The impact of focused degree projects in chemical engineering education on students’ research performance,retention, and efficacy

Recent reforms in engineering education have emerged to meet the changing needs of engineers, however sparse research exists that comprehensively assesses the outcomes associated with such engineering education efforts. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for educational approaches tied to assessing engineering students’ performance, retention, and impact.This study's purpose is to explore the relationship between sequential chemical engineering degree projects and students’ performance, engineering efficacy, multidisciplinarity, and retention. The projects for this education for chemical engineers research are thematically focused laboratory experiments embedded in a four-year chemical engineering program. Each project component is connected to the next, is increasingly complex as courses advanced, and is aligned with essential course content. This connectivity enables students to participate in logically sequenced experiments that culminate in well-developed senior laboratory projects. This study's educational impact was determined via comparison between seniors’ and freshmen’ performance, efficacy and retention.Results of this research indicate that the use of degree projects in chemical engineering education is impactful, resulting in students’ increased understanding of experimentation and course content; meaningful, resulting in statistically significant increased student chemical engineering efficacy; and engaging, resulting in students’ satisfaction with program impact, engagement with peers during experimentation, and dramatically increased student retention.     

Assessing the impact of augmented reality application on students’ learning motivation in chemical engineering

Application of augmented reality (AR) in education has recently grown in interest due to distant, online, and self-directed learning. In this study, the impact of implementing an AR application on chemical engineering students’ learning motivation and performance was assessed. Two interactive AR lessons on common industrial equipment (i.e., centrifugal pump and shell-and-tube heat exchanger) were developed on the EON-XR platform. A cohort of 50 undergraduate chemical engineering students participated in the AR lessons and evaluated its impact on students’ learning motivation and usefulness as a learning resource. The level of students’ learning motivation was assessed with a 16-item questionnaire based on the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) from Keller’s ARCS model, and qualitative questions related to the future of AR technology in chemical engineering education. Results show that 82% of respondents found AR lessons helpful compared to conventional lesson delivery modes, while 92% were supportive for AR lessons to be an additional resource to existing learning materials. These findings demonstrated that AR technology impacted students’ learning motivation positively across multiple constructs, namely ‘Attention’, ‘Relevance’, ‘Confidence’ and ‘Satisfaction’ and showed great potential as an innovative pedagogical advancement in chemical engineering education.     

Process engineering and problems encountered by chemical and related industries in the near future. Revolution or continuity?

The evolution of process engineering is reviewed and it’s ability to cope with the problems encountered by chemical and related industries is appraised. It appears that the necessary progress should come via a pluridisciplinary and multiscale approach, that will allow us to satisfy both the market requirements for specific end-use properties as well as the environmental and social constraints. In this context, an increasingly important contribution will be required from basic disciplines such as physics, physical chemistry and mathematics, mechanics and ecotoxicology.     

A detailed anatomy of students’ perception of engagement and their learning a threshold concept in core chemical engineering

An attempt has been made to reveal a detailed anatomy of students’ self-perceived engagement with material in a lecture and their learning of a key course threshold concept. A cohort of 80 students in a third year chemical engineering (64% response rate) course voluntarily recorded their engagement using a Likert-type scale at intervals of 5 min in a (nominally 50 min) lecture, together with written comments. Marks were awarded for a substantial, follow-up summative assignment to test their understanding of the threshold concept. It was found students were highly unaligned in their level of engagement with the lecture. A key reason was that individuals’ engagement varied highly significantly during the lecture. Six engagement styles were identified. Some 33% exhibited Type 1 (engage strongly at the start and slowly disengage) and 23% exhibited Type 2 (remain at a more or less fixed engagement). Significantly, there was no correlation between students’ engagement scores and marks awarded; in particular there was no correlation with specific lecture intervals in which material was identified as most important. Further, there was no correlation between the number of written comments made by an individual and their marks. It is concluded that student self-perceived engagement is not a good predictor of learning as assessed by marks awarded on a summative assignment. It is not known whether student engagement is predicated on particular lecture material and type of lecturer, or other contributing factors. The experimental design could be readily widely applied.     

A correction on a one-dimensional model for conical spouted beds published in chemical engineering and processing, 48 (2009) 1264–1269

A one-dimensional model published previously for spouted beds is evaluated. Certain errors exist in the governing equations which are modified and corrected in this Letter to Editor. It is confirmed that this is an efficient model as it needs few number of empirical correlations to solve.     

HSG400 – Design,implementation, and evaluation of a hybrid board game for aiding chemistry and chemical engineering students in the review of stereochemistry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper provides information about a hybrid multilingual (English, Portuguese, French, and Italian) game developed as an alternative learning method to the traditional problem-solving exercises model. The game comprises a physical board and a free-of-charge application for undergraduate students to review and reinforce concepts related to stereochemistry by answering questions, from a bank of 400 questions, in a ludic, competitive, and collaborative environment. Brazilian, French, and Italian undergraduate students played the game face-to-face before the disruption caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic and remotely during that. They also evaluated the game, and the quite positive results obtained from students’ self-assessment revealed that they felt the game contributed to their learning while playing.     

