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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Outlines the concepts of chemical engineering so that non-chemical engineers can interface with and understand basic chemical engineering concepts
- Overviews the difference between laboratory and industrial scale practice of chemistry, consequences of mistakes, and approaches needed to scale a lab reaction process to an operating scale
- Covers basics of chemical reaction eningeering, mass, energy, and fluid energy balances, how economics are scaled, and the nature of various types of flow sheets and how they are developed vs. time of a project
- Details the basics of fluid flow and transport, how fluid flow is characterized and explains the difference between positive displacement and centrifugal pumps along with their limitations and safety aspects of these differences
- Reviews the importance and approaches to controlling chemical processes and the safety aspects of controlling chemical processes,
- Reviews the important chemical engineering design aspects of unit operations including distillation, absorption and stripping, adsorption, evaporation and crystallization, drying and solids handling, polymer manufacture, and the basics of tank and agitation system design
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 What Is Chemical Engineering?
What Do Chemical Engineers Do?
Topics to Be Covered
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
2 Safety
and Health
Basic Health and Safety
Information: The
Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS
)
Procedures
Fire and Flammability
Chemical Reactivity
Toxicology
Emergency Response
Transportation Emergencies
HAZOP
Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA
)
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
3 The Concept of Balances
Mass
Balance Concepts
Energy
Balances
Momentum
Balances
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
4 Stoichiometry, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Reaction Engineering
Stoichiometry and Thermodynamics
Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Reaction Engineering
Physical Properties Affecting Energy
Aspects of a Reaction System
Kinetics and Rates of Reaction
Catalysts
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
5 Flow Sheets, Diagrams
, and Materials of Construction
Materials of Construction
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
6 Economics and Chemical Engineering
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
7 Fluid Flow, Pumps,
and Liquid Handling and Gas Handling
Fluid Properties
Characterizing Fluid Flow
Pump Types
Net Positive Suction Head
(NPSH) for Centrifugal
Pumps
Positive Displacement Pumps
Variable Speed Drive Pumps
Water “Hammer”
Piping and Valves
Flow Measurement
Gas Laws
Gas Flows
Gas Compression
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
8 Heat Transfer and Heat Exchangers
Types of Heat Exchangers
Heat Transfer Coefficient
Utility Fluids
Air Coolers
Scraped Wall Exchangers
Plate and Frame Heat Exchangers
Leaks
Mechanical Design Concerns
Cleaning Heat Exchangers
Radiation Heat Transfer
High Temperature Transfer Fluids
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
9 Reactive Chemicals Concepts
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
10 Distillation
Raoult’s Law
Batch Distillation
Flash Distillation
Continuous Multistage Distillation
Reflux Ratio and Operating Line
Pinch Point
Feed Plate Location
Column Internals and Efficiency
Unique Forms of Distillation
Multiple Desired Products
Column Internals and Efficiencies
Tray
Contacting Systems
Packed
Towers
in Distillation
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
11 Other Separation Processes
Absorption
Stripping/Desorption
Adsorption
Ion Exchange
Reverse Osmosis
Gas Separation Membranes
Leaching
Liquid–Liquid Extraction
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
12 Evaporation and Crystallization
Evaporation
Operational Issues with Evaporators
Vacuum and Multi‐effect Evaporators
Crystallization
Crystal Phase Diagrams
Supersaturation
Crystal Purity and Particle Size Control
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
13 Liquid–Solids Separation
Filtration and Filters
Filtration Rates
Filtration Equipment
Centrifuges
Particle Size and Particle Size Distribution
Liquid Properties
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
14 Drying
Rotary Dryers
Spray Dryers
Fluid Bed Dryers
Belt Dryer
Freeze Dyers
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
15 Solids Handling
Safety and General Operational Concerns
Solids Transport
Pneumatic Conveyors
Solids Size Reduction Equipment
Cyclones
Screening
Hoppers and Bins
Solids Mixing
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
Videos of Solids Handling Equipment
16 Tanks, Vessels, and Special Reaction Systems
Categories
Corrosion
Heating and Cooling
Power Requirements
Tanks and Vessels as Reactors
Static Mixers
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
17 Chemical Engineering in Polymer Manufacture and Processing
What are Polymers?
Polymer Types
Polymer Properties and Characteristics
Polymer Processes
Polymer Additives
End‐Use Polymer Processing
Plastics Recycling
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
18 Process Control
Elements of a Process Control
System
Control
Loops
Derivative Control
Measurement Systems
Control
Valves
Valve Capacity
Utility Failure
Process Control
as a Buffer
Instruments that “Lie”
Summary
Discussion Questions
Review Questions (Answers in Appendix with Explanations)
Additional Resources
19 Beer Brewing Revisited
Appendix I: Future Challenges for Chemical Engineers and Chemical Engineering
Additional Resources
Appendix II: Additional Downloadable Resources
Appendix III: Answers to Chapter Review Questions
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 02
Table 2.1 Typical HAZOP
questions.
Chapter 04
Table 4.1 Periodic table of elements.
Table 4.2 Heat capacities of common materials.
Table 4.3 Thermal conductivities of materials.
Chapter 07
Table 7.1 Densities of common fluids.
Table 7.2 Density of common gases.
Table 7.3 Dynamic viscosities of common fluids.
Table 7.4 Viscosity of water versus temperature.
Table 7.5 Air and water viscosities versus temperature.
Chapter 08
Table 8.1 Thermal conductivities of common materials.
Table 8.2 Thermal conductivities of materials.
Table 8.3 Approximate heat transfer coefficients.
Chapter 11
Table 11.1 Henry’s law constants.
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Centrifuge choices.
Table 13.2 Comparison of various types of centrifuges.
Chapter 15
Table 15.1 Particle size illustrations.
Table 15.2 Strength of flame front for solids.
Table 15.3 Guide to size reduction equipment selection.
