Can a Chemical Engineering Student Be Expelled for Fabricating Liquid-Liquid Extraction Partition Logs?

A university will summarily expel a chemical or petroleum refining engineering undergraduate, cancel all separation processes and chemical thermodynamics laboratory credits, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) partition coefficient logs, faking ternary liquid-liquid equilibrium binodal tie-line titration curves, or forging chemical engineering laboratory instructor verification signatures without conducting physical solvent extraction bench experiments. In chemical engineering curricula accredited by COREN, separation processes and solvent extraction—such as contacting acetic acid-water mixtures with organic solvents (such as ethyl acetate or toluene) in separating funnels or continuous mixer-settler units, titrating raffinate and extract phases with standardized sodium hydroxide, and calculating distribution coefficients ($K_D$) and extraction efficiencies—represent a life-critical technical competency; fabricating extraction data subverts industrial solvent extraction plant designs, conceals hazardous chemical separation failures, and violates professional engineering ethics.

Departmental laboratory coordinators and unit operations examiners utilize automated titrator and refractometer usage logs to detect fabricated experimental submissions.

1. The mass transfer operations course lecturer audits submitted practical portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized Hand or Othmer-Tobias tie-line correlations that ignore mutual liquid solubility non-idealities.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the chemical engineering pilot plant sign-in register and confirms that the student never signed out separating funnels, mixer-settler units, or analytical glassware.
3. The technologist checks the chemical dispensary ledger and confirms that no glacial acetic acid, ethyl acetate, or standardized sodium hydroxide was requisitioned under the student’s assigned project codes.
4. The student is formally issued an academic query requiring them to perform a live liquid-liquid phase separation in a separating funnel and determine distribution coefficients via acid-base titration.
5. Inability to demonstrate phase boundary separation techniques or replicate titration calculations leads to a formal charge of scientific fabrication and academic fraud.
6. The Head of Department transmits an investigative dossier to the Faculty of Engineering Board and the University Central Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC).
7. The student appears before the disciplinary committee to defend their submissions under constitutional principles of fair hearing.
8. The University Senate considers the committee’s findings and ratifies an order of rustication or summary expulsion, notifying COREN to bar future professional licensure.

Acquiring hands-on competency in liquid extraction operations is essential for chemical engineers who will design and operate pharmaceutical purification columns, petrochemical aromatics extraction units, and nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities.

• Standardized unit operations laboratory manual with approved liquid-liquid extraction protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording phase volumes, titration endpoint milliliters, calculated mass fractions, and distribution coefficients.
• Chemical engineering laboratory sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and chemical requisition.
• Plotted ternary phase equilibrium diagrams displaying binodal curves and experimentally determined conjugate tie-lines.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for emulsion droplet entrainment and meniscus reading variations, rather than manufacturing idealized extraction data.

Under COREN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating unit operations experimental results is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory rustication and permanent loss of practical laboratory credits.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that chemical engineering diplomates and graduates develop sound technical judgement required to design safe, efficient, and reliable industrial separation processes.