Unit Operations Lab is the first class Chemical Engineering majors take that lets us directly apply what we've learned in a classroom for the past 3 years. We get to physically see each process we've learned about and study how it functions.
We had some sort of presentation for each of our experiments. An informal report, an oral report, a technical report or a poster presentation.
The term unit operations comes from the fact that for each lab we conduct, we focused on a single apparatus to study. Think of it as a mini portion of a production plant.
Especially after last semester (what my professors call "hell" semester), I questioned my decision to stick with Chemical Engineering. I spent most of my time studying for exams or completing homework and almost no time being a normal 21 year old college student. And that bothered me.
But now taking this class has reminded me why I picked this major in the first place: I love Chemistry, Math and problem solving. Everything we studied just made sense to me. And I loved it. That is how it knew that staying in Chemical Engineering was God's will for me. God's will for us is always going to be something we love doing. He wouldn't give us these talents and desires otherwise.
Our first experiment was Tubular Flow Reactors. Where we reacted ethyl acetate and sodium hydroxide in a 1:1 and 2:1 ratio to determine the activation energy of the reaction and space time of the reactor.
And 1-2 hour lectures at 8am before going into the lab...
Our second experiment was the Bubble Column. Where we determined the effect of the number of carbons in an alcohol, the concentration and the superficial velocity of the air on the gas holdup in the column. From there, we produced an empirical equation that estimates the gas hold up as a function these parameters.
And in the meantime, you find a pokemon in the lab and then your groupmates make fun of you for the next 2 weeks because you're playing pokemon and you proceed to delete it...no that wasn't me...
Our third experiment was Fluidization. Where we determined the effects of particle diameter and bed height on the minimum fluidization velocity, pressure drop and density. A correlation for these parameters is found in the Ergun equation.
Our fourth experiment was Process Controls. We had the most trouble operating this apparatus and we all now have a combined dislike towards Armfield... There were two parts of the apparatus we used: the heat exchanger and the CSTR.
We had to control the temperature of the heat exchanger and also add disturbance. We needed to fit a FOPDT model to the process to determine the tuning parameters and calculate the heat exchange coefficient.
For the CSTR, we used direct and reverse action to control the conductivity in the reactor. Then we added temperature control by running steam through the heating coil of the reactor. From there we calculated the heat loss.
Chipotle and Sour Patch Kids.
Long nights continued...
Stay tuned for Part 2 :)
xo, Adrienne
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