NETWORK FOR THE PREPARATION OF SCRIPTS FOR EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICES OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING BASED ON THE USE OF THE TICS

In this work, the material developed as a consequence on a project of creation of technological networks for innovation in education, financed by the “Vicerrectorado de Tecnología e Innovación Educativa” of the University of Alicante (Spain) is presented. The main objective of the project consists in the preparation of scripts for experimental practices of Chemical Engineering, where the conventional style of the classical scripts, where a theoretical introduction, experimental procedure, sampling and data acquisition procedure and data treatment is provided, are combined with computing tools which permit the access to:

- Illustrative video films of the experimental equipment, its operation and the procedure for the laboratory sessions.
- Links for connecting subjects which are related
- Applets for illustrating the interpretation of the experimental data
- Auto-evaluation tests
- Etc.

Whit these criteria, the preparation of the script corresponding to a batch rectification experiment has been performed. This experimental practice is a part of the experimental subject of “Experimentación en Ingeniería Química IV“, which forms part of the 5th year of the “Chemical Engineer” studies in the University of Alicante, with 13 ECTS. This practice has been selected because it accounts the requirements for the development of the utilities above-mentioned: is a little installation, where a rectification column is reproduced at laboratory scale, and the starting and operation procedures perfectly can be illustrated through videofilms and virtual experiments. Moreover, the calculations involved require the application of numerical integration and graphical methods which can be solved with the aid of a spreadsheet.

Acknowledgements: Financial support for this work has been provided by the “Vicerrectorado de Tecnología e Innovación Educativa” of the Alicante University.