Virtual reality in chemical and biochemical engineering education and training

Vinod Vijay Kumar,Deborah Carberry,Christian Beenfeldt,Martin Peter Andersson,Seyed Soheil Mansouri,Fausto Gallucci

doi:10.1016/j.ece.2021.05.002

Abstract

With the advent of digitalization and industry 4.0, education in chemical and biochemical engineering has undergone significant revamping over the last two decades. However, undergraduate students sometimes do lack industrial exposure and are unable to visualise the complexity of actual process plants. Thereby, students might graduate without adequate professional hands-on experience. Similarly, in the process industry, operator training-simulators are widely used for the training of new and skilled operators. However, conventional training-simulators often fail to simulate reality and do not provide the user with the opportunity to experience unexpected and hazardous scenarios. In these regards, virtual reality appears to be a promising technology that can cater to the needs of both academia and industry. This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for the incorporation of virtual reality into chemical and biochemical engineering education with an emphasis on the fundamental areas of technology, pedagogy and socio-economics. The paper emphasises the need for augmenting virtual reality interfaces with mathematical models to develop advanced immersive learning applications. Further, the paper stresses upon the need for novel educational impact assessment methodologies for the evaluation of virtual-reality-based learning. Finally, an ongoing case study application is presented to briefly discuss the social and economic implications, and to identify the bottlenecks involved in the adoption of virtual reality tools across chemical and biochemical engineering education.

Highlights

P&ID Virtual reality (VR) piping and instrumentation diagram virtual reality of Keywords: immersive learning, process engineering, educational technology, learning design, ro industry 4.0
VR r technology has been widely deployed for developing visual training simulators for a wide range P of industries, including virtual reality-based flight simulators, surgery-training simulators, and l driving simulators . a In the domain of chemical and biochemical engineering education, virtual laboratories are widely rn used for training of industrial chemists and undergraduate students in a safe and interactive u environment
Even though VR technology has been utilised for education over the past decade, a comprehensive review on its application for chemical engineering education does not exist in the literature

Summary

April 2021 9 May 2021 17 May 2021

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Vinod Vijay Kumar, Deborah Carberry, Christian Beenfeldt, Martin Peter Andersson, Seyed Soheil Mansouri2,*, Fausto Gallucci1,* 1Sustainable Process Engineering Group, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven 5612 AP, The Netherlands f 2Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 o Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. Graphical abstract roof Manuscript highlights: -p Discusses opportunities and challenges for virtual reality in education with e focus on academia and industry.

Virtual reality for operator training in chemical industries

First-principle models

Findings

Conclusion and future directions