Trends in chemical engineering education: Process, product and sustainable chemical engineering challenges

Teaching chemical engineering has always been faced with a dilemma: either keep in touch with industry needs or incorporate new scientific concepts into the curriculum. In this paper, a short historical analysis of the evolution of chemical engineering teaching is presented and the recent trends of the two previous facets (industry and science) are briefly reviewed. The process vs product engineering concept is proposed as one of the means to achieve a better alignment between the curriculum and industry needs. A chemical engineering teaching framework, based in part on a product and a process oriented component, which has been in place in our department 5 years ago, is described and discussed. The concept of sustainable chemistry, including process and product considerations, which can be seen as the next frontier in chemical engineering education, is finally analysed from the education point of view.     

Sustainable leadership and management of complex engineering systems: A team based structured case study approach

Societal goals have been shifting over the last seventy years towards global sustainability concerns, diversity, and equity. As the goals have shifted, societal demands on engineers and organizations have been shifting. This has implications for how we educate engineers. Sustainable engineering leadership and management consider the organizational aspects of the development and operation of complex designs in a sustainable manner with safety and risk management being key elements of sustainable design, operation, and management of engineering projects. This work explores the intersection of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the current outcomes based engineering education accreditation framework, and risk based process safety management. It further elaborates on how these elements can be integrated into a structured case study approach to connect the role of the underlying values, ethics, assumptions, and beliefs of people who lead, manage, and work in complex engineering projects towards the enactment of a sustainability culture or a safety culture or both. The proposed case study structure reinforces engineering education outcomes, the United Nations sustainable development goals, and Risk Based Process Safety (RBPS) management in order to further develop technical and professional skills in undergraduate and graduate students better preparing them for their future roles in a world demanding sustainable solutions.     

Process safety concerns in process system digitalization

While efforts to use digital solutions in process operations are gaining wider acceptance, there are serious safety concerns that need to be addressed when adopting digitalization. Process operations have evolved from batch operation to continuous operation, and from smaller plants to large-scale plants. Automation and digitalization of processes, especially in process monitoring, instrumentation, and control are becoming the norm. Safety issues have also evolved with these developments, from simple equipment failure to failure of process systems (equipment with electronic systems), monitoring and control systems, data encryption systems, and most recently, software systems. How these evolving process safety issues should be taught in the classroom to educate and train the next generation of chemical engineers is a challenge with an opportunity. If such issues are not taught in academia, this will create a gap between education and practice, which would have a negative impact on the overall safety of process facilities. Therefore, proactively converting this challenge to an educational opportunity and bringing digital process safety issues into the classroom are of paramount importance to help reinforce the concept of making process safety learning a conscious choice. This will hopefully lessen our reliance on learning from accidents. The current paper presents the need to incorporate digital process safety as part of the chemical engineering curriculum to adequately address the process industry’s emphasis on digital solutions in process operations.     

Process system engineering in wastewater treatment process

This paper reviews the research and development of process system engineering (PSE) in the wastewater treatment process (WWTP). A diverse range of PSE applications have evolved in the wastewater treatment process, such as modeling, control, estimation, expert system, fault detection and monitoring system. This article describes several types of PSE that have proven to be effective in WWTP. The merits and shortcoming of PSE and its detailed applications are presented. Since its development is the forefront in WWTP, a reasonable review of the research progress in this field is addressed.     

Safety shares in the chemical engineering class room

Over three semesters, every lecture in a second year chemical engineering subject was begun with a safety share, a 2–4 min discussion on some aspect of safety. This reflects the practice in many industries today in which all meetings, no matter what the topic, begin with a brief discussion on some aspect of safety. The content of the safety shares were not relevant to the lecture material of the subject which covered material and energy balances and students were advised that the content would not be examinable. The safety shares covered general advice on safe practice including the importance of situational awareness and working in confined spaces. Other safety shares discussed case studies that allowed concepts such as human factors and the dangers of static electricity to be introduced. A survey of the three cohorts after the subjects had been completed showed that the students found the safety shares to be a good way to introduce the importance of safety in the work place. They found the shares interesting and did not consider the time spent on them at the start of the classes to be wasted. Over fifty safety shares used in the classes are presented.     

