University of Cape Town
Department of Chemical Engineering
2026
CHE4072F Presentation Assignment
Introduction
The use of renewables and renewable energy is fast expanding throughout both the
industrial and domestic world. In class we will look at two major industries: cement
manufacture, and steel manufacture. These processes require high temperatures and
release CO2 also via the so-called “process emissions”. However, there are many more
industrial processes which have their own heating (and other power) requirements and
may emit so-called process-CO2. The floor is now given to you to tell us a little bit about
some of these processes and where renewable energy will fit into them in a more
renewable future.
Assignment
Form a group of a total of 3 students (you may CHOOSE your group!) and prepare a
presentation on a selected industry (see list below) to the class. The presentation must
be ca. 15 minutes long and will be followed by 5 minutes of questions.
For the project, you will need to take an existing process flowsheet and modify it to
include renewable energy rather than fossil sourced energy. Your presentation should be
broken down roughly into:
1. A brief introduction
a. What is the material used for?
b. How big is the industry?
c. Does the process operate continuously or batch?
i. For a batch process, how long does each batch take?
d. What is a typical plant size and where are these plants?
2. The current process flowsheet
a. One example of how the process currently done industrially. (Provide a
PFD)
b. Where the energy used in the process?
c. How much energy is used in the process? (Provide table(s) of number(s))
d. What type of energy is used in the process (temperature regimes)?
e. The amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases released in the process
(where and why)
3. A modified process (based on the initial PFD, with modifications) to show how
greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced
a. Based on your groups insight, provide a modified flowsheet which may be
a method for implementing renewable energy in the given industry.
b. How much renewable energy is needed?
i. How will this be provided?
ii. How much can be saved in CO2 emissions?
c. How to deal with intermittence in power supply?
List of industries
1. Waste-water treatment
2. Canning
3. Brewing
4. Paper & Pulp
5. (poly)propylene
6. (poly)ethylene
7. Glass
8. Ceramics
9. Bricks
10. Aluminium
11. Titanium
12. Silicon
13. Chromium
14. Nickel
15. Copper
16. Nitric acid
17. Sulphuric acid
18. Chlor-alkali