Currently, environmental protection and sustainability within the chemical processing and energy industries are of major concerns. The ME3 programme provides a solid basis in chemical and environmental engineering and allows students to address the most pressing environmental problems facing today's world. ME3 students study a diverse range of environmental topics including: Environmental Sustainability Management, Drinking and Waste Water Treatment, Environmental Process Engineering, and Process Simulation and Modeling.
Students can choose between two options: for Option 1 at EMN Nantes a general overview of all up to date eco-technologies is presented whereas at QUB Belfast (Option 2) a semester more oriented to chemical engineering processes is provided.
EMN Nantes is intended to form generalist engineers, thus the environment semester covers a wide range of technologies and enable students to master basic concepts of many processes applied to environment engineering and energy systems (e.g. incineration plants from the furnace up to the treatment of flue gas).
At QUB Belfast, the school of chemical engineering brings students to a more specific approach involving advanced concepts of chemical engineering to master several relevant environmental processes apply to oil and gas industry or to chemistry industry.
This course gives a global vision of the main available processes used in the field of air and industrial gas purification, drinking water and wastewater treatment. It combines both theoretical engineering knowledge and practical know-how (mini-project, industrial case studies). A multi-scale approach is developed including description of mechanisms, conventional models, technology presentation, system design and economic analysis. Students will gain knowledge about legislation regarding pollutant discard, and how to design and/or optimize treatment processes in order to respect pollutant emissions thresholds.
To be able to design gas-solid processes and define adapted industrial technologies for applications related to combustion, solid waste incineration, gasification, solid thermal treatment, catalytic reactions, de-dusting. The course stresses the necessity to take into account the economic criteria, the legal constraints, the environmental impact (control and reduction of pollution, waste minimisation), and the energy costs in order to define an optimal design of processes.
This course aims at giving students the ability to use the most widespread software-tools dedicated to process modelling and control. Basic skills on how to obtain and compile data from static and dynamic systems will be provided using linear methods. The main objective is to enable students to reduce environmental impact and energy consumption of new or existing environmental processes trough both modelling, simulation and advanced control approaches.
To apply technical knowledge, engineering tools for process design and control and to learn to optimize organization of work in a project team. An engineering project dedicated to design, modelling, control of an industrial process applied for solid, air or water treatment, or energy recovery will be realized to complete this course.
The main objectives are : • to provide an overall view of energy and environmental issues on a planetary scale, • to identify the scientific, technical, social, economic, legal and political stakes linked to sustainable management, • to understand the main strategies and the driving forces for innovation in energy and water treatment technologies, • to help the students to identify decision-makers and understand the role of the main actors. At the end of the course, the students will be familiarized with all aspect of environmental, risk and safety management systems and how these are evolving and being implemented by industry.
To make the students able to communicate in French in current life, for job interviews and in professional situations (meetings and working reports). To support their social, cultural and professional integration by a better knowledge of French culture. At the end of the course, students will get a French diploma (TEF, Test d’Evaluation de Français) assessing their language proficiency.
1. Computer implementation of numerical methods Introduction to MATLAB ; Application of MATLAB in analysis and simulation of transient and steady state catalysis, mass and heat transfer processes. 2. Chemical engineering dynamics and systems of partial differential equations Heat transfer coupled to mass transfer and chemical reactions with nonlinear kinetics ; Multi-phase systems connected through heterogeneous reactions or phase-equilibria ; The Navier-Stokes and continuity equations, Introduction to FEMLAB ; _ Solving systems of Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) in 1D, 2D and 3D geometry. 3. Process simulation with Aspen
Part 1 Catalyst synthesis 1.1 Introduction to catalysts as complex nanomaterials 1.2 Preparation of supported catalysts by impregnation and precipitation 1.3 Precise distribution of active components by controlling surface chemical reactions 1.4 Precipitation of zeolites and mesoporous solids using organic templates.
Part 2 Catalyst Case studies Examples of the application of heterogeneous catalysts in clean organic synthesis and in environmental protection will be given, five case studies will be selected from the following list : ammonia synthesis, automotive exhaust three-way catalysts, hydrogen production for fuel cells, catalysis using microporous and mesoporpous solids, selective hydrogenation.
Part 3 ’Engineering for catalysis 3.1 Review of catalytic reactor design, computational methods for reactor analysis 3.2 Catalyst deactivation, design for catalyst deactivation
Part 4 Multiphase reactors 4.1 Introduction, application of multiphase reactors in industry 4.2 Mass transfer in multiphase reactors, reactor types 4.3 Design considerations for multiphase reactors.
Part 5 Advanced reactor design 5.1 Batch Reactors : the isothermal batch reactor ; the non-isothermal batch reactor ; semibatch reactor modelling ; optimal batch operation time. 5.2 Plug Flow Reactors : the continuity, energy and momentum equations ; kinetic analysis of non-isothermal data ; design of tubular reactors with plug flow. 5.3 The Perfectly Mixed Flow Reactor : mass and energy balances ; design for optimum selectivity in complex reactions ; polymerisation reactions
1. Introduction : overview of biotechnology and the general role of microorganisms relevant to the biological processing of substrate biomaterials.
2. Cell Structure and Function : basic microbiology.
3. Bioprocessing of solid waste materials from the Agri-Food Industry : (a) Bioreactor Design in Biotechnology/Bioprocessing ; (b) Laboratory and Scale-up Processing of : (i) marine crustacean shell waste ; (ii) whole eggshell waste ; (iii) hatchery eggshell waste ; all for production of added-value biomaterials including : chitin/chitosan ; collagens ; lysozyme ; and their commercial applications.
4. Biochemical and Bioprocess Engineering : (a) Enzyme Kinetics andImmobilization (b) Metabolism (c) Cell Growth Kinetics (d) Stoichiometry (e) Bioreactor Operation (f) Bioreactor Selection, Scale-up, Operation, and Control
5. Recovery and Purification of Products
Part 1. Waste and Water Treatment 1.1 Historical development of the chemical industry and environmental awareness. 1.2 Major environmental accidents. 1.3 The main issues of waste disposal, recycling, clean technology and waste minimization. 1.4 Solid, liquid and gaseous effluents. 1.5 Treatment technologies. 1.6 Water pre-treatment. 1.7 Unit operations of coagulation, flocculation, filtration and sedimentation. 1.8 Post treatment of waste water : primary, secondary and tertiary treatment.
Part 2. Safety Management
Part 3. Waste Minimisation and Loss Prevention
Part 4. Reedbed Technology
COURSEWORK : Review Process Integration Aspen Simulation of Heat and Mass Balances Costing Process Control Chemical Engineering Design Mechanical Design Site Selection Critical Path Pollution Control Safety