Waste water treatment: a case study for international master’s program “ environmentally Sustainable Process Technology”

Paper in proceeding, 1999

ABSTRACT Environmentally sustainable process technology is an international Master’s Programme, which has been offered by Chalmers since 1997. This programme has been established in order to meet the needs and demands of engineers having both the knowledge and the skills required to design, develop, and improve processes which are environmentally sustainable as well as economically sound. This means that the effluent from processes should be minimised, the processes themselves should be as energy-efficient as possible, and the products must be economically competitive. A part of this programme is concerned with a case study, giving the students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in practice. In this paper one of the case studies carried out in 1997 is presented. The study deals with waste-water treatment of the ethylenediamine plant at AKZO-NOBEL in Stenungsund, Sweden. This case study was performed by a group of students under supervision of personnel from Chalmers and industry. The progress of the project and the learning outcomes were controlled in different ways by the supervisors in co-operation with the group co-ordinator. The interaction among students and between students and supervisors will be described in detail. This project was evaluated through a written questionnaire and personal interviews.