Courses | VD Academic Affairs

Refinery organization, refinery feed stocks and products, crude distillation, cracking and reforming, hydrotreating, alkylation, lubricating oils production, petroleum gases, hydro processing, product blending, environmental constraints on refinery products, term project using actual refinery data to be utilized for typical design calculation on the above operations.

Structure and physical properties of polymers, polymer solutions, analysis and testing of polymers, measurement of molecular weight, types of polymerization reactions, manufacture of polymers, process type of reactors, polymer processing, plastics, elastomers, properties of commercial polymers, thermoplastics and thermosetting resins.

Petroleum chemistry, occurrence, composition of crude oil, distillation, catalytic and thermal cracking, alkylation, hydrogenation, isomerization, polymerization, techniques and economics of the production of basic and intermediate petrochemicals as well as some end products.

Basic process principles, amine processes, carbonate processes, physical absorption methods, new amine-type processes, solid bed sweetening, liquid sweetening, sulfur production, tail gas conditioning.

Refrigeration systems, natural gas preparation and liquefaction, thermodynamic aspects of liquefaction, liquefaction plants, properties of LNG, vaporization losses and custody transfer.

Fundamentals of Rheology, polymer processing unit operations, basic principles of continuum mechanics, descriptive and analytical presentation of non-Newtonian fluid behavior, derive fundamental equations of viscometry, using extrusion as a prototype unit operation for showing how to synthesize design equations, models for other operations

Introduction, mathematical modeling, classification of models, model construction, decision making, linear programming (LP), formulations of LP, graphical solution for two-variable problems, algebraic solutions, the simplex method, sensitivity analysis, advanced topics in linear programming, Applications and case studies.

Introduction, preventing emergencies in the process industry, human error, identification and assessment of hazards, fires and explosions, hazard of plant modification, case studies in Kuwait, miscellaneous topics to be covered by invited lecturers.

Special topics to be selected by the department to address special areas of chemical engineering applications.

Process choice, synthesis and screening of alternatives. Project planning. Safety and environmental issues. Construction of a detailed flowsheet using a process simulator (currently HYSIS). Material and energy balances. Conservation of material and energy flows. Detailed design of equipment: size, construction details, materials of construction, instrumentation and control. Process economics: capital cost estimation, manufacturing cost estimation, profit forecast, return on investment. Sensitivity to errors in cost estimates. Venture analysis: the combined effect of technological and commercial uncertainties, the quantification of risk. Planning investment.

High pressure vessels, cylindrical vessels, spherical vessels, methods of fabrication, materials of construction, reasons for vessel failure, thin tanks, design of closures, tall vertical vessels, self-supported and guyed vessels, flanges, gaskets, pump and compressor selection, heat exchangers.

The student undertakes an independent project (theoretical and/or experimental) under the supervision of a faculty advisor, the objective is to provide the student with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge gained throughout his courses in an actual problem, the student must document his study in a technical report and give an oral presentation.

First order differential equation. Partial differential equations. Laplace transforms. Fourier transform. Separation of variables. Similarity solution. Pertubation analysis. Polynomial approximation. Non-linear regression. Multiple regression. Introduction to neural networks.

This objective of this course is to give students a good grounding in fluidization technology, which is widely employed in the petrochemical and other industry sectors. Topics to be covered include: basics of fluidization; types of fluidized bed (e.g. dense-phase, fast-fluidized beds, three-phase beds, etc.); industrial applications; gas distributors - their importance and design; gas cleaning equipment, e.g. cyclones, bag filters, etc., bubble mechanics; heat and mass transfer; modelling and design.

Background to the food industry, food-processing operations; brief descriptions of relevant food chemistry and microbiology; heat-treatment operations; sterilization and pasteurization (retorting); UHT processing; refrigeration; and a description of food processing sectors relevant to Kuwait (e.g. milling and baking).