Video summary
Professor Sanjay Mahajani introduces this course as a critical culmination of the chemical engineering curriculum, where students apply theoretical knowledge from core subjects like heat and mass transfer, reaction engineering, and process control to real-world design problems. He emphasizes that while previous courses may have covered fundamental concepts, this project serves as both a final assessment and a last opportunity for those who missed earlier details to solidify their understanding. From an industry perspective, the course mirrors actual professional practices where massive investments, often running into thousands of crores, are made based on rigorous feasibility reports rather than simple theoretical exercises. The speaker highlights that successful chemical projects involve three key entities: the manufacturer seeking production capacity, a technology licensor providing the necessary processes, and an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) company executing the build, all interacting within a timeline typically spanning one to three years before reaching steady-state operation.
The project workflow begins with ideation or concept generation, followed by essential preliminary evaluations of market demand, available technology, and environmental impact. Although students are provided with specific chemicals for their projects, they must still critically assess whether these products have viable markets in India versus global export opportunities or if surplus raw materials like benzene can be effectively utilized at various sites such as Sri Lanka or Bangladesh. A crucial lesson Mahajani imparts is that simulations and detailed calculations are merely tools to support decision-making rather than the end goal; students often mistakenly believe a project succeeds solely because their simulation numbers look good, whereas true feasibility requires balancing economic viability with environmental constraints and realistic process selection among multiple possible reaction routes.
As the design progresses from preliminary estimates to detailed engineering, the focus shifts to accurate cost estimation involving equipment dimensions, instrumentation, utilities, overheads, and production costs. Mahajani clarifies that in industry, these calculations are typically performed by EPC companies or specialized teams within large manufacturers rather than a single individual, though students should understand both perspectives depending on project scale. He warns against making arbitrary assumptions without theoretical backing, such as guessing reaction kinetics or vapor-liquid equilibrium data for unknown compounds; instead, engineers must use established methods like UNIFAC or UNIQUAC to derive necessary parameters sensibly. Ultimately, the course aims to transform students into complete chemical engineers by pushing them beyond minimum requirements to explore open-ended projects with maximum depth and breadth, ensuring they are prepared for the complexities of real-world industrial applications where assumptions must be grounded in scientific understanding rather than convenience.
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We have Professor Sanjay Mahajani.
Uh he's going to uh talk about very
important things and some of the things
uh I have not covered. He's going to
talk about it.
Um I'm going to invite uh Professor
Sanjay Mahajani.
Uh
So I think the overall structure of this
course, what exactly you're supposed to
do and everything is very well explained
by Professor Kannan. I'll just take
10-15 minutes.
Uh by now you realize it's not that very
easy course, right? Straightforward.
Why why are you laughing?
See what one project, six students, huh?
So much. So and and we have so many
faculty members supporting you. We're
getting external experts and all.
So you should do good job. So what what
what was done there, right? It's the
minimum that you're expecting, okay? And
we're expecting you to do something more
than that, then only you'll get S grade.
Okay.
All right. So uh
So as Professor Kannan said, like uh
it's a culmination course, right? That
means whatever you have learned so far,
you're going to actually apply. Apply
not in a physical sense, but at least on
a paper, okay? So whatever you have
learned, okay, in your core courses like
heat mass transfer, reaction
engineering, process control,
everything. You will be actually
applying it for a particular problem,
okay? A design project, right? So it's a
good chance if you miss anything
earlier, um
probably the last chance to learn again,
okay? And
as Professor Kannan said, uh
you may start liking chemical
engineering after this, okay? Probably
it's too late, but
uh
Still
not bad, okay? So uh
what I'm going to tell you, of course,
the importance of this course is
something that uh
uh
like already said that it's related to
what you learn. But I'm going to tell
you uh
from the point of uh
you of somebody working in industry,
okay? Now, how this particular project
will be useful there, okay? And
whether we do something similar in
industry, right?
So, when you say about chemical
projects, now we're talking about the
production of a particular chemical for
certain capacity, right?
And uh so, there are many chemical
plants, okay? And uh there are many
chemicals being produced, right? And
most of the times, the investments done
are very, very huge, right? Not not in
order of lakhs, not even few crores,
right? Most of times of the order of say
what? 25 crores onwards all the way up
to
all the way up to
10,000. 10,000 is too large for a mega
project like refinery and all, but for a
chemical project can be as high as
3,000, 4,000 crores, okay? So, it's a
huge amount that somebody is investing.
And what's the basis for that? The basis
is this, right? Basis is this report,
okay? So, you understand the importance
of this, right? So, generally the
chemical projects, they are implemented.
Now, who will like to produce chemical?
So, there are three entities, I keep
telling this, okay? A manufacturer,
right? So, a manufacturer, any example?
I know what you're going to say.
Somebody said it already.
Producer?
I want to produce a chemical. Any
producer you know?
Reliance, yeah.
Right? A chemical producer?
Say Reliance, right?
A petrochemical company, right?
So, would Reliance have a technology
with it?
It won't have, right? So, there is a
technology licenser, right? So, there is
this licenser.
So, it's probably a repetition for some
of you, but this is a class fourth year
and third year combination.
