2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Design of modular or mobile plants that can be rapidly deployed to field sites represents an emerging challenge in the chemical engineering discipline. With support from the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute, multidisciplinary student teams at our institution tackled the design of mobile processing plants to address issues pertaining to food and agricultural waste. Five mobile plants were designed to fit into standard shipping containers: 1) a milk pasteurization plant, 2) a waste apple processing plant, 3) a cannabis waste processing plant, 4) a mobile utilities plant, and 5) a mobile packaging plant. Students from chemical engineering and other engineering disciplines collaborated on design of synergistic, mobile plants that can be deployed throughout the state or the country to reduce waste of crops or dairy products. Undergraduate students participated in the project either as part of their normal senior capstone design experience or as semester-long research interns.

Students investigated the technical feasibility of mobile processing plants, gauged the capacities of raw materials they may be able to handle, and estimated the consumption of resources during processing. All mobile processing plants were designed to fit inside shipping containers measuring (15 x 3 x 3.3) meters. Two undergraduate researchers from chemical engineering used process simulation software to model processing of milk, apples, and cannabis waste in order to size process equipment. Nineteen capstone design students from mechanical, electrical, industrial, and computer & systems engineering designed the utilities and packaging plants, prepared plant layouts, performed CAD models of components, and performed detailed modeling of heat exchangers for the dairy pasteurization plant.

The mobile apple processing plant was designed to produce 40.1 kg/h of apple juice powder and 125 kg/h of apple pomace from 500 kg/h of waste apples. The milk processing plant was designed for converting 3,060 kg/h of raw milk into ultra-pasteurized milk with minimal waste. The cannabis processing plant was designed to treat a batch of 500 kg of lignocellulosic cannabis waste to produce 243.2 kg of succinic acid over a period of two days. Process simulations were carried out in SuperPro Designer software by students in chemical engineering to quantify material and energy balances.

To support operation of these modular units, a transportable central utilities plant and a mobile packaging plant were designed by students from related engineering disciplines in response to process requirements provided by the teams from chemical engineering. The utilities plant supplies steam, cooling water, hot water, compressed air, and electricity to the waste processing plants. The mobile packaging plant encapsulates food products in plastic pillow bags, Liquibox bags, or bulk bags. The utilities plant and the packaging plant are to be deployed alongside one of the waste processing plants so that three shipping containers are deployed to a hypothetical processing site.

Teaching modular design through a multidisciplinary collaboration revealed several valuable educational aspects. In addressing the design and construction of modular processing facilities, students faced unique challenges regarding the availability of limited resources (portable utilities), limited space, and stringent requirements for waste discharge in the field that are not normally considered in design of fixed plants. The multidisciplinary nature of the project ensured that students were exposed to concepts from related disciplines while facing constraints imposed by collaborating design teams. Broadening the scope of senior capstone design projects by asking students to collaborate with design teams in other disciplines introduces a dynamic of interdisciplinary communication that will likely benefit them later in their careers. Addressing the issues of waste reduction and pollution prevention, which are critical to sustainable production of foods and chemicals, endows students with an appreciation for the impacts of engineering on society and the environment.