[StBernard] Tulane chemical engineering students attend training at Nunez Community College in Chalmette

[Westley Annis]

Tulane chemical engineering students attend training at Nunez Community
College in Chalmette

NOLA Community By NOLA Community 
on April 18, 2014 at 6:04 AM, updated April 18, 2014 at 7:06 AM
 
Chemical engineering students in their junior year at Tulane University in
New Orleans received hands-on training April 12 at Nunez Community College
in Chalmette. Nunez instructors and retired refinery operators Raymond Frey
and Don Bordelon facilitated the exercise at the Nunez distillation plant.

A smaller version of typical, corporate, chemical plants, Nunez's allows
students to apply performance to theory, practice operations, and develop
troubleshooting skills in a controlled environment.

Funded through a grant between Nunez, Tulane, and Xavier University by the
Louisiana Board of Regents' Research Competitiveness and Education
Enhancement Program, the plant uses a distillation process to separate
methanol from water.

Senior Associate Dean for Research and Facilities at Tulane, Gary McPherson;
Vijay John, Tulane professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and
principal investigator of the grant; and Katie Russell, Tulane instructor of
chemical and biomolecular engineering, accompanied the students on their
visit.

John said, "This once-a-year experience for the students is unbelievably
good. It gives them such practical knowledge of the theory they study, and
the instructors at Nunez do a fantastic job at exposing them to real-life
operations at a plant."

John called the hands-on opportunity at Nunez unique. "They're taking
precisely this course on chemical separation technology, which is exactly
what the [Nunez] methanol plant does," John said. "There is no other
university that can afford to expose its students to something of this
scale. Students feel that this is one of the highlights of their entire
education."

After graduation, many of the students go on to work in pharmaceuticals,
biotechnology, chemical plants, and the oil industry as operators and
designers of plants. That fact, John said, makes the training experience
even more instructive since "the petroleum petrochemical industry is the
cornerstone of the origins of chemical engineering."

Don Hoffman, director of Technology Programs at Nunez, said these visits
continue to satisfy one aspect of the grant, which is to enhance
communications between operators and engineers in petrochemical plants.