Description:

How can you estimate the release of pollutants from a coal-fired power plant and how changes to processes within the plant might influence the amount released to the environment? If a drug compound synthesized in the laboratory on small scales is showing promising results, how do you start to think about producing enough to treat millions of people? Chemical engineers are challenged with similar questions across a wide variety of fields and applications, including petroleum refining, pharmaceuticals, polymers, consumer products, water purification, food science, and commodity and specialty chemicals. In designing the processes to support these various needs, chemical engineers consider the operations involved, the required amounts of raw materials, separations of more and less valuable materials, environmental impact, and energy requirements. In this course you will be introduced to methods chemical engineers use to evaluate and estimate the components of a chemical process. The decisions related to chemical processes can have profound economic, medical, environmental, and even political consequences.

Outline:
Introduction to chemical engineering
Introduction to chemical engineering, problem solving strategies
Problem solving strategies and introduction to material balances
Types of chemical processes and associated material balances
Degree of freedom analysis --- Are problems solvable?
Materials balances on multiple-unit processes and bypass operations
Recycle and purge units in processes
Balances for reactive processes
Material balances on systems with multiple reactions
Physical properties of single phase systems
Equations of state
Gas mixtures, single-component vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE)
Introduction to vapor pressure
Dew point, bubble point, dew pressure, bubble pressure
Multicomponent VLE
Introduction to energy balances
Calculation of internal enthalpy and entropy changes
Enthalpy of mixing and associated energy balances
Enthalpy-concentration charts and air humidification
Energy balances for reactive systems
Heat of combustion

Student Learning/Course Outcomes:

(1) Develop an appreciation for chemical technology through an introduction to chemical
engineering
(2) Complete mass balances applied to chemical processes
(3) Complete energy balances applied to chemical processes
(4) Calculate and use physical and chemical properties of compounds in chemical process
Calculations

Assesment/Grades:
Exams (45%) Three exams will be given in class; each accounts for 15% of the course grade.
Final Examination (30%)
Process Flow Sheet Project (10%)
Homework (10%)
Participation(5%)

Required Textbooks:
Text: Bullard, Felder, and Rousseau, “Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes,” 4th edition. Wiley & Sons.

*Course content subject to change