(277e) Implementation of Augmented Reality for Binary Distillation in Unit Operations Course

Understanding unit operations is an essential part in chemical engineering course. An important example is continuous distillation column, which operation is often seen as a black box that lacks user visibility, hence preventing students from developing a deeper intuition of the system and concepts at play. Therefore, they may find it difficult to comprehend and visualize what is going on inside a distillation column and how to connect various theories involved in the design and calculations. By leveraging on the ubiquity of personal mobile devices, we have been developing a virtual visualization tool, such as augmented reality (AR) application to enable students better visualize the distillation process, such as liquid and vapor fluid flow profiles and different components that make up a distillation column. In addition, through the simulation embedded inside the application, students are also able to play and learn the effect of important parameters, such as reflux ratio, boil-up ratio and the feed entry location on the column performance. The AR application was first introduced in the Fall term in 2020 to a cohort of about 150 students and it has gathered positive responses. Based on the pre-test and post-test conducted before and after the usage of the application, respectively, students showed improvement in their understanding of the distillation concept. Overall, majority of the students indicated that it has enhanced their learning experience of the course and motivated them to further explore the subject matter.