Chemical Engineering and Chemistry:

Education in a changing World

Jetse C. Reijenga

"Methodology of Teaching Experimental Chemistry"

Dept. Chemical Engineering and Chemistry

Eindhoven University of Technology
The Netherlands

for University of Belgrade, December 2005

9 Depts, 10 (3-year) Bachelor programs
19 (2-year) Master programs (English)

Chem Eng & Chemistry:

20 profs, 75 research staff
50 postdocs
200 support staff
500 students, 150 PhD

Eindhoven University of Technology

(founded 1956)
 Contents
• Some Trends in Science, Research, Industry
• Changing Demands on Education
• Topic 1: Multi Disciplinary Projects
• Topic 2: Experiment Simulations
• Chemical engineering example
• Chemistry examples
• Conclusions
• Discussion
Trends in Science and Engineering
knowledge domain of science and engineering
1000000
science
publications per year

engineering

100000

10000

1000
1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's

period

Source: http://scholar.google.com
Citations Explosion
annual number of CA abstracts
900000

800000

700000

600000

500000

400000

300000

200000

100000

0
1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's

Source: Chemical Abstracts Service

From Generalists to super Specialists
number of scientific journals
1400000

1200000

1000000

800000

600000

400000

200000

0
1900 1915 1930 1945 1960 1975 1990 2005

Source: Derek Price (1986) cited on http://www.lib.lsu.edu/collserv/lrts/ST2.html

Trends in Research and Communication
• Increased awareness for industrial application
• Computation: increased modelling capabilities
• Paper  electronic journals
• Explosion of number of specialized journals
• Search engines
• Letters  e-mails
• Local  global facilities
• Local  off-line or real-time long-distance cooperation
Trends in Employment and Industry
• Mono  Multi Disciplinarity
• Individual  Team work
• Boundaries disappear: global companies, EU expansion

Employment of Chemical Engineers in the USA vs. PhD year

Source: E.L. Cussler and J. Wei, A.I.Ch.E. Journal, 2003, 49(5), 1072-1075
From the old paradigm…..

Source: C. Moore (Pfizer R&D), AIChE Process Development Symposium (June

2003)
.….to the new paradigm

Source: C. Moore (Pfizer R&D), AIChE Process Development Symposium (June

2003)
Changing Demands in Education
• Facts  knowledge, skills
• where to get & how to select info
• Skills  competences, experience
• Skills related to use of Information Technology
• Isolated cases  integrated approach
• Guided exercise  problem oriented approach
• Passive  active educational setting
• Individual  team work
• Mono-disciplinary  multi-disciplinary teams
• Internationalization: master programs in English
• Multi cultural aspects
• "Final" exam and diploma  life-long learning

Sources: Industrial contacts and alumni surveys

Educational Settings
• Lectures (individual)
• Instructions (individual)
• Guided self-study (individual)
• Exams (written & oral) (individual)
• Term paper (individual)
• Research assignments (individual)
• Industrial internship (individual*)

• Practicals (2 students*)

• Real group work (4-8 students)

Source: http://w3.chem.tue.nl/en/
Increased Emphasis on Group Work
50

40
% groupwork

30

20

10

0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Multi-disciplinary Project Work - goals

• Cooperate in a team with students with different specialization

• Deal with practical problems (problem definition and analysis)
• Combine existing technical knowledge
• Locate and acquire new information
• Independently incorporate non-technical aspects (any…)
• Project work (planning, phasing, monitoring progress, costs…)
• Communicative & inter-cultural aspects
• unit has 8 ECTS credit points during 1 semester in Master

Source: http://www.ifp.tue.nl and http://chem.tue.nl/6Z003

Multi-disciplinary Project Work - setup

• A multi-disciplinary study is proposed by a Client

• Client is a company executive or university professor
• The study can be:
• Literature study
• Feasability study
• Scenario study
• Prototype design
• The group process is monitored by a Tutor
• Tutor is a PhD student at the Department
• The grading relates to the project result but also to group process
• Group delivers project plan, 2 presentations, 2 reports, website

Source: J.C. Reijenga, L.J. Asselbergs, Inter disciplinary Cooperation in Engineering

Science Education, in 6th International Conference on Education, Athens (2004)
Multi-disciplinary Project Work - examples

• A new type of oxinitride glass was developed: investigate future

areas of application
• The pollution of fresh water by the Bengali leather and textile
industry - No Time To Waste
• Design a pipeless batch plant for emulsion polymerization
• Make an inventory of sustainability of photographic techniques
in historical context
• Design, construct and test a refrigerator on solar cells (this was
a cyber-cooperation with NUS students)

