Spring 2011
Chemical Engineering 477
Unit Operations Laboratory II
Class Time and Place: Rm 217 CB, TTh 12:00 - 5:50 pm
Instructors: Vincent Wilding; Office: 350G CB; Phone: 801-422-2393
Morris Argyle; Office: 350R CB; Phone: 801-422-6239
Michael Beliveau; Office: 223 CB; Phone: 801-422-3921
Teaching Assistant: Abinash Paudel, abinashpaudel@gmail.com
Objectives: The overall goal is to teach students to think and communicate as engineers.
Educationally, the following competencies are identified as objectives of this course:
1. Students will gain hands on experience with chemical processes, units, and corresponding equipment through
lab experiments.
2. Students will demonstrate an understanding of basic engineering statistics in their laboratory reports
3. Students will be able to estimate mass-transfer coefficients and use them to determine mass-transfer rates for
both external and internal flows and across phase boundaries.
4. Students will understand fundamentals of kinetics including definitions of rate and forms of rate expressions
during laboratory experiments.
5. Students will be able to determine rate expressions by analyzing reactor data including integral and differential
analysis on constant- and variable-volume systems in laboratory experiments.
6. Students will demonstrate familiarity and experience with the measurement of process variables (e.g., P, T,
flow rate, conc.) using manual and/or electronic devices and computers.
7. Students will demonstrate knowledge of basic laboratory techniques.
8. Students will be able to use the scientific method and problem solving strategies, as well as statistical methods,
to design and carry out experiments in order to solve engineering problems.
9. Students will demonstrate familiarity and experience with chemical process equipment.
10. Students will demonstrate an ability to solve engineering problems.
11. Students will be able to integrate topics from various Chemical Engineering courses to solve realistic
problems in the areas of kinetics and separations.
12. Students will exhibit critical and creative thinking skills for analysis and evaluation of problems and causeeffect relationships.
13. Students will be able to obtain and evaluate appropriate informational/data from databases, hand books,
correlations, experiments, literature, etc.
14. Students will be able to rationalize units, make order of magnitude estimates, assess reasonableness of
solutions, and select appropriate levels of solution sophistication.
15. Students will understand and practice safe laboratory and chemicals-handling principles.
16. Students will be able to give effective, well organized oral presentations including the handling of questions
and the use of appropriate visual aids.
17. Students will be able to write effective, well organized technical reports, including formal engineering reports
and short letter reports.
18. Students will demonstrate effective reading of technical material.
19. Students will demonstrate effective interpretation of graphical data.
20. Students will practice good teamwork principles.
21. Students will be able to size and do performance calculations on single, isothermal plug-flow, CSTR, and
batch reactors for a single homogeneous or heterogeneous reaction from experimental data.
22. Students will be able to design tray-type columns (e.g., number of trays, tray efficiency, column height,
column diameter, product specs) and/or packed columns (e.g., height of column, packing material, column
diameter, flooding velocity).
Professional Environment
To the extent possible, the professional engineering environment will be simulated. You will be
given 3 assignments and grouped into teams (usually 3 people, with a different team for each
assignment). The assignments, which will be in the form of memos from your supervisor, will
intentionally be open-ended, and your team will respond to each assignment by conducting
experiments, performing analyses, drawing conclusions, and making recommendations. Each
member of the team will submit his/her own report as if he/she was the team leader submitting
the only report about the work. In addition, as a professional, you will be required to maintain
professional standards of attendance, teamwork, and safety practices throughout the semester.
Attendance: In keeping with the goal of simulating the professional environment, you must be in
attendance (“at work”) for the entire lab period on each day of the lab. For emergencies or other
pressing circumstances, please communicate with your instructors, just as you would with an
employer. All the experimental work will be done in class, and you should also try to do as much
data analysis and report writing in class as possible.
Teamwork: You will be assigned to a different team (usually 3-members) for each project. It is
expected that you will work cooperatively, sharing a fair portion of the workload. At the
conclusion of each project, you will be required to evaluate each of the other members of your
team (and they will evaluate you) using the partner-evaluation forms provided.
Safety: The following safety precautions are required by all (these are not optional):
1. No food is allowed the laboratory or computer areas.
2. All personnel in the laboratory area are required to wear safety glasses, long pants, and
covered shoes (no sandals).
3. All students are required to complete ChEn 311; this course includes the HAZCOM training
course.
4. Experimental work should be done during the regular class periods. If additional time is
needed in the laboratory, you must clear it with the instructors and make an appointment for
the use of the laboratory with Mike Beliveau. At least two partners must be present during
those additional hours (no one is permitted to work in the lab alone).
Individual Responsibilities
You are required to maintain your own record of the experiment in a separate laboratory
notebook and to write your own report. Thinking and analysis may be shared by the entire team,
but your contribution must be a major part of the project and certainly a major part of your
report, for which you will assume total responsibility. Even figures and tables for your report
should not simply be copied from your partner. The Appendix of your report may be a shared
effort, however.
