Teaching “operability” in undergraduate chemical engineering design education

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 courses for a project that is properly defined with variation in operations and model uncertainty. Key topics in operability are operating window, flexibility, reliability, safety, efficiency, operation during transitions, dynamic performance, and monitoring and diagnosis. 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.