Table 15.4 Mesh and size conversion and examples.
Chapter 16
Table 16.1 Relative power requirements versus
Z
/
T
ratio and number of impellers.
Chapter 18
Table 18.1 Relative valve capacity.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 01
Figure 1.1 Beer manufacturing flow sheet.
Chapter 02
Figure 2.1 The fire triangle.
Figure 2.2 Explosion pressure versus fuel concentration.
Figure 2.3 The NFPA diamond.
Figure 2.4 A layer of protection analysis.
Chapter 03
Figure 3.1 Salt evaporator material balance.
Figure 3.2 Slurry settling and concentration process.
Figure 3.3 Mass balance around feed pipe.
Figure 3.4 Mass balance around the tank alone.
Figure 3.5 Mass balance versus time and boundary—accumulation.
Figure 3.6 Reducing pipe size.
Chapter 04
Figure 4.1 Activation energy
and energy release for an exothermic
reaction.
Figure 4.2 Manufacture of sulfuric acid via contact process.
Figure 4.3 Contact sulfuric acid process converter step.
Figure 4.4 Rates of reactions
accelerating as temperature increases.
Figure 4.5 Rates of reaction versus temperature (semilog plot).
Figure 4.6 Concentration of reactants versus time as a function of reaction order.
Figure 4.7 Reactions
of ammonia with ethylene oxide to produce ethanol amines.
Chapter 05
Figure 5.1 Simple block flow diagram.
Figure 5.2 Process flow diagram.
Figure 5.3 Detailed process flow diagram including instrumentation.
Figure 5.4 3D process view for public release from slide share.
Figure 5.5 Stress corrosion versus general corrosion.
Chapter 06
Figure 6.1 Simple block flow diagram for early‐stage economic analysis.
Chapter 07
Figure 7.1 General response of viscosity to temperature.
Figure 7.2 Shear versus stress for a variety of fluid types.
Figure 7.3 Velocity profiles: laminar versus turbulent flow.
Figure 7.4 Friction factor versus Reynolds number.
Figure 7.5 Pumping from one tank to higher level tank.
Figure 7.6 Internal view of a centrifugal
pump.
Figure 7.7 General pump curve.
Figure 7.8 Pump output versus impeller size.
Figure 7.9 Energy
use in a centrifugal
pump.
Figure 7.10 Shaft HP versus flow and height.
Figure 7.11 Gear pump.
Figure 7.12 Diaphragm pump.
Figure 7.13 Rotary lobe pump.
Figure 7.14 Orifice flow meter.
Figure 7.15 Venturi meter.
Figure 7.16 Coriolis meter.
Figure 7.17 Pitot tube meter for gas flow.
Chapter 08
Figure 8.1 Conventional shell and tube heat exchanger.
Figure 8.2 Jacketed pipe heat exchanger.
Figure 8.3 Condenser.
Figure 8.4 Reboiler.
Figure 8.5 Flows in a cocurrent heat exchanger.
Figure 8.6 Cocurrent versus countercurrent temperature profiles.
Figure 8.7 Air‐cooled heat exchanger.
Figure 8.8 Scraped wall exchanger.
Figure 8.9 Plate and frame heat exchanger.
Figure 8.10 Thermal ranges for heat transfer fluids
.
Figure 8.11 Pipe plugged with decomposed heat transfer fluid.
Figure 8.12 Heat transfer fluid degradation time and temperature.
Chapter 09
Figure 9.1 Rate of reaction versus temperature.
Figure 9.2 Point of no return for a runaway reaction.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Boiling points of organic compounds.
Figure 10.2 Water vapor pressure.
Figure 10.3 Vapor pressure of ethanol versus temperature.
Figure 10.4 Concentrating by boiling and condensing.
Figure 10.5 Typical distillation
system.
Figure 10.6 Raoult’s law: total pressure = sum of partial pressures.
Figure 10.7 Vapor–liquid equilibrium line.
Figure 10.8 Batch distillation
.
Figure 10.9 Continuous flash distillation
.
Figure 10.10 Traditional distillation
process.
Figure 10.11 Graphical representation of distillation
.
Figure 10.12 McCabe–Thiele diagram for acetone–ethanol distillation
.
Figure 10.13 High reflux in distillation.
Figure 10.14 Number of trays versus reflux ratio in distillation
.
Figure 10.15 Graphical representation of a distillation
pinch point.
Figure 10.16 Vapor–liquid equilibrium for an ideal solution.
Figure 10.17 Azeotropic compositions: positive and negative.
Figure 10.18 Azeotropic composition for a nonideal system.
Figure 10.19 Maximum and minimum boiling azeotropes.
Figure 10.20 Positive azeotropes
T–x–y
diagram.
Figure 10.21 Minimum boiling azeotropes
T–x–y
diagram.
Figure 10.22 Using pressure change to break an azeotrope.
Figure 10.23 Crude oil distillation
.
Figure 10.24 Bubble cap trays.
Figure 10.25 Sieve tray
.
Figure 10.26 Valve tray
.
Figure 10.27 Tower packings.
Figure 10.28 Structured packing.
Figure 10.29 Reboiler configuration.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Absorption
tower.
Figure 11.2 Analysis of an absorber.
Figure 11.3 Effect of temperature on absorption.
Figure 11.4 Stripping tower.
Figure 11.5 Typical demister.
Figure 11.6 Combined absorption
and stripping in purifying sour natural gas.
Figure 11.7 Adsorption
isotherm.
Figure 11.8 Adsorption isotherm.
Figure 11.9 Example of a zeolite structure.
Figure 11.10 Strength of solid affinity and effect on adsorption.
Figure 11.11 Adsorption
versus time.
Figure 11.12 Adsorption
breakthroughs.
Figure 11.13 Effect of pressure and temperature on adsorption.
Figure 11.14 Typical ion exchange polymer bead.