Project Notebook: As is standard professional practice, all pertinent details of each experiment
must be recorded in ink in your personal project notebook (one for each student), which should
be a sewn bound notebook (not spiral bound) with pre-printed page numbers. Details of this
requirement are found in the document Experiment/Reports Guidelines. Completeness and
neatness of the project notebook will be a part of your grade. If questions arise about the
accuracy and validity of the data in your reports, it should be possible to answer those questions
by referring to your project notebook.
Reports: Three assignments will be given during the term. The first two reports will be 7-10
page reports, and the third report will be a 1-page memo (all with extensive appendices). For the
third project, a team oral report (15 minutes per team) will be required along with the individual
1-page memo reports.
Resources
Written Materials: No official text is used for this course, but printed handouts will be provided.
In addition, some textbooks and engineering handbooks are kept in the laboratory bookcase for
your use, but please do not remove them from the room, and please return them to the bookcase
at the end of each period. A significant amount of information is also available on the course
website at www.et.byu.edu/groups/uolab. Many of the forms and descriptive materials can be
found on the “Instructors” link, and descriptions of the equipment can be found on the “ChE477” link. Of course, your textbooks from previous courses may also be helpful.
Hardware: Instruments, supplies, manuals, etc., may be checked out from the Laboratory
Supervisor, Mike Beliveau, or from the TA. All materials checked out during the laboratory must
be returned to the stockroom at the end of the laboratory period.
Lectures: Brief lectures/discussions (usually at the beginning of the laboratory period) will be
designed to provide guidance about report writing, data analysis, etc. We hope that these will be
helpful, and we welcome your feedback on these lectures/discussions, as well as suggestions for
additional topics.
Project/Report Requirements
Pre-approval: For each project, your team will be required to formulate a strategy for
accomplishing the required task(s) and to present your plan to the instructors via a brief informal
oral presentation, along with a written Pre-plan report and a Permission to Start form. The Preplan report (which will be graded) is described in the document “Experiment/Report Guides.”
After your plan has been approved, you may proceed with its implementation.
Report Submission: Submission of written project reports will be required at the beginning of
the lab period according to the attached schedule. Reports turned in late without prior approval
from your instructors will be penalized and missing class to finish a late report will add to the
penalty (as shown below). Please work ahead to ensure that your report is finished on time.
 80% if turned in within 24 hrs (but class is not missed and report is not worked on in class)
 60% if turned in within 24 hrs (but class is missed or report is worked on in class)
 50% if turned in between 24 and 48 hrs
 0% if turned in after 48 hrs.
Honesty
BYU’s honor code must be followed at all times. You must do your own work for the individual
assignments. You may discuss data reduction, experimental results, etc. with your team (nor
previous teams unless given permission by the instructors) but you must write your own report
and prepare your own graphs and figures. YOU MAY NOT USE OR LOOK AT PREVIOUS
REPORTS. Plagiarism and cheating are not tolerated in any profession. Plagiarism includes
copying your partners work or copying reference material without proper references. If you need
to include information in your report that is not your own, you should paraphrase the information
and provide a reference. Academic dishonesty will result in a failing grade for the course.
Grading
Project 1
7-10 page reports
Project 2
7-10 page reports
Project 3
1-page report
Oral report
Pre-plan reports (3)
Appendices (3)
Lab notebook (3)
Lab Deportment
100
(individual report)
100
(group report)
60
40
(individual report)
(group report)
60
75
30
35
Total Points
(group appendices)
(includes safety, attendance, etc.)
500
NOTE: Attendance and punctuality are expected. Absences and tardiness will impact
professionalism points.
There is a total of 500 points possible. The following break-down is given as a guide, but may
be adjusted according to the instructors’ discretion.
A
A-
465-500 points
450-465 points
B+
B
B-
435-450 points
415-435 points
400-415 points
C+
C
C-
385-400 points
365-385 points
350-365 points
D+
D
D-
335-350 points
315-335 points
300-315 points
ChE 477 – Spring 2011 Schedule
Due Date
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Project #1 Preplan and Permission to Start form
Project #1 Notebook
Project #1 Report
Project #1 Appendix
Project #2 Preplan and Permission to Start form
Project #2 Report
Project #2 Notebook
Project #2 Appendix
Project #3 Preplan and Permission to Start form
Project #3 Executive Summary
Project #3 Appendix
Project #3 Notebook
Project #3 Oral Presentation
Oral Presentation critique
Apr 28 (Th)
May 12 (Th)
May 12 (Th)
May 12 (Th)
May 12 (Th)
May 26 (Th)
May 26 (Th)
May 26 (Th)
May 31 (T)
Jun 13/14 (M/T)
Jun 13/14 (M/T)
Jun 13/14 (M/T)
Jun 13/14 (M/T)
Jun 13/14 (M/T)