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USING A COGENERATION FACILITYToIllustrateEngineeringPracticetoLower-LevelStudents

ROBERT P. HESKETH, C. STEWART SLATERRowan University · Glassboro, NJ 08028-1701

Almost every university has a power plant facilitythat is an excellent resource for students of engi-neering processes and equipment. These physical

plants contain many unit operations, such as heat exchang-ers, combustors, turbines, and boiler water-treatment sys-tems that may include membrane devices! The systems areequipped with pumps, compressors, fans, pipes, atomizers,tanks,finned boiler tubes, inner-wall transfer surfaces,valves,etc. In addition, a modern facility includes a data-acquisitionsystem to obtain data to control the plant consisting of ori-fice plates,pressuretransducers,thermocouples, level gauges,and vibration meters. Concentration measurements are madeusing NDIR gas analyzers for CO, C02 and total hydrocar-bons. And oxygen is measured using paramagnetic analyz-ers and NO, using chemiluminescence. Concentration mea-surements are also made of impurities in the boiler water.These plants are a rich source of engineering examples thatare readily accessible to engineering students.

At Rowan University, we use.our cogeneration facility inour freshman and sophomore chemical engineering courses.In the freshman year we introduce our students to measure-ment devices, process flow diagrams, and process simula-tion. This is accomplished in the freshman engineering coursein a three-week module on process measurements.

ROWAN ENGINEERING CLINICS

The Rowan engineering faculty are taking a leadershiprole by using innovative methods of teaching and learning,as recommended by ASEE,ll] to better prepare students forentry into a rapidly changing and highly competitive market-place. Key program features include

~ Inter- and multidisciplinary education created throughcollaborative laboratory and course work

~ Stressing teamwork as the necessaryframeworkforsolving complex problems

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~ Incorporation of state-of-the-art technologies through-out the curricula

~ Creation of continuous opportunities for technical com-munication.

To best meet these objectives, the four engineering pro-grams of chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical have acommonengineeringclinic throughout theirprogram of study.In addition to the engineering clinic, they share a commonfirst year of courses. Our first three classes of entering fresh-men are between 101and 115 students with an average SATscore of 1252 and who graduated in the top 14% of theirhigh school class.

The primary goal of Rowan University's freshman engi-neering course is to immerse students in multidisciplinaryprojects that teach engineering principles using the theme ofengineering measurements in both laboratory and real-worldsettings. Many freshman programs focus on either a design

Robert Hesketh is Associate Professor of

Chemical Engineering at Rowan University.He received his as in 1982 from the Universityof Illinois and his PhD from the University ofDelaware in 1987. After his PhD he conductedresearch at the University of Cambridge, En-gland. His teaching and research interests arein reaction engineering, freshman engineer-ing. and mass transfer.

C. Stewart Slater is Professor and Chair of

Chemical Engineering at Rowan University. Hereceived his as, MS, and PhD from RulgersUniversity. His teaching and research interestsare in separation and purification technology,laboratory development, and investigating novelprocesses for interdisciplinary fields such asbiotechnology and environmental engineering.He has writtenover 70papers and several bookchapters.

@ Copyright ChE Division of A SEE 1999

Chemical Engineering Education