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Climate Change and Kinetics in an Undergraduate Laboratory: Injection and Tracking of CO2 in a 7 Gallon Terrarium

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

Innovations in Experiments and Modeling

Tagged Division

Chemical Engineering Division (ChED)

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--48465

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/48465

Download Count

58

Paper Authors

biography

Clint Guymon Brigham Young University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-3727-7965

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Clint Guymon is a new Associate Teaching Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at Brigham Young University. There he has developed multiple educational modules for undergraduate chemical engineering students. He previously worked for 15 years as an engineering consultant in the defense industry.

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Joseph R Tuft

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Abstract

The concentration of CO2 in our Earth's atmosphere is increasing in part due to the burning of fossil fuels. This study outlines an undergraduate laboratory in Chemical Engineering where students are tasked with similarly dosing a sealable 7-gallon terrarium with CO2 and measuring the resultant increase in the CO2 ppm levels. An ESP32 microcontroller and a Sensirion SCD30 are used to track the CO2 concentration over time for varying light levels (low, medium, and high). An Android or Apple app can read, collect, export, and plot the history of the CO2 via Bluetooth where the students subsequently analyze the transient CO2 response to determine the rate of CO2 uptake by the terrarium plants given the rate of CO2 production by the soil bacteria and the diffusion rate of CO2 from the terrarium. As part of the assignment, the students are also asked to reflect on the similarities between the terrarium and the earth's atmosphere. This multifaceted project not only emphasizes fundamental chemical engineering principles but also explores the broader context of environmental sustainability and climate change. This activity is part of a recent curriculum change in the chemical engineering department with a greater emphasis on a larger quantity of focused laboratory activities in place of fewer and longer unit operation experiments. Preliminary results from that curriculum change and its effectiveness will also be summarized relative to the terrarium laboratory activity.

Guymon, C., & Tuft, J. R. (2024, June), Climate Change and Kinetics in an Undergraduate Laboratory: Injection and Tracking of CO2 in a 7 Gallon Terrarium Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48465

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