Chemical Engineering

This course is a unified introduction to heat and mass transport phenomena. The focus of the course is placed on the basic physical principles and concepts underlying transport processes, their mathematical formulation, solution of the relevant equations and interpretation in physical terms. Problem solving is an integral part of the course. Illustrative applications involving physical, chemical and biological systems are introduced and discussed, both during lectures and via problems. Topics covered include: conduction, diffusion; differential formulation of transport equations, conduction/diffusion in planar, cylindrical and spherical configurations; Effect of heat generation, reaction on transport processes; Transient conduction and diffusion in finite media; Convective heat and mass transport: forced convection; effect of flow on transport processes; Transport coefficients; Combined convection and Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology; Conduction/diffusion processes; Macroscopic and differential energy/mass balances; Heat exchangers and their analysis; and applications of mass transport in biomedical and physiological systems.

The course aims at giving increased skills in making quantitative analysis of microbial processes, both on the cellular and the reactor level. The course also gives an enhanced understanding of mass and heat transfer phenomena in a bioreactor and the role of these phenomena in design and scale-up of bioreactors.

This course covers the following topics: Heat, Mass and Momentum Transfer. The fundamentals of heat, mass and momentum transfer are presented, including analogies between the transfer mechanisms for convective transfer and treatment of radiative heat transfer. On completion of this course, the student will be able to: - Identify and describe transport mechanisms for heat, mass and momentum, developing & solving models, appropriately simplified, which address transport phenomena and conservation laws, of physical transport problems (including with 1-D fluid flow) - Solve problems in turbulent transport using empirical approaches and the Chilton-Colburn analogy - Understand the phenomena of phase change and how this affects transport problems - Perform a preliminary heat exchanger design using Kern's method - Extend simple cases of heat transfer to include radiation and for fluid flow to use 2-parameter non-Newtonian models to obtain velocity profiles.