Basic Principles and

Calculations in
Chemical Engineering
CHME 200

Lecture 1: Introduction

Lecturer: Dr. Dhawal Shah

Chemical and Materials Engineering Department,

Nazarbayev University
Fall 2021
Pop Quiz -1
Answer Two Questions

What is a chemical engineer?

Why do you want to be a chemical engineer?

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A new profession “Chemical Engineering”
 From its beginning chemical engineering was tailored to fulfill the needs of the
chemical industry which, was mostly based on derived feedstocks.

 Competition between manufacturers was brutal, and all strove to be the "low cost
producer." However, to stay ahead of the pack chemical plants had to be
optimized.

 This necessitated things such as; continuously operating reactors (as opposed to
batch operation), recycling and recovery of unreacted reactants, and cost
effective purification of products.

 These advances in-turn required plumbing systems (for which traditional

chemists where unprepared) and detailed physical chemistry knowledge
(unbeknownst to mechanical engineers).

 The new chemical engineers were capable of designing and operating the
increasingly complex chemical operations which were rapidly emerging.

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Paradigm: a pattern or model
Paradigm is a constellation that defines a
profession and an intellectual discipline

 Firm theoretical foundations, triumphant applications to

solve important problems

 Universities agree on core subjects taught to all

students, standard textbooks and handbooks,
accreditation of degrees

 Professional societies and journals

 Organize research directions - what is a good research

problem, and what are legitimate methods of solution?

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Chemical engineering paradigms
Pre-paradigm - engineers with no formal
education
1. The first paradigm - Unit Operations, 1923
2. The second paradigm - Transport Phenomena, 1960
3. The third paradigm - ?

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Pre-paradigm
 Fire(300,000 BC) as the first chemical
technology
 Led to pyro-technologies: cooking, pottery, metallurgy,
glass, reaction engineering

 Chemical technology as empirical art, with no

reliable scientific foundation or formally
educated engineers.
 Ecole des Ponts et Chausee, 1736, first
modern engineering school.

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Chemical engineering
 Lewis Norton
 first course: Course X “Applied Chemistry”
 First course at MIT 1888. “Chemical Engineering
Program”

“General training in mechanical engineering and application of

chemistry for the manufacture of chemical products”

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The first paradigm
 Arthur D. Little, industrialist and chair of visiting
committee of chemical engineering at MIT, wrote
report in 1908
“Unit Operations should be the foundation of chemical
engineering”

 First textbook Walker-Lewis-McAdams “Principles of

Chemical Engineering” 1923

Arthur D. Little

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The first paradigm: early success
 Became
 core of chemical engineering curriculum, unit
operations, stoichiometry, thermodynamics
 principle to organize useful knowledge
 inspiration for research to fill in the gaps in
knowledge

 Effective in problem solving

 graduates have a toolbox to solve processing
problems in oil distillation, petrochemical, new
polymers

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The first paradigm: later stagnation
 World War II creation of new technologies by
scientists without engineering education: atomic
bomb, radar.

 Engineeringstudents needed to master new

concepts and tools in chemistry and physics.

 Unit Operations no longer created streams of

exciting new research problems that were
challenging to professors and students, and
useful in industry.

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The second paradigm
 Firsttextbook “Transport Phenomena” by Bird-
Stewart-Lightfoot, 1960, based on kinetic theory
of gases

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The second paradigm

 Textbook by Amundson
“Mathematical Methods in
Chemical Engineering”, (1966).

 A new burst of creative research

activities.

 American chemical industry

dominated world, DuPont and
Exxon content to recruit
academically educated graduates,
willing to teach them technology.

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The second paradigm: early success
 The Engineering Science movement became
dominant in the US, and was taught at all the leading
universities.

 AIChE accreditation requires differential equations,

transport phenomena.

 Research funding agencies and journals turn their

backs on empirical and qualitative research as “old
fashioned”.

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Chemical Engineering: New Directions?
 Phasing out of formerly successful products: tetra-ethyl
lead, DDT, cellophane, freon or CFC.

 End of the parade of new polymers: celluloid, bakelite,

nylon, kevlar.

 To attract the best students, the lure of new products to

enhance lives - laptop computers, cellular phone and
internet.

 Cost-cutting and environmental protection is no match for

glamorous new products.

 We need to give chemical engineers the intellectual

toolbox, to innovate exciting new products that people will
learn to love.

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Product Engineering: a third paradigm?
 Product engineering is innovation and design of
useful products that people want
 Define a product, study the customers & needs
 Understand property-structure
 Design and innovate the product

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Back to State-of-the-art
 Product design requires process
 What are the chemical processes we currently
deal with?
 Process to make Gasoline
 Process to make Polyethylene
 Process to make Fertilizer (NH4NO3)
 Process to make High Purity Silicon
 Computer Chips
 Solar Cells

 Process to make Penicillin

 Process to make Yogurt
 Process to make Potato Chips

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General View of a Chemical Process
Octane Reaction
 2C2H4 + C4H10  C8H18
 P= 5 psi, T=93ºC, X=98% Conversion
Preliminary
Flow Sheet

•2C2H4 + C4H10  C8H18

Flash
ΔP= 2 psi

Distillation

Purge Stream

Recycle Stream
 Shell Refinery, China Dow Chemicals, Texas

Paint factory, Bursa Labs, Singapore

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Chemical Process

 Separation Section
of Plant
 Distillation Columns
This course
 Helps you understand these processes
 Helps you design these processes
 Helps you prevent…..
 BP Texas City Plant March 2005

15 people dead
180 Injured

$1.6 Billion to settle 1000 claims

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
goSEyGNfiPM
NEWS

The BAD

The Good
The UGLY
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What is the course all about?
 Chemical process and their calculations based on
the material and energy balances.

