CHEN 4130 – Senior Lab
Fall 2013
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Colorado
Syllabus and Course Information
Instructors
Mark Stoykovich
Wendy Young
JSCBB C123
JSCBB D124
mark.stoykovich@colorado.edu
wendy.young@colorado.edu
Laboratory Coordinator
Ann Greco
ann.greco@colorado.edu
Class Meetings Times
Mondays, 1 – 5 p.m., in JSCBB B1B90 (lectures) or Eng. Center Building ECCH 1B70 (labs)
Wednesdays, 1 – 5 p.m., in JSCBB B115 (lectures) or Eng. Center Building ECCH 1B70 (labs)
The instructor will be available in the laboratory area during the lab section periods and when
experiments are in operation. Please contact the instructor for appointments at other times.
Course Website
Desire2Learn (D2L)
Textbook
The following books are recommended resources for many of the experiments and are on reserve in the
Engineering Library:
1. W. L. McCabe, J. C. Smith, and P. Harriott, Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, Sixth
Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2001.
2. J. D. Seader, E. J. Henley, Separation Process Principles, Wiley, 1998.
3. H. S. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 1999.
Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook is another invaluable resource for this course.
Course Learning Goals
1. To work in a simulated industrial environment, with emphases on teamwork, open-ended
problem solving, project-style report writing, and effective oral communications.
2. To provide hands-on operating experience with typical chemical engineering equipment
and to obtain experience with heat transfer, fluid flow, and reacting systems.
3. To provide experience with planning and implementing experiments.
4. To review and practice chemical engineering principles.
5. To provide an understanding of, and practice with, the use of statistics and data
interpretation with real experimental data.
CHEN 4130 – Chemical Engineering Laboratory 2
1
General Format of the Course
Five physical experimental devices will be examined in this course:
(1) Stirred Tank Reactor;
(2) Tubular Flow Reactor;
(3) Distillation Tower;
(4) Triple Effect Evaporator;
(5) Gas Adsorber;
Numerical solutions and evaluations with simulation software also may be required. The class will be
divided into 5 groups that will rotate over the 5 experiments during the semester. Each student group will
run the experiments according to the Course Schedule determined by the instructor.
Group Leaders must submit to the instructor a written report detailing the experimental setup, a standard
operating procedure, the fundamental operating principles and relevant theory, experimental design and
plan for experimentation, and the approach for analyzing results. The deadline for submitting the
group leader report is before 1 pm the Friday prior to running the experiment.
Calculations, including final figures/graphs, results and conclusions, are turned in for grading two
days (by 5 pm) after each experiment is completed. A Group Lab Notebook is submitted for
grading with the final report for each experiment. Written reports and oral presentations are due
according to the Course Schedule.
Additional Expectations / Rules:
1. Teamwork is required for a successful semester. All team members are expected to
contribute equally.
2. All team members must participate in the experimentation.
3. Follow all safety rules as provided by EH&S and the course guidelines. Failure to follow
the safety rules will prohibit in your participation in the experiments and the overall course.
4. No cell phones or mobile devices permitted while in class – ever!
Consider this your first and only warning. If operation of such a device is observed in
class, the result will be an automatic reduction of the final course grade by one letter grade
(A to B, etc.) for each occurrence.
5. Respect your peers and lab instructors.
CHEN 4130 – Chemical Engineering Laboratory 2
2
Requirements of CHEN 4130
The following items are required of each student in CHEN 4130:
Type of Report
Group Leader Report
 Prepare process flow diagram
 Write Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) with
safety information
 Prepare calculation flowchart
 Provide detailed experimental plan
Experiments in the Lab
 Each group member must conduct each
experiment; repeat if needed
Calculations
 Due by Wednesday 5 pm on the second week of
the experiment
 Returned to groups rapidly
Lab Notebooks
 One Lab Notebook per team
 Submitted by group with Calculations
 Safety map with discussion points due with
Final Reports
Written Report (Group)
 Due date according to schedule
 To be prepared and submitted as a group
 Use “Format of a Full Written Report”
Written Technical Memo (Individual)
 Due date according to schedule
 To be prepared and submitted individually
 Use “Format of a Technical Memo”
Number
Required
1
Group

3

3

3

1

1

Oral Report
 Due date according to schedule
 Use “Format of the oral presentation”
 Group presentations, computer-aided,
professional attire, all group members speak
1
Final Group Evaluation Form
1
CHEN 4130 – Chemical Engineering Laboratory 2
Individual


3
Grading in CHEN 4130
The following scheme will be used to determine your grade in CHEN 4130:
Technical Report Assignments
 Executive summary
 Introduction
 Results and discussion
1 x 20
1 x 20
1 x 20
20
20
20
Group Leader Planning Report
 Operating instructions & process flow diagram
 Safety assessment
 Calculations flowchart with experimental planning
1 x 30
30
Calculations
 Sample calculation of results from raw data
 Error analysis
 Final figures including tables and graphs of results
3 x 20
60
Lab Notebooks
 One per group
 Submit completed notebook with
Final Reports
3x5
15
Group Written Report
1 x 40
40
Individual Technical Memo
1 x 40
40
Oral Report
1 x 40
40
Team Assessment
1 x 10
10
Instructor Evaluation
1 x 40
40
TOTAL
CHEN 4130 – Chemical Engineering Laboratory 2
335
4