Figure 11.15 Osmotic pressure.
Figure 11.16 Tampa, FL water desalinization plant.
Figure 11.17 Reverse osmosis element detail.
Figure 11.18 Differing separation capabilities of membrane systems.
Figure 11.19 Gas separation membrane.
Figure 11.20 Air separation membrane.
Figure 11.21 Continuous liquid–liquid extraction process.
Figure 11.22 Agitated extraction columns.
Figure 11.23 Ternary liquid equilibrium phase diagram.
Figure 11.24 Liquid–liquid extraction in stages.
Figure 11.25 Liquid–liquid extraction stage diagram.
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Evaporation
process.
Figure 12.2 Increase in viscosity as salt concentration rises.
Figure 12.3 Multi‐effect evaporator.
Figure 12.4 Use of vapor recompression in evaporation.
Figure 12.5 Wiped film evaporator mechanisms for viscous solutions.
Figure 12.6 Selective salt solubilities versus temperature.
Figure 12.7 Batch vacuum crystallizer.
Figure 12.8 Forced circulation with indirect cooling.
Figure 12.9 Particle size distribution.
Figure 12.10 Changing particle size distribution.
Figure 12.11 Phase diagram for magnesium sulfate (MgSO
4
).
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 Basics of filtration.
Figure 13.2 Rotary vacuum filter.
Figure 13.3 Belt filter.
Figure 13.4 Plate and frame filter.
Figure 13.5 Filtration rate versus cake compressibility.
Figure 13.6 Flow rate at constant pressure with high and low compressibility cakes.
Figure 13.7 Pressure requirement versus time for constant rate filtration and high and low compressibility cakes.
Figure 13.8 Decanting centrifuge.
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1 Drying rate versus residual moisture content.
Figure 14.2 Rotary dryers.
Figure 14.3 Schematic of spray drying.
Figure 14.4 Spray nozzle for dryer.
Figure 14.5 Fluidized bed particle forces.
Figure 14.6 Food belt dryer.
Figure 14.7 Phase diagrams
with triple points. S, solid; L, liquid; and G, gas.
Chapter 15
Figure 15.1 Requirements for a dust explosion.
Figure 15.2 Screw conveyor.
Figure 15.3 Operating screw conveyor.
Figure 15.4 Screw conveyor energy
costs.
Figure 15.5 Bucket elevator.
Figure 15.6 Mineral belt conveyor.
Figure 15.7 Belt conveyor for sulfur.
Figure 15.8 Pneumatic conveying systems.
Figure 15.9 Pressure‐ versus vacuum‐driven conveying systems.
Figure 15.10 Pneumatic conveyor energy
use versus length used.
Figure 15.11 Pneumatic conveyor energy
use versus lift used.
Figure 15.12 Hammer mill.
Figure 15.13 Rod mill.
Figure 15.14 Relative energy
input versus particle size required.
Figure 15.15 Dust cyclone.
Figure 15.16 Cyclone collection efficiency versus particle size.
Figure 15.17 Angle of repose of a solid material.
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 Consequences of overfilling a tank.
Figure 16.2 Consequences of pulling vacuum on storage vessel.
Figure 16.3 Agitated vessel parameters.
Figure 16.4 Settling versus density and solids concentration.
Figure 16.5 Propeller agitator.
Figure 16.6 Rushton turbine agitators.
Figure 16.7 Flow patterns induced by agitation: side to side and top to bottom.
Figure 16.8 Agitated, baffled, and jacketed reactor vessel.
Figure 16.9 Minimal power consumption.
Figure 16.10 Power requirements versus liquid level.
Figure 16.11 Feed introduction into an agitated vessel.
Figure 16.12 Static mixer.
Chapter 17
Figure 17.1 Molecular weight distribution.
Figure 17.2 Crystallinity areas in polymers.
Figure 17.3 Linear versus branched polymers.
Figure 17.4 Styrene–butadiene copolymer.
Figure 17.5 Polymerization structures.
Figure 17.6 Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) graph: energy
(Pa) versus temperature.
Figure 17.7 Formation of nylon from an amide and carboxylic acid.
Figure 17.8 Chiral molecule illustration.
Figure 17.9 Polymer “tacticity” structure.
Figure 17.10
trans
versus
cis
isomers.
Figure 17.11 Gas phase polyethylene process.
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 On–off control
for tank level.
Figure 18.2 Response of proportional control
: offset.
Figure 18.3 Control
response with integral control.
Figure 18.4 Impact of choice of integral reset time.
Figure 18.5 Response of various control
system types.
Figure 18.6 Flow versus % valve opening.
Figure 18.7 Elements of a globe valve.
Figure 18.8 Ball valve.
Figure 18.9 Gate valve.
Figure 18.10 Butterfly valve.
Figure 18.11 Check valve with flow indication.
Figure 18.12 Understanding all variables that affect instrumentation response.
Chapter 19
Figure 19.1 The brewing process.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
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Chemical Engineering for Non-Chemical Engineers
Jack Hipple
Copyright © 2017 by American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Joint Publication of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Hipple, Jack, 1946–Title: Chemical engineering for non‐chemical engineers / Jack Hipple.Description: Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016041691| ISBN 9781119169581 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119309659 (epub) | ISBN 9781119309635 (ePDF)Subjects: LCSH: Chemical engineering–Popular works.Classification: LCC TP155 .H56 2017 | DDC 660–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016041691
Cover Image: jaminwell/gettyimages; yesfoto/gettyimagesCover design by Wiley
In a career that has spanned almost 50 years, four organizations, and teaching publicly for the past 15 years, I have to ask myself, “How did all this happen?” An excellent education from Carnegie Mellon University was the start. The opportunities, both technical and managerial, at Dow Chemical, the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Ansell Edmont, and Cabot were all important. My accidental introduction to Inventive Problem Solving (“TRIZ”) was another. The opportunities to teach “Essentials of Chemical Engineering for Non‐Chemical Engineers” for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and to serve in leadership positions in its Management Division and on its national Board of Directors were the final experiences. But what was the common factor? You cannot move a family multiple times and pursue these opportunities without the support and glue that keeps things together and supports your dreams and ambitions. Sincere thanks to my wife, our four daughters, and our wonderful grandchildren for years of love, dedication, and unyielding love and support.
