My vacation work at Sasol consisted of a capacity verification study and optimisation of a C2 splitter. There was an uncertainty as to the maximum throughput that the C2 splitter could handle and what would be the first bottleneck of the system. It was also uncertain as to how well the C2 splitter had been optimised with respect to the distillate and bottoms stream purity.

 

During my vacation work I was able to translate what I had learned in theory at University into practice at the plant. Firstly, it was required of me to familiarise myself with the plant and how it worked. This was done by analysing the plant operating envelope and various drawings such as column drawings and specification sheets, process flow diagrams and piping and instrumentation diagrams. 

 

The capacity verification study and optimisations was performed using Aspen Plus. The C2 splitter system was modelled using Aspen and various sensitivity analyses were run in order to determine the maximum throughput, first bottleneck of the system and to optimise the column with respect to the bottom and distillate product's purities. 

 

The main skills that I gained and improved on during the vacation work include:

​- modelling chemical processes using Aspen Plus

- performing sensitivity analyses using Aspen Plus

- analysing and following various plant drawings

- how to be safe in the plant (fire and gas training)

- written communication (technical report writing)

- verbal communication (presenting findings and recommendations using      Power Point)