 Fundamental course for all chemical engineers.

Input?…output?....product-quality?.....energy
requirements..etc…
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Course content
 What do chemical engineers do?

 Units, conversions, numerical calculations, dimensional

analysis, data representation

 Process variables: concentration, pressure, temperature.

 Material balance: Single-phase, Multiple-phase, simple

systems, recycle systems,

 Energy balance: laws of thermodynamics, non-reactive

processes, reactive processes, EoS,

 Transient processes/non-steady state processes

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Course structure
 Number of lectures: 11 +

 Number of Tutorials: 10 +

 One mid term exams on Oct

 Course grading (indicative)

 Attendance: 0 %
 Quizzes: 30 %
 Midterm exams: 30 %
 Final exam: 30 %
 Assignments: 10%

 Exams will be closed book with tables/data provided.

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Text books & references
 R.M. Felder and R.W. Rousseau, “Elementary Principles of
Chemical Processes”, 3rd ed., Wiley, 2005

REFERENCES
 D.M. Himmelblau & J.B. Riggs, “Basic Principles and Calculations
in Chemical Engineering”, 7th ed., Prentice Hall, 1996
 R. Murphy, “Introduction to Chemical Processes: Principles,
Analysis, Synthesis”, McGraw Hill, 2007

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Some more things to explore
https://chemweek.com/LatestNews
https://www.icis.com/explore/services/market-intelligence/news/
https://www.echemi.com/cms-news.html
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKVGxWqAcyGibKC2RKD19RQ

https://onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in/noc21_ch20/preview
https://extension.psu.edu/psychrometric-chart-use
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_process_simulators
http://www.flycarpet.net/en/PsyOnline

 
https://www.nist.gov/thermodynamics-0
https://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/
http://www.ddbst.com/ddb.html

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Personal touch: About me?
 Dr. Dhawal Shah
 ‘Assistant Professor’ @ NU
 Core Chemical Engineer

 Prior: Assistant Professor at SQU, Oman and METU, North Cyprus

 Ph.D. from Singapore-MIT Alliance at National University of Singapore –

July 2011.

 Research areas:
 Molecular dynamics simulation
 Ionic liquids; Biochemistry

 Contact hours: drop an email to meet me anytime…anyplace.

dhawal.shah@nu.edu.kz

 Phone: +7 7172 70 9130 (O)

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Some rules about the class
 You are free to move out of the class, if you feel so.
But you should not disturb others.

 You will have to work hard to earn “A”.

 Language…dialect…words…if not clear, you can stop

me any time.

 Stop me if things are going above head

 No question is small…if you do not understand

something..trust me..at least half of the class does not.

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My commitments to you
I will endeavor to
 start and end class on-time every time
 be prepared and give a “best effort” in teaching the
course material
 treat you as professionals and cover material that will
be of maximum benefit to you
 determine your grade based on your performance, i.e.,
you are not competing with one another
 Grading will be very fair, you will get what you deserve.
Of course for A you will have to put extra work.
(Always aim for A)
 return all graded work promptly
 respond to your feedback

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Your commitments
You will endeavor to

 attend every class and arrive on time, unless you are ill or have a personal
“emergency”

 conduct yourself as a professional, maintain the highest integrity and code of

conduct, and help other students learn the material

 Read the lecture notes/textbook and turn in all homework and take all tests

 let me know if you have difficulty understanding the material and provide
feedback at the end of each class on positive and negative aspects of the course

 Practice
 Practice
 Practice
 Practice
 Practice

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Illegal activities? Be creative
 As a policy: Plagiarism is Illegal and not allowed

 But students will be as they are:

 Easy excuse: “But everyone else is doing it!”
 “But grades to matter”

 Miss the classical class environment:

 Typical things like carrying paper
 Writing on body parts
 Pens, bottles, calculators, erasers
 10 years old stuffs: carrying phones, messages

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How did we evolve?
 Be a millennial?

 What is new?

https://www.wikihow.com/Cheat-On-a-Test

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Excuses
 I am sick
 I will be sick
 I have a phone, just to check Instagram.

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Did we mess up
 Online session excuses
 My internet is not working. I cannot turn video on.
 I am traveling.
 My aunt’s brother’s wife’s cousin got XYZ surgery and I
have to take care.
 I do not have a pen. Or Calculator

 Newest one: I will be sick due to vaccination.

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 Where does it lead you?
 Classic example of a doctor

 What is your honesty towards your profession?

The Obligation of The Engineer: Iron ring ceremony
I am an Engineer.

In my profession I take deep pride. To it I owe solemn obligations.

As an engineer, I, (full name), pledge to practice Integrity and Fair Dealing,

Tolerance, and Respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and dignity of my
profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve
humanity by making best use of the Earth's precious wealth.

As an engineer, I shall participate in none but honest enterprises. When needed, my

skill and knowledge shall be given without reservation for the public good.

In the performance of duty, and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give the utmost.

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