ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY STUDY AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS INCORPORATION IN BUILDINGS

The adaptation of the Chemical Engineering Degree at the University of Castilla-La Mancha to the European System of higher Education Area (EHEA) through the Bologna Process has promoted important changes in the teaching and evaluation methodologies. Between these new educational methodologies, it is worthy to point out the increasing interest of the performance of seminars.

In this work, a specific seminar for the evaluation of the economic feasibility and the environmental impact of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) incorporation in buildings is presented. This seminar is included in the subject titled: Renewable Energy and Energy Evaluation of Processes of 4th course of Chemical Engineering Degree with the aim of contributing to achieve some of the skills and knowledge of this subject. The seminar offers to the student the opportunity to deep in the knowledge of the thermal solar energy use, which is one of the subject’s units, at the time that they can integrate concepts learned in other units of the same or even from different subjects and courses.
The main subject’s aims achieved with the seminar are: to acquire applied knowledge of renewable energies and the capacity to perform energy evaluations; to understand the development of the new energy technologies and their influence on the protection of the environment; to know the energy savings possibilities and economic benefits achieved by means of the renewable energy use. On the other hand, some of the transversal skills trained with the seminar are: to apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations and to acquire skills of data analysis and problem resolution.

Besides, the seminar is imparted in English in order to teach specific vocabulary regarding the solar energy and the energy evaluation of processes. This way, the seminar enhances the students’ capacity to work in a multilingual environment and to dominate a second language of the European Community.

Finally, it is worthy to point out that the consecution of the aims is evaluated through a survey that is filled by the students before and after the seminar in order to check the interest of this activity.