Introduction to Chemical Engineering

Unit 1

Historical evolution of chemical engineering; what is chemical Engineering; the impact & role of chemical engineering; representing chemical processes using process diagrams and flow sheets (introduction to unit operations and unit processes; batch vs. continuous operation); understanding prevalent symbols; chemical process industries: evolution, broad classification, characteristics, origin, growth, present scenario, & projections; opportunities and challenges; roles of the modern chemical engineer.

Physical quantities: units & dimensions, conversion & conversion factors; important process variables, making the connection between the variables and their measurements; conventions in methods of analysis and measurement, basis, chemical equations and stoichiometry, conversion, and yield; industrially important physical and chemical properties.

Unit 2

FIntroduction to fluid flow (pressure-flow interaction, non-flowing fluids, pumps & turbines), heat transfer (applications of heat exchange in the industry), mass transfer (molecular vs. bulk transport), reaction engineering (important of describing reaction rate and design of reaction vessel), materials (important properties and their influence on selection of materials), and control (need for control and strategies); mathematical representation of process; types of chemical engineering problems (mainly rate, equilibrium and design).

Unit 3

Computer aided calculations & spreadsheets; graphing (basic plots, interpreting trends, curve fitting, log-log & semi-log representation); relation between chemical engineering and physico – chemical sciences and other engineering disciplines; modern view of chemical engineering; economics (costs in industry, profitability considerations, analytical view of process and reporting of performance); safetyhealth-environment; ethics; case studies