General Aims

a. Students understand the definition of and what involves in Chemical Engineering.

b. Students are capable to explain their understanding about Chemical Engineering
using their own words.

Specific Aims
a. Students understand the definition of Chemical Engineering and what responsibilities
of Chemical Engineers.
b. Students understand what involvement of Chemical Engineers in plant design,
construction, commissioning and subsequent operation, and safety concerns.
c. Students are capable to explain specific aims above using their own words.

1.1. Chemical Engineering and Chemical Engineers
Chemical engineering has to do with industrial processes in which raw materials are
changed or separated into useful products. Chemical Engineers are responsible for the
design and operation of processes and of products and their application. Since they
must consider processes in their entirety, from raw materials to finished products, they
use a "systems" approach, enabling the prediction of the behaviour of both the process
as a whole and of the individual plant items. Once a plant has been designed, chemical
engineers are involved in its construction, commissioning and subsequent operation.
Hence, in terms of education, a chemical engineer will undertake courses in:
Mathematics (the emphasis is on engineering, after all)
Science (notably chemistry, biology, material science)
Process analysis (defining the mass, momentum and energy balances for the
entire process)
Thermodynamics (determining the fundamental parameters on which the process
can be analysed).

CHAPTER 1
WHAT CHEMICAL ENGINEERING INVOLVES

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Once the process has been defined, attention can then be paid to the "unit operations,
the reactors, separators, etc, that make up the process route, or flowsheet (Figure 1.1).
This involves the study of:
Reaction engineering (the manipulation of molecular behaviour to determine the
reaction routes to a specified product).
Transport processes (the physical manipulations that underlie the process).
Separation processes (the manner in which products are separated and purified).



Figure 1.1. Chemical engineers develop procces flowsheets from mass and energy
balances based on the conservation principle and using their knowledge of
unit operations and thermodynamics

Interwoven with all these topics are the crucial areas of safety (see Figure 1.2), risk
analysis, plant and equipment design, process control, and process economics. A
practicing chemical engineer will often find that the data he/she requires is either
unreliable or incomplete and, hence, he/she must make sound judgements based on
mathematics, physics and chemistry to determine appropriate simplifying assumptions,
while at the same time satisfying safety, environmental, operational and legal
constraints.
Chemical Engineers are profoundly aware of their ethical and social responsibilities,
encompassed in the nation of sustainable development" which is becoming an
increasing component of chemical engineering degree programmes. Often a chemical
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engineering student will supplement his or her degree programme with courses on
environmental practice, law, management and entrepreneurship. In addition, a great
deal of emphasis is placed on transferable skills training, in communication, team
working and leadership.



Figure 1.2. The explosion at the Buncefield Oil Depot in 2005 is a graphic example of
how safety issues must always be paramount in chemical Engineering
(photo courtesy of Dr. Dove Otway, Department of Chemistry, University
College Cork, taken by him from Ryanair flight FR903 STN-CORK at
11.44 am 11-12-05, 10 min after take-off )