A real time approach to process control education with an open-ended simulation tool

Process simulators are widely used in industrial process designs and academic research. These simulation tools are also perfectly suitable for the process dynamics and control education of junior chemical engineers and students, as these tools mimetically help them with comprehending the basic theories of process control, such as process capacity, dead time, control loops, controllers and multi-unit processes such as distillation columns. At the University of Auckland, New Zealand, final year Chemical and Materials Engineering students who participate in the process dynamics and control paper are required to complete a series of simulation workshops in auxiliary sessions to help them in their understanding of process dynamics and control. This paper introduces the content of the workshops as well as reviews the student feedback on the introduction of the simulator and their perceptions of their learning of process dynamics and control as assisted by the software and instruction. Three case studies are provided in this paper to illustrate the benefits of running workshops. The motivation of this paper is to share our workshop design with other universities.     

浅谈如何实现工艺安全信息的有效应用

工艺安全信息及其有效应用是塔里木油田公司安全文化建设工艺安全管理系统的重要要素之一.工艺安全信息的有效应用就是将与工艺装置有关的工艺物料危害、工艺技术、工艺设备等相关的信息有效应用于工艺安全活动中.工艺安全信息产生于装置生命周期的各个阶段,是进行危害辨识与风险控制的依据,也广泛应用于工艺安全管理系统的其他要素中.工艺安...     

Online chemical engineering education during COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from Pakistan

The development of Covid-19 epidemic into a pandemic led to great changes in education delivery modes around the globe. Online education (OE) began after the closure of education buildings. The unprepared start of OE led to access barriers, challenges, and opportunities for improvement. This work explores the scope of OE during COVID-19 in Pakistani institutions offering the degree of Chemical Engineering. A mixed-method approach was followed with a sample of 10 teachers and 1200 students from public and private sector universities. Teacher data came from semi-structured interviews by email, while students’ views of their learning experiences were collected through an online survey. The learners' responses showed that the unprecedented and unprepared shift to online course delivery lowered their motivation and interest in learning and they do not perceive the present practice as useful for several reasons. However, the teachers believed that the transition to OE helped the continuity of education, though they had to face technical, personal, social, learning-management-related, and other barriers they were not adequately equipped to deal with effectively. The results imply the need for a rapid preparation phase to enhance the effectiveness of OE during a crisis. The results may assist academics and policymakers in revising decisions regarding the great education migration to OE.     

Multi-dimensional design process management by extended product modeling for concurrent process engineering

Conventional product and process models have focused on static features. That means product models are mainly based on structural decomposition of products, and process models are also often described by activity decomposition such as work breakdown structure. From the view of design process management, it is difficult to describe dynamic features of design processes appropriately through conventional methodologies. In this paper, a multidimensional approach for design process management was explored to manifest characteristics of design processes for chemical plant design. Parallelized design process for concurrent process engineering should be managed by twodimensional design activity flows. The process management makes it possible to guide progress of design processes in a helix structure by horizontal and vertical activity control simultaneously. They stand for teleological and causal relation between design activities, respectively. That can be achieved based on an extended product model, which represents various design perspectives explicitly from a conventional design activity model. The extended product model is composed of product data, design activities, and activity drivers. Dynamic features of the extended product model are expressed by an activity chain model. These concepts will support the realization of concurrent process engineering for chemical plant design in the sense that they provide design process management strategies.     

