AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The aim of the course consists of describing and demonstrating by means of experimental laboratory tests some of the main industrial processes of chemical engineering. Student will acquire the fundamentals to work in a chemical and process laboratory.

At the end of the course, it is expected that students will be able to:

• produce laboratory reports on the practical course experiences;
• design, set up and supervise easy experiments using lab-scale plants;
• obtain significant measures using the most appropriate technique for the evaluation of the experiments;
• understand and contextualize experimental data;
• apply the safety and good laboratory practices.

TEACHING METHODS

The course consists of lessons held in classroom with the help of slides, aimed to correctly perform the following laboratory experiments ( 25 hours) and of practical experiences that will be carried out by the students (25 hours). Students will work on team and individually, this way they will acquire transversal skills in terms of independent judgment and cooperation.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The syllabus of the course consists of:

• introduction to the good laboratory practices and safety in chemical laboratories (5 hours);
• description of the activities that will be performed in laboratory and related references to the theory on unit operations (milling, sieving, bioreactors, settlers, filtration plants and distillation columns) (15 hours);
• experiments on milling and solid particle sieving (5 hours);
• experiments on batch-mode settlers and membrane filtration (5 hours);
• experiments on the start-up and management of a bioreactor and following analysis on biomass and products (5 hours);
• experiments on biodiesel production and chemo-physical characterization of the biofuel (5 hours);
• start-up and management of a lab-scale distillation column (5 hours).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

All the material shown during the lessons is given to the students. In general, the notes of each lesson and the slides are sufficient to study and to have success in examinations.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

PAOLA COSTAMAGNA (President)

PATRIZIA PEREGO (President)

ALESSANDRO ALBERTO CASAZZA

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lessons will start on second semester, according to the Polytechnique School’s program.

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam consists in the production of periodical laboratory reports on all the experiences carried out in the laboratory and in an interview on the contents of the reported experiences.

There will be 3 exams during the winter session and 4 exams during the summer session.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Student’s preparation will be verified by a written and an oral examination. The former, will be useful to evaluate the student skill in writing scientific report, while the second will give information on the student knowledge of the topics of the course. Moreover, The quality of the exposition, the correct use of technical terminology and critical reasoning ability will also be assessed.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

During the practical  laboratory lessons, students will be divided into two groups.

The frequency is strongly recommended and will be verified for the laboratory activities ( 70% of laboratory exercitations is needed to pass the exam)

For specific needs, students can talk to the professor before the starting of the course.

Student workers have to contact the professor before starting the course.

Student must have a personal cotton lab coat, while the personal protective equipment will be furnished by the laboratory.