The culmination of a degree programme in chemical engineering is the design
project, in which the students work in teams to carry out the preliminary design of a
complete process plant. This exercise involves the use of much of the material covered
in the topic areas mentioned above, starting from the mass and energy balances and
ending with a full economic appraisal, environmental impact and risk assessment (or
increasingly, a sustainability analysis on the socio-economic as well as environmental
impacts) and safety analysis. Very often the teams will include MSc students with first
degrees in chemistry, underlining the close relationship between the two disciplines and
the need for mutual understanding in the development of effective and appropriate plant
designs.
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Sustainable development has also to be considered. It is defined as "development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to
meet their own needs". As stated in Mulder (2006), technological change must be at the
heart of sustainable development. In order to achieve a sustainable future, the basic
principles that should guide technological (and societal) development are that
consumption of resources should be minimised while that of non-renewable materials
should cease, with preference given to renewable materials and energy sources. It is
chemical engineers, together with chemists and other scientific disciplines, who will
lead this technological revolution. These issues must be at the forefront of all process
and product developments.
1.2. Unit Operations
The variety of processes and industries that call for the services of chemical engineers
is enormous. In the past, the areas of most concern to chemical engineers were ore
beneficiation, petroleum refining, and the manufacture of heavy chemicals and organics
such as sulfuric acid, methyl alcohol, and polyethylene. Today items such as polymeric
lithographic supports for the electronics industry, high strength composite materials,
genetically modified biochemical agents in areas of food processing, and drug
manufacture and drug delivery have become increasingly important. The processes
described in standard treatises on chemical technology and the process and biochemical
industries give a good idea of the field of chemical engineering (Austin, 1984).
Because of the variety and complexity of modern processes, it is not practicable to
cover the entire subject matter of chemical engineering under a single head. The field is
divided into convenient, but arbitrary, sectors. This text covers that portion of chemical
engineering known as the unit operations.
An economical method of organizing much of the subject matter of chemical engi-
neering is based on two facts: (1) Although the number of individual processes is great,
each one can be broken down into a series of steps, called operations, each of which in
turn appears in process after process; (2) the individual operations have common
techniques and are based on the same scientific principles. For example, in most
processes solids and fluids must be moved; heat or other forms of energy must be
transferred from one substance to another; and tasks such as drying, size reduction,
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distillation, and evaporation must be performed. The unit operation concept is this: By
studying systematically these operations themselves operations that clearly cross
industry and process linesthe treatment of all processes is unified and simplified.
The strictly chemical aspects of processing are studied in a companion area of
chemical engineering called reaction kinetics. The unit operations are largely used to
conduct the primarily physical steps of preparing the reactants, separating and
purifying the products, recycling unconverted reactants, and controlling the energy
transfer into or out of the chemical reactor.
The unit operations are as applicable to many physical processes as to chemical
ones. For example, the process used to manufacture common salt consists of the fol-
lowing sequence of unit operations: transportation of solids and liquids, transfer of
heat, evaporation, crystallization, drying, and screening. No chemical reaction appears
in these steps. On the other hand, the cracking of petroleum, with or without the aid of
a catalyst, is a typical chemical reaction conducted on an enormous scale. Here the unit
operationstransportation of fluids and solids, distillation, and various mechanical
separationsare vital, and the cracking reaction could not be utilized without them.
The chemical steps themselves are conducted by controlling the flow of material and
energy to and from the reaction zone.
Because the unit operations are a branch of engineering, they are based on both
science and experience. Theory and practice must combine to yield designs for
equipment that can be fabricated, assembled, operated, and maintained. A balanced
discussion of each operation requires that theory and equipment be considered together.
Scientific foundations of unit operations
A number of scientific principles and techniques are basic to the treatment of the unit
operations. Some are elementary physical and chemical laws such as the conservation
of mass and energy, physical equilibria, kinetics, and certain properties of matter. Their
general use is described in the remainder of this chapter. Other special techniques
important in chemical engineering are considered at the proper places in the text.
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1.3. Unit Systems
The official international system of units is SI (Systme International dUnits). Strong
efforts are underway for its universal adoption as the exclusive system for all
engineering and science, but older systems, particularly the centimeter-gram-second
(cgs) and foot-pound-second (fps), engineering gravitational systems, are still in use
and probably will be around for some time. The chemical engineer finds many
physiochemical data given in cgs units; that many calculations are most conveniently
done in fps units; and that SI units are increasingly encountered in science and engi-
neering. Thus it becomes necessary to be expert in the use of all three systems.
In the following treatment, SI is discussed first, and then the other systems are
derived from it. The procedure reverses the historical order, as the SI units evolved
from the cgs system. Because of the growing importance of SI, it should logically be
given a preference. If in time, the other systems are phased out, they can be ignored and
SI used exclusively.
Physical Quantities
Any physical quantity consists of two parts: a unit, which tells what the quantity is and
gives the standard by which it is measured, and a number, which tells how many units
are needed to make up the quantity. For example, the statement that the distance
between two points is 3 m means all this: A definite length has been measured; to
measure it, a standard length, called the meter, has been chosen as a unit; and three 1-m
units, laid end to end, are needed to cover the distance. If an integral number of units
are either too few or too many to cover a given distance, submultiples, which are
fractions of the unit, are defined by dividing the unit into fractions, so that a
measurement can be made to any degree of precision in terms of the fractional units.
No physical quantity is defined until both the number and the unit are given.
SI Units
The SI system covers the entire held of science and engineering, including electro-
magnetics and illumination. For the purposes of this book, a subset of the SI units
covering chemistry, gravity, mechanics, and thermodynamics is sufficient. The units
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are derivable from (1) four proportionalities of chemistry and physics; (2) arbitrary
standards for mass, length, time, temperature, and the mole; and (3) arbitrary choices
for the numerical values of two proportionality constants.
Standards
By international agreement, standards are fixed arbitrarily for the quantities of
mass, length, time, temperature, and the mole. These are five of the base units
of SI. Currently, the standards are as follows.
The standard of mass is the kilogram (kg), defined as the mass of the
international kilogram, a platinum cylinder preserved at Sevres, France.
The standard of length is the meter (m), defined (since 1983) as the length of
the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1 /299,792,458
of a second.
The standard of time is the second (s), defined as 9,192,631,770 frequency
cycles of a certain quantum transition in an atom of
133
Cs.
The standard of temperature is the Kelvin (K), defined by assigning the
value 273.16 K to the temperature of pure water at its triple point, the unique
temperature at which liquid water, ice, and steam can exist at equilibrium.
The mole (abbreviated mol) is defined as the amount of a substance
comprising as many elementary units as there are atoms in 12 g of
12
C. The
definition of the mole is equivalent to the statement that the mass of one mole
of a pure substance in grams is numerically equal to its molecular weight calculated
from the standard table of atomic weights, in which the atomic weight of carbon is
given as 12.01115. This number differs from 12 because it applies to the natural
isotopic mixture of carbon rather than to pure
12
C. In engineering calculations the terms
kilogram mole and pound mole are commonly used to designate the mass of a pure
substance in kilograms or pounds that is equal to its molecular weight.
The actual number of molecules in one gram mole is given by Avogadros number,
6.022 x 10
23
.


