Integrating Freshmen into Exploring the Multi-Faceted World of Engineering and Sustainability through Biofuels Synthesis from Waste Cooking Oil
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| Publicado en: | Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers (Jun 15, 2014), p. 24.773.1 |
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American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE
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| Acceso en línea: | Citation/Abstract Full text outside of ProQuest |
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| Resumen: | Integrating Freshmen into Exploring the Multi-faceted World of Engineering and Sustainability through Biofuels Synthesis from Waste Cooking Oil Well-designed first year experience courses are mainstays in the curriculum for freshman engineering students, as well as for freshmen in other fields.Solid first year courses are building blocks in helping a freshman navigate through and discover a new major. It is imperative for a freshman to be exposed to different engineering disciplines to experience first-hand the expectations and variations among them.University XXX’s College of Engineering has strategized this teaching opportunity through a series of freshman mini projects designed to introduce different engineering majors. These mini projects are integrated into a year long mandatory freshman engineering course. In the first semester, this freshman engineering course begins with a seven-week core lesson plan incorporating engineering fundamentals alongside dynamic hands-on group micro-projects that bring classroom lessons to life. Following the core lesson plan, students are presented with the opportunity to select two of six interdisciplinary, 7-week hands-on mini projects. These mini projects which span the second half of the first semester and the first half of the second semester have been designed to expose students to a minimum of two different engineering disciplines. The mini projects offered include: Acoustic Technologies for Predicting Structural Failure, Biofuels Process and Sustainability, Electric Car Design, Robotics and MATLAB Programing, The Load/Deflection Character of a SMARTBEAM, and Adsorption-Drinking Water Treatment Process. By mid second semester, students select their preferred engineering discipline and spend the remaining seven-weeks in the chosen disciplinary field.This paper focuses on the Biofuels Process and Sustainability mini project, which started in the Fall 2011 semester. This project was developed with the idea of exposing these young engineers to the latest advancements and technological developments in our society. In response to the need for decreased dependence on fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy sources, the concept of bioeconomy is introduced and emphasized. Through bioeconomy, vital sources of carbon and energy are obtained from biorenewable materials such as biomass. The need to embrace this transformation from non-renewables to an era of bioeconomy should be more important than ever if a significant change is to happen. Through this Biofuels Processand Sustainability mini project, freshmen are exposed to two fundamentals evolving around bioeconomy: the production process of liquid transportation fuels from biorenewables and the sustainability issues surrounding biofuel production and utilization. Specifically, the goals of this mini-project are to challenge freshmen to utilize basic engineering and chemistry principles in synthesizing and characterizing biodiesel made from ar enewable resource such as waste cooking oil, to interpret and analyze experimental data in scaling up to a biodiesel processing facility and finally to assess the overall sustainability of the biodiesel production process.For the first portion of the seven-week mini project, the course is presented as a combination of lectures and in-class group exercises on various aspects of biofuel production and sustainability. Following the lecture series, freshmen experience hands-on laboratory experiments on biodiesel synthesis and characterization, analysis of energy usage and heat transfer of the synthesis process, and the synthesis of soap from glycerin by-product. Through the transesterification of waste cooking oil (WCO), biodiesel is synthesized while producing a by-product of glycerin. Post experiments, students are challenged to prepare two formal laboratory reports focusing on the chemistry and mass balance aspects of biofuels synthesis and the other on the energy and heat transfer aspects of the biofuels synthesis. The report preparation involves technical literature background research, data collection and spreadsheet use for data and numerical analysis. In addition to the chemistry and heat transfer aspects of biodiesel production, the element of entrepreneurship is also incorporated in the soap production via glycerol by-product. Students are also exposed to the scale-up process of biodiesel production in a commercial facility.Overall, the freshman mini projects come together to better prepare young engineering students to have an appreciation for engineering design and development in the world around us. This course not only introduces the fundamentals of basic engineering principles, but proactively engages students to perform these design experiments and challenges these young minds to come up with a conclusion of their own. Through this multi-disciplinary course, these mini projects will certainly provide a platform for a successful undergraduate engineering career. |
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| Fuente: | Library Science Database |