Preface
Prior to 1908, individuals in the United States who practiced chemistry on an industrial and commercial scale were members of the American Chemical Society. As you might imagine, and as we will discuss in significant detail, the practice of chemistry on a laboratory scale is quite different and offers significantly different challenges than that same chemistry practiced on an industrial scale. In 1908, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a group of these individuals held the first meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, an organization I have been proud to be a member of since 1967, upon my graduation from Carnegie Mellon University.
Today what we know as chemical engineering is practiced in every country around the world. Chemical engineers are employed by nearly every Fortune 500 company in the United States and every large industrial organization in the world. Chemical engineers are employed in the global oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, enabling our entire transportation system. The roads we drive on are manufactured from petroleum products or high‐temperature chemical processing of sand and aggregate. In government, chemical engineers serve as employees of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Chemical Safety Board, the Department of Homeland Security, and agencies involved with the oversight of the shipment and processing of chemicals and materials by land, sea, and air. Chemical engineers, in the industrial world, work for energy, food, and consumer companies who produce the energy that heats our homes, powers our cars, and provides the myriad of products we use every day (and take for granted) including simple things as toilet paper and food wrap materials used in packaging and protecting goods; construction materials used in our homes, buildings, and roads; and products that protect our homes and food products from pests and spoilage. They develop products and systems used in photography systems, security systems, and sensor systems. They have developed processes to separate air into its individual components, such as nitrogen and oxygen, allowing the prevention of fire hazards, emergency breathing equipment, and frozen foods. There is virtually nothing that we use or interact with in our daily lives that has not been developed, commercialized, and enhanced by chemical engineers and the knowledge base of chemical engineering.
This book is not intended to be an academic textbook in chemical engineering with detailed equations and complicated mathematical models (there are many excellent ones already available), but to be a layperson’s text on what chemical engineering is, its basic principles, and provide simple examples of how these principles can be used to estimate and do rough calculations for industrial equipment and applications. This book is an outgrowth of my teaching a course for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for the past 15 years entitled “Essentials of Chemical Engineering for Non‐Chemical Engineers” (http://www.aiche.org/academy/courses/ch710/essentials‐chemical‐engineering‐non‐chemical‐engineers). This course has been taken by chemical plant technicians and operators, chemists, biologists, EPA lawyers and interviewing accident psychologists, and Department of Homeland Security inspectors, as well as mechanical and other types of engineers who interact with chemical engineers on a daily basis but may not have a fundamental understanding of the data they are asking for and why, how this information is used, or why they may be asked to perform certain functions in a given way or in a specific order. It is also designed for managers of departments in large organizations, small start‐ups, and in organizations who supply equipment and assistance to the chemical industry, but who are not personally chemical engineers. It is also directed at those who are responsible for chemical engineering activities but need a more thorough understanding of what they are managing or directing. A final interested group may be students now entering chemical engineering graduate programs coming in from outside the traditional chemical engineering undergraduate curricula and may find a basic overview helpful in their transition. To all of these potential readers, I hope this book provides some basic understanding and value.
The book is divided into chapters, each focused on a particular aspect or unit operation in chemical engineering and an appendix with the following structure:
A discussion and review of the topic basics, using illustrations of equipment where possible
A list of general discussion questions for your use within your organization
A set of multiple‐choice questions on the materials in the chapter, with answers and explanations in the appendix to the book
As we walk through the basics of chemical engineering, the brewing of coffee will be used as an everyday example of the application of many of the principles to an operation that most of us do every day without thinking about the technical principles involved. We will also discuss, at the beginning and end of the book, how chemical engineering principles are used in the manufacture of beer.
Additional materials in the appendix include references and links for MSDS and safety‐related material as well as commentary on future challenges for chemical engineering.
At the end of each chapter, a list of additional resources, primarily from AIChE’s flagship publication, Chemical Engineering Progress, is included. The AIChE website is at www.aiche.org.
Appendix I contains commentary regarding future challenges for chemical engineering. Appendix II contains a list of on line sources of information related to each chapter. Appendix III contains the answers to the multiple‐choice questions.
Acknowledgments
For the past 15 years, it has been my personal and professional pleasure to have taught a course for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers entitled “Essentials of Chemical Engineering for Non‐Chemical Engineers.” AIChE allowed me to teach the basics of a profession that has been the core of my professional life to a variety of people that I could never have imagined. These have included chemists, laboratory and process technicians and operators, other types of engineers, managers of chemical engineers with a different background or training, business managers, safety and health professionals from the government and private sector, patent attorneys, equipment vendors, and psychologists. They have often taught me as much as I knew from their hands on experience in particular areas. I also gratefully acknowledge all my professional colleagues at Dow, the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Ansell Edmont, and Cabot—all of whom have advanced my knowledge of chemical engineering and its application in a myriad of applications.
AIChE’s flagship publication, Chemical Engineering Progress
1What Is Chemical Engineering?
There are no doubt numerous dictionary definitions of chemical engineering that exist. Any of these could be unique to the environment being discussed, but all of them will involve the following in some way:
Technology and skills needed to produce a material on a commercially useful scale that involves the use of chemistry either directly or indirectly. This implies that chemistry is being used at a scale that produces materials used in commercial quantities. This definition would include not only the traditional oil, petrochemical, and bulk or specialty chemicals but also the manufacture of such things as vaccines and nuclear materials, which in many cases may be produced in large quantities, but by a government entity without a profit motive, but one based on the welfare of the general public.
