VUOL - Virtual Unit Operations Laboratory by F. Wiesner PhD, PE and William Lan PhD Stud: S. Vaidyanath, J. Williams, M. Hilliard

In the typical chemical engineering curriculum, the Unit Operations Laboratory not only serves to reinforce the theoretical concepts covered at the junior level, but also to familiarize senior-level students with the safety and operational issues of chemical processes. Students conduct experiments on small-scale equipment that is equivalent to pilot-scale units in industrial development laboratories.

However, the chemical processing industries (CPI) appear to be shifting from pilot-scale experiments to greater dependency on computer tools (Chemical Engineering Advisory Board, Texas Tech University, 1998). Reasons for this include safety, costs, greater computing power, and human resource allocation. As a result many CPI firms employ computer-based simulations, thereby relegating the traditional pilot-scale operations to roles of lesser importance. This suggests a modernization of the typical unit operations pedagogy...