Date of Defense

4-14-2020

Date of Graduation

4-2020

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

James Springstead

Second Advisor

Peter Parker

Abstract

Granola additives are used in many different cereal products and are a large part of the cereal industry. So, having the capability to produce different types of granola additives at a cereal plant is very beneficial for a company. A group of WMU Senior Chemical Engineering Students worked to design a process that could be used in combination with idle plant equipment to produce granola additives on site.

Many raw materials were already available on site. A granola process was developed and designed from online resources and company information. Using company demand information, the rates of production were calculated and used to size equipment. Several different equipment vendors were contacted to determine which equipment made the most sense for the application.

A fixed capital investment (FCI) was calculated from vendor quotes and using some published scale factors. Operating costs were calculated from process specifics. Using this information, a cash flow table could be constructed using the companies specified minimal acceptable rate of return (MARR). This table was also used to calculate the internal rate of return (IRR) for this project.

It was determined that this investment should not be pursued with the current scope since the IRR was less than the MARR. However, by changing the scope of the project slightly, the MARR could be met.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Restricted

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