Introduction of a Carbon Dioxide Capture Experiment in a Senior Chemical Engineering Laboratory Course

Abstract

With the severity of climate change impacts increasing, it is imperative to educate students about climate change and potential technologies that may be used to mitigate it. To teach students about climate change and an emerging industry in carbon dioxide removal (CDR), a carbon dioxide capture experiment was included in a senior chemical engineering laboratory course. The experiment was iteratively scaled-up and student-designed in one rotation of a single-semester course. This paper includes experimental designs and associated data and outcomes from different iterations of the carbon dioxide capture module. The prototypes and experiments were designed and made by successive laboratory groups, with initial groups starting from small-scale chemistry experiments and subsequent groups progressively scaling up to a carbon dioxide absorption column. By the end of the semester, students had constructed a benchtop direct air capture (DAC) absorption column, using KOH to remove carbon dioxide from air. In addition to teaching important context, this curriculum modification also aimed to have students apply the fundamentals of reactor design and to have students collaborate with their peers to scale up chemical processes and create a final, usable product for future courses. Assignments were created to encourage student collaboration, creativity, hands-on design, and construction. The curriculum modification was evaluated by means of quantitative and qualitative survey, assessing aspects like the value of a student-led design module, of a climate change-relevant experiment, and of communicating with other groups to scale up a chemical process. A secondary outcome of this pedagogical experiment is a cheap and simple design of a chemical engineering laboratory experiment that can be easily replicated. This work demonstrates the value of supplementing traditional experiments with inquiry-based learning (IBL) and of including climate change content into the primary chemical engineering curriculum.