Source: project websites on http://students.chem.tue.nl

International cooperation

J.C. Reijenga, H. Siepe, L.E. Yu, C.-H. Wang, Chem. Eng. Educ. 37(2), 14-19
(2003)
 Bridging the Gaps……

Theoretical Concepts

Multi disciplinary Projects

Experiment Simulations
Industrial Internships

Real Life Situation Experiments

Experiments or……………..?
Experiments:
• Are expensive
• Can fail (are not always student-proof….)
• Are time consuming
• Require safety precautions and chemicals
• Are restricted to specific laboratory hours & locations

• BAD idea: replace all experiments with simulations

• BETTER idea: simulations as preparation for real experiments

Simulations - purposes
Making the black box ….. transparent

Theoretical model
"equipment" Data
Equipment parameters

Visualize theoretical concepts Animate processes

Sources: http://www.po.gso.uri.edu/dynamics/WBC/tmovie10.html and

H. McNair, Basic Liquid Chromatography, http://hplc.chem.shu.edu/HPLC
Simulations - applications

demonstration classroom teaching

practical training in (dry) lab as step towards optimization

Simulation - Chem. Engineering example
3-phase batch reaction
• Glucose in water is oxidized at constant pH, temperature, using a
Pd/C catalyst and oxygen from air in a 1 litre CSTR
• Conversion is monitored using automated titration with NaOH
• 50% conversion typically 1 hour (……waiting time)
• Equipment typically costs 10000 euro

Interesting parameters: temperature, pH, initial concentration,

stirring speed, air flow (O2/N2 ratio) and the amount and type of
catalyst (e.g. solid spheres, totally porous)

You get more students and less budget, what do you do

Source: J.C. Reijenga, unpublished results (1994)
Simulation - Chemistry example
Virtual lab of analytical separation techniques

Database

Source: http://edu.chem.tue.nl/ce
 Source: J.C. Reijenga, J. Chromatogr., 1991, 588, 217-224
title
 Source: J.C. Reijenga, E. Kenndler, J. Chromatogr. A, 1994, 659, 403-415 and 417-
title 426
Source: J.C. Reijenga, and M. Hutta, J. Chromatogr. A, 1995, 709, 21-29
 Source: J.C. Reijenga, J. Chromatogr. A, 2000, 903, 47-54
title
HPLC simulator specs #1

UV 200 - 400 nm & RI

75 sample
0 - 65 oC components

Source: J.C. Reijenga, J. Chromatogr. A 903 (2000) 41-48

HPLC simulator specs #2
5 - 500 mm

1 - 10 mm

1 - 25 µm

MeOH
ACN

Source: J.C. Reijenga, J. Chromatogr. A 903 (2000) 41-48

HPLC simulator extensions

• Lichrospher100 RP18 5µm • 3 (4) parameter model

• Lichrospher100 CN 5µm • Valid 5 - 90%
• Spherisorb ODS-2 5µm • source: ChromSword
• Aluspher100 RPSelectB 5µm
• TSKgel Super ODS
• ChromolithPerformance RP C18e
Source: J.C. Reijenga and M. Hutta, J. Sep. Science, submitted october 2005
HPLC simulator, typical output
HPLC simulator, display options
Monolithic column 150 mm, 50% ACN, temperature 65 0°C
Conventional column, 150 mm, 35°C, particle diameter 110 µm
ProteinLab

• heat treatment
• gel filtration
• ammonium Sulphate fractionation
• ion exchange chromatography
• hydrophobic interaction chromatography
• preparative isoelectric focusing
• affinity chromatography
• 1D and 2D PAGE for purity check

Source: http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/chem/staff/elaborate/packages/
 Simulations - from macro to micro
• so far: simulation of detector signals as final result
• zoom in on time scale - from minutes to milliseconds
• zoom in on distance scale:
• from meters to millimeters (during separation in column)
• from millimeters to micrometers (boundary layer effects)
• from micrometers to nanomaters (molecular level details)

• view the dynamics of separation…………

Source: http://www.cofc.edu/~kinard/Applets/ChromatographyAnimation.gif
 CZE/ITP

Source: http://edu.chem.tue.nl/ce/stackweb/
title
Simul 4.0

Source: B. Gas (Prague) on http://prfdec.natur.cuni.cz/~gas/

 Conclusions
• Group work bridges the gap Theory - Real Life Situation
• work on communication skills
• Simulations help bridging the gap Theory - Experiments
• work on information technology skills

Points for discussion

1. The world changes, change with it!
2. There's no change without effort, time and money!
3. Threat or opportunity?
4. Giant steps or small steps?
5. Isolation, competition or cooperation?
j.c.reijenga@tue.
nl
Thank you