(528c) Scale Down Studies to Address Chemical Production and Student Development: Case Study of a Partnership with a Chemical Manufacturer and Technical Elective Design.

This case study illustrates the synergy that is possible when the desire to synthesize a chemical intermediate by an industry partner combines with the desire to develop relevant, hands-on educational experiences for chemical engineering students. A technical elective was created for an undergraduate / graduate offering that combined the topics of process scale down, the writing of standard operating procedures (SOPs), and hazard mitigation to take students through the methodology needed to critically evaluate and test a synthesis route. Care was taken during course design to minimize difficulties with intellectual property considerations, chemical safety, departures from SOPs, and other pitfalls common to "new" class experiences. Course exercises addressed two principal ABET outcomes: outcome 6, an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions; and outcome 2, an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors. With guidance, students designed experiments for a 20-gallon batch system installed at the university, went through the approval processes to test a Kolbe-Schmitt reaction, refined SOPs, worked with visiting engineers from the company to evaluate process chemistry, and participated in discussions to translate results to a proposed 1,500 gallon system. Additional process improvements are anticipated for future offerings of the course, designed in a manner to minimize any difficulty with intellectual property considerations.