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1.4. Involvement of Chemical Engineers
The cornerstone of any process design is the development of mass and energy balances,
based on the simple conservation principle. From such balances a chemical engineer
will then go on to add more detail in order to come up with a fully optimised process
flowsheet, providing the most efficient, safe and economic route to the production of
the specified chemicals within the constraints of thermodynamics, material properties
and environmental regulations. All chemical processes are dynamic in nature, involving
the flow of material (fluid flow or momentum transfer) and the transfer of heat and
mass across physical and chemical interfaces. The central part of any chemical process
is the reactor, in which chemicals are brought together to produce the precursors to the
eventual products. A chemical engineer must be able to predict and manipulate
chemical reaction kinetics to be able to design such reactors. Hence, the concepts of
chemical reaction engineering in relation to reactor design are considered. The equally
important principles behind momentum, heat and mass transfer are then covered.
Moving often huge quantities of material around a plant, through pipelines and in and
out of vessels, requires knowledge of fluid mechanics and its use in the design of the
appropriate pumps and measurement equipment. Maintaining rates of reactions and
product quality requires the transfer of heat to and from chemicals, often through
physical boundaries (e.g. pipe and vessel walls), and heat exchangers are a common
means in which this transfer is achieved. The formulation of heat-transfer rate equations
and their use demonstrated are needed in the design of shell and tube heat exchangers.
Mass transfer typically occurs in the separation of chemical components to remove
impurities from the desired product. Distillation is a common separation technique
employed in chemical plants.
Often, chemical plant design is informed by laboratory and pilot-scale
experimentation. The most important design parameters need to be measured and
determined from such experiments. The next step is how to ensure that these
parameters perform in the same way in a large-scale plant. Although it is desirable to
conduct the experimental work in the system for which the results are required, this is
not always easy. The system of interest may be hazardous or expensive to build and
run, while the fluids involved may be corrosive or toxic. In this case scale models are
used, which overcome the above problems and allow extensive experimentation. In the
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majority of cases, the model will be smaller in size than the actual, desired plant, but
sometimes, due to the nature of the materials to be handled, the fluids involved may
also be different. Scale-up is only possible if the model and plant are physically similar
and, hence, the procedure is based on dimensionless groups.
Many chemicals at some stage in a process ( i .e. whether as raw materials,
intermediates, products and by-products) are in powder form. Often, the handling of
powders is mistakenly assumed to be relatively straight forward, leading to disastrous
consequences (e.g. clogging of storage vessels, dust explosions, etc.). The
characterisation and handling of powders with particular emphasis given to fluidisation
as a common process operation is required to be studied. Particle science and tech-
nology is a rapidly maturing field but, surprisingly, there is still much reliance on
empiricism in chemical engineering practice.
Throughout the design of a chemical plant, issues relating to safely, economics and
environmental impact must be considered. By doing so, the risks associated with the
plant can be minimised before actual construction. The same principle applies
whatever the scale of the process. The field of process control considers all these issues
and is, indeed, informed by the type of hazard analyses. The objectives of an effective
control system are the safe and economic operation of a process plant within the
constraints of environmental regulations, stakeholder requirements and what is phys-
ically possible. Processes require control in the first place because they are dynamic
systems (i..e. control models are based on mass, energy and momentum balances
derived with respect to time).
The economic assessment of a proposed plant, known as project appraisal, is
necessary at the design stage in order to determine its viability, the capital
requirements and the expected return on investment. Such an analysis can kill a project
at any stage in the design. Chemical Engineers have to discuss how the planning for
profitable operation is undertaken.
Last, but not least, safety is considered in terms of the analysis of the risks
associated with potential hazards identified by detailed consideration of the proposed
process flowsheet. Safety is the number one concern for chemical engineers. However,
in order to carry out a hazard study and risk assessment, one must understand the
concepts on which a process flowsheet is developed.
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References
Austin, G.T., 1984. Shreves Chemical Process Industries, 5th ed., McGraw Hill, New
York.
Field, R., 1988. Introductory Aspects, Mc Millan Education, Ltd., London.
McCabe, W.L., Smith, J.C., Harriott, P., 2005. Unit Operations of Chemical
Engineering, 7th ed., McGraw Hill, Boston.

Mulder, K. (ed), 2006. Sustainable Development for Engineers, Greenleaf Publishing,
Sheffiled, UK.

Simons, S.J.R. (ed), 2007. Concepts of Chemical Engineering for Chemist, RSC
Publishing, London.