New Directions in ChE Undergraduate Laboratory Experience

高质量化学产品的加工需要使用在线设备和计算机辅助数据记录和分析技术对化学成分进行精确测量和控制。此外，化学工业现在正加大努力，在生物技术、电子和先进材料等新领域展开竞争。然而，现有的本科生实验室实验强调经典的流体流动、传热和流体相分离应用。他们专注于温度、压力和流量的直接测量，使用人工记录数据和设备，在工业实践中不再流行。对本科实验室进行广泛的重新设计，包括使用光谱和色谱技术进行在线成分测量的实验，以及基于微机的数据记录系统。每个实验都是由积极参与相关技术研究的教师小组设计的。进行了六项主要实验：两项在生化领域，两项在电子材料加工领域，一项在聚合物领域，一项涉及形状选择沸石催化剂。该仪器还用于8个短期分析实验。这两组实验被整合到我们所有本科生所需的化学工程实验室的两门课程中，因此将在五年内影响600名工程师的实验室。文件和经验将被传播到美国所有的化学工程部门。

The processing of high quality chemical products requires accurate measurements and control of chemical composition using on-line devices and computer-assisted data logging and analysis techniques. Moreover, the chemical industry is now expanding its efforts to compete in the new areas of biotechnology, electronics, and advanced materials. Yet, the existing undergraduate laboratory experiments emphasize classical fluid flow, heat transfer, and fluid phase separation applications. They focus on direct measurements of temperature, pressure, and flow using manual recording of data and equipment no longer current in industrial practice. The extensive redesign of undergraduate laboratories to include experiments involving on-line composition measurements using spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques, and micro-computer based data logging systems is undertaken. Each experiment is designed by faculty groups active in research in the technologies involved. Six major experiments are undertaken: two in the biochemical area, two in processing of electronic materials, one in the polymer area and one involving a shape- selective zeolite catlyst. The instruments are also used in eight shorter-term analysis experiments. The two sets of experiments are integrated into our two course chemical engineering laboratory sequence required of all undergraduates and thus will impact 600 engineers laboratory over a five year period. Documentation and experience will be disseminated to all chemical engineering departments in the US.