Chemical Engineering Lab ReportsMubarak AlsalehUniversity of Alabama

Chemical Engineering Lab Reports

Purpose

Chemical engineering labs reports are meant to enable learners to develop the ability to carry out research. They are depictions of a student's capability to create an investigation, formulate effective measurements, analyze data, and present the outcomes. The labs reports are also meant to enhance deep comprehension of chemical engineering standards and enable proper communication of technical material (Turtenwald, 2018). Students are in a position to understand statistical concepts, analyze errors, as well as report laboratory procedures. From the lab reports, managers, directors, and other professionals tend to learn what a learner has done and formulate opinions.

A student who completes a lab report should answer a certain question in a structured and scientific way. A lab report is also meant to state the purpose of an experiment. For instance, the CSTR lab experiment had the aim of comparing the concentration of salt in three CSTRs as a way of responding to the series alteration in the inlet concentration. In an attempt to assess salt concentration as the inlet concentration variations, data was garnered from the conductivity meters. The purpose defined in the CSTR experiment indicates that lab reports are meant to explore specific scientific concepts. Other aims include the formulation of a hypothesis regarding a certain stimulus, activity, and behavior. Lab reports are also meant to enable students to review the literature with an objective of justifying any assumptions. The other purposes include the exploration of theoretical explanations and evaluation of research aims. 

Audience

The kind of lab report written by a student relies on the target audience. The readers can be professionals with different levels of knowledge regarding the research and diverse needs for information. It is important to note that the audience can be having the know-how on general science or have an engineering background. Readers can also depict knowledge on technical aspects. They include chemical engineering college lecturers and chemical industry managers.

The professors would need to know about the tests to be run by a student, the results, and the reason for considering the findings relevant. In fact, the heads of chemical engineering faculty would need to note how results are significant to a corporation. Moreover, the audience consisting of chemical industry technicians needs to realize the history of past research, which includes the literature review (Turtenwald, 2018). Such specialists need to have full details concerning the theory and methods used, including the devices and procedures applied. In most cases, chemical industry participants will duplicate works presented to them.

Genre

Lab reports have been regarded as the most frequent types of documents developed in engineering courses. The major goal of such highlights is to record findings and relay their significance. Therefore, there is a critical need to understand the report format and general components. An effective lab report demonstrates a student’s comprehension of ideas behind the garnered data.

One should be in a position to identify the way and the reason for any noted differences. Lab reports should also depict how variations influenced a certain experiment. They ought to depict understanding of principles used when designing an experiment (Parkinson, 2017). Some of the components of a comprehensive lab report in chemical engineering include the title, abstract, a brief introduction, methods used and the equipment, procedure applied, findings, discussion of results, conclusion, and the sources used followed by an appendix that consists of any relevant data and information.

Title: The title of a chemical engineering lab report should be able to depict what the experiment is about in a few words.

Abstract: The abstract is meant to give a quick highlight of the path to be followed to conduct the research, the findings, and any inferences made.

Introduction: An introduction of chemical engineering lab reports should depict a quick guide to the topic to be explored, reason for conducting research, and a brief statement that details the entire experiment.

Methods Used and Procedures Applied: This section should highlight the approaches used in conducting an experiment by stating the apparatus and procedures followed.

Findings: The section should give the results of the research in a detailed format.

Discussion: The discussion part offers explanations of the outcomes of the experiment by discussing each discovery made.

Conclusion: This section wraps up the entire experiment by restating the purpose, methods, and results obtained.

Best Practices

Lab reports in chemical engineering should follow the best practices of conducting scientific research. Firstly, there is the need to compare the forecasted outcomes with those that have been obtained during a study (Parkinson, 2017). In this case, any variations noted during the research should be accounted for when giving a report. Furthermore, a student should be in a position to analyze any experimental error noted during the study. In this case, one should note if the mistake was avoidable and what were the causes of the same.

Most importantly, all results should be explained alongside the theoretical issues highlighted. One should indicate how effective the theories have been illustrated in the research. All the outcomes of a laboratory experiment in chemical engineering should be related to the objectives (Parkinson, 2017). In this case, the results should be compared with similar studies. Moreover, lab reports should be in a position to provide an analysis of strengths as well as weaknesses of the experimental design.

Example

An illustration of a lab report in chemical engineering would be that conducted as the CSTR experiment. The aim of the design was to provide a comparison of the salt saturation in a sequence of three CSTRs in response to the step alteration in the inlet concentration. The experiment was conducted with stirring and no stirring procedures in the tanks. Some of the assumptions made were that conductivity meters performed efficiently, the CSTRs were at the rigid condition, and the peristaltic pumps worked as expected. The figure below represents the entire experimental setting for the process:

Figure 1: Stirred Trial

Under this experiment, data was garnered from the conductivity meters to assess the salt concentration step variation as the inlet concentration alters. The figure 2 below represents the process flow diagram

The table 1 below shows the labelling of the process flow diagram

The four conductivity meters were connected to equipment line and computer. It was necessary to have different concentrations of salt water and their conductivity measured in the three stirred tanks. Comparison of the conductivity with predetermined conductivity was done. As mentioned earlier, the audience for this experiment consisted of chemical engineering professors and industrial specialists.

References

Turtenwald, K. (2018). Writing objectives for lab reports. Sciencing. Retrieved from https://sciencing.com/writing-objectives-for-lab-reports-12750530.html

Parkinson, J. (2017). The student laboratory report genre: A genre analysis. English for Specific Purposes, 45, 1-13.