Integrated Product and Process Development Using Case Studies: A Challenge to the Education of Science and Engineering Undergraduates

Abstract

The education in integrated product and process development is a challenge for teachers, teaching assistants, as well as for students. At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, a new course in 'Safety and Environmental Protection Chemistry' has been established. To practise and exercise the tools introduced in the lecture, four different case studies of chemical products and processes have been developed in collaboration with the chemical industry. The subjects of the case studies are the insecticide Pymetrozine, the reactive dye Cibachron-LS, the red pigment DPP, and Perchloroethylene for dry cleaning. Various teams formed out of students from chemical engineering, chemistry, and environmental science work on topics like process safety, product safety, product risk assessment, and social responsibilities of manufactures. Different resource materials and guidance by a teaching assistant were provided. Finally, the students presented their results to industrial experts and received at the same time valuable feedback about the industrial approach to such problems. The application of the tools for integrated product and process development to actual case studies widened the students' scope of safety and environmental protection in a new proactive direction by a risk-oriented design of chemical technology.