Fundamentals of chemical reaction engineering

Abstract

This book is an introduction to the quantitative treatment of chemical reaction engineering. The level of the presentation is what we consider appropriate for a one-semester course. The text provides a balanced approach to the understanding of: (1) both homogeneous and heterogeneous reacting systems and (2) both chemical reaction engineering and chemical reactor engineering. We have emulated the teachings of Prof. Michel Boudart in numerous sections of this text. For example, much of Chapters 1 and 4 are modeled after his superb text that is now out of print (Kinetics a/Chemical Processes), but they have been expanded and updated. Each chapter contains numerous worked problems and vignettes. We use the vignettes to provide the reader with discussions on real, commercial processes and/or uses of the molecules and/or analyses described in the text. Thus, the vignettes relate the material presented to what happens in the world around us so that the reader gains appreciation for how chemical reaction engineering and its principles affect everyday life. Many problems in this text require numerical solution. The reader should seek appropriate software for proper solution of these problems. Since this software is abundant and continually improving, the reader should be able to easily find the necessary software. This exercise is useful for students since they will need to do this upon leaving their academic institutions. Completion of the entire text will give the reader a good introduction to the fundamentals of chemical reaction engineering and provide a basis for extensions into other nontraditional uses of these analyses, for example, behavior of biological systems, processing of electronic materials, and prediction of global atmospheric phenomena. We believe that the emphasis on chemical reaction engineering as opposed to chemical reactor engineering is the appropriate context for training future chemical engineers who will confront issues in diverse sectors of employment. We gratefully acknowledge Prof. Michel Boudart who encouraged us to write this text and who has provided intellectual guidance to both of us. MED also thanks Martha Hepworth for her efforts in converting a pile of handwritten notes into a final product. In addition, Stacey Siporin, John Murphy, and Kyle Bishop are acknowledged for their excellent assistance in compiling the solutions manual. The cover artwork was provided courtesy of Professor Ahmed Zewail's group at Caltech, and we gratefully thank them for their contribution. We acknowledge with appreciation the people who reviewed our project, especially A. Brad Anton of Cornell University, who provided extensive comments on content and accuracy. Finally, we thank and apologize to the many students who suffered through the early drafts as course notes. We dedicate this book to our wives and to our parents for their constant support.

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