Chemical Engineering Principles

Lectures
Wednesday Period 6 (12:20 – 13:05) Venue: Sh5
Thursday Period 3 (13:15 – 14:00) Venue: Sh5

Tutorials
Thursday Periods 8&9 (14:10 – 15:40)
Venue: Sh8/Sh16/Sh19

Assessment

2 Tests 7½% each

Assignment 10%
Semester Mark 25%
Final Exam (3 hours) 75%

Tests
26 Mar Thurs TEST 1: Periods 8&9 LANS
6 May Thurs TEST 2: Periods 8&9 TBA

Assignment
8 Apr Thurs SUBMIT ASSIGNMENT: PART 1
12 May Wednes SUBMIT ASSIGNMENT: PART 2
Tutorial Schedule 2010

Date Tutorial / Test / Assignment Venue

11 Feb Thurs
18 Feb Thurs LECTURE: Periods 8&9 - LANS
Groups 1&2
25 Feb Thurs LECTURE: Periods 8&9 - LANS
Groups 3&4
4 Mar Thurs TUTORIAL 1: Periods 8&9 - LANS
Groups 1&2
11 Mar Thurs TUTORIAL 1: Periods 8&9 - LANS
Groups 3&4
18 Mar Thurs TUTORIAL 2: Periods 8&9 - See tut venues
Units & Conversions
26 Mar Thurs TEST 1: Periods 8&9 LANS
8 Apr Thurs SUBMIT ASSIGNMENT:
PART 1
15 Apr Thurs
22 Apr Thurs
29 Apr Thurs TUTORIAL 3: Periods 8&9 - See tut venues
Mass Balancing
6 May Thurs TEST 2: Periods 8&9 TBA
12 May SUBMIT ASSIGNMENT:
Wednes PART 2
13 May Thurs TUTORIAL 4: Periods 8&9 - See tut venues
Energy Balancing
By the end of the course, you should be able to do the
following:

Process Flow Sheets: Understand the nature of a

processing plant; Unit operations; pictorial
representation of a system as a block diagram;
generation of Process Flow Diagrams

Basic Engineering Calculations: Convert units;

define, calculate and estimate properties of process
materials such as fluid density, concentrations,
pressure, etc.

Material and Energy Balance Calculations: Draw

and label process flowsheets from verbal descriptions;
carry-out degree-of-freedom analyses; write and solve
mass and energy balance equations for single unit with
and without chemical reaction.

Physical Chemistry: Calculate internal energy and

enthalpy changes for process fluids undergoing
specified changes in temperature, pressure, and phase.
Incorporate such calculations into mass and energy
balance problems.
Specifically you should be able to:

1. convert a verbal process description into a block

diagram and a process flow diagram
2. State if the units in an equation are consistent
and homogeneous and convert a quantity expressed
in one set of units into its equivalent in any other
dimensionally consistent units using conversion
factor tables.  Identify the units commonly used to
express both mass and weight in SI, cgs and
American Engineering units (AES).
3. Calculate process flow rates in mass, molar, and
volumetric units given the appropriate process data.
4. Convert between moles, mass and volume; mole
fractions and mass fractions; mass fractions (or
composition) and mole fractions (or composition). 
5. Convert temperature and pressure among the
common scales. Convert a manometer reading or
head of a liquid into an equivalent pressure. 
6. Given a description of a steady-state process,
draw and label a flowchart, chose a basis of
calculation.
7. Determine the limiting and excess reactants in a
reaction.
8. Determine unknown flows and compositions by
a material balance for single unit for processes
without chemical reactions.

9. Perform a material balance on a material flow

sheet incorporating a single process unit for reactive
processes given extents of reaction and/or yield and
selectivity data for the reactions.
10. Single unit energy balances (heat exchangers,
reactors and mixers with no chemical reaction,
single chemical reaction and multiple chemical
reactions)
 
Prescribed Book
R.M. Felder and R.W.  Rousseau, Elementary
Principles of Chemical Engineering, John Wiley &
Sons, Third Edition, 1999. 
Interactive Chemical Process Principles (ICCP),
ICCP-CD ROM (accompanies the textbook). 

References: 
1. Himmelblau D.M., Basic Principles and
Calculations in Chemical Engineering, Prentice
Hall, Sixth Edition (1996).
2. Reklaitis, G. V., Introduction to Material and
Energy Balances, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1983
What is Chemical Engineering?

A ChE is a person who: (1) develops or designs a new

process or (2) re-designs, improves, or troubleshoots
a process, in order to make or do something as
economically, safely, and efficiently as possible.

Chemical engineers
 turn lower value materials into higher value
products
 involved with product design and development
 design processes to manufacture the products
 involved with process scale-up, development and
optimization
 perform economic analysis of the production
process
 operate and control the processes to ensure that the
product quality satisfies the required specification
 involved with management of the processes
 involved with product sales and technical service
A “process” is any operation or series of operations
which causes a physical or chemical change in a
substance or a mixture of substances.

Every chemical process is a collection of units

interconnected by streams.

The five most common unit operations are:

• reactors • heat exchangers • pumps • mixers and
• separators

Reactors are usually the key unit followed by

separators.

Examples of separators include:

• dryers • filters • absorbers • adsorbers • centrifuges
• distillation columns • liquid-liquid extraction
• leaching • evaporators • hydrocyclones

Use the difference in physical properties of each of the

species to separate mixtures e.g. boiling points,
 FLOWCHARTING

Diagrams routinely used by chemical engineers to

help design and understand chemical processes.
Three principal diagrams are block flow diagram
(BFD), process flow diagram (PFD), and the piping
and instrument diagram (P&ID).

most useful is the PFD - understanding of the PFD is

the central goal of these lectures
Block Flow Diagram

boxes to symbolize unit processes or process units and

directed lines to represent material flows.

e.g. a furnace: natural gas is mixed with air and burned

while exhaust gas goes out the chimney.

Example:
Produce some product by reacting A and B
A + B → Product + C (by-product)

Feed preparation:
Separate reactor output

Separate by-product C
and unreacted A and B

Recycle A and B
All processes have a similar input/output structure -
raw materials enter a process and are reacted to form
products and by-products - products are separated
from unreacted feed - usually recycled - product
streams purified to yield products that are acceptable
to the market place.

Block flow diagrams are illustrated as a set of

connected blocks, or process units. Lines with arrows
connect the blocks and indicate the direction of the
process flow or “stream”. Raw materials always enter
(as input) on the left and products leave (as output) on
the right.
The Generic Block Flow Process Diagram

Generic Block Flow Diagram has six basic areas; each

block may contain several unit operations

1. Reactor Feed Preparation (pre-processing)

Reactor feed streams are adjusted to required
concentration, temperature (heating), pressure, state,
size (grinding) etc.

2. Reactor
Chemical reactions take place in this block; streams
that leave this block contain products, byproducts, and
unused reactants

3. Separator Feed Preparation

Temperature and pressure of reactor output streams
are adjusted to allow effective separation

4. Separator
Separation of products, byproducts, waste streams,
and unused feed materials by physical processes such
as distillation, absorption, extraction
5. Recycle
Returns unreacted feed chemicals to the reactor; this
block normally contains only pump or compressor
and/or heat exchanger

6. Environmental Control
Reduces waste emissions from the process and render
all non-product streams harmless to the environment;
sometimes a single environmental control unit treats
the waste from several processes

Summary: Block Flow Diagrams

 Operations shown by blocks
 Major flow lines shown with arrows giving
direction of flow
 Flow goes from left to right whenever possible
 Light stream (gases) toward top with heavy
stream (liquids and solids) toward bottom
 Critical information unique to process supplied
 If lines cross, then the horizontal line is
continuous and the vertical line is broken
 Simplified material balance provided
Only four kinds of process units are used in block flow
diagrams; mixers, reactors, separators, and splitters.

Mixers combine two or more materials (inputs).

One or more chemical reactions take place inside a

reactor.

An input stream is separated into two or more outputs

by a separator. The outputs from a separator have
different chemical compositions from each other and
from the input. The change in chemical composition
is due to physical operations, not a chemical reaction.

A splitter also separates an input into two of more

outputs but now the outputs have the same chemical
composition.

Compressors, pumps, heat exchanges, etc. are not part

of the BFD.
 Generalised Chemical Engineering Process
Recycle of unreacted By-products
Material
Wastes
Raw
Feed Product Product Product
Material Reaction
Preparation Separation Purification Storage
Storage
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6

Stage 1. Raw material storage Hold several days, or weeks storage

Stage 2. Feed Preparation Purification and preparation of raw materials,
State - liquid or vapour. Size of solid particles
Stage 3. Reactor Heart of process. By-products and unwanted compounds
also formed,
Stage 4. Product separation Products and by-products separated from
unreacted material - recycled
Stage 5. Purification To meet specification
Stage 6. Product storage Inventory held to match production with sales
Block Flow Diagrams (BFDs)

Initial step - convert a word problem into a block

diagram. Diagram consists of a series of blocks
representing different equipment or unit operations
connected by input and output streams. Starting point
for developing a PFD.

BFDs gives overview of process unobstructed by the

many details related to the process. Each block in the
diagram represents a process function and may, in
reality, consist of several pieces of equipment.

Conventions and Format for Laying Out a Block

Flow Process Diagram
1. Operations shown by blocks.
2. Major flow lines shown with arrows giving
direction of flow.
3. Flow goes from left to right whenever possible.
4. Light stream (gases) toward top with heavy stream
(liquids and solids) toward bottom.
5. If lines cross, then the horizontal line is continuous
and the vertical line is broken
In-Class Examples
Toluene and hydrogen are converted in a reactor to
produce benzene and methane. The reaction does not go
to completion, and excess toluene is required. The
noncondensable gases are separated and discharged. The
benzene product and the unreacted toluene are then
separated by distillation. The toluene is then recycled
back to the reactor and the benzene removed in the
product stream.

The catalytic dehydrogenation of propane is carried out

in a continuous packed-bed reactor. One thousand
kilograms per hour of pure propane is preheated to a
temperature of 670oC before it passes into the reactor.
The reactor effluent gas, which includes propane,
propylene, methane, and hydrogen, is cooled from 800oC
to 110oC and fed to an absorption tower, where the
propane and propylene are dissolved in oil. The off gas
is release from the top of the absorber. The oil then goes
to a stripping tower in which it is heated, releasing the
dissolved gases; these gases are recompressed and sent
to a distillation column in which the propane and
propylene are separated. The propane stream is recycled
back to join the feed to the reactor preheater. The
product stream from the distillation column contains
98% propylene and the recycle stream is 97% propylene.
The stripped oil is recycled to the absorption tower.
Overall objective: To produce C3H6 from C3H8.

Preheater function: Raise temperature of the reactants

to raise the reaction rate.

Reactor function: Convert C3H8 to C3H6.

Absorption tower function: Separate the C3H8 and

C3H6 in the reactor effluent from the other
components.

Stripping tower function: Recover the C3H8 and C3H6

from the solvent.

Distillation column function: Separate the C3H5 from

the C3H8.