Over the past decade, Purdue has had one of the largest graduating senior classes in chemical engineering, typically numbering in the mid-range between one hundred and two hundred students. The size of is this student body has allowed Jeff to create a classroom format for the capstone process/plant design course featuring a large numbers of teams and unleashing their creative forces to explore a wide range of feasible solutions to challenging problems in process design. Since 2017 and the onset of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR), the design projects revolved around the many opportunities associated with capturing the value of stranded light hydrocarbons from the shale oil revolution. This talk will feature some of the highlights from these courses, including additional insights from offering the capstone design course in fall semester as well as the traditional format in the spring semester.
