TEACHING FUNDAMENTALS FOR A VARIED CHEMICAL INDUSTRY' KENNETH A. KOBE University of Texas, Austin, Texas
TEEGRADUATES of each university are expected to saturate the demand for educated, trained individuals in the communities supporting that school. The employer expects that the individual will possess the education and training necessary for the work assigned to him and will have the capability of progressing within the organization and the community. where one industry is extremely varied, as is the chemical industry in Texas, the individual cannot be trained in all the wmifications of that industry. He must receive a training in fundamentals that are applicable to all industries and he made familiar with some of the ways in which these fundamentals are used in industry so that he can develop an awareness for or alertness toward new applications of these fundamentals in new &uations that may confront him. WHAT ARE FUNDAMENTALS?
No university would ever admit that it did not teach fundamentals, but its definition of a fundamental subject might he debatable. Certainly in the chemical engineering curriculum essential fundamental subjects are mathematics, chemistry, physics, and English. Less in chemical but fundamental for specialized work, are economics, psychology, geology, and biology. These fields give the fundamentals upon which can be based specialized courses, as personnel management has its fundamentals in psychology. The fundamentals of chemical engineering may be ~ i somewhat controversial at this time. ~ i ~ k b (3) has defined five technical fundamentals: (1) the material balance, (2) the energy balance, (3) static equilibrium, (4) rates of transfer and transformation of mass and energy, (5) the economic balance. TO these technical fundamentals he adds the nontechnical value of human relationships and presentation of ideas and results. ~h~ definition used by ~ i ~ k bis~ i d ~ curdifferent from the usual chemical riculum arrangement in which emphasis is placed on the unit physical operation and unit chemical prooess concept. Few schools have given a t the undergraduate level special courses in process rates, but material on rates of transfer of mass and heat h a heen included operations in which these are inin the various a valved. The economic balance may be given of many of the separate course or he the presented before the Chemioa, Engineering Division, can Society for Engineering mucation, A U S ~ T ~ ~ , ~ .rune~ 16, 1948.
problems in other courses, either fundamental or application courses. TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATION COURSES
In addition to chemical engineering courses teachingthese five fundamentals each curriculum usually has a number of courses which may be called technology. A Survey of the announcement of courses for a number Of the larger schools shows that they offer courses in fuel kchnolog~, water treatment, plastics, cellulose industries, pulp and paper technology, ~etroleumrefinktechnology or engineering, electrochemistry, p i n t and varnish technology, fermentation industries, ceramics, and other specialities. Frequently, courses in metallurgy, metallography, and instrumentation are given under the supervision of the chemical engineering department. In addition to these courses in technology are a variety of courses that may be called applications courses. Such courses given in chemical engineering departments are design, economics, colloids, applied mathematics, and the lika. The objective of these Courses is 'to take the knowledge of fundamentals in chemical engineering and other courses and apply all of these to the problem a t hand. In applied mathematics courses the instructor takes the fundamental knowledge of mathematics that the student possesses and shows him how it is applied to special problems in dchemical ~ engineering. Special graphical and analytical methods may be introduced for the solution of special problems. Special textbooks are available in this field (2, 61 8). When the course is completed the student has had a thorough review of many phases of his mathematics, has extended his knowledge in certain directions, and has a better understanding of how to use mathematics for the solution of his chemical engineering prob!ems. Courses in chemical engineering design are given ln many departments to coordinate the material in various chemical engineering course with mechanical and structural engineering. It may also include principles of economics, process development, market s m e S 9 and plant location. A chemical engineering economics course, based on Tyle% book of this ti'le (g), is a qualitative.discussion of the organization and operation of the chemical process industries, rather than a quantitative study of present costs and future worth as presented in texts on engineering economics, and as those of Grant, and Woods and DeGarmo , In the writer's opinion economic factors should ( I ,0
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be stressed continuously in all chemical engineering courses. In courses in the chemical process industries the economic factors should rank equal in importance with the technical factors (4). Courses in industrial colloid chemistry are frequently given, based on the book of h w i s , Squires, and Broughton (6). In such a course the fundamentals of colloid chemistry, learned in physical chemistry, are applied to important chemical industries. Such work given a t the graduate level to small groups of interested students can stimulate advanced study and research in this specialized field. However, a t the undergraduate level i t may becchne too qualitative and generalized to be of lasting value. COMBINING FUNDAMENTALS AND TECHNOLOGY
In order to give ample study of the fundamentals of chemical engineering, the technology may be abbreviated to such an extent that the graduating student leaves with little idea of how various industries are applying the fundamentals he has mastered. This situation may be avoided by using examples from the industries of the state so that the student gets a picture of how local industries apply chemical engineering. Thus, in the discussion of the unit operation of absorption, the instructor in Texas may discuss the absorption of natural gasoline from wet natural gas, whereas the instructor in Maine or Washington might discuss a t greater length the absorption of sulfur dioxide in the Jenssen tower to form bisulfite pulping liquor. Thermodynamic calculations using problems based on processes operated in local plants both stimulate interest and teach technology, particularly the principles applied in industry. The older courses in industrial chemistry fell into disrepute because they dealt too extensively with analytical methods, descriptions of equipment, and flowsheets. Modern courses in technology can stress fundamentals without the soluti~nof the so-called "typical problems" (4). In the inorganic field a discussion of the physical-chemical relatitisnships in the system KC~-N~CI-HXOnaturally leads to a discussion of how the potash companies apply these phase relationships to separate pure potassium chloride from the naturallv occurrine mineral svlvinite. This discussion wouid then lea; to flotation processes used to separate the mixed crystals of potassium chloride from the sodium chloride occurring in sylvinite. The technical and economic significance of the two processes should be stressed. In organic technology the field is wide open for the discussion of economic factors a t work between industries and within one industry. The decline of the wood distillation industry with the introduction of synthetic acetic acid and methanol serves as an illustration of interprocess competition. Intercommodity competition between methanol and ethanol for the same markets shows how the total markets for both chemicals have expanded. The production of ethanol by fermentation, from ethylene produced in petroleum re-
