HKUST Awarded 3rd place in International Smart Remote Chemical Engineering Experiments Competition

Yubeen CHANG and Mikhail KRESHCHENKO, both from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, supervised by Prof. Tom LUO, achieved 3rd place, along with a cash award of USD 420, in an international chemical engineering competition, named the Smart Remote Chemical Engineering Competition, hosted by Tianjin University. The competition challenges participants in achieving a desired goal under stress and harsh competition conditions.

The competition entailed a remote operation of a distillation column system. In total, 18 teams from universities worldwide took part. Subjected to time, safety, and design constraints (such as installed system interlocks and alarms), a specified product purity and quantity had to be achieved. Such competitions are essential for aspiring chemical engineers, since they provide a taste of real-world plant operation.

Yubeen and Mikhail formed a good team and, applying course knowledge, successfully planned and controlled multiple units of operation at the same time. Several components helped them to achieve that, including but not limited to:

• Applying basic distillation column principles to develop our own prediction of what is “supposed” to happen during the operation. Hence, figuring out the cavities and uncertainties.
• More advanced look at the process revealing the unsteady-state problem solutions and sequence of necessary actions.
• Safety and energy cost considerations, which hugely impacted grading and thus, decision making.