Chemical Engineering Capstone Design Project Lists

Group Members: Julia Helter, Betty Liu, Nathan Buckley, Steven Sherman
The purpose of this project is to design and optimize the battery system of an electric vehicle using two battery technologies: a traditional lithium ion battery as the primary power source and a secondary metal air battery for increased range. The design encompasses battery selection, module configuration, battery pack sizing, and control logic design, while meeting standard industry performance targets. The primary goals of the project are to increase the driving range, reduce the battery pack cost and preserve the lifetime of both batteries.

Group Members: Peter VanderMeer, Mahdi Mahdi, Dena Arghastani, Brant Wunderlich 
This project aims to recommend a separation technology for use during the start-up and shutdown of a urea plant at the CF Industries’ Courtright Nitrogen Complex. The separation technology will control the ammonia content in the exhaust gases to below the smell threshold in a period of less than six hours. The design will be simulated using Aspen HYSYS, followed by Gaussian air dispersion modelling of the exhaust gases. Finally, a full Hazard and Operability Study will be performed to assess the underlying safety risks.

Group Members: Muhummad Bajwa, Matthew Ayedemir, Dinesha Ganesaragan, Terell Brown
EXCO Solutions aims to create a software that will allow operating plants to track fouling in their heat exchanger networks and develop optimal cleaning schedules. Our vision is to combine data analytics with state of the art optimization techniques to help eradicate sub-optimal cleaning expenditures; all while minimizing a plant's operating cost and preserving the environment.

Group Members: Kamal Brahmbhatt, Fariha Siddiqui, Gurpreet Chahal, and Garima Dua  
Carbon Dioxide emissions and reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a prime focus for every industry nowadays. The vision behind this project is to optimize the operation in a steam generation and distribution network in a petroleum refinery such that the electricity produced is optimized while lowering the natural gas input into the steam generation system. Consequently, more electricity can be sold to the grid and lowering the amount of fuel gas will result in cost savings and reduced CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. 

Group Members: Eun Suh (Amelia) Kim, Sadi Kiri, Ken Chen, Hassaan Khan
Our Goal with this project is to build a viable connection between two separate industries that are not conventionally related. We expect the results to be economically feasible, and we aim to produce biofuel at a sustainable amount to balance the production costs. This will be achieved by using algae culture by cultivating spent biomass and water from an aquaculture facility. We will create a model using simulation program, SuperPro Designer, which will serve as our primary deliverable for this project. 

Group Members: Avery Drouillard and Peter Curran
Gravitational solid-solid separation is one of the oldest techniques of mechanical separation and classification by size. Current design has focused on the reliability of the mechanical structure and selection is based on laboratory and pilot tests. The project goal is to design a separator based on a newly proposed model. Improved particle separation and energy consumption will be achieved by optimizing various design factors.

Group Members: Camilo Philips-Garcia, Jason Umana-Martinez, Samuel Chung, Andrew Tsz Lok Leung
The project aims to design and analyze a Diluent Recovery Unit (DRU) for Syncrude sands extraction process to be implemented in a new production facility. Currently, naphtha is the diluent of choice and is recovered in the process using distillation. Syncrude has done research regarding the use of pentane as a diluent. Pentane delivers higher performance than naphtha, but the high volatility of the compound poses a design challenge. The economic feasibility of the DRU and diluent preference will be studied.

Group Members: Brandon Harilall and Kristanto Tanusdjaja
Polymer flooding is a maturing technology that is gaining popularity in the oil sands industry due to the increasing difficulty of extracting oil. Through injection of a polymer solution into an oil field, the mobility of the oil increases. Poor operation practices, such as using a high injection rate, needlessly promote mechanical degradation of the polymer. Our objective is to optimize polymer injection rates through simulation to prevent unnecessary degradation of the polymer to further improve existing oil recovery applications. 

Group Members:  Stanley Tse, Harry Look, Mike (Zeyu) Guo, Peony Chan
This project aims to utilize Silk Fibroin (SF) to create a theoretical drug delivery system upon which antibiotics can be released under an extended timeframe. This will be accomplished by simulating the antibiotic release in vitro from the SF drug carrier as well as all associated biological implications. This project will result in a theoretical design of a SF drug carrier, upon which the scientific and medical community can expand to additional drugs such as growth factors and cancer treatments that require well-controlled release profiles.

Group Members: Trevor Williams, Lyliane Uwase, Catherine Chong and Andrew Wenger
The Medusa UV reactor developed by Trojan Technologies® is designed to sterilize cell culture media. The UV lamp in the reactor is susceptible to overheating which reduces the overall performance of the reactor. A process control system will be designed to optimize the reactor performance by maximizing the UV intensity. An empirical model of the UV system will be determined and used to develop a control strategy for the reactor. A final design proposal will be presented to Trojan Technologies® for possible implementation as a marketed product.

