Canama's BSChE e-Portfolio
Engineering Knowledge
Before anyone becomes a licensed engineer, it is necessary for one to be well-grounded by the fundamental knowledge in natural science, mathematics, and computing. The wide, complex solutions that an engineer can formulate begins with simple calculations integrated by advanced techniques and skills.
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Presented in this section are some evidences of my ability to detect, analyze, and solve engineering fundamentals and the basics of the chemical engineering realm.
Investigating MATTER
One of the highlights a chemical engineer needs to know is to be well-versed in the field of chemistry (yet being a ChE is not entirely on chemistry). However, the importance of understand how each phenomenon actually does on a scientific level to fully grasp how to engineer a particular system and troubleshoot scenarios that needs utmost attention. Thus, details are very important for a chemical engineer.
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In the program, we started off by taking up classes that tackles fundamentals of organic, inorganic, analytical, and physical chemistry to decipher the nature of matter and how matter interacts with one another. This is vital especially when dealing with chemical reactions and thermodynamic properties. One of the evidences to which I was able to explain how a particular reaction or physical/chemical event happened is by performing laboratory reports (which is constant from 1st year to 4th year) in some experiments performed. Presented below are two experiments done during my organic chemistry classes which was handled by a chemistry teacher. Later on, we were handled by a chemical engineer in Physical chemistry to be grounded upon the ChE discipline (see other tabs for the artifacts).
Aside from actual performance of laboratory experiments and showcasing it through lab reports, another activity that was done throughout the program was to do personal journals. But these journals are not tackling on my life story or of someone else. Rather, a collection of phenomena were presented by my instructor to which we could select and explain how that phenomenon occur on a scientific perspective and logic. Here are some journals made in my Physical Chemistry 2 class.
Personal Journals
Adsorption
Electrochemistry
Kinetics
Quantum Mechanics
Aside from paperwork and written reports, another artifact that honed my technical skills in understanding the sciences of every phenomenon is to present it orally. With the pandemic that struck the world, video-making has been a way of producing oral reports in the department. This allows us to still do oral presentations at comfort of our homes. Here is a sample video made during our ChE Laboratory classes that tackled on the experiment using a Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). Another video evidence can be presented during our Laboratory Simulation of Industrial Product Manufacture where we actually created some inductrial products at the comfort of our home (due to the pandemic). This video shows how I made cheese from items found in the grocery.
Oral Report on CSTR Experiment
Actual Conduct of Cheese Production
Mathematical Modelling
Engineers must also be able to analyze and solve mathematical problems, may it be simple calculus problems or as complex as iterations and modelling. Reflecting through my ChE program journey, most of the design problems entails the use of mathematical skills with a mix of understanding the fundamental concepts of mass conservation, energy conservation, and Newton's laws of motion. These pillars are important in the derivation of design solutions for equipment sizing and energy requirements.
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The new curriculum during our Senior High School years have introduced the fundamentals of calculus and statistics. Such knowledge and skills further blossomed in the early years of the ChE program by reinforcing these subjects and by integrating it through incorporation of ChE topics in the course of the discussion. Here is a PowerPoint presentation file where we worked on a free undamped motion of a spring and formulate a solution using Laplace transform. On a personal note, this was one of the moments where I was totally nervous of the presentation and was greatly doubtful if was doing it right given the small amount of time to prepare. Nevertheless, all went well and I was truly happy of the result.
Click on the picture to see file on Solving Laplace Transforms PPT
Aside from manual calculations, the program also introduced us to the use of computer-aided calculations in determining solutions of a particular problem. Here presented is a sample, documented file of determining the optimal pipe length problem that was provided during our Advanced Math class. In this problem, we used excel to conduct iterative solutions and generated a graph representing the developed model.
Click on the picture to see file Optimum Pipe Length Modelling Exercise
Chemical Engineering
DESIGN PROBLEMS
In my personal understanding, the uniqueness of a chemical engineer lies on the ability to design, identify, operate, and troubleshoot process in detail based on their chemical properties and interactions. Combining both natural science, mathematics skills, and problem-solving analysis, a chemical engineer is able to decipher how system works in each phase and is able to design solutions to various problems in the industry.
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In the latter part of the ChE program, we were tasked to do a reactor equipment design following the derivation of a reaction system incorporated in the component mass balance equation. It was probably our first taste of what would be our capstone project which is to design an entire plant. With the process equipment design, my team and I conducted series of selection and evaluation especially in the materials that are to be used in the reactor. Further, the design project was very challenging for me since we would be incorporating all we have learned since the beginning of our ChE journey. Though it was hard, it was probably a good way to hone our skills and be able to identify ourselves on the chemical engineer's way of thinking and doing and apply it in the projects that were tasked to do.
Click on the picture to see file on Chemical Reactor Equipment Design
There were other design projects that were made over the course of the program. This can be viewed as you journey through the rest of the tabs in the menu ribbon.