Integrating entrepreneurial activities in chemical engineering education: a case study on solid waste management

ABSTRACT

Solid waste management is considered to be one of the fastest growing industries in the world because of the environmental and health considerations, limitations on mining operations, product costs, increasing demands on the new materials, products and supply chains. Also, entrepreneurship has emerged as a critical aspect of engineering education with various disciplines worldwide. The objective of this work is to share the recent educational experience that integrates entrepreneurship into one course of the Degree in Chemical Engineering of the University of Granada and how the entrepreneurial activities develop an entrepreneurial mindset in chemical engineering students. The paper contains some strategies for internalising entrepreneurial spirit. The originality is mainly due to the coupling of waste management and entrepreneurship learning for increasing entrepreneurial skills in chemical engineers specifically. The study was carried out among chemical engineering students who participated in the ‘Solid and Gaseous Waste Treatment’ optional course. Mainly, a qualitative research method was adopted. The primary data for the evaluation of entrepreneurial activities were collected with validated questionnaires distributed to students. The results of this study indicated that the entrepreneurial activities contributed to the introduction of entrepreneurial skills in students. Pre/post testing to determine changes in entrepreneurial mindset was also analysed.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavioural skills
• chemical engineering
• entrepreneurship
• higher education
• solid waste management

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the efforts of undergraduates students of ‘Solid and Gaseous Waste Treatment’ course of Chemical Engineering Degree of the University of Granada whose commendable contributions have made this research possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

M.A. Martín-Lara is Professor from 2008 till now at the Chemical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Granada, Spain. She is one of the researchers in the field of waste management and has contributed to valuable investigation in the area of heavy metal biosorption (mathematical modelling, application to real industrial wastewaters, scale-up, biosorption kinetics) and valorisation of agroindustrial wastes by thermal processes including torrefaction, pyrolysis, gasification and combustion. She analysed the use of process simulation techniques for the modelling of unit operations and the technical-economic analysis of processes for energy conversion of biomasses. Finally, she has coordinated several research projects and has published more than 60 scientific papers on these topics.

In the academia field, she teaches courses on ‘biofuels from biomass’, ‘solid waste technology and management’, ‘bioprocess engineering principles’ and ‘fundamentals of chemical engineering’. In the course ‘biofuels from biomass’, current and extensive information on the valorisation approach for the biomass is presented. First, an overview of biomass conversion into energy is developed. Then, common examples of biofuels such as bioethanol, biodiesel or biogas are described. In the course ‘solid waste technology and management’ common waste management practices including landfilling, biological treatment, incineration, and recycling are developed. The goal of the course ‘bioprocess engineering principles’ is to focus on the material and energy balances, the concepts of mass and heat transfer, as well as some concepts about reactions and reactors for biological systems. Finally, in course ‘fundamentals of chemical engineering’, she mainly teaches about material and energy balances on nonreactive and reactive processes and introduces students to engineering calculations and unit operations of chemical engineering.