Determining the cause-and-effect relationships responsible for coal properties. 3. Association of chemical elements and role of indicators and accompanying elements in assessing the variability of beds’ mineral composition

In the development of productive coal and oil beds, certain geochemical conditions facilitate the formation of elementary associations that include indicator elements and accompanying elements. The determination of those associations permits the identification of the features of mineral formation in the beds and the processes that affect the variability of the mineral composition in the intervening rock.     

Allowance for the influence of the stress state on the mechanical characteristics and the coefficients of thermal expansion in Lamé’s problem for a graphite cylinder

The problem of plane strain of a hollow cylinder made of a bimodulus material is considered in a quasi-static constrained formulation. The physical relations allow for effect of the kind of stress state on the mechanical characteristics and the temperature coefficients of linear expansion. Numerical results are presented. Translated from Ogneupory i Tekhnicheskaya Keramika, No. 2, pp. 44–45, February, 2000.     

Reply to the discussion by Q. Zeng and S.L. Xu of the paper “Numerical simulation of moisture transport in concrete based on a pore size distribution model”

This paper presents a reply to the discussion of the paper “Numerical simulation of moisture transport in concrete based on a pore size distribution model” by Q. Zeng and S.L. Xu.     

Turmeric nanofiber-encapsulated natural product formulation act as a phytogenic feed additive—A study in broilers on growth performance,biochemical indices of blood,and E. coli in cecum

A phytogenic feed additive (PFA) formulation was prepared with bioactive molecules—curcuminoids, gingerol, and carvacrol by encapsulating in nanofiber isolated from turmeric spent (turmeric nanofiber, TNF). This formulation was completely characterized by scanning electron microscope, ultra performance liquid chromatography, and gas chromatography and evaluated for its efficacy. PFA-encapsulated TNF (PFA@TNF) considerably increased mean body weight, decreased cholesterol level, mortality rate, and reduced Escherichia coli content of broilers than antibiotic growth promoter (AGP). The depth of crypts in the ileum of broilers was considerably reduced by the inclusion of PFA@TNF in diets compared with the AGP.     

Experimental and modeling studies on the enantio-separation of 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl-(R),(S)-leucine by continuous liquid–liquid extraction in a cascade of centrifugal contactor separators

The continuous enantioselective liquid–liquid extraction of aqueous 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl-(R),(S)-leucine (A_R,S) using O-(1-t-butylcarbamoyl)-11-octadecylsulfinyl-10,11-dihydro-quinine (C, a cinchona alkaloid) as extractant in 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) was studied experimentally in a countercurrently operated pilot scale cascade of six centrifugal contactor separators (CCS) at 294 K. The extractant was efficiently recovered by back-extraction in a single CCS allowing the cascade to be run continuously for 10 h. The steady-state ee of A_R (ee_R) in the raffinate was 42% at a 99% yield, the A_S was obtained with high purity (98% ee_S) and a yield of 55% in the back-extraction raffinate. In total 2.23 g of A_S was obtained at steady-state operation from 8.11 g racemate feed. Deterioration of the ee in time was not observed, demonstrating the robustness of the chemistry. The experiments were modeled using an equilibrium stage approach. The correlation between model and experiment was satisfactory. The model was applied to optimize the production of both enantiomers in >97% ee. At zero reflux, 12 stages are required for 99% ee for both enantiomers. Application of a reflux allows a 25% reduction of the total liquid flow through the system by reduction of the wash feed as well as a reduction in the number of stages from 12 to 11. With a configuration of 12 CINC-V02’s operating at an aqueous feed flow of 360 mL/min, the model predicts that 17.7 kg racemate per week may be separated into both enantiomers with 99% ee using only 60 g of extractant.     

Kinetic study on the reactions involved in hot gas desulfurization using a regenerable iron oxide sorbent—III. Reactions of the sulfided sorbent with steam and steam-air mixtures

In continuation of the earlier studies on sorbent regeneration, reactions of the sulfided iron oxide sorbent with steam and steam-air mixtures were investigated. This paper describes experimental results on the kinetics of these reactions. As before, experiments were conducted in a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) and conversion data for the steam reaction were correlated using the grain model, described in Part I. The intrinsic activation energy for this reaction is found to be 16.36 kcal/mol. Effects of particle size and temperature on the rate of reaction were studied to identify proper rate-controlling regimes.For the reactions with steam-air mixtures, a parallel reaction scheme is proposed and a simple equation suggested to correlate the conversion-time data. Accordingly, the overall rate is obtained by the addition of the rates of reactions of the sulfided sorbent with steam and with air. Using the earlier results for these two reactions, conversion curves are calculated and compared with the experimental data.     

Metal catalysis with nanostructured metals supported on strongly acidic cross-linked polymer frameworks. Part I. The behaviour of M2+ ions (M = Ni,Pd, Pt,Cu) supported on Rohm & Haas’s resin A70 and Du Pont’s SAC-13, towards H2 in the solid state and NaBH4 in aqueous medium

The macroreticular Rohm & Haas resin A70 and the DuPont silica/nafion microcomposite SAC-13 undergo facile metalation with Ni^II, Pd^II, Pt^II, Cu^II cationic species to give materials that do react with both molecular hydrogen in the “dry” state and sodium borohydride in the aqueous phase. The distribution of the reduced species in the body of the support particles is sensitive to the reduction protocol.