In chemical analysis, chromatography is a laboratory technique for the separation of a mixture into its components. The mixture is dissolved in a fluid solvent called the mobile phase, which carries it through a system on which a material called the stationary phase is fixed. Because the different constituents of the mixture tend to have different affinities for the stationary phase and are retained for different lengths of time depending on their interactions with its surface sites, the constituents travel at different apparent velocities in the mobile fluid, causing them to separate. The separation is based on the differential partitioning between the mobile and the stationary phases. Subtle differences in a compound's partition coefficient result in differential retention on the stationary phase and thus affect the separation.
The Damköhler numbers (Da) are dimensionless numbers used in chemical engineering to relate the chemical reaction timescale to the transport phenomena rate occurring in a system. It is named after German chemist Gerhard Damköhler. The Karlovitz number (Ka) is related to the Damköhler number by Da = 1/Ka.
Fluidization is a process similar to liquefaction whereby a granular material is converted from a static solid-like state to a dynamic fluid-like state. This process occurs when a fluid is passed up through the granular material.
A chemical reactor is an enclosed volume in which a chemical reaction takes place. In chemical engineering, it is generally understood to be a process vessel used to carry out a chemical reaction, which is one of the classic unit operations in chemical process analysis. The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering. Chemical engineers design reactors to maximize net present value for the given reaction. Designers ensure that the reaction proceeds with the highest efficiency towards the desired output product, producing the highest yield of product while requiring the least amount of money to purchase and operate. Normal operating expenses include energy input, energy removal, raw material costs, labor, etc. Energy changes can come in the form of heating or cooling, pumping to increase pressure, frictional pressure loss or agitation.
Reactive distillation is a process where the chemical reactor is also the still. Separation of the product from the reaction mixture does not need a separate distillation step which saves energy and materials. This technique can be useful for equilibrium-limited reactions such as esterification and ester hydrolysis reactions. Conversion can be increased beyond what is expected by the equilibrium due to the continuous removal of reaction products from the reactive zone. This approach can also reduce capital and investment costs.
A fluidized bed is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a solid particulate substance is under the right conditions so that it behaves like a fluid. The usual way to achieve a fluidize bed is to pump pressurized fluid into the particles. The resulting medium then has many properties and characteristics of normal fluids, such as the ability to free-flow under gravity, or to be pumped using fluid technologies.
The plug flow reactor model is a model used to describe chemical reactions in continuous, flowing systems of cylindrical geometry. The PFR model is used to predict the behavior of chemical reactors of such design, so that key reactor variables, such as the dimensions of the reactor, can be estimated.
In chemical processing, a packed bed is a hollow tube, pipe, or other vessel that is filled with a packing material. The packing can be randomly filled with small objects like Raschig rings or else it can be a specifically designed structured packing. Packed beds may also contain catalyst particles or adsorbents such as zeolite pellets, granular activated carbon, etc.
Huntsman Chemical Company of Australia Pty Ltd (HCCA) operated a complex chemical manufacturing plant in Somerville Rd Brooklyn in Melbourne. The site is 35 hectares in size and is located in the City of Brimbank. HCCA was partially owned by the Huntsman Corporation.
A fluidized bed reactor (FBR) is a type of reactor device that can be used to carry out a variety of multiphase chemical reactions. In this type of reactor, a fluid is passed through a solid granular material at high enough speeds to suspend the solid and cause it to behave as though it were a fluid. This process, known as fluidization, imparts many important advantages to an FBR. As a result, FBRs are used for many industrial applications.
Viktor Vasilyevich Dilman, also spelled Dil'man is a Russian scientist performing research for USPolyResearch. He is best known for his work in chemical engineering and hydrodynamics including the approximate methods for solving nonlinear differential equations of mass, heat, and momentum transfer; mathematical modeling of chemical reactor processes and catalytic distillation; heat, mass, and momentum transfer in turbulent flow; fluid dynamics in granular beds; surface convection, absorption, and molecular convection.
Neal Russell Amundson was an American chemical engineer and applied mathematician. He was the Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota for over 25 years. Later, he was the Cullen Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Houston. Amundson was considered one of the most prominent chemical engineering educators and researchers in the United States. The Chemical Engineering and Materials Science building at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities bears his name.
A bubble column reactor is an apparatus used to generate and control gas-liquid chemical reactions. It consists of a vertically-arranged cylindrical column filled with liquid, at the bottom of which gas is inserted.
John A. Quinn, Ph.D. was the Robert D. Bent Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science. He was a leader in the fields of mass transfer and membrane transport in synthetic membranes since the 1960s. In the early phase of his career at the University of Illinois, Quinn and his students devised simple, elegant experiments to elucidate the role of the interface in mass transfer between phases. In later work at Penn, he applied these insights to problems of engineering and biological significance involving chemical reaction and diffusion within and through both finely porous and reactive membranes. His chemical engineering science has informed matters as far afield as the separation of chiral pharmaceuticals and the behavior of cells at interfaces.
The circulating fluidized bed (CFB) is a type of Fluidized bed combustion that utilizes a recirculating loop for even greater efficiency of combustion. while achieving lower emission of pollutants. Reports suggest that up to 95% of pollutants can be absorbed before being emitted into the atmosphere. The technology is limited in scale however, due to its extensive use of limestone, and the fact that it produces waste byproducts.
Heterogenous catalytic reactors put emphasis on catalyst effectiveness factors and the heat and mass transfer implications. Heterogenous catalytic reactors are among the most commonly utilized chemical reactors in the chemical engineering industry.
Dan Luss is an American chemical engineer, who is the Cullen Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston. He is known for his work in chemical reaction engineering, complex reacting systems, multiple steady-states reactor design, dynamics of chemical reactors, and combustion.
Moti Herskowitz is a professor of Chemical Engineering, the incumbent of the Israel Cohen Chair in Chemical Engineering and researcher in the fields of advanced materials, catalysis and multiphase reactors. He is the founder (1995) and director of the Blechner Center for Industrial Catalysis and Process Development.
Vivek Vinayak Ranade is an Indian chemical engineer, entrepreneur and a professor of chemical engineering at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the Queen's University, Belfast. He is a former chair professor and deputy director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He is known for his work on bubble column, stirred and trickle-bed reactors and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy. and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2004.
Chemical looping reforming (CLR) and gasification (CLG) are the operations that involve the use of gaseous carbonaceous feedstock and solid carbonaceous feedstock, respectively, in their conversion to syngas in the chemical looping scheme. The typical gaseous carbonaceous feedstocks used are natural gas and reducing tail gas, while the typical solid carbonaceous feedstocks used are coal and biomass. The feedstocks are partially oxidized to generate syngas using metal oxide oxygen carriers as the oxidant. The reduced metal oxide is then oxidized in the regeneration step using air. The syngas is an important intermediate for generation of such diverse products as electricity, chemicals, hydrogen, and liquid fuels.
