‘Learn-as-you-go’ training to assess the resource efficiency of chemical processes  

Resource efficiency has been of utmost priority in the chemical industry, starting with the Cleaner Technology principles of the 1980s, and further motivated by rising energy costs and local as well as global environmental impacts associated to chemicals, water, and energy use. Thus it is crucial to provide young chemical engineers with the state-of-the-art concepts, tools, and methods to quantify, assess, and benchmark resource use in the chemical industry. With this objective in mind, we have developed a course based on “learn-as-you-go” approach, in which students are assigned a chemical substance and learn how to use exergy as a measure of resource accounting to have an overall assessment. The course has been taught on two occasions in the Masters in Environmental and Biological Engineering, offered by the department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) years 2015-2016 and 2018-2019. The practical experience gained in the classroom has helped refine and improve the materials, which we share in this article.