And it's it's repetition is all right,
okay? Anyway, there are many things
you're going to get repeated in the
design project, okay? So, this is again
a revision of what we have done.
So, license the technology that you're
going to use and implement it. Is that
all? These two entities can
implement a chemical project?
You need EPC company, right? You need
EPC company.
So, these are the three main players.
They will interact with each other and
do a chemical project. So, when I say
chemical project, like it is when you
have some idea and you actually build a
plant and start commissioning it. So,
this is a period. It can be 1 year, it
can be 2 years, it can be 3 years also.
But beyond 3 years, not desirable,
right? So, in this particular period,
you do many activities, okay? It's like
plane taking off, no? And then, once you
go at a particular height, you achieve
steady state, start manufacturing, start
minting money, right? But till then,
whatever you do is very, very crucial,
right?
And the design project or preparing the
design report
is is a is a very important part of it,
right?
So,
so, it all starts with So, what are the
activities in project management? Some
of them we revised yesterday in the
management course also. Start with
ideation, right? Start with a concept
that I
I as a manufacturer I as a manufacturer
I may think I want to produce styrene,
okay? Right? I don't have styrene plant
my in
in my manufacturing complex. Okay?
There's no styrene
producer in India, right?
What making styrene? The the of making
money out of it. This is one idea. This
is where the project starts. Okay?
Right? And I means
I means who?
The producer.
Right?
Of course, there's a team, right?
There's a business development team in
Reliance, okay? Which may think about
it, right?
So,
once that idea is generated, right? So,
that's the first step.
That's the first step.
The conception. Hm?
Right? And once that idea is generated,
what do you need to look for?
Huh?
What next?
Market.
Very good. What next?
Huh?
Done?
Good.
There are three things that you need to
do first, okay? That whether there is a
market for the chemical that I'm
producing or I'm I'm thinking of
producing, right? And third third very
important thing is the technology.
And this is See, the project that you're
going to do, you're going to follow
these steps.
Okay? Right? For you, the ideation has
already been done.
Right?
You're already given your chemical.
Okay?
You're lucky. Huh? You don't need to
ideate, right?
But it's it's better you see whether the
chemical given by us worth producing or
not.
Okay?
Is there a market or not?
Right? Is there technology good
technology or not? Now, what's the
meaning of good technology? Cost
effective and as Professor Kandan said,
and probably Yogendra will repeat or
other emphasize it, that whether it's
environment friendly or not, right? All
these things you're going to see, right?
And of course, the market. And Professor
Rahul will tell you how to search for
market. Like chemicals,
whether we are importing it or not,
okay? Or there's a surplus production
happening in India. Certain chemicals
are producing
on a very large scale, okay? And we're
exporting it, right?
So,
so these are three important steps. And
again, part just before first stage
evaluation we'll be doing all these
things, right?
And what comes later, no?
Is a preliminary feasibility report that
you prepare, okay? So, start doing some
economic calculations, okay? Because you
have some technology available, right?
Start
writing down numbers and so on. And
there is something that you've done as a
part of economics course, right?
Calculate the
production cost, revenue, right? Profit
and so on.
I've been working with numbers, you may
get some attractive
figure at the end of the day that your
payback period is of the order of a few
minutes, right?
Possible, okay? But then you have to go
back and check whether we had the
calculations are correct or not. And
that's why need to do detailed
calculations,
right? And now what follows is very
important. And
now you have to look at
the technologies, you take a deep dive
into it, right? Understand the
technologies very well. Now, producing
phenol,
you can make it from benzene, you can
make it from toluene, you can make it
from chlorobenzene. There's so many
possible routes, right? You have to
identify particular route,
right?
And see whether what which one of them
is good or not. And what is the
consultant said? The selection, okay,
the process selection, the route
selection is important part. You may do
some preliminary calculations for all
the routes and finally say that fine,
this is the best one.
Okay, there's no hurry.
No need to really rush and take a
decision and start doing simulations.
Don't do that. Be realistic. Okay? See,
I've seen most of the times, no, student
gives so much importance important
They give so much importance to
simulations that if the simulations are
working well, you're getting some
numbers, you think that your project is
over.
That That's not the case. Okay? At the
end of it, what is important is that
you're going to tell us the economic
feasibility and now, of course, the
environment feasibility, also, of the
project that you're going to do.
Right?
So So, only simulations Simulation's
only a tool. Take it. Okay? Of course,
you should do it. You should master that
tool. But, at the same time, make sure
that that's not the end of it. Okay?
Right?
So,
you may do some preliminary
calculations. The design codes you
learned already
how to do linear balances, come up with
the quick estimates, and so on. Right?
If required, you can do it for multiple
routes and select one of them. You'll
appreciate that. Okay?
Right?
Site selection It comes much later.
But, yeah, by now you know what raw
materials you're using. Okay? Whether
you have surplus raw material Benzene is
surplus in India. Can we make something
out of benzene? So, another If my raw
material is benzene, can I put a plant
in India? Oh, you have a choice. You can
put a plant in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.
Very well. Right?
So, site selection is also very crucial.