Group Members: Hachem Hamadeh, Rajdeep Kaur, Patwant Sandhu
Every year, alcohol-impaired driving results in numerous injuries and deaths. This design project explores designing a polymeric material – poly-2, 5-dimethyl aniline (P25DMA) – to detect ethanol coming off the skin. However, the concentration of transdermal ethanol is relatively low and thus, to improve the sensitivity and selectivity of P25DMA, copper oxide nanoparticles are used as a dopant. Response and recovery times will also be tested to further improve product quality. The ultimate goal of the sensing material is to reduce human activity while under the influence. 

Group Members: Hanmiroo Kim, Jintae Rhee, Pavan Mehta, Suwon(Shelton) Lee
The objective of this project is to design an ammonia production process using petroleum coke as a feedstock. Petroleum coke is a by-product of the refining of heavy crude oil with global production increasing at 4% per year. A computer based simulation using AspenPlus will be used to model the production process through the gasification of petroleum coke, syngas purification, water-gas-shift to produce hydrogen gas and finally the production of ammonia. Once complete an economic analysis will be performed to determine feasibility.

Group Members: Mosopefoluwa Cole, Manuel Tejeda, Emmanuel Ikhile and Basil Khan 
The objective of this project was to significantly reduce the total cost of carbon capture storage by proposing an economically optimal pipeline network in Alberta. The project was motivated by the government of Alberta’s goal to store 33 Mt/yr of CO2 by 2020. The proposed design connects 7 of the highest CO2-emmiting plants in Fort McMurray to a well-characterized reservoir suitable for CO2 storage in central Alberta. 

Group Members: Marina Gong, Farah Jamal, Adriana Ivey
Our project is the development of a new process to extract bitumen from oil sand using microwave heating. The current extraction process in use in Northern Alberta uses large volumes of hot water and produces unmanageable amounts of wastewater, referred to as tailings, which are difficult to treat and pose great risks to the environment. Our process is designed to significantly reduce the water use associated with the current process, with the aid of an organic solvent, naphtha.

Group Members: John Luke Aston, Vera Kazakova, Zack Kedida
We have designed a pilot scale juice pasteurization plant to be featured as a student activity in the Engineering Ideas Clinic. The aim is to build an interactive learning experience that provides students exposure to industrial equipment and allows them to apply concepts they have been taught in various courses including heat and mass transfer, process control and food processing. After initial consultations and data collection are complete, a detailed procurement package for the plant will be provided to the Ideas Clinic.

Group Members: Dominika Kidon, Amrit Kuner, Ashar Siddiqui 
Traditionally the term ‘Renewable Natural Gas’ has referred to the upgrading of methane found in biogas. Now, with growing energy demands and environmental concerns there is talk of converting carbon dioxide found in biogas to methane via a methanation reaction. This project focuses on developing a fully renewable methanation system at a dairy farm. Through review of literature and cost-benefit analyses, the components for this system were selected. Detailed simulations, sizing of equipment and HAZOP analysis of the process were performed in determining the feasibility.

Group Members: Hasnain Jaffer, Sean Jin Keith Pike
This project proposes to design a process that would utilize the landfill gas collected on Walker Environmental Group’s waste management campus as an alternative energy source for leachate treatment. The current process for leachate treatment has environmental and economic drawbacks. Our objective is to compare the current process with the developed model.  This is aimed to be done with the effectiveness and economic analysis of the system in the near future along with the environmental regulations by the Government of Canada.

Group Members:  Stanley Tse, Harry Look, Mike (Zeyu) Guo, Peony Chan
This project aims to utilize Silk Fibroin (SF) to create a theoretical drug delivery system upon which antibiotics can be released under an extended timeframe. This will be accomplished by simulating the antibiotic release in vitro from the SF drug carrier as well as all associated biological implications. This project will result in a theoretical design of a SF drug carrier, upon which the scientific and medical community can expand to additional drugs such as growth factors and cancer treatments that require well-controlled release profiles.

Group Members: Jennifer Coldwell, Sean McCaul, Courtney Chow, Elliot Rodrigues
The objective of this project is to design and develop an energy reduction strategy to be applied to the operation of the Engineering 6 building while maintaining building infrastructure and ergonomics. Energy consumption in buildings is primarily reduced by analysing and modifying existing energy use, as well as designing new systems to offset energy consumption. This strategy may also be used as a resource for future Engineering building construction initiatives.

