors: Lionel O'Young

Professional Development Hours: 8. Participating in this AIChE short course may qualify as CPC in certain jurisdictions. Attendees will receive a signed Professional Development Hours certificate at the end of the course.

Overview:  This interactive short course is designed to allow generous amount time for discussion.  The course will examine Product design cases where the product objectives are not available but specification are unknown and Process design cases where product specifications are known but process methods for production are not.  This course demonstrates how this can me achieved using Multiscale Objective-oriented Process Development (MOPD).  Using MOPD, the Process Development problem is viewed using multiple length and time scales and with focus on the key issues in order to achieve an Objective-Oriented Development of Workflow.  MOPD is summarized as:

  • Identify the most important problem to solve
  • Identify the key controlling phenomena
  • Identify the available methodologies for controlling the key phenomena
  • Study the sensitivities
  • Analyze all the feasible options and consequences
  • Select the best move – for objectives with given assumptions
  • Validate the concept
  • Select and plan the next move

Highlights:  The Best Process is the one which results in integration of the overall process.  In the traditional flow diagram, many decisions have to be made and synchronized, to avoid creating a maze.  The better concept from the process engineer’s point of view is the Onion Diagram which from inside out typically consists of: Business layer, Chemistry layer, Reaction/Reactor Layer (Catalyst Design and Kinetic model), Separation layer, Heat Recovery layer and Utility System layer. 

  • Onion Diagram - We will give special attention to the details of the Separation Layer: e.g. Thermodynamics, VLE / Distillation - ideal and nonideal, Absorption, Evaporation, Short Cut Designs and SLE (Solid- Liquid) / Crystallization, the Heat Recovery Layer: e.g. Heat Integration, Pinch Analysis, Grand Composite Curve, Plus & Minus Rule, The Sink-Source Model and The Total Site Model), and the Utility System Layer. 
  • We will also give special attention to the Stages of Process Development and Indentification of Bottlenecks which are a function of the development stage:  e.g. Early Stage / Make or Break, Process Synthesis Stage, Critical economical controlling issues, Process Analysis Stage, Basic Engineering Stage, Detailed Engineering Stage and Operational Stage. 
  • The course will end with a case study and examination of future trends.

Upon Completion of this Course you will understand (1) what that MOPD technology can do for you and why it is needed and, important issues to consider (2) how to employ Process Onion Diagram, and (3) Identification of the Bottleneck techniques with using  various technologies for each layer of Onion diagram and MOPD workflow. 

About the instructor:

Dr. Lionel O'Young is president and co-founder of CWBTech. He was vice president of MCRIC, a research and process development unit of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation in the United States. He has over 15 years of experience in process synthesis and development, which covers petrochemical, fine chemical, and pharmaceutical processes. He holds several patents for various petrochemical processes.

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