By: Prof. Ir. Ts Dr Sharifah Rafidah Wan Alwi
13 July 2023, Skudai – In the global race to mitigate the impact of climate change and limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), in collaboration with industry has challenged its chemical engineering undergraduate students to design a profitable Verbund Petrochemical Complex to transition toward Net Zero Emission (NZE).
“Verbund” is a German term for “integrated to the maximum degree”. The Verbund Plant Design (VPD) Project is an innovation of the UTM Department of Chemical Engineering, headed by the Director, Dr Hajar Alias. The aim of the VPD is to develop the next generation of chemical engineers advancing industrial symbiosis and circular economy, and designers of integrated plants that connect value chains and integrate resources to achieve net zero emissions. The copyrighted VPD project innovation was the recipient of the NALI 2022 (New Academia Learning Innovation 2022) Gold Award.
Unlike a traditional plant design capstone project where students work in small teams to design a single plant, the VPD introduces the Verbund Team that combines several design teams to promote synergistic inter-team collaboration to design the Verbund Petrochemical Complex. The VPD project grooms students to become project managers with skills to coordinate and manage complex, large-scale projects across multiple teams. It is a perfect training ground for students to innovate, collaborate and synergise in order to find solutions to address global grand challenges.
Mr. Rajiv Narang, the Director of the Process Economics Program at S&P Global Commodity Insights and a VPD Industrial Mentor, stated that to achieve decarbonisation, chemical engineers need to take the lead.
The Dean of the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering at UTM, Prof. Dr Rahmat Mohsin, also added that “The Verbund Plant Design Competition represents a significant step forward in our shared mission of creating net zero plant designers.”
The VPD has been organised by UTM since 2021. This year, 168 students joined the competition, with 21 industries from multinational companies involved as mentors, seminar speakers and evaluators. This year, the VPD Competition received Gold Sponsorships from Optimal Systems Engineering Sdn Bhd and Century Bond Bhd.
The Verbund Plant Design Competition was held on July 12 and 13, 2023. During the Award Ceremony, Top Three Best Design Team Presentation, Best Verbund Team Presentation and Best Verbund e-books were announced, along with the nine Best Design Team Presentations from each room.
The Grand Winner of the Best Verbund Team Presentation goes to JnT, Verbund Team 5, led by Prevean a/L Ganapathy and Goh Wee Hong. The other winners in the Best Verbund Team Presentation category include Verbund Team 6 (Runner-Up) and Verbund Team 2 (Third Place). In the Best Design Team Presentation category, Design Team 27 took first place, followed by Design Team 5 and Design Team 20. The Best Verbund ebooks were awarded to Verbund Team 4, 2 and 1. Finally, the Best Design Team Presentations from each room are Design Team 9, 32, 7, 6, 10, 11, 24, 28 and 3.
“We are super proud of our students’ achievement, and we believe they will be the agent of change to transform and revolutionize the industries towards a greener future when they join the workforce.” said the Head of Coordinator, Prof Ir. Ts Dr Sharifah Rafidah Wan Alwi.
Verbund Plant Design Award 2023 Ceremony – Appreciation for Project Managers and Honorable Mention for Most Active Verbund Team Members.