Group Members: Alexander McKenzie, Gurminder (Reena) Paink, Kendra White
The proposed Sarnia bitumen upgrader will refine diluted bitumen into naphtha, diesel and heavy gas oil (HGO). A key step in this process is hydrotreating, in which the fed hydrocarbons are saturated with hydrogen, and impurities such as nitrogen and sulfur are removed. Our project models an electrolyzer based hydrogen production plant that supplies the required hydrogen to the hydrotreaters while minimizing cost and emissions. Load-shifting using compressed storage is considered, and total cost compared with conventional methods. 

Group Members: Michael Canam, Pulkit Gulati, Munish Raghuwanshi, Alaqian Zafar
Our company is working to create a biodegradable orthopedic implant for children. Typically, when a child severely breaks a bone, a titanium rod is inserted into the bone marrow cavity to set the fracture. Anywhere from three to six months later, this implant needs to be surgically removed. By replacing the normal titanium with a biodegradable polymer, our implant will eliminate the need for the second surgery by simply degrading away throughout the patient’s recovery time. 

Group Members: Alex Maggs, Graeme McMath, Brandon Tieche
The objective of this project is to automate and optimize a chromic acid purification unit currently in operation at an industrial facility. This process will involve an analysis and redesign of the existing piping network, a design of an optimized heat exchange system, and the design of an automated process control system for the purification process. The final design will be able to be implemented at the facility within a short time frame and ensure the purification process performs optimally.

Group Members: Jiyun Ko, Natasha Phidd and Rebecca Skolud

​Current popular methods to desalinate water are very energy consuming leading to a lack of fresh water in many regions where energy costs are high. The objective of this project is to reduce the required energy for this process, by designing a desalination reactor using capacitive deionization (CDI) with graphene based electrodes. Our design uses the parameters of a reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant in Perth, Australia in order to compare the results in terms of efficiency and cost.

Group Members: Gianmarco Ferrari, Dane Moynihan, Megan Paxton
Parmalat is a dairy company with a plant located in Winchester, Ontario that is dealing with waste water quality issues. Specifically, the volume of wastewater and the quality of this water have, in the past, caused Parmalat to take alternative measures in order to complete this treatment process. Our design proposal includes adding a holding tank between the production plant and the treatment plant, installing a dissolved air filtration system and reworking some of the piping in the plant.

Group Members: Zachary Huber, Daniel Rabinovitch and Cameron Deweerd 
The focus is to deliver an affordable package that homeowners can purchase and easily self-install of a solar based step-up water heater. The heater empowers homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint and feel pride in their work.

Group Members: Nathan Molyneaux, Stephen Wei, Nicolo Zambito, Timothy Cumberland
The purpose of this project is to design novel reactors for the production of biodiesel. Carbon emissions are a growing concern in today’s society and biodiesel provides a carbon neutral alternative to fossil fuels. For this heterogeneous reaction, mass transfer constrains biodiesel production; consequently there is a demand for novel reactors that increase phase interaction to maximize throughput. Experimentally, microreactors and static mixers have been shown to achieve this. AutoCAD models and COMSOL simulations will be used to provide insight into improved reactor designs. 

Group members: Sana Shojaie, Amina Qureshi and Kirti Chaturvedi
The focus of our project is to design a continuous solar plant that utilizes the sulfur ammonia thermochemical cycle for production of hydrogen. The design project aims to develop a simulation model, after investigating and analyzing several design variables and perform a cost analysis/sizing of the equipment and the solar field. The project also covers sizing a hydrogen storage system to meet the daily hydrogen demand. The aim is to optimize the cost of hydrogen production from solar energy. 

Group Members: Ken Mathekal, Kacie LeBlanc, Heather Smith, Bradley Buren
The scope of this project involves working with an existing CO2 capture system and modeling it in ASPEN Plus. Simulations in this software under various conditions are utilized to determine optimal equipment and design conditions such that overall energy consumption is minimized. Furthermore, peak energy of the system will be evaluated and the behaviour of the process will be examined and adjusted to verify its functionality under these conditions.

Group Members: Priyanka Kaul, Queen Soga, Roberto Novielli, Saad Ahmed
This project aims to design an efficient and economically feasible control technology that can be used to eliminate contaminants from air. A bio-filtration unit was designed to remove 90% of the contaminants it processes. The approach taken involved equipment design, construction of the bio-filtration unit and process simulation modelling of the bio-filter. The prototype will be beneficial to the Chemical Engineering faculty since it has the potential to be integrated into the laboratory curriculum.

