JESSICA TRINIDAD GARCIA

Absorbance

Defined as -log(1-) = log(1/), where is the absorptance and the transmittance of a medium through which a light beam passes.

Acid

A substance that yields an H+ ion when it dissociates in solution, resulting in a pH<7. In the Brnsted definition, an acid is a substance that donates a proton in any type of reaction.

Adiabatic process

A thermodynamic process in which no heat enters or leaves the system.

Alcohols

Compounds in which a hydroxy group, OH, is attached to a saturated carbon atom.

Base

A substance that yields an OH ion when it dissociates in solution, resulting in a pH>7.

Buffer

A solution designed to maintain a constant pH when small amounts of a strong acid or base are added.

Calorie

A non-SI unit of energy, originally defined as the heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 1C. Several calories of slightly different values have been used.

Cation

A positively charged atomic or molecular particle.

Catalyst

A substance that participates in a particular chemical reaction and thereby increases its rate but without a net change in the amount of that substance in the system.

Colloid

Molecules or polymolecular particles dispersed in a medium that have, at least in one direction, a dimension roughly between 1 nm and 1 m.

Diamagnetism

A type of magnetism characterized by a negative magnetic susceptibility, so that the material, when placed in an external magnetic field, becomes weakly magnetized in the direction opposite to the field.

Electronegativity

A parameter originally introduced by Pauling which describes, on a relative basis, the power of an atom or group of atoms to attract electrons from the same molecular entity.

Isomers

In chemistry, compounds that have identical molecular formulas but differ in the nature or sequence of bonding of their atoms or in the arrangement of their atoms in space.

Isotopes

Two or more nuclides with the same atomic number Z but different mass number A.

Molar mass

The mass of one mole of a substance. It is normally expressed in units of g/mol, in which case its numerical value is identical with the molecular weight

Nucleon

A collective term for the proton and neutron.

Semiconductor

A material in which the highest occupied energy band (valence band) is completely filled with electrons at T = 0 K, and the energy gap to the next highest band (conduction band) ranges from 0 to 4 or 5 eV.

Salt

An ionic compound formed by the reaction of an acid and a base.

Silicones

Polymeric or oligomeric siloxanes, usually considered unbranched.

Viscosity

The proportionality factor between sheer rate and sheer stress.

Plant

A group of processing units. Within this context, it is the entire processing facility, typically too large to be the focus of a single plant-performance analysis.

Model

Qualitative or quantitative relationship between operating specifications and products.

Equipment boundary

Limit in equipment operation. This could refer to design limits such as operating pressure and temperature. More often, the concern of the plant-performance analyst is the upper and lower operating limits for the equipment. These boundaries typically describe an operating range beyond which the equipment performance deteriorates markedly.

Accuracy

Proximity of the measurements to actual values. Data frequently contain bias, a deviation between the measurement and the actual value. The smaller the deviation, the greater the accuracy.

Fault detection

Process of identifying deteriorating unit operating performance. Examples are instrument failure, increased energy consumption, and increased catalyst usage.

Equipment constraints

Limits beyond which the equipment cannot be operated, either due to design or operating boundaries.

Measurements

Plant information. These provide a window into the operation. They may consist of routinely acquired information such as that recorded by automatic control systems or recorded on shift logs, or they may consist of nonroutine information acquired as part of a plant test.

Identification

Procedure for developing hypotheses and determining critical measurements. Identification requires an understanding of the intent of the process and intent of the plant-performance analysis to be conducted

Gross error

Extreme systematic error in a measurement. The bias or systematic error is sufficiently large to distort the reconciliation and model development conclusions. Gross errors are frequently identified during rectification. Validation steps also are used to identify gross errors in measurements.

Interpretation

Procedure for using the plant measurements or adjustments thereof to troubleshoot, detect faults, develop a plant model, or estimate parameters.