Teaching "Operability" in Undergraduate Chemical Engineering Design Education (Presented at ASEE Conference, June 2007, Honolulu)

This paper presents a proposal for increased emphasis on operability in the Chemical Engineering capstone design courses. Operability becomes a natural aspect of the process design course for a project that is properly defined with various scenarios and uncertainty. Key topics in operability are the operating window, flexibility, reliability, safety, efficiency, operation during transitions, dynamic performance, and monitoring and diagnosis. Each is discussed in the paper with process examples and its relationship to prior learning and process design decisions. The key barrier to improved teaching and learning of operability is identified as easily accessed and low cost educational materials, and a proposal is offered to establish a portal open to all educators.