Technology and skills needed to study how chemical systems interact with the environment and ecological systems. Chemical engineers serve key roles in government agencies regulating the environment as well as our energy systems. They may also serve in an advisory capacity to government officials regarding energy, environmental, transportation, materials, and consumer policies.
The analysis of natural and biological systems, in part to produce artificial organs. From a chemical engineering standpoint, a heart is a pump, a kidney is a filter, and arteries and veins are pipes. In many schools, the combination of chemical engineering principles with aspects of biology is known as biochemical or biomedical engineering.
The curriculum in all college‐level chemical engineering schools is not necessarily the same, but they would all include these topics in varying degrees of depth:
Thermodynamics. This topic relates to the energy release or consumption during a chemical reaction as well as the basic laws of thermodynamics that are universally studied across all fields of science and engineering. It also involves the study and analysis of the stability of chemical systems and the amount of energy contained within them and the energy released in the formation or decomposition of materials and the conditions under which these changes may occur.
Transport Processes. How fast do fluids flow? Under what conditions? What kind of equipment is required to move gases and liquids? How much energy is used? How fast does heat move from a hot fluid to a cold fluid inside a heat exchanger? What properties of the liquids and gases affect this rate? What affects the rate at which different materials mix, equilibrate, and transfer between phases? What gas, liquid, and solid properties are important? How much energy is required? Materials do not equilibrate by themselves. There is always a driving force such as a pressure difference, a temperature difference, or a concentration difference. Chemical engineers study these processes, their rates, and what affects them.
Reaction Engineering and Reactive Chemicals. Chemical reaction rates vary a great deal. Some occur almost instantaneously (acid/base reactions), while others may take hours or days (curing of plastic resin systems or curing of concrete). A chemical reaction run in a laboratory beaker may be where things start, but in order to be commercially useful, materials must be produced on a larger scale, frequently in a continuous manner, using commercially available raw materials. These industrially used materials may have different quality and physical characteristics than their laboratory cousins. Since most chemical reactions either involve the generation of heat or require the input of heat, the practical means to do this must be chosen from many possible options, but for an industrial operation with the potential of release of hazardous materials, the backup utility system must be clearly defined. In addition, chemical reaction rates are typically logarithmic, not linear (e.g., as is the case with heat transfer), providing the possibility for runaway chemical reaction. Chemical engineers must design operations and equipment for such conditions.
Safety
. There is no basic difference in the hazards or properties of a substance such as chlorine gas on any scale. Its odor, color, boiling point, and toxicity do not change from a small laboratory canister or cylinder to a 10 000 gallon tank car or bulk cylinders used in municipal drinking water disinfection. However, the release of such a material from large‐volume processes and tanks can have disastrous consequences to surrounding communities and the people living around them. Any large chemical complex has the same concern about the materials it uses, handles, and produces to ensure that its operations have minimal negative effects on the surrounding community and its customers. The incorporation of formal safety and reactive chemicals education within the college chemical engineering curriculum is a fairly recent and positive development. Chemical engineers are heavily involved not only in designing and communicating emergency plans for their operations but also in assisting the surrounding communities’ emergency response systems and procedures, including ensuring that the hazardous nature of materials used and processes are well understood.
Unit Operations. This is a unique chemical engineering term relating to the generic types of equipment and processes used in scaling up laboratory chemistry and the practice of chemical engineering. Heat transfer would be an example of such a unit operation. The need to cool, heat, condense, and vaporize materials is universal in chemical and material processing. The equations used to estimate the rate at which heat transfer occurs can be generalized into a simple equation such that
Q
(amount of energy transferred) is proportional to the temperature difference (Δ
T
) as well as the physical characteristics of the system in which the heat transfer is occurring (mixing, physical property differences such as density and viscosity). This would be expressed mathematically as
Q
=
UA
Δ
T
. The amount of energy transferred and the temperature difference may be known, but the “coefficient” (frequently represented by the letter
U
) relating the two may vary considerably. However, this basic equation can be applied to any heat transfer situation. The same thoughts apply to many separation unit operations such as distillation, membrane transport, reverse osmosis membranes, chromatography, and other “mass transfer” unit operations. The rate of mass transfer is proportional to a concentration difference and an empirical constant, which will be affected by physical properties, diffusion rates, and agitation. In many chemical plant operations, there is an overlap in these areas. For example, a distillation column will involve both heat and mass transfer. The same is true for an industrial cooling tower. The last of these general topics is fluid flow. Though there are many types of pumps and compressors, they all operate on the same basic principle that says that the rate of flow is proportional to the pressure differential, the energy supplied, and the physical properties of the liquid or gas. Again, there is an overlap, as any equipment of this type is also using energy and heating up the liquid or gas it is moving. The heat transfer, as well as the fluid transfer, must be considered.
Process Design, Economics, and Optimization. There are numerous ways of scaling up a chemical production system. The choice of particular separation processes, transport systems, storage systems, heat transfer equipment, mixing vessels, and their agitation systems can be done in various combinations, which will impact reliability, cost, the way the process is controlled, and the uniformity of the output of the process. “Design optimization” is a term frequently used. The “optimum” design will not be the same for all companies making the same product as their raw materials base, customer requirements, energy costs, geographic location, cost of labor, and other company unique variables will affect the decision as to what is optimum. Our ability to computerize chemical engineering design calculations has greatly enabled chemical engineers’ capabilities to evaluate a large number of options.
Process Control. In a laboratory environment where small quantities of materials are made, the control system may be rather rudimentary (i.e., an agitated flask and on/off heating jacket). However, when this same reaction is “scaled up” orders of magnitude and possibly from batch to continuous, the nature of the process control changes dramatically. The continuous production of specification material around the clock has special challenges in that the raw materials (now coming from an industrial supplier and not a reagent chemical bottle) will not be uniform, the parameters of utilities needed to heat and cool will not be uniform, and the external environment will constantly change. Chemical engineers must design a control system that will not only have to react to such changes but also ensure that there are minimal effects on the product quality, the outside environment, and the safety of its employees.