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King, and by the Synthol process illustrate the variety of industries that may compete for the same markets. The fundamentals of English can be driven home in chemical engineering courses if the instructor is emphatic in stressing the need of good oral and written presentation of technical material. Unfortunately, many instructors of technical subjects feel that engineering is their field and they let the English instructor take care of his own. The technical instructor can no more afford to take this attitude toward English than he can toward mathematics. It is just as vital to the future progress of the young engineer. Cooperation between the English department and the technical department can lead to a four-year program of training that produces excellent results. THE PRACTICE SCHOOL
The practice school allows the graduate student to apply his knowledge in an industrial plant on an industrial scale. It gives him the viewpoint of practicality and removes any doubts concerning the size and scale on which industrial plants operate. The method used by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is excellent for a school having a large graduate body and a popular practice-school course. In the M.I.T. program there are four practice stations operated a t different types of chemical plants. A class usually spends two months a t each station working on problems peculiar to that industry. A more modest but an effective procedure is that used a t Texas prior to the war. A small group of graduate students (6 to 10 men) accompanied by an instructor would spend a total of six weeks a t three different types of chemical plants. Units ig each plant had been selected for test. The group performed these tests, calculated the results, and reported them to the plant management in the form of an engineering report. Usually the students were allowed free access to the plant and could observe the operation of other plant units. This program had t o be suspended during the war and -has not yet been revived because of a shortage of teaching staff. INDUSTRY AND FACULTY COOPERATION
Each department and each individual within the denartment should examine the offerinsof courses and t h i context of his own,courses t o insure that basic information is presented to the student. There is usually nothing stimulating about a textbook; its cold, printed pages present facts and figures.. The instructor can make this material alive and stimulating through its presentation in connection with the industries of the state. But in order that the instructor can present these examples he should have done more than read a related account in a technical journal. He should have observed the operation of the plant, he should had discussed technical, economic, and personnel problems with the operating personnel and plant management. This can be done by annual visits of faculty to the industrial plants. These should not be part of student.
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trips in which groups are herded past production units terest in their problems as well as in research in general. and given a general statement of the name of the unit The retention of the faculty member as a consultant and the product made. It should be a technical in- for an industrial organization likewise gives him current spection in which a few faculty members accompanied industrial examples to use with his classes as it acquaints by several plant technical men examine various units him with current practice much broader than the conand their integration into the plant program, and dis- sulting work. The effect on the students is noticeable, cuss the economics of competing types of units and for they observe that they are being taught by a chemioperating procedure. Needless t o say, such inspec- cal engineer and not a "professor." tions should be a t the invitation and expense of the Both industry and the university gain by the stimulacompanies. They have much to gain and it should he tion of the instructor so that a chain-reaction type of part of their personnel recruitment program. About activation conveys this enthusiasm for the applicathe time that Reyerson (7) pleaded for a two-way tion of fundamentals to the problems of industry. street frbm the campus to industry, some progressive It must be encouraged and expanded by both sides. companies, such as Monsanto Chemical Company, Proctor & Gamble Company, and the General Electric LITERATURE CITED Company, began such a program. It is hoped that (1) GRANT, E. L., "Principles of Engineering Economy," Ronald Press, New York, 1938. other companies will continue this program. (2) Hrrcncoc~, F. L., AND C. S. ROBINSON, "Differential Recently the Monsanto Chemical Company has Equations in Applied Chemistry," Wiley and Sons, expanded its cooperation with universities. It has New York, 1936. been willing to give employment to chemical engineering (3) KIRKBRIDE, C. G., "Chemicd Engineering Fundamentala," instructors for summer months a t its various plants. MeGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1947. (4) It now will take a man on leave from his university . . KOBE.K. A,. "Inoremic Process Industries." Macmillan CO.;New ~ o r k 19&, , pp. v-vi. position for a period of one year and allow him to work (5) LEWIS,W. K., L. SQUIRES, AND G. BROUQBTON, "Industrial in several divisions of the plant to which he is assigned. Chemistry of Colloidal and Amorphous Materials," Such a plan is excellent for the young instructor who Macmillan Co., New York, 1943. (6) MARSHALL, W. R., JR.,AND R. L. PIGFORD, "Appli~ationof is not tied to his school by graduate research students DitIerential Equations to Chemical Engineering Prohwho need his advice and direction. For those staff lems," University of Delaware, Newark, Del., 1947. members who must stay with their research programs (7) REYERSON, L. H., Chem. & Eng. News, 24,3035 (1946). a fellowship plan is proposed in which the company (8) SAERWOOD, T. K., AND C. E. REED,"Applied M~themstica places in the school a fellowship for a fundamental in Chemical Engineering," McGraw-Hill Book Co., New Ynrk. ... , 1939. research problem bearing on some phase of the com- ~ - ~ (9) TYLER, C., "Chemical Engineering Economies," McGrawpany's work. Semiannual research conferences a t Hill Book Co., New York, 1948. the company's laboratories and inspection of research (10) WOODS,B. H., AND E. P. DEGLRMO,"Introduction to laboratories and plants will do much to familiarize the Engineering .Economy." Mi'cmillan Co., New York, 1942. instructor with the company and to stimulate his in~~