You know, your economics depends on
that. Right? Your market depends on
that.
And this is where now detailed economics
comes in picture. And while doing this,
your project will come handy. When I say
detailed Detailed economics means what?
Now, of course, economics is very easy,
like Okay, just few formulae that you
have to deal with. Okay? But, it's very
important how we deal with them. Right?
So, on one side, your project cost. On
the other side, your production cost.
Right? Project cost would include
equipment, it would include
instrumentation, it would include
electrical part of it, and there are
additional cost also, overheads and
other things, right?
So, that is project cost. Now, how will
you calculate this?
Now, as Professor Kannan said, there
might be some data available in
literature, somebody has done it in US,
okay, in what, 2000, right? And the cost
was so much, right? Then apply some
factors and try and get this. This is
one way to do it, and that's I would say
a preliminary calculation.
But, then if you want to get the exact
estimate, you have to do a design,
right? You have to actually work out the
dimensions of the reactor, distillation
column, pumps, compressors, everything.
And then get the cost for each and every
item and see whether
your cost that you only earlier
predicted is somehow close to what
you're determining, okay, by actually
doing the calculation. That's what
detailed cost estimation is.
And in a design project, you're supposed
to do that. We'll appreciate it more as
much depth you go in and as much breadth
also you cover, okay, because this is
this is an open-ended project. Of
course, we have given you a well-
structured program.
You can even go faster, okay? There's no
harm in it, right? You can do something
more than what we have told you, right?
So, as Professor Kannan said, like if
you're asking you to design do a
detailed design of one piece of
equipment, why not all, okay? It's
possible, okay?
Right?
So, this is what is done. And after
this, your report is ready, okay? And
this is where like this So, by the way,
I didn't tell you the roles of this,
okay?
So, now,
the this is this is a licensing company
which will give the license to
the manufacturer. By the way,
manufacturer and EPC together would
decide, okay, whether this license is
good for for me or not, okay? So, I have
to do some calculations like what you're
going to do in the design project,
right? And and then, if I find this
promising, I'll have several meetings
with licenser. If I find this promising,
then I decide to go ahead, okay, and
actually buy the license. Right? So,
that's the procedure.
So, all these calculations that you're
going to do in a design project, who
does those calculations? Licenser does
those calculations?
No, then?
Who does those calculations?
Huh?
The The producer would do those
calculations.
Huh? Let's go to the owner.
Who Who does those calculations?
Producer?
Me? I Not a single person. Come on, man.
Get it right.
Huh? Who going to get the calculations?
Guess the right answer.
Huh?
You didn't get the question?
Huh?
Is it detailed economic feasibility
report? Who does this?
EPC company, you know, so
straightforward. Huh?
So,
not necessarily the EPC company would do
it, okay? At same time, if you're a
manufacturer,
if you are other manufacturers to
actually deal with the EPC company, then
on one side, manufacturer will also have
a team
working on it simultaneously, right?
Okay? And
both of them would do this exercise if
the project is very large.
Right? For smaller projects, and if
there are limitations at the producer's
side, entire contract is given to EPC to
do those calculations. Try and
understand design project, okay? How it
is implemented, who does this in
industry, right? As I said, like while
doing a design project, feel like you
feel like you're in the industry, okay?
Because most of the courses and there's
understanding of theoretical concept,
but now you're applying them as if
you're working in industry. Okay?
Right?
And after this, now
you've taken a decision whether to go or
no, right? Then you have to do all these
things at the ground level, okay? Now,
this is part of the project which is not
really
part of our design project. This is
something
when you're actually going from concept
to commissioning, right? So, whatever
there in the red,
okay?
Is is something that is supposed to do
as a part of design project. So, this is
the context I wanted to give it to you,
okay? Now, coming back to doing this
project, the most of the things I
already told you, but again, I expect
that not just
do the things that are told you and
think that you're done a great job,
okay? Every project is open-ended
project.
There's so much depth into it. There's
so much breadth, okay? So, you have to
cover that and there's a lot of
expectations. As I said before,
you're providing all the support to you.
And of course, economics and there are
many
There's a possibility that you may need
to make many assumptions,
right?
And but then again, assumptions also you
have to do them
sensibly in the sense that you apply
some understanding, theoretical
concepts, right? You can't just say I
don't have kinetics available. I assume
volume to be 1 m³ and go ahead, okay?
Can't do that, right? Okay? So, somehow
you have to come up with something
similar, some side some other reaction
that's happening, similar catalyst or so
on. It's about kinetics. Vapor liquid
equilibrium is also same, a compound
which is not listed in library. There
ways to do that, like you can use
UNIFAC, UNIQUAC, and so on, right?
So,
So, how to do assumptions is also very
important you learn in this particular
course. So, overall,
I'll repeat what Professor Ganan said,
"It's a very exciting course
and do maximum, okay? So, that you
become a complete chemical engineer.
Because unless you do a design project,
you're not a chemical engineer, okay?
Right? Whether you want it or you don't
want it.
All right. So, all the fielding is set
for you, okay? And you have to just do
uh you have to bowl at a right spot.
That's it.
Thanks.