Group Members: Kiran Shoib and Leah Kristufek
The aim of this project is to design a heat exchanger for use in a novel nuclear reactor design called the Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) with an 80 MWth capacity. The IMSR’s unique design requires an incredibly compact heat exchanger, so the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE)—capable of providing the same heat duty as a heat exchanger 4 times its size—is chosen.  The design is achieved using computational fluid dynamics in ANSYS and theoretical principles; corrosion, fouling, and economic analysis are considered.

The company Harvest Power is currently making use of a petroleum/metal based flocculant in their wastewater treatment for their biogas production process.Unfortunately, the wastewater cannot be recycled due to the presence of undesirable volatile components. Our team has teamed up with Ecosynthetix to test the coagulation capabilities of their EcoSphere binding product. Ecosphere is biodegradable and, if proven successful, can save Harvest Power money by allowing the recycle of their wastewater stream back into the process and use of their sludge as an agricultural fertilizer. 

Group Members: Verena Channa Potter, Alice Van Ngo, Tori Roy
This group aims to design and build a liquid soap production pilot plant for the Engineering IDEAs Clinic as an innovative teaching tool. To prepare students for the workplace, this process plant will supplement Chemical Engineering courses (e.g. Fluid Dynamics, Heat & Mass Transfer, Process Control). Students will gain valuable hands-on experience with process engineering with this reconfigurable, working, pilot-scale process plant. With designed-in flexibility, the potential exists to expand the process as ideas for its educational use emerge in future years. 

Group Members: Matthew Warren, Chu Yin (Holly) Huang, Sheryl Peters, Zhengkai (Numbers) Tu
Every year, the health of over 500 000 people is affected by the illegal burning of peatland in Indonesia. Uncontrolled burning releases enormous amounts of haze, but gasifying peatland holds the potential for commercial power and chemicals. Our solution consists of a preliminary design package and evaluation of scalability for a gasification pilot plant that produces electricity and methanol. A business canvas will outline opportunities for profitability and innovation as we take this first step in solving Indonesia’s haze crisis.

Group Members: Andras Szucs, Evan Skwara, Jacob Zolnierowicz, Liubou Yudasina
The purpose of this project is to design a scale-up of an existing CSTR process of human gut microbiota production. The motivation behind the selection of this project is to facilitate the creation of artificial gut microbiota to treat a number of gastro-intestinal human diseases and other forms of pathology. The benefit of this project would be the ability to produce a large amount of microbes on demand. This project will also contribute to the understanding of the production of artificial human gut microbiota.

Group Members: Keith Wong, Logan Carrigan, Afsanul Khan, Andrew Shirtliff
Urban agriculture has the potential to greatly increase productive space, and reduce water and energy use in cities. A rooftop greenhouse offers heating cost savings for itself and the building below. This project's objective is to model the dynamics of a greenhouse to maximize profitability. Principles of heat and mass transfer, water systems, and biological systems were investigated to select an ideal design for strawberry production. The strawberry was selected for its revenue potential, and its poor shipping attributes which is synergetic with urban agriculture. 

Group Members: Hamza Ameer Muhammad, (Thomas) Chuanren Yan, Shamim Imtiaz, Saïd 
Our aim is to design a Li-S battery pack for automotive applications. The objective of our design is to replace the current Li ion battery for Tesla Model S to achieve better performance of the energy system. Our new battery will allow for: higher drive range, improved efficiency, lighter battery pack and lower cost of the car. This technology is a huge step in the field of vehicle electrification and pave the way towards a greener future.

Group Members: Philip Gamboa, Shant Nepal, Eugene Um and Clara (Yufan) Yuan
Our project consists of synthesizing polyacrylamide hydrogels and analyzing their applicability in separating oil/water mixtures. The objectives of our project are to determine the optimal monomer concentration and support mesh size that will result in best separation performance. Our project also involves the use of materials such as coffee grinds and rice straw to enhance separation. The final product will consist of a model to explain the physical phenomenon involved in the separation process and conclusions about the feasibility of hydrogels for this purpose.

Project Description
This project stems from an increased awareness towards global warming and the impacts of air pollution. Stringent government regulations have increased the demand for oil with lower sulfur content, pressuring oil refineries to give a higher quality product at sustainable profit margins. The objective of this project is to retrofit an existing sulfur recovery unit to increase its refining efficiency and introduce countermeasures to reduce its offsets and shutdowns. 

Group Members: Jennifer Fong, Francesca Maiocco, Krislea Meevis, Melissa Ferguson
Engineering teams provide excellent learning opportunities for students to acquire hands-on knowledge in their desired field. There are, however, few opportunities designed specifically for chemical engineering students. Beer brewing is a chemical engineering process that has wide appeal for a number of students in the university community. The goal of our project is to design and implement an on-campus brewery as an educational centre. The intent is to inform students on brewing and to provide a chance for students to creatively impact an engineering process.