2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A Unit Operations Laboratory for Today’s Students in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Presented at WIP: Applied Chemical Engineering & Sustainability

A recent renovation of the Unit Operations Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign has led to a redevelopment of the traditional unit operations experiments in the laboratory and to the development of two new experiments extending the scope of the laboratory to topics not usually included in a unit operations course. The traditional unit operation experiments were enhanced to incorporate multiple chemical engineering principles within the scope of a single experiment in an effort to introduce students to the full complexity of a pilot-scale operation and the required process control functions needed for its operation. The two new experiments are a process control experiment and a second experiment involving solid state devices.

In this paper, we intend to describe the changes we introduced to our unit operations laboratory in an effort to provide students with a modern facility that more closely reflects the methods and approaches found in industry. In particular, we will highlight how we combined various unit operation concepts into single experiments that more closely resemble those of a pilot plant operation. Secondly, we will describe two new experiments that were developed for the laboratory. The first focuses on instrumentation, circuit analysis, and process control, and the second, on solar panels, electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and chemical synthesis methods.

Authors

Dr. Joachim K. Floess University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Prof. Floess is an Instructor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is leading the effort to update and relocate the student Unit Operations Laboratory. As an instructor, he has taught the Unit Operations Lab, Senior Process Design, Chemical and Process Safety, and Process Control. He is the author of a textbook 'Notes on Process Design and Analysis,' published by Cognella publishing. He has over 25 yrs. experience working in industry at General Electric and Cabot Corp.
Jacob Leicht University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Mr. Leicht is the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CHBE) Teaching Lab Specialist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a position he has held for over five years. His primary objective is to oversee the lab space used for the senior-level CHBE capstone course, “Unit Operations Laboratory”. This includes maintaining both the physical equipment and the documentation and procedures that students will use as part of the class. He also worked with the faculty on the revitalization and relocation of the lab.
Dr. Uzoma Monye University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign [biography]

Uzoma M. Monye is currently a teaching assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Monye received her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and her doctorate and Master’s degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Monye has over ten years of tertiary teaching experience. She is interested in engineering education, understanding some of the motivations behind student learning, and assessment techniques.

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