As the field of chemical engineering has expanded, many curricula will also contain specialty courses in such areas as materials science, environmental chemistry, and biological sciences. However, even when these specialty applications are “scaled” to commercial size, the aforementioned basics will always be needed and considered.
What Do Chemical Engineers Do?
With this type of training, a unique combination of chemistry, mechanical engineering, and physics, chemical engineers find their skills used in a variety of ways. The following is certainly not an all‐inclusive list but represents a majority of careers and assignments of most chemical engineers:
The scale‐up of new and modified chemical processes to make new materials or lower cost/less environmentally impactful routes to existing materials. This is most often described as “pilot plants,” which typically is a middle step between laboratory chemistry and full‐scale production. In some cases this can involve multiple levels of scale‐up (10/1, 100/1, etc.) depending upon the risk factor and the knowledge that exists. A newly proposed process that has operating issues or causes safety releases in a laboratory environment is a serious issue. If that same problem occurs on a much larger scale, the consequences can be far more severe, simply due to the amount and scale of materials being inventoried and processed. These consequences can easily include severe injuries and death, large property damage, and exposure of the surrounding community to toxic materials.
Design of Processes and Process Equipment. It is rare that the equipment used in a full‐scale plant is identical in type to that used in the laboratory or possibly even in the pilot plant. The piping size; the number and type of trays in a distillation tower; the configuration of coils, tubes, and baffles in a heat exchanger; the shape and size of an agitator system; the shape and geometry of a solids hopper; the shape and configuration of a chemical reactor; and the depth of packing in a tower are all examples of such detailed design calculations. In the commercial world, there may be limitations of certain speeds, voltages, and piping specifications that may not match exactly with what may be desired from smaller‐scale work. In these cases, the chemical engineer, in collaboration with other engineers, needs to design a system that will achieve the desired goals, but within practical limitations. In many large chemical and petrochemical companies, chemical engineers will become experts in a certain type of process equipment design and focus most of their career in one particular area.
Though certainly not unique to the domain of chemical engineers, the design of utility support systems for chemical plant operations is critical. This includes the supply of water for process and emergency cooling, continuity of electrical supply for powered process equipment such as pumps and agitators, and supply of oil, gas, or coal to generate steam and power. Options chosen will certainly be affected not only by economics but also by limitations of a particular manufacturing site. These may include water availability, water and air permit limitations, and the reliability of local public utility supplies.
Sales and marketing positions in the chemical, petroleum, and materials industries are frequently filled by chemical engineers. The ability to understand the customer’s process may be critical to the ability to sell a material to a customer, especially if it is a new material or requires substantial change in a customer’s operation.
Safety
and environmental positions, both within industry and government, are frequently filled by chemical engineers. In order to write rules and regulations, it is important to understand the basic limitations of chemical processes, laws of thermodynamics, and the limits of measurement capabilities. Regulations and enforcement actions relating to hazardous material transport also require chemical engineering expertise, especially in bulk pipeline, rail car, and truckload shipping.
Cost estimates in the chemical and petrochemical areas are also done by chemical engineers in conjunction with mechanical, civil, and instrumentation engineers. With the availability of today’s computer horsepower, it is possible to evaluate and compare many possible process options as a function of raw material pricing, geographic location, energy cost, and cost projections. This allows optimum process design and the ability to predict process costs and economics under changing conditions.
The supervision of actual chemical plant operations is most often done by chemical engineers. In this role, the understanding of equipment design and performance is critical, but more importantly the management of plant operations to minimize safety incidents and environmental releases, as well as complying with permits under which the plant is allowed to operate. In this role chemical engineers have additional unique responsibilities including labor relations with operating plant personnel as well as the need, in some cases, to interface with the surrounding community in a public communications role.
In universities and in advanced laboratories within many large corporations, basic chemical engineering research is done by advanced degreed chemical engineers, many times in association with other disciplines. Examples of such work would include chemical engineering principles used in the design of artificial organs (remember: the heart is a pump and the kidney is a filter), the study of atmospheric diffusion to study the impact of environmental emissions, the design and optimization of process control algorithms, alternative energy sources and processes, and the recovery of energy from waste products in an economical and environmentally acceptable way.
Many business and executive management positions, especially in chemical‐ and material‐based companies (both large and start‐up), are filled by chemical engineers. This may come from the advancement over time of newly hired engineers based on demonstrated capabilities (including technical, decision making, and people interaction and motivational skills), as well as the need to transfer chemical engineers with one area of management and technical expertise into another needing, but not having those skills.
The study of biological systems from a chemical engineering standpoint. This includes not only the previously mentioned human organs such as the heart (pumps) and kidneys (filters) but also absorption and conversion of food ingredients into the human body.
Development of System Models. As our basic understanding of chemical and engineering systems has advanced, it has become easier to mathematically model many process systems. This requires the combination of chemical engineering skills with knowledge of mathematical models and software that, in many cases, minimizes the cost of system scale‐up and evaluation.
Topics to Be Covered
The remainder of this book will be divided into chapters represented by the various chemical engineering unit operations, following an overview of safety, reactive chemicals, chemistry scale‐up, and economics. The following general introductory topics will be included as necessary as each major chemical engineering unit operation is reviewed:
Chapter 2: Safety and Health: The Role and Responsibilities in Chemical Engineering Practice. There is no perfectly safe chemical (people drown in room temperature water). What particular aspects of safety are important in chemical processing and engineering? What are some examples of materials available and used to evaluate hazards and plan for emergency situations? What kind of protective equipment may be required? What particular aspects of chemical safety require special planning and communication? What are some examples of public‐ and government‐required information? How do we decide on necessary protective equipment? In most cases of commercial processes, there is a wealth of safety and health information available, but discipline is required to review and keep up to date with the latest information. The stability of chemical systems to temperature and heat, oxygen, classes of chemicals, and external contamination must also be understood.
