ChemE 437 - Chemical Engineering Laboratory II

Course Description

Credits: 3.  Continuation of 436.  Laboratory investigation of chemical engineering principles applied to equipment design with emphasis on mass transfer operations and chemical reactors.  Offered: W.

Designation

Prerequisites

Textbook

none.

Course Objectives

1. Design, plan, and execute open-ended, hands-on, experiments involving unit operations.
2. Perform safe laboratory work.
3. Reduce and analyze experimental data.
4. Communicate findings, results, and recommendations based on laboratory work.
5. Written reports should be succinct, grammatically correct, presentations of technical work.
6. Oral reports should be clear, comprehensive, and persuasive.

1. Laboratory Projects (each of 3 weeks duration).
2. Residence time distribution in an agitated liquid-liquid extraction column.
   
3. Tray efficiency measurements in a distillation column.
   
4. Characterization of a batch distillation system.
   
5. Axial dispersion and pressure drop characteristics of a packed tower.
   
6. Scale-up of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger based on the overall heat transfer coefficient of a steam condenser.
   
7. Determination of heat transfer coefficients and fouling factors in a multiple pass heat exchanger.
   
8. Measurements of rates and activation energies in the catalytic oxidation of CO.
   
9. Characterization of the performance of a three-cell stack of PEM fuel cells.

• The class meets weekly for a four-hour laboratory session.
  
• Teams of two or three students perform 3 of the 9 laboratory experiments outlined above, analyze their experimental results, and prepare written reports of their investigations, findings, and recommendations.
• Students also present oral reports of their findings and recommendations.
  
• Computer data acquisition systems are used for the following: CO consumption in a catalytic reactor, residence time distribution in a packed tower and a liquid-liquid extractor. Excel is the primary tool used by students in the analysis of the data they acquire in lab. Students must create spreadsheets that are both technically correct and effectively communicate what calculations are being done and why.

Engineering
Design content

(a) An ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering.

(b) An ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data.

(e) An ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.

(g) An ability to communicate effectively.

(k)   An ability to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.