Chemical Engineering

Summer@Brown
2011
August 28, 1859 - Titusville, Pennsylvania
Edwin Drake
Lubbock, Texas
= Jet Fuel
Haifa, Israel
9 million tons (66 million barrels) of crude oil/ year
What is Chemical Engineering?
Basic sciences PLUS engineering fundamentals:
Convert raw materials into valuable products
Design and manufacture devices

This is accomplished by:
Chemical reactions (making and breaking of bonds)
Catalysis (accelerating chemical reactions)
Separation, purification of complex chemical mixtures





Famous Chemical Engineers
Linus Pauling Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1954,
Nobel Peace Prize, 1962
Jack Welch Former CEO of General Electric
Lee Raymond ExxonMobile chairman and CEO
Victor Mills Invented first disposable diaper
Robert Gore Inventor of Gore-Tex
Samuel Bodeman Former United States
Secretary of Energy (2005-2009)

Convert Raw Materials into Valuable
Products
Crude Oil Gasoline, Jet Fuel, Monomers
Monomers Polymers (ethylene
polyethylene)
Silicon crystals Semiconductors, integrated
circuits
Inorganic Precursors Ceramics
Corn Starch High Fructose Corn Syrup
Design and Manufacture Devices
Chemical plants (paper, plastics, fertilizers)
Electronics
Biomedical devices (artificial kidney, hearts)
Diagnostic/Drug delivery devices
Novel materials (polymers, fibers, ceramic)
Energy devices (batteries, fuel cells)
Waste treatment solutions
Specialty chemicals (foods, flavors, fragrances)
Chemist vs. Chemical Engineer
Chemists: Design new molecules and
synthesizes new formulas
Work in grams of materials

Chemical Engineers: Design equipment and
processes for large-scale chemical
manufacturing
Work in tonnes of materials
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant,
Bhopal, India - December 2-3, 1984
1-naphthol
chloroformate
carbaryl
Factors leading to the Bhopal disaster
Caused >15,000 deaths

Use of hazardous chemicals (MIC) instead of less dangerous
ones
Storing these chemicals in large tanks instead of over 200
steel drums.
Possible corroding material in pipelines
Poor maintenance after the plant ceased production in the
early 1980s
Failure of several safety systems (due to poor maintenance
and regulations).
Safety systems being switched off to save money
including the MIC tank refrigeration system
A Chemical Engineers Curriculum
Lots of Math, Chemistry and Physics
Fundamental Classes
Heat and Mass Transfer
Chemical Thermodynamics
Chemical Kinetics
Fluid Mechanics
Units of Chemical Processes: chemical reactors,
bioreactors, distillation columns, heat exchangers
Design Chemical Process integrate process units
with regard to economics, safety and environmental
impact
Job Opportunities
The Fundamentals
Black Box Theory
Device, system or object which can be viewed solely in
terms of its input, output and transfer characteristics
without any knowledge of its inner workings
Examples:
Computer programming; software testing
Finance: market prediction
Climate change- weather prediction
Physics: Particle physics Hadron Collider
Human mind: fMRI Biological systems
Black box theory has been used in many fields of
science and engineering
Refinery Operations
Evaporator
Converts Liquid -> Gas
Heat Exchanger
A(75C) A(30C)

Distillation Column
AB A + B

Process
Unit
Input/Feed Output
Distillation
AB A + B
Heat Exchanger
A(75C) A(30C)
Blackbox
Unit
Operations
Process streams
Mass flow rate, m,
(kg/h)


Volumetric flow rate, V
(L/min)

.
.

m
mass
time
.

V
volume
time
.

m V
.
.
Process
Unit
Input/Feed Output
Distillation
AB A + B
Heat Exchanger
A(75C) A(30C)
Blackbox
Unit
Operations
m
1
, v
1

. .
m
2
, v
2

. .
The volumetric flow rate of CCl
4
( = 1.595 g/cm
3
) in a
pipe is 100.0 cm
3
/min. What is the mass flow rate of
the CCl
4
?
Question 1
Process
Unit
Input/Feed Output
M
in
(kg CH
4
/h)
.
M
out
(kg CH
4
/h)

.
M
in
!= M
out

. .
Why?
1. Incorrect measurement
2. Leakage
3. Adsorption onto the walls
4. Reacted away? Or generated as a product?
Conservation of Mass
What goes in must come out!!
At steady state, accumulation in system = 0:
No reaction:

Input + Generation - Output - Consumption = Accumulation

Input - Output = 0

Input + Generation - Output - Consumption = 0
Each year 50,000 people move into a city, 75,000
people move out, 22,000 are born and 19,000 die.
Write a balance on the population of the city.
Question 2
A feed stream of pure liquid water enters an evaporator at
a rate of 0.5 kg/s. Three streams come from the
evaporator: a vapor stream and two liquid streams. The
flow-rate of the vapor stream was measured to be 4 X 10
6

L/min and its density was 0.004 kg/m
3
. The vapor stream
enters a turbine, where it loses enough energy to condense
fully and leave as a single stream. One of the liquid streams
is discharged as waste, the other is fed into a heat
exchanger, where it is cooled. This stream leaves the heat
exchanger at a rate of 0.1893 kg/s. Calculate the flow rate
of the discharge and the efficiency of the evaporator.
Question 3
One thousand kilograms per hour of a mixture of
benzene (B) and toluene (T) containing 50%
benzene by mass is separated by distillation into two
fractions. The mass flow rate of benzene in the top
stream is 450 kg B/h and that of toluene in the
bottom stream is 475 kg T/h. The operation is at
steady state. Write balances on benzene and
toluene to calculate the unknown component flow
rates in the output streams.
Question 4
Question 5
Two methanol-water mixtures are contained in separate
flasks. The first mixture contains 40.0 wt% methanol, and the
second contains 70.0 wt% methanol. If 200 g of the first
mixture is combined with 150 g of the second, what are the
mass (m) and composition of the product?
Case Study:
High Fructose Corn Syrup
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Milestones
1957 Process developed by Richard O. Marshall
and Earl R. Kooi
Up until 1970: sucrose used as a main sweetener
1975 1985 HFCS introduced to processed
foods and soft drinks
Common forms: HFCS 42 and HFCS 55
Soft Drinks 95%
Baked Goods 25%
Diary 30%
Processed Foods 45%
Sold in a bushel: 56 pounds of wet corn
(48.1 lb of dry corn + 7.9 lb of water)
Milling Process
Corn Oil 1.6 lb
Cornmeal 2.5 lb
Animal Feed 12.5 lb
Starch 31.5 lb
Water 7.9 lb
Extract Weight/Bushel Cost/Pound Cost/Bushel
Corn Oil 1.6 lb $0.27/lb $0.43/bushel
Cornmeal 2.5 lb $0.132/lb $0.33/bushel
Animal Feed 12.5 lb $0.044/lb $0.55/bushel
Starch 31.5 lb ? ?
Water 7.9 lb --- ----
$1.31/bushel
Raw Material Weight/Bushel Cost/Pound Cost/Bushel
Wet Corn 56 lb $0.047/lb $2.63/bushel
Cost Analysis of Harvesting Corn
Corn Starch
High Fructose
Corn Syrup
Liquefication
G-G-G-G-G-G G, G-G, G-G-G
Saccharification
G-G, G-G-G G, G, G, G, G
Isomerization
Glucose Fructose
-amylase
Glucoamylase
Glucose isomerase
Corn Starch
Other Extracts
Starch Purification
Liquefaction
Saccharification
Isomerization
Separator
55% HFCS 42% HFCS
-amylase
plant
glucoamylase
plant
glucoisomerase
plant
3 hrs, pH 6-7, Initial: 300F, 30
min, Heat: 185F, 30 min, Cool:
140F, 30 min
40-90 hours, pH 4, 140F
30 min process, pH
7, 140-150F
Composition % Fructose % Glucose % Solid
HFCS 42 42 58 70
HFCS 55 55 45 70
Raw Material Weight/Bushel Cost/lb Cost/Bushel
HFCS 42 31.5 lb $0.18/lb $5.67
HFCS 55 31.5 lb $0.20/ lb $6.30
Extract Weight/Bushel Cost/Pound Cost/Bushel
Corn Oil 1.6 lb $0.27/lb $0.43/bushel
Cornmeal 2.5 lb $0.132/lb $0.33/bushel
Animal Feed 12.5 lb $0.044/lb $0.55/bushel
Starch 31.5 lb $0.18/lb $5.67/bushel
Water 7.9 lb --- ----
$7.42/bushel
Raw Material Weight/Bushel Cost/Pound Cost/Bushel
Wet Corn 56 lb $0.047/lb $2.63/bushel
Cost Analysis of Harvesting Corn

Operation Research and
Industrial Engineering
ORIE, IEOR, OR-SE-IE
Originated in military efforts in WWII
Evaluates efficacy of the use of technology
Decision science: OR finds optimal solutions to
complex decision making process


Examples
1. Routing: Routes of buses so few buses are needed
2. Floor-planning: layout of equipment of factory or
computer chip to reduce manufacturing time/ costs
3. Network optimization: set-up of telecommunications
network to maintain quality of service during
outages
4. Healthcare: How effective are various disease
treatments

Courses?
Statistics
Optimization
Probability theory
Decision analysis
Queuing/Game/Graph theories
Computer science/analytics
Financial Engineering
NOT a real engineering discipline!
Applies engineering methodologies to
problems in finance
Combines:

to predict


Design new financial instruments
Models to help minimize financial risk





Math + Finance + Computer Modelling

Pricing + Hedging + Trading
Jobs?
Investment banks
Securities industry
Consulting firms (quantitative analysts)
Corporate finance/risk management roles in
other general manufacturing and service firms




Prerequisite: Bachelors in
computer science,
operation research
economics or math
Master of Financial
Engineering
Master of Quantitative
Finance
PhDs in computer science
or applied mathematics
Face of a Financial Engineer?
Courses to consider in college:
Financial economics (some colleges offer
engineering economics)
Probability and statistics
Differential equations
Software engineering
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
International professional designation to financial
analyst who complete three (6 hr) exams
Level 1: Asset valuation, financial
reporting/analysis, portfolio management
Level 2: Asset valuation and quantitative methods
Level 3: Portfolio management and strategies for
managing equity, derivative investments for
individuals and institutions