Can a Chemical Engineering Student Be Expelled for Fabricating Gas Absorption Column Mass Transfer Data?

A university will summarily expel a chemical or process engineering undergraduate, cancel all transport phenomena and unit operations laboratory credits, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating packed gas absorption column pressure drop curves, faking liquid-film and gas-film overall mass transfer coefficients ($K_L a, K_G a$), or forging chemical engineering laboratory instructor verification signatures without operating physical absorption columns. In chemical engineering curricula accredited by COREN, separation processes and mass transfer operations—such as absorbing carbon dioxide or ammonia gas into water or sodium hydroxide solution across Raschig ring packed beds, titrating liquid effluent samples, and calculating height of transfer units ($HTU$) and number of transfer units ($NTU$)—represent a life-critical technical competency; fabricating absorption column data subverts industrial gas scrubber designs, conceals dangerous toxic emissions, and violates professional engineering ethics.

Departmental laboratory coordinators and unit operations examiners utilize automated column instrumentation logs to detect fabricated experimental submissions.

1. The mass transfer operations course lecturer audits submitted practical portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized absorption equilibrium curves that ignore column liquid channeling and flooding phenomena.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the chemical engineering pilot plant sign-in register and confirms that the student never signed out packed absorption columns, gas analyzers, or liquid flow meters.
3. The technologist checks chemical inventory records and establishes that no compressed gas cylinders or chemical titration reagents were requisitioned under the student’s assigned project codes.
4. The student is formally summoned before the Departmental Laboratory Ethics Committee to produce their raw bench workbook and demonstrate absorption column startup and gas flow metering.
5. Inability to explain column loading points or replicate mass transfer 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 gas absorption operations is essential for chemical engineers who will design and manage industrial flue gas scrubbers, natural gas sweetening plants, and carbon capture facilities.

• Standardized unit operations laboratory manual with approved gas absorption testing protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording liquid and gas flow rates, column differential pressures, and titration volumes.
• Pilot plant sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and utility consumption.
• Plotted absorption column hydrodynamic curves showing pressure drop versus gas mass velocity with calculated transfer unit heights.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for liquid distribution non-uniformities and manometer fluctuations, rather than manufacturing idealized mass transfer 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 industrial separation and pollution control systems.