An important part of the education is the development of the ability of a person to work in team. Many colleges and universities offer project-based courses to provide students with both the opportunities to develop their skills as well as to gain the experience of working in a team. I also had a similar opportunity to work in a team-based project, by the end of which I had much more than the technical learning with me.
Working as a member in a team of five, I had been involved in a project that deals with the process of production of Acrylonitrile (C3H3N). This process, known as the Sohio Process, uses propylene (C3H6), ammonia (NH3) and oxygen (O2), and produces acrylonitrile (C3H3N) and water (H2O) as a by-product. This is the same process that is used for almost all the commercial production of acrylonitrile. It involves the vapor-phase ammoxidation of propylene. Propylene, ammonia and air are fed to a reactor at about 2 atm and 440°C. The reactor absorbs the vapor phase product in an aqueous phase. From the output, crude acrylonitrile is distilled from acetonile and water. HCN is then removed from the acrylonitrile. A final distillation process produces acrylonitrile as a distillate product, which removes the heavy impurities from the bottom. The acetonitrile is recovered by distillation from the wastewater before the treatment.
The whole project went on for duration of about four months. During the project, I was involved at various stages. Apart from the initial research phase, where each of us had a significant contribution, I took charge of the mathematical calculations part. For this, I had used software called Mathcad, which is an engineering calculation software aiding in solving the engineering math problems and simplifies the most complicated, yet the most vital calculations.
The second primary responsibility that I took was that of creating a simulation of chemical processes used in the process. For simulating the processes and the chemical environment, I had used Aspen Hysys software, a world-renowned process modeling system. Simulation of the environment made it easy for the whole team to carry out the rest of the equations involved in the whole chemical process of the formation of Acylonitrile.
Apart from these two, I also took the sole ownership of the mass and energy balances, wherever involved.
Working in this team gave me a good exposure on how to function effectively as a team member, and how every member’s performance moves the whole team forward. I learned that in a team, it is not only about individual performance, but the performance of a member who works as a coordinated member of a team. On the technical front, it gave me a fairly good idea about the use of two industry-leading software, i.e. Mathcad and Aspen Hysys. The experience of working in a team that I gained while working for this project and the satisfaction of being a significant individual contributor to a group are invaluable, and are with me to stay for long.