Chapter 3: The Concept of Balances. One of the core principles in chemical engineering is the concept of conservation principles. The amount of mass entering a process or a system, over some period of time, must be equal to what comes out. The same is true for energy with the addition or subtraction of energy change in any chemical reaction and also energy related to equipment operation such as pumps and agitators. Momentum, or fluid energy, is another property conserved in any process.
Chapter 4: Stoichiometry, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Equilibrium, and Reaction Engineering. How a chemical reaction system, a separation system, a mixing system, a fluid transfer system, or a solids handling system is “scaled up” from their laboratory origins is one of the keys to a commercially successful chemical or materials operation. The methods for doing this are, in most cases, not linear extrapolations. If the scale‐up of a chemical process involves many different unit operations, whose scale‐up methods are different, this presents a unique challenge in the design of a large‐scale chemical process. Chemical reactions either require or generate heat. As will be discussed in more detail later, the rates of reactions and the ability to add and remove heat do not follow the same type of mathematical laws, requiring intelligent engineering design decisions to prevent accidents, injuries, and loss of equipment. Many chemicals will not react with each other under ambient conditions, but their potential products are desirable. Catalysts are materials with special surface properties, which, when activated in a particular way, allow chemicals to react at lower temperature or pressure conditions than otherwise required. They also may allow a higher degree of selectivity of products produced.
Chapter 5: Flow Sheets, Diagrams, and Materials of Construction. As a chemical process idea moves from a laboratory concept to full‐scale production, it typically moves through various stages. A mini‐plant, a small‐scale version of the lab process, might be run to test variables such as catalyst life, conversions and yields being steady over time, reproducibility of the product produced, and similar issues. A pilot plant might then be built, which might be a 100× scale of the lab process, but still 1/10th or 100th the size of the full‐scale plant. If it is necessary to provide product samples to a customer during this scale‐up process, a semi‐plant might be built. The prime function of such a unit is to supply product for customer evaluation, but it will certainly provide additional scale‐up and design information. A process being scaled up by a company that is already familiar with the general chemistry may skip one or more of these steps, considering the scale‐up risk to be minimal. As this scale‐up process moves along, flow sheets that describe how the process will operate and how its various process units will interact with each other become more detailed.
An industrial process rarely uses the same type of equipment used in the laboratory, and one of the key differences is in the materials used in the equipment that handles all the process materials. On a large scale, it is neither safe nor practical to use large‐scale glass equipment. Glass‐lined equipment is an alternative but can be expensive. Decisions on materials of construction are part of this process of scaling up a process. Decisions on materials to be used must be made and involves corrosion rates and products of corrosion, as well as balancing corrosion rates and product contamination with the possible added cost of corrosion‐resistant materials.
Chapter 6: Economics and Chemical Engineering. No chemical reaction or process is commercially implemented unless it provides a profit to someone. Many chemical reactions and formulations are proposed that never go beyond laboratory scale. There must be a demand for the material and the function it provides, and the value (price) of the product or service must be greater than the sum of the cost of its raw materials, the cost of the plant to produce the final product, the cost of any necessary and required environmental controls, the cost of final plant site cleanup and/or disposal, the cost of any borrowed funds invested, the cost of research and development related to the product and process, and the profitability demanded by a company and its shareholders. There may also be unique costs involved in the transportation and storage of any particular chemical.
As previously mentioned, the costs and quality of commercially available raw materials will differ significantly from laboratory reagents. In every case, if the quality will be lower, the raw materials will have impurities that are different, the levels of impurities may change with time, and costs of energy systems may vary. Since the construction of a commercial chemical operation may take many years to complete and the science of forecasting all of these variables is never perfect, estimates are made of changes in these inputs and how they would ultimately affect the cost of manufacture. Economics of making a material is also divided into components that are either fixed or variable, meaning that the costs vary directly with the production volume or they are relatively independent of the volume. The ratio of these two characteristics can have a dramatic impact on chemical or material process profitability as a function of volume and business conditions.
Chapter 7: Fluid Flow, Pumps, and Liquid Handling and Gas Handling. This chapter will review the basics of fluid flow including pumps, gas flow, piping systems, and the impact of changes in process conditions. Fluid transport equipment have limitations that must be understood prior to their choice and use. Fluid mixing can affect chemical reaction rates, uniformity of products produced, and energy costs used by various transport systems. Similar to mass and energy balances, fluid energy and momentum are also conserved in any fluid system, and these potential changes must be accounted for.
Chapter 8: Heat Transfer and Heat Exchangers. Since very few chemical reactions are energy neutral, heat must be either supplied or removed. There are many choices in heat transfer equipment as well as choices in how these various types of equipment are configured. Heat transfer systems are used to heat or cool the reaction systems, insulate piping to maintain a given temperature, maintain temperatures in storage systems, condense gases, boil liquids, and melt or freeze solids. The heating or cooling may also be used to control or change physical properties of a liquid or a gas. It may also be possible to use heat generated in one part of a process to utilize in another part of a process.
Chapter 9: Reactive Chemicals Concepts. This chapter, though separate due to its importance, combines aspects of kinetics, reaction engineering, and heat transfer in the analysis of what is commonly known as reactive chemicals. These aspects of engineering scale in the same way and, if not done correctly, can result in serious loss of life and equipment.
