Teaching Chemical Product Design and Engineering
Educating chemical engineers for coming challenges
Teaching Chemical Product Design & Engineering (T6-3)
Keywords: product design, education
Teaching Chemical Product Design and Engineering
A.A. Broekhuis
University of Groningen, Netherlands
a.a.broekhuis@rug.nl
On an annual basis, the bulk chemical-industry produces millions of tons of intermediate products (solvents, polymers, pharmaceutical intermediates, etc.) and this industry employs classically trained chemical engineers to design, operate and maintain chemical plants. In general these engineers are trained in disciplines like unit operations, thermodynamics, transport phenomena and design projects.
Between this bulk chemical industry and the market for consumer products there is a large chemical products sector that designs, formulates, shapes and produces structured products that are used to fulfill consumer needs and, at the end of their functional life, these products are recycled or discarded.
More and more chemical engineers become involved in the design and manufacture of such structured products and the need for broadening their curriculum is being recognized by the industry and academia.
At the University of Groningen a new bachelor-master program has been initiated to educate chemical engineering students in the technical and managerial disciplines required for a future career in this chemical products sector.
The lecture will give some examples of product design to illustrate the competencies required for positions in this industry, resulting in an overview of the curriculum that currently is being offered.
Presented Monday 17, 11:15 to 11:35, in session Teaching Chemical Product Design & Engineering (T6-3).
