Creation of a virtual chemical plant
Background and justification of the project
The education in chemical and process engineering has seen a very large change in the last two decades. While years ago students had education preparing them enter directly to the chemical industry, today students are exposed to a much larger portfolio of skills. However, as the total number of study point (or hours for study) remained basically unchanged, the widening of the scope also resulted in much lower exposure of students to core-disciplines of process engineering. This proposal will allow students to be exposed to chemical plant operation and design by making use of modern technologies.
Students in chemical engineering are offered two main courses on process design, namely 6E9X0 for the BSc students and 6EMA06 for MSc students. Both courses are very popular because they are required for the IChemE accreditation. The courses are designed to allow students to design processes of industrial relevance. For the MSc course the assignment is created in collaboration with industry (DOW Benelux B.V.). A small part of the courses is also related with safety issues.
Despite the good connection with industry and the presence of invited industrial lectures, the students are working on quite theoretical designs and have low exposure to “real” chemical plants. This is sometimes also evident by the unrealistic assumptions made by the students.
It is of course very difficult to organize study trips during the course for the students to industries, both for the time effort required to the students and the logistic difficulties to organize meaningful visits for large group of students.
This proposal will change the situation by making use of modern technologies such as virtual reality (VR). Nowadays VR is used for training of professionals ranging from pilots to chemical engineers. This proposal aims at creating the first Virtual Chemical Plant at a University in the Netherlands where students can either use the facility for training in standard chemical plants, or run their newly designed chemical plant. The system can also be used for other courses such as USE course 0LAUH00-Safety in Chemical Industry, where the students could be exposed to virtual unsafe plants and they have to use their knowledge to i) run the plant safely and ii) make the plant inherently safer. Initiatives within the Charming1 project will be use to boost the development process.
Objectives and expected outcomes of the project
The project aims at creating a Virtual Chemical plant for training of students. Hardware will be acquired for the training of small groups (up to 5 students and 1 teacher per session).
The system will be also designed such that student can load their own chemical plant design and check the feasibility and safety of the plant. This project will also give TU/e the first ever Virtual Chemical Plant environment for students.
Due to the magnitude of the project, we plan to divide the plan in phases, this being the initial phase, where we aim to have either a prototype or a minimum viable product. Depending on this first stage, we will apply for future calls to continue with the project.
Project design and management
Results and learnings
This project is currently still ongoing.
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