Chapter 10: Distillation. This is the most unique unit operation to chemical engineering. Many liquid mixtures, frequently produced from a chemical reaction, must be separated to recover and possibly purify one or more of the components. If there is vapor pressure or volatility difference between the components, the vaporization and condensation of this mixture done multiple times can produce pure products, both of the more volatile and less volatile components. This unit operation is at the heart of the oil and petrochemical industry that produces gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil, and feedstocks for polymer processes. Low temperature (cryogenic) distillation is also the basis for separating ambient air into its individual components of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon—all used in industrial and medical applications.
Chapter 11: Other Separation Processes: Absorption, Stripping, Adsorption, Chromatography, Membranes. Absorption is the unit operation that describes the removal or recovery of a component from a gas stream into a liquid stream. Stripping is the opposite, or the removal or recovery of a component from a liquid into a gas. Both of these unit operations have become more important over time as environmental regulations have decreased the amount of trace materials that can be discharged directly into the air or water. Adsorption is the use of gas/solid interaction to recover a component from a gas or liquid on to the surface of a solid, the fluid discharged, and the material on the solid surface later recovered via a change in pressure or temperature. The principles of adsorption can also be used to optimize the design of catalyst systems mentioned previously. Charcoal “filters” used to purify home drinking water are an example of this unit operation. Ion‐exchange resins are often used to “soften” water for home and industrial use.
Some mixtures require more advanced separation techniques. Water desalination is such an example. Due to basic thermodynamic properties, water would prefer to contain salt, if it is present, rather than to be in its pure state. It is necessary to overcome this “natural” state through the use of permeable selective membranes utilizing a pressure differential. This can be a less costly way of producing drinking water from salt water compared to evaporation. Separation of gases (i.e., air into nitrogen and oxygen) into their components can also be done via membrane‐based technologies versus cryogenic (below room temperature) distillation.
Chapter 12: Evaporation and Crystallization. Many chemical reactions result in a product dissolved in a process solvent. This can include salts dissolved in water systems. These types of solutions frequently require concentration to deliver a desired product specification or may require removal of a component whose solubility is lesser than the desire product. Heating or cooling such a solution can be used to evaporate or crystallize the solution and change its concentration of the dissolved solid. This unit operation and its principles overlap with heat transfer topic in Chapter 8.
Chapter 13: Liquid–Solids Separation. Filtration is basically the removal of solids from slurry for the purpose of recovering a solid (possibly produced via evaporation or crystallization). The purpose here could be either recovery of a valuable product, now precipitated, or further processing of a more pure liquid. A drip coffee maker is an example of filtration. This unit operation can be enhanced by the use of gravitational forces such as used in a centrifuge. A home washing machine in its spin cycle is an example of this unit operation.
Chapter 14: Drying. Many chemical products, in their final form, are solids as opposed to liquids or gases. The drying of solids (removal of water or a solvent from a filtration process) involves the contacting of the wet solid with heat in some form (direct contact, indirect contact) to remove the residual water or solvent. The degree of dryness needed is a critical factor in engineering design. The setting used in home clothes dryer is an everyday example.
Chapter 15: Solids Handling. The fundamentals of solids handling and storage are seldom included in chemical engineering curricula at the present time. However, the variables that determine how solids transport equipment (screw conveyors, pneumatic conveyors) operate are extremely important from a practical and industrial standpoint. The characteristics of solids and their ability to be transported and stored are far more complicated than liquids and gases and require the determination of additional physical properties to properly design such process units as bins and hoppers, screw conveyors, pneumatic conveyors, and cyclones. There are also some very unique safety concerns in solids handling, often ignored, that result in dust explosions. The caking of solids in a home kitchen storage unit is an everyday example of what can also happen in industrial processes and packaging.
Chapter 16: Tanks, Vessels, and Special Reaction Systems. Though the actual detailed design of structural supports, pressure vessels, and tanks is normally done by mechanical and civil engineers, the design requirements are often set by chemical engineers. Though tanks and vessels can be used to simply store materials for inventory or batch quality control reasons, they are also used as reactors. This can frequently involve mixing of liquids, gases, and solids; heat transfer; as well as pressure, phase, and volume changes.
Chapter 17: Chemical Engineering in Polymer Manufacture and Processing. These are materials produced from the reaction of monomers such as ethylene, styrene, propylene, and butadiene, which have reactive double bonds. When activated by thermal, chemical, or electromagnetic fields, these monomers can react among themselves to produce long chains of very high molecular weight polymers. Different monomers can be reacted together, producing co‐ and tri‐polymers with varying geometrical configurations. This class of materials has both unique processing and handling challenges due to unusual physical properties and the nonuniform distribution of chemical characteristics. They also have unique challenges in blending and compounding to produce final desired product properties such as color and melting characteristics.
Chapter 18: Process Control. All of the unit operations and their integration into a chemical process require the design of a control system that will produce the product desired by the customer. This chapter also covers the aspects of a control system necessary to deal with the safety and reactive chemical issues mentioned previously.
Chapter 19: Beer Brewing Revisited. In follow‐up to the first exercise, we will review the brewing of coffee from the standpoint of chemical engineering principles.
There are also appendices to provide additional discussion and reference materials.
Before we start our journey into the various aspects of chemical engineering, let us take a look at the flow sheet showing how beer is manufactured:
Figure 1.1 Beer manufacturing flow sheet.
Source: https://chem409.wikispaces.com/brewing+process. © Wikipedia.
Prior to reading the rest of this book, make a list of some of the chemical engineering issues that you see in designing, running, controlling, and optimizing the brewery process.
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We will revisit this process near the end of this book.
In addition we will use the brewing of coffee (starting at the very beginning) as an illustration of the principles we will present throughout the book.
Discussion Questions
1 What roles do chemical engineers fill in your operations and organization?
2 What unit operations are practiced in your process and facility? Which ones are well understood? Not well understood?
3 How are nonchemical engineers educated prior to their involvement in chemical process operations? Have there been any consequences due to lack of understanding of chemical engineering principles?
