Abstract

In the teaching of purified water production we consider it necessary to offer the student an integrated viewpoint that includes design, operation, and control of purified water production, as described in ISPE's baseline water and steam systems. For that purpose we will use our water production plant, which produces distilled water for all the laboratories of our faculty. Objective. To design and evaluate a practical activity for teaching the operation and control of a plant to purified water production. Design. A practical activity using a distilled water production plant was developed; physicochemical parameters of the water were measured at different sampling points; the students of Unit Operations course were given a questionnaire and a survey on the design and contents of the practical activity. Assessment. Seventy percent of the students were able to explain the USP requirements for purified water, to decide how to choose the sampling points, and to evaluate the plant operation performance. Fifty-three percent of the students could establish the specific purification capability and limitations of the deionization step, but only 26% were able of proposing corrective actions in the case of failure of some of the system's parameters. Conclusion. The students'opinion regarding the practical activity and the design of the laboratory guide was positive. Four out of five objectives were reached, and future work is necessary for the students to be able to propose corrective action plans in the case of failure of the system's parameters.