过程控制工程创新实践教育模式建设研讨

我们根据过程控制工程课程具有综合性、实践性强的特点,以"聆听→质疑→解惑→实践"的教学方法,通过采用多模式地运用现代化教学手段,创建课内、课外多形式的实践能力培养模式,形成了兴趣驱动与问题探索的素质教育培养模式,推进了质疑重于聆听,反思高于理解的工程教育改革模式。基于化工过程常用典型装置特性和控制系统设计要求,我们构建了一套完善的多层次过程控制工程实践教学仿真实验系统,切实提高学生的工程实践能力。     

工程硕士过程系统工程课程建设与探索

过程系统工程是华东理工大学化学工程领域工程硕士的必修课程。我们通过课程教改,加强了工程硕士对基本理论的理解,注重案例教学、理论与实践相结合,取得了良好的教学效果。     

过程装备与控制工程专业实践教学改革的探索

大众化教育背景下,应用型人才培养模式的探索和实践是普通本科院校发展的关键问题。本文分析和思考了实践教学环节中的问题,介绍了本院过程装备与控制工程专业在实验教学、课程设计、实习基地及实习方式、毕业设计等方面取得的教学改革成果,提出了今后的发展方向。     

在教学中强化绿色过程工程教育的思考和尝试

培养具有较强绿色过程工程观念的人才是经济社会可持续发展的要求。化学、化工等过程工程相关专业应加强绿色过程工程教育。制药工业是一个以新药研究开发为基础的典型的过程工业。化学制药工艺学是制药工程专业本科教育的核心课程,为绿色过程工程教育提供了适宜载体。本文介绍了在化学制药工艺学教学中强化绿色过程工程教育的一些尝试,如重视案例教学、当代工程观教育,以及生命周期评价、原子经济性、E因子、环境商等概念等,以期为更好地开展绿色过程工程教育提供借鉴。     

化工设计课程群的项目式教学改革探讨

本文以项目式教学在化学工程专业教学中的作用为核心,介绍了浙江工业大学化工设计课程群的改革思路与探索效果。项目式教学改革对多门相关课程进行内容整合,在各门课程中增加项目教学内容,着重培养学生对基础知识的综合运用和对实际问题的分析处理能力。     

基于过程装备与控制工程专业学生创新精神七个维度的探讨

本文以大学生创新精神心理测量学研究为依据,对过程装备与控制工程专业学生从测量评价大学生创新精神的七个维度出发,对本专业如何围绕七个维度来培养学生创新精神进行探讨。     

过程管理有效应对护理风险效果评价

目的通过实施过程管理,了解过程管理应对护理风险的效果。方法过程管理前后随机抽取各120例患者进行问卷调查,抽查120份病历对护理缺陷、文书书写进行统计。结果实施过程管理后,护理缺陷的发生率明显降低(P<0.05),患者疾病知识知晓率、满意度及护理文书书写合格率显著提高(P<0.05)。结论过程管理能提高护理质量,有效应对护理风险,保障护理安全。     

过程控制工程课程教学体系的优化

结合现代社会对过程控制工程技术人员的需求与现有自动化专业课程的设置,我们改进了过程控制工程课程的教学目标与相应的教学内容,并进一步优化了课程的教学体系,强化了控制系统设计与综合应用实施等教学环节。近年来的实际教学效果充分体现了该教学体系的完整性与先进性,对培养自动化专业人才的创新能力与实践能力作用显著。     

Education for sustainability: Developing a taxonomy of the key principles for sustainable process and product design

Design for sustainability as an independent field of study is both multidisciplinary and cross-cutting. It encompasses engineering, natural science, economics, finance, political science, social science and the humanities. It concerns governments, corporations and consumers. Although not normally considered design topics, the effects of manufactured products and energy usage on society and the environment are increasingly impacting process design choices. Because of the numerous groups and constituencies involved, sustainability is a difficult concept to define. However, from a design perspective, professional competency in sustainability is becoming an important prerequisite for the production of economically viable products. This contribution proposes an outline for a sustainability taxonomy, including the key concepts that define professional competency in design and engineering for sustainability. This contribution is an extended version of a paper originally published in the Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on the Foundations of Computer Aided Process Design Conference, Cle Elum, Washington, 2014.