Session International Conference on Engineering Education August 18-21, 2002, Manchester, U.K. DESIGNING A LAB -SCALE WATER TREATMENT PLANT Kauser Jahan 1 , Jesse Condon 2 , Chasity Williams 3 and Benjamin Fratto 4 1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701 2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701 2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701 Abstract -- A major objective of the Junior and Senior Engineering Clinics at Rowan University is to introduce students to open-ended design projects. The purpose of the clinic classes is to provide engi- neering students with a hands-on, multidisciplinary experience throughout their college education. This type of innovative approach for allowing students to become involved in realistic open-ended design problems is beneficial for enhancing their problem solving skills and encourages them to pursue gradu- ate studies. This paper focuses on the design and de- velopment of a laboratory scale water treatment plant for enhancing student learning and understanding. A multidisciplinary student team conducted a thor- ough literature search and developed an innovative mobile laboratory scale water treatment plant. This plant can be used in various environmental and chemical engineering courses to reinforce unit opera- tions in water treatment. The project focused on treating raw surface water and converting it into po- table water by conventional water treatment proc- esses, such as sedimentation, filtration, activated car- bon adsorption, ion exchange, and disinfection. Water quality is characterized by standard parameters such as Suspended Solids (SS), Total Solids (TS), Conduc- tivity, pH, Hardness, Turbidity, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Organic Carbon (TOC), Ni- trate and Fecal Coliform Bacteria. Visual observa- tions along with water quality measurements helps in better understanding of each treatment process. Stu- dents are required to calculate conventional design parameters and efficiency of each treatment process. Course evaluations indicate that students have a bet- ter understanding of the design of a water treatment plant and its unit operations. Index Terms: unit operations, water treatmen, I NTRODUCTION Most conventional unit operations or process design courses in chemical and environmental engineering have laboratory components. These laboratories primarily focus on introducing students to relevant unit operations to their course materials. Topics that are common in both chemical and environmental unit operations are indicated in Table 1. Table 1: Unit Operations Topics Sedimentation/Clarification/Settling Filtration Adsorption Ion-exchange Disinfection Most of these common processes are demonstrated typically through individual laboratory experiences. Field trips are also typically included to enhance student learning and understanding of the operation of all these unit processes in a water/wastewater or chemical processing plant. This paper describes the development of a lab-scale mobile water treatment plant to demonstrate a number of unit processes. The objectives of teh development of this lboratory scale plant were as follows: • Enhance student learning and understanding of unit processes in a realistic context, • Demonstrate major water treatment processes and relevant operational parameters, • Relate water quality parameters for determining efficiency of each unit process, • Evaluate water quality parameters for determining federal and state regulatory compliance, and • Calculate relevant design parameters such as loading rates, detention time, chemical dosages etc. A multidisciplinary student team was asssigned to design the mobile laboratory scale water treatment plant. This team participated in the upper level engineering clinic class to develop the design and fabricate the plant. A major objective of the Junior and Senior Engineering Clinics at Rowan University is to introduce students to open-ended design projects. The purpose of the clinic classes is to provide engineering students with a hands-on, multidisciplinary experience throughout their college education. This type of innovative approach for allowing students to become involved in realistic open-ended design problems is beneficial for enhancing their problem solving skills and encourages them to pursue graduate studies. PLANT DESIGN