Introduction to

Chemical
Engineering

Fatima Jalid
Department of Chemical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Srinagar
What do Chemical Engineers do?
As a chemical engineer, you could find yourself working on the following activities:

v Design and development of chemical processes and equipment

v Optimization and control of industrial operations

v Plant operation and management

v Fundamental and applied research from the molecular level to full industrial scale

v Environmental management, monitoring and pollution control

Chemical Engineers at Work – Role in Chemical
Process Industry

q Process selection
q Operation
q Instrumentation and control
q Chemical process economics
q Marketing
q Safety
q Construction of a plant
q Research and development
q Management
q Process system engineering
q Environment related
q Design related
Chemical Engineers at Work – Process Selection

q Process selection
ü Process should be energy efficient
ü Technical factors – Process flexibility, Controls involved, Commercial
yields, Energy requirements. Auxiliaries, Modification, and Hazards.
ü Raw materials Availability, Processing required, Handling, Storage.
ü Equipment – Cost, Materials of construction, Maintenance,
Availability, Modification.
ü Plant location – Land, Labour, Transportation, Rawmaterial
availability. Markets, Climate, Government regulations and taxes,
Energy.
ü Costs –Raw material, Energy, Depreciation, Processing, Overheads,
Labour, Real estate.
ü Process considerations – Technology available, Raw materials,
Consistency of product.
ü Environmental factors – Process should be less polluting
ü Other considerations: Waste products, By-products,Value of money.
Chemical Engineers at Work – Operation

q Operation
ü Chemical processing of a raw material into the desired product can
only be achieved by operating the chemical plant
ü In order to be able to handle plant operation smoothly, a chemical
engineer should start early to become familiar with the industrial
equipment
ü Many problems like temperature and pressure control,
maintenance, and safety continue to arise during the plant
operation, thus, the operation of the plant requires the attention of a
chemical engineer
ü Negligence of a small problem can often lead to bigger more
complex problems and can cause unnecessary halts in production.
ü Constant check-ups and watch must be kept to avoid corrosion.
mechanical failures are seldom experienced unless there has been
previous corrosion or weakening by chemical attack
Chemical Engineers at Work – Instrumentation and
Control

q Instrumentation and Control

ü Maintaining required temperature, pressure, flow-rates, and other
condition is the task of a chemical engineer
ü A chemical engineer must have the proper knowledge of the
instruments involved for controlling and measuring process
variables
ü Adequate ability to design control systems or processes and
workout problems faced in controlling process operations.
ü Earlier plants used mechanical control instruments, however, that is
now being replaced by automatic electronic control systems
Chemical Engineers at Work – Chemical Process
Economics

q Chemical Process Economics

ü Engineers are distinguished from scientists by their consciousness
of costs and profits.
ü Economics plays a vital role in the operation, design, and
maintenance of every chemical plant.
ü The primary objective of an engineer’s endeavors' must be to
deliver safely the best product or the most efficient services at the
lowest cost to the employer and the consumer.
ü The engineer must consider costs and profits constantly throughout
her work.
ü Cost per unit product always urns out to be the key issue for any
business enterprise and an engineer should always work to keep it
as economical as possible
ü An engineer must take into account the volume for production
when determining costs and total profits for various types of
designs, keeping in view customer needs and demands.
Chemical Engineers at Work – Marketing

q Marketing
ü The factors generally considered in the market evaluation are the
present and future supply and demand, present and future uses,
new uses, present buying habits, price range for products and by-
products, character, location, and number of possible customers.
ü The marketing of a product does not only depend upon its
advertisement but also on the quality of the product, its physical
conditions, and its packing
ü Packaging of a product plays an essential role in its marketing
especially for consumer products
ü The physical conditions of the products have a very strong impact
on the marketability
Chemical Engineers at Work – Safety

q Safety
ü Chemical engineers have to work as safety engineers too
ü Precautions to prevent fire and to fight fire must be taken.
ü Employees must be protected against toxic chemicals.
ü Safety measures not only keep the employees out of danger but
also save money and time by reducing accidents and any
unnecessary halts in the production.
ü There are different standards for many toxic and harmful
substances
Chemical Engineers at Work – Construction of a
Plant
q Construction of a plant
ü The presence of the chemical engineer is essential during the
erection of the plant in order to implement the design standards and
interpret technical and design data whenever needed.
ü During plant erection, the chemical engineer should visit the plant
site to assist in the interpretation of plans and learn methodsfor
improving future designs
ü It further helps her learn techniqueswhich are very helpful to him
in the maintenance of the plant and provide him knowledge and
information for making the maintenance and check-up plans in
future
Chemical Engineers at Work – Research and
Development
q Research and Development
ü New and improved processes
ü Lower costs and lower prices of product
ü Services and products never known before
ü Change of rarities to common ommercial supplies
ü Adequate supply of materials previously obtained only as by-
products
ü Freedom from domination by foreign control
ü Stabilization of business and industrial employment
ü Products of improved quality
ü Proper utilization of materials once taken as waste products
ü Control of substances causing pollution and hazards
Chemical Engineers at Work – Management

q Research and Development

ü New and improved processes
ü Lower costs and lower prices of product
ü Services and products never known before
ü Change of rarities to common ommercial supplies
ü Adequate supply of materials previously obtained only as by-
products
ü Freedom from domination by foreign control
ü Stabilization of business and industrial employment
ü Products of improved quality
ü Proper utilization of materials once taken as waste products
ü Control of substances causing pollution and hazards
Chemical Engineers at Work – Process Systems
Engineering
q Process systems engineering
ü New possibilities of plant operation and control
ü Attempts at optimization of control parameters
ü Control of each unit of the plants which alters the overall operation
of the plant
ü Study of interactive and complex systems
Chemical Engineers at Work – Environment

q Environment
ü Controlling pollution
ü Controlling waste generation
ü To develop new methods and techniques to treat wastes generated
by the process industries
ü Minimize waste generation trends
ü Develop renewable sources of material and energy
ü Towards developing sustainable and renewable technologies
Chemical Engineers at Work – Design
q Design
ü It is the synthesis, the putting together of ideas to achieve a desired
purpose
ü The designer starts with a specific objective in mind, a need, and
by developing and evaluating possible designs, arrives at what she
considers best way of achieving that objective
ü Ranges from design of a single operation to the design of the entire
plant at large
Chemical Engineers at Work – Design

The main stages in a plant-design project are:

Ø Inception
Ø Preliminary evaluation of economics and markets
Ø Development of data necessary for final design
Ø Final economice valuation
Ø Detailed engineering design (including process selection, material and
energy balances, equipment design, materials of construction,
instrumentation and process control, and cost estimation)
Ø Procurement
Ø Erection
Ø Startup and trial runs
Ø Production
 Top Ten Achievements of Chemical Engineering by
AIChE
q Synthetic rubber - developed in two years to replace natural rubber
q Antibiotics
q Polymer – predominant materials for consumer products
q Synthetic fibers – by producing fine threads of polymers reducing dependence on
natural resources
q Cryogenic separation of air into O2 and N2 – N2 as a fertilizer and O2 in medicine
q Separation of nuclear isotopes – facilitating medical research, diagnostics, and
treatments requiring isotopically enriched elements.
q Catalytic cracking of crude oil – decomposing crude oil into building blocks which
can be transformed into complex resourceful chemicals
q Pollution control – devise processes with minimal by product formation
q Fertilizers, especially ammonia – novel improvised fertilizers revolutionized
agriculture
q Biomedical engineering – artificial organs by modeling processes of human body

ü Chemical engineering made possible the mass production of these items and the
subsequent availability to people worldwide.
What do Chemical Engineers study?
 What do Chemical Engineers study?

Ø The raw materials undergo a number of physical treatment steps (separations,

purifications) to put them in the form such that they can be reacted chemically,
the reaction takes place in the reactor, the products then must undergo further
physical processing to obtain product in desired form
Ø Chemical treatment step is the heart of process, something that makes or breaks
the process economically
What do Chemical Engineers study?

Physical Change
What do Chemical Engineers study?

Chemical Change

Physical Change
 What do Chemical Engineers study?

Every industrial process comprises of a series of steps that are undertaken in order
to achieve a desired product from raw materials available to us. No two industrial
processes are the same – the manufacture of each item in unique to it, however,
there may be similarities amongst them. To understand the plethora of industrial
processes that take place, the entire process is discretized into various operations
that may take place. Overall, these processes may be classified on the basis of the
nature of change being undertaken –

q Unit Operations – where physical change takes place

q Unit Processes – where chemical transformations occur

ü Unit Operations are concerned with bringing about a physical change in the
material without altering the chemical properties of the material.
ü In unit operations, it’s just the physical properties of the stuff that are altered
ü Unit Operations are usually secondary to the unit processes that govern the
chemical industry.
Unit Operations and Unit Processes in Ammonia
Production Plant

Can you identify the

unit operations and
unit process in
here?
Unit Operations and Unit Processes | Examples

Unit Operations include –

q Separation Processes
q Purification Processes
q Mixing Processes
q Power Generation Processes
q Heat Exchangers

Unit Processes include –

q Chemical Processes/Transformations