1. Introduction to Chemical Engineering INTRODUCTION TO THE INTRODUCTION
Cairo University Faculty of Engineering Chemical Engineering Department
Introduction to Chemical Engineering
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE INTRODUCTION
September 2008

2. contents General What is a chemical engineer ?
What is special about chemical engineers?
Chemical engineers ten Greatest Achievements
Where you will get a job ?
Summary
Course outline

3. CHEM Intro to Chemical Engineering
Part I
Lecture: Monday 8:30-10:00 AM
Lecturer: Dr Ahmad Gaber
Part II
Lecture: ? 8:30-10:00 AM
lecturer: Dr Ahmed Nasr
Assistant:
Dr. Reem el Tony

4. 1. General
Chemical engineering is one of the big four branches of engineering: civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical
Chemical engineering is well established in Egypt ( see next slide )
Chemical engineers are very well recognized in North America and Europe

5. Chemical Engineering Departments in Egypt
Cairo University1942
Alexandria University1946
Menya University 1978
Military Technical College 1962
10th of Ramadan Technical Institute 1990
Al Sherook Academy 1998

6. Electrical Engineering $45,200 $57,200 $70,800 Mechanical Engineering
Bachelor's
Master's
Doctor's
Chemical Engineering
$46,900
$52,100
$67,300
Electrical Engineering
$45,200
$57,200
$70,800
Mechanical Engineering
$43,300
$51,900
$64,300
Civil Engineering
$36,100
$42,300
$58,600
Source: "National Association of Colleges and Employers, 1999 Survey"
Note that BS chemical engineers are loosing their salary advantage
USA data: 1999 Entry Level Wages Based on Degree Earned
Bachelor's
Master's
Doctor's
Chemistry
$29,500
$38,500
$59,300
Source: "ACS Survey of recent graduates, 1998"
USA data: 1998 Entry Level Wages Based on Degree Earned
Please read this article:

7. 2. What is a chemical engineer?
We will answer the question after presnting two illustrative examples

8. Illustrative example 1
A chemist working in the research and development (R&D) department in a pharmaceutical company discovered a process for producing a new valuable substance C. The reaction he applied is as follows:
A + B  C + unreacted A + unreacted B
The work of the chemist in the Lab may be illustrated as follows:

10. Lab Glassware

11. Inputs Process Outputs
10ml A
10ml B
Reaction
70o C
Heat Energy
Cold tap water
Cooling
Warm tap water
(Filtrate)
Unreacted A + B
Filtration
Solid C
Heat energy
Drying
Vapors
Product C
19 m / batch

12. Description of Work in the Lab
Inputs
Description of Work in the Lab
Outputs
10ml A
10ml B
Glass rod for mixing
Heat energy
Precipitated C
Tap water
for Cooling
Tap water to sink
Substance C
Filteration
Filtrated to Sink
Drying
Product D one gram

13. From laboratory scale to industrial scale
After a lot of discussions and studies (?), the company decided to build a plant to produce substance C with a production capacity of 1 ton/day.
lab scale: 1 gm/day
industrial scale: 1,000,000 gm/day
scale up factor: 1,000,000

14. In the lab,
a glass
beaker is
used as
a reactor

15. Industrial reactor

16. Industrial size
Chemical
Reactor

17. Storage of raw materials
Liquid storage tank

20. Schematic section of the industrial horizontal tubular filter
Industrial filter
Schematic section of the industrial horizontal tubular filter

22. Steam-tube rotary dryer
Industrial dryer
Steam-tube rotary dryer

25. Illustrative example 2
The difference between chemical engineering and chemistry can be illustrated by considering the example of producing orange juice. A chemist working in the laboratory investigates methods to extract the juice of an orange. The simplest mechanism found is to cut the orange in half and squeeze the orange using a manual juicer. A more complicated approach found is to peel and then crush the orange and collect the juice. A company then hire a chemical engineer to design a plant to manufacture several thousand tons of orange juice per year. The chemical engineer investigates all the available methods for making orange juice and evaluates them according to their economical viability. Even though the manual juicing method is simple, it is not economical to employ thousands of people to manually juice oranges. Thus another, cheaper method is used (possibly the 'peel and crush' technique). The easiest method of manufacture on a laboratory bench will not necessarily be the most economical method for a manufacturing plant.

26. Manual orange juicer

29. 3. What is special about chemical engineers?

30. IDEA APPLICATION of SCIENCE MANUFACTURE
Chemical engineers master the process design required for the production of materials we use in our daily life.
They are involved in all phases of technology development:
IDEA APPLICATION of SCIENCE MANUFACTURE
Chemical engineers are described as the “universal engineer” because they have a broad knowledge of:
Physical, chemical, biological & engineering science
Economics, business, management science

31. Only chemical engineers use chemistry along with mathematics, physics, biology to solve technical problems in a safe and economical fashion.
Only chemical engineers develop chemical and biochemical processes that turn raw materials into valuable products.
Chemical engineers design, test, scale-up, operate, control, and optimize "unit operations“ of a process, such as distillation, mixing, and reactions.
Chemical engineering science uses mass, momentum, and energy transfer along with thermodynamics and chemical kinetics to analyze processes and improve them.

32. 4. Chemical engineers ten Greatest Achievements
1. Splitting of the atom and isolating isotopes.
2 . Mass production of cheap plastic.
3 . The development of the "Unit Operations" of the human reactor
4 . Low price, high volume production of wonder drugs for the masses.
5. Synthetic fibers.
6 . Liquefied air and its separation into pure constituents.
7 . Environmentally conscious engineering
8 . Chemical fertilizers, food processing, Biotechnology of food production.
9 . Petroleum processing
10. Synthetic Rubber.

33. CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
The work of CHEMICAL engineers combines the skills of both the chemist and the engineer.
They design, and build facilities involved in the production of chemical products… drugs, paints, dyes, industrial supplies (acids, lyes, dangerous chemicals), fertilizers, solvents, fuels, etc…

34. 5. Where you will get a job ?

35. Products and Processes
• Consumer Products
Food, water, clothing, medicines, health & beauty aids, fuels, lubricants
• Commodity Chemicals
Oxygen, water, sulfuric acid, ammonia, chlorine, lye (soap), ethylene oxide, plastics, rubber
• Electronic/Optical Matls.
High purity silicon, compound semiconductors, thin films, optical polymers
• Special materials
Biomaterials (prostheses), Nylon, Kevlar, Teflon
• Processes
Large scale chemical plants continuous processes that make commodity chemicals at low cost
($100–500 million)
Intermediate scale plants for specialty chemicals
($10–100 million)
Small scale batch processes for biomaterials and bioengineering
($1–10 million)

39. Chemical engineers are in many industrial sectors
Chemical engineers provide the skills needed to develop new polymers for medical devices, powerful new alloys for aircraft, components for the development of computer and other electronics industries. Health care will require new manufacturing processes for pharmaceutical products and surgical procedures.
SOME SUB-CATAGORIES:
Pharmaceutical Engineering Plastics and Polymer Engineering Petroleum Engineering…

40. 6. Summary
Chemical engineering is the application of science, mathematics and economics to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms.
Chemical Engineering largely involves the design and maintenance of chemical processes for large-scale manufacture. Chemical engineers in this branch are usually employed under the title of process engineer.

41. (Cnt’d) Summary
The individual processes used by chemical engineers (eg. distillation or chlorination) are called unit operations and consist of chemical reaction, mass-, heat- and momentum- transfer operations. Unit operations are grouped together in various configurations for the purpose of chemical synthesis and/or chemical separation.

42. (cont’d) Summary
Three primary physical laws underlying chemical engineering design are Conservation of mass, Conservation of momentum and Conservation of energy. The movement of mass and energy around a chemical process are evaluated using Mass balances and energy balances which apply these laws to whole plants or a single unit operation.
In doing so, Chemical Engineers use principles of thermodynamics, reaction kinetics and transport phenomena.

43. (cont’d) Summary
Chemical engineers are now engaged in the development and production of a wide range of products, as well as in commodity and specialty chemicals. These products include high performance materials needed for aerospace, automotive, biomedical, electronic, environmental and military applications. Examples include ultra-strong fibers, fabrics, adhesives and composites for vehicles, bio-compatible materials for implants and prosthetics, gels for medical applications, pharmaceuticals, and films with special dielectric, optical or spectroscopic properties for opto-electronic devices. Additionally, chemical engineering is often intertwined with biology and biomedical engineering.

44. 7. Course Outline Introduction History and basic concepts
Product design
Process design
Plant design
The sugar industry
The petrochemical industry

45. (Contd.) Course Outline
8. Energy, fuels and environmental problems
9. Biotechnology
10. Biomedical engineering applications
11. Cleaