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The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

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Abstract Volume 7 Issue 6 (2002) pp 384-386

A Case Study in the Chemical Engineering Freshman Course Using Enhanced Excel with Visual Basic and Power Point

Abdelaziz Al-Khlaifat* and Rad AlRifai^†

*Department of Chemical Engineering, Mutah University, Jordan; ^†Department of Computer Science and Telecommunication, Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL
Received September 27, 2001. Accepted February 28, 2002

Published online: 5 October 2002

Abstract. A multicomponent gas–liquid system was considered as a case study project for the course Elementary Principles of Chemical Engineering. In this case study, students were responsible for preparing and using the graphical representation of vapor–liquid equilibrium (T_xy diagrams) for a variety of systems and conditions. The solution to this problem is designed as an interactive program utilizing Enhanced Excel, Visual Basic, and PowerPoint. Using a combination of these three software components necessitated the submission of the solution on a computer disk. Submitting only a printout of the same solution may not capture all of the information that is displayed when using generated events from interacting with the various software modules. By using Excel, freshman students can perform a what-if-analysis for which the problem’s solution is sought, with minimum efforts. Furthermore, students will have a decent exposure to the chemical engineering process considered for this case study. Moreover, Excel spreadsheets are useful and easier to modify for parametric studies on the overall process than any other computational tool or program.

Key Words:  Computers in Chemistry; general chemistry; chemical engineering

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: khlaifat@mutah.edu.jo)

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Issue date: December 1, 2002

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