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REFLECTION
Last Friday September 08, 2017, Chemical Engineerings Plant Visits and Seminars Class
conducted a Seminar entitled DesignENG: Preparing Young Engineers in Building the Future. It
was held in Career Center, Arlegui Building from 12:00pm 4:30pm. The seminar is open for
Chemical and Mechanical Engineering students.
As a young and engineering student of our society, we should know how to build our future.
Our future to be a successful engineer and when that time comes, we are the ones who is
responsible for our society and environment. We should know how to plan, manage, and work for
the things that matters, in our respective specialization, in our industry, or even in our field. All of
these things are being talked about in this seminar.
The invited speaker was Engr. Angelo Mapa, He is a Chemical Engineer. He discussed
different types of boilers, its functions and characteristics, the recent technology about boilers, and
even the problems that may encounter in it. While he is discussing, He was also asking questions
from the students, very effective way to make the ambiance alive. In line with this, Engr. Angelo
Mapa also shared how Chemical and Mechanical Engineers worked together to design and build a
specific equipment.
Overall, the seminar was very informative. For us Chemical Engineering student together
with Mechanical Engineering student, we can assure that the things we learned from this seminar
can be applied in our future endeavor.
Mauricio, Krizzia Anne C. September 11, 2017
CHE 512 Plastic Technology Engr. Chavez
CH52FA1
What Are The Different Types of Polylactic Acid and Why is it Used so Often?
There are several different types of Polylactic Acid to include Racemic PLLA (Poly-L-lactic Acid), Regular
PLLA (Poly-L-lactic Acid), PDLA (Poly-D-lactic Acid), and PDLLA (Poly-DL-lactic Acid). They each have
slightly different characteristics but are similar in that they are produced from a renewable resource (lactic
acid: C3H6O3) as opposed to traditional plastics which are derived from nonrenewable petroleum.
PLA production is a popular idea as it represents the fulfillment of the dream of cost-efficient, non-petroleum
plastic production. The huge benefit of PLA as a bioplastic is its versatility and the fact that it naturally
degrades when exposed to the environment. For example, a PLA bottle left in the ocean would typically
degrade in six to 24 months. Compared to conventional plastics (which in the same environment can take
several hundred to a thousand years to degrade) this is truly phenomenal. Accordingly, there is a high
potential for PLA to be very useful in short lifespan applications where biodegradability is highly beneficial
(e.g. as a plastic water bottle or as a container for fruit and vegetables). Of note, despite its ability to degrade
when exposed to the elements over a long time, PLA is extremely robust in any normal application (e.g. as
a plastic electronics part).
Is PLA toxic?
In solid form, no. In fact, Polylactic Acid (PLA) is biodegradable. It is often used in food handling and medical
implants that biodegrade within the body over time. Like most plastics, it has the potential to be toxic if inhaled
and/or absorbed into the skin or eyes as a vapor or liquid (i.e. during manufacturing processes). Be careful
and closely follow handling instructions for molten polymer in particular.
Recently researchers from the Illinois Institute of Technology published a paper on Ultrafine Particle (UFP)
emissions from commercially available 3D printers using ABS and PLA feedstock. You can read about the
results here.