A desktop virtual reality application for chemical and process engineering education

Abstract

A desktop Virtual Reality (VR) application of a skim milk powder process has been developed. The goal was to use this application as a learning resource to expose students to processing plant environments, which are becoming increasingly difficult to visit due to availability and safety reasons. The VR application comprises 360° panorama images of the milk powder process plant, process flow diagrams (PFD), piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID), 3D drawings and additional materials such as supplemental text, videos and animations. This paper describes the VR application as well as an evaluation of the application. The results of this study show that the application was easy to use and the users were satisfied with it. The design recommendations for the development of similar VR learning applications are also discussed in this paper.