EAS 140, Lecture 5 Chemical Engineering Director of Undergraduate Studies: Professor Kofke, 510 Furnas Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Mountziaris, 905 Furnas Chair Professor Lund, 306 Furnas

Looking Back to the Turn of the Last Century... l Fear that soon it would not be possible to feed all the people in the world. l Chemical Engineers solved the problem –Haber (1918 Nobel Prize)/Bosch –Process for synthesis of ammonia l And now at the turn of the 20 th century: –Global warming –Protection of the environment –Depletion of natural resources

Ammonia Synthesis Plant

Jobs CEs Do l Flow (pump/compressor size, pipe size, pressure drops through equipment) l Reactor Design/ Reaction Engineering l Heating, Cooling, Refrigeration, Heat Transfer l Materials (polymers, metals, ceramics, catalysts) synthesis and/or selection l Separation (reactants, final products) by many methods (distillation, absorption, adsorption, crystallization, etc.)

Jobs CEs Do l Plant Design / Process Optimization l Safety l Plant Operation l Environmental / Waste Treatment l Sales, Marketing, Distribution l Law, Medicine, Management l Education

Tools CEs Use l Mathematics (algebra, calculus, differential equations, numerical methods) l Chemistry (inorganic, organic, physical) l Mass, Energy and Momentum Balances l Thermodynamics and Kinetics l Transport Phenomena / Transfer Operations l Unit Operations l Process Control & Optimization l Process Simulators l Modeling and Computation

Industries that Employ CEs l Petroleum, petrochemical, chemical l Plastics / polymers l Pharmaceutical l Fine and high performance chemicals l Food l Microelectronics l Biotechnology l Automobile l Education and Professional

CE Case Study Dissolution Kinetics l Consider making the catalyst for ammonia synthesis –Primarily iron with added alumina and potassium –Catalytic performance is severely degraded by impurities l Raw material (perhaps ore) contains many, many impurities –Therefore need to purify it –One way is to dissolve the iron from the ore and then re-crystallize it or precipitate it in pure form

CE Case Study Time is $$$; Energy is $$$; Everything is $$$ l Need to know how fast the ore will dissolve –Determines how big the equipment is and/or how long the dissolution process runs –Expect the rate of dissolution (how fast it dissolves) may change if other factors change »agitation (stirring) »temperature l Perform an experiment to obtain the rate data needed –Use the experimental data to develop a model (i.e. math equations) for the rate of dissolution –Then can use the model to design the equipment

CE Case Study l Probably would dissolve ore in acid –not practical for EAS 140 –so we’ll play let’s pretend l Let’s pretend... –a sucker is iron ore –water is acid l And let’s do an experiment to measure the rate of dissolution

CE Case Study l The case study is due at the start of Lecture 10 l You will work in groups, as a team l A full description is posted on the EAS 140 web site –How to do the experiment –What to do with the data –Some additional sets of data to work with –What you are expected to turn in –The grading criteria for what you turn in