Chemical Process Economic Evaluations | AIChE

Chemical Process Economic Evaluations

Make crisper, more comprehensive decisions about proposed and ongoing projects in your portfolio with this online course.

This course will prepare you to undertake the kind of thoughtful, quantitative analysis that will guide you through development stages. You’ll learn how to avoid two undesirable outcomes as your projects progress through increasingly costly stages—investing in further development when a positive outcome is unlikely and dropping a project too early that would have significant benefit if successful. You’ll address how to uncover the value proposition, perform heat and material balance calculations and make process design considerations. You’ll also examine how to develop operating costs and margin calculations, size equipment, estimate capital and calculate metrics, such as NPV and IRR from cash flows.  By taking part in example problems, you’ll see how to frame the value proposition, work through the mechanics of determining operating and capital costs and calculate economic metrics. In addition, sensitivity analyses will illustrate how to easily uncover and communicate leveraging issues.

After taking this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand the terminology used in developing the costs of production, capital costs, cash flow analysis and profitability metrics
  • Apply basic principles of process economics to improve design decisions
  • Analyze and compare alternative technologies and scenarios
  • Evaluate early stage projects for technical and business assumptions critical to project success
  • Formulate value propositions based on sound process design
  • Communicate findings in an effective and illustrative way that encompasses the breadth of evaluation
  • Use structured methods to identify customer needs, establish target performance specifications, generate and select product ideas and establish final product specifications

Who Should Attend:

This course is designed for those who are involved in new and ongoing projects, developing value propositions or providing economic evaluations, including:

  • Process engineers
  • Technology development professionals
  • Project engineers
  • Business decisions analysts
  • R&D
  • Plant project managers
  • Business portfolio managers
  • And those providing input to process and project economics

     

Course Outline

  • Lesson 1: Introduction
    • Working with an evaluation client
    • Looking for value opportunities
    • Levels of evaluation
    • Determination of the value of 1% selectivity to global ethylene oxide producers
  • Lesson 2: Process Design
    • Heat and Material Balances
    • Unit Operations
    • Flowsheet Considerations
    • Shortcut Design for your Toolbox
    • Lesson 2 Worked Exercise
    • Lesson 3: Costs of Production and Pricing
    • Variable Costs
    • Fixed Costs
    • Raw Material and Product Pricing
    • Utility Pricing
    • Glossary
  • Lesson 3 Worked Exercise
    • Variable Costs
    • Fixed Costs
    • Raw Material and Product Pricing
    • Utility Pricing
    • Glossary
    • Lesson 3 Worked Exercise
  • Lesson 4: Capital Cost Estimating
    • Scope of ISBL and OSBL
    • Estimate Classification
    • Sources of Estimates
    • Equipment Specifications
    • Working with Estimates
    • Lesson 4 Worked Exercise
  • Lesson 5: Cash Flow Analysis
    • Depreciation and Taxes
    • Working Capital
    • Cash Flows and Metrics
    • Non-Standard Periods
    • Lesson 5 Worked Exercise
  • Lesson 6: Putting it All Together
    • Sensitivity Analysis
    • Dashboards
    • Break Even Plots
    • Tornado Diagrams
    • Evaluations Course Summary
    • Final Exam

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Go to FAQs Page

  • Course ID:
    ELA151
  • Source:
    AIChE
  • Language:
    English
  • Skill Level:
    Intermediate
  • Duration:
    5 hours
  • CEUs:
    0.50
  • PDHs:
    5.00
  • Accrediting Agencies:
    RCEP