The analogy among momentum, heat and mass transport phenomena is an important concept in chemical engineering education. This paper presents the analogy between heat exchanger and packed column calculations. The effectiveness-NTU method used to calculate outlet temperatures of hot and cold streams in an exchanger is introduced in a packed column…

Membrane separation processes, from reverse osmosis to ultrafiltration to microfiltration, are gradually receiving more and more emphasis in undergraduate chemical engineering curricula. Of these processes, ultrafiltration tends to be the most amenable to the standard chemical engineering approach of theory development, mass and/or energy…

The teaching methodology known as thinking-based learning (TBL) is presented here in the scope of a chemical engineering class. This method has been tested experimentally for the past six years within a chemical engineering class which belongs to the chemistry bachelor's degree in the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Specifically, TBL was…

The development, testing, and classroom implementation of a low-cost, reproducible, desktop sized, highly visual double-pipe heat exchanger are presented. Quantitative measurements with the module reveal its usefulness for demonstrating basic and advanced convective heat transfer theory while worksheet-guided inquiries promote student engagement.…

Undergraduate students taking the Material and Energy Balance course often comment on (a) having a desire to know more about what kinds of problems chemical engineers working in industry address; and (b) feeling that in-class examples and homework problems do not address real-world problems. This case study, used in the Material and Energy Balance…

Chemical engineering is a challenging field to explain to first-year students. Food production processes are a safe and accessible way to introduce the students to basic engineering concepts. Modernist cuisine -- using scientific methods and engineering techniques to enhance classical cooking -- was used as a hook to capture the attention of…

Green chemistry and sustainable development have become increasingly important topics for the education of future chemists. The cross-disciplinary nature of green chemistry and sustainable development often means these subjects are taught in conjunction with other subjects, such as organic chemistry and chemical engineering. Herein, a…

Engineering is an intriguing way for students to connect the design process with their knowledge of science (NRC 2012). This article describes the "Engineering a Pancake Recipe" design process which was created to make the structure and properties of matter more meaningful for fifth grade students. The whole pancake recipe engineering…

Novel analytical solutions based on the Lambert W function for two problems in ultrafiltration and diafiltration are described. Example problems, suitable for incorporation into an introductory module in unit operations, membrane processing, or numerical methods are provided in each case.

Understanding catalytic chemistry, collecting and interpreting kinetic data, and operating chemical reactors are critical skills for chemical engineers. This laboratory experiment provides students with a hands-on supplement to a course in chemical kinetics and reaction engineering. The oxidation of methane with a palladium catalyst supported on…

Robust and fast methods for chemical or multiphase equilibrium calculation are routinely needed by chemical-process engineers working on sizing or simulation aspects. Yet, while industrial applications essentially require calculation tools capable of discriminating between stable and nonstable states and converging to nontrivial solutions,…

The double-tangent construction of coexisting phases is an elegant approach to visualize all the multiphase binary systems that satisfy the equality of chemical potentials and to select the stable state. In this paper, we show how to perform the double-tangent construction of coexisting phases for binary systems modeled with the gamma-phi…

The present work describes an undergraduate laboratory exercise for improving understanding of fundamental phenomena in cooling crystallization. The exercise of nucleation and crystal growth kinetics supports learning of theories and models presented in lectures and calculation exercises. The teaching methodology incorporates precepts the…

Purpose: The implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting represents an important professional and research opportunity for chemical engineers, but this is not broadly reflected in chemical engineering curricula worldwide. This paper aims to present the implementation of a coursework that is easy to apply, free of cost,…

Despite the instinctive perception of mass and heat transfer principles in daily life, productive learning in this course continues to be one of the greatest challenges for undergraduate students in chemical engineering. In an effort to enhance student learning in classroom, we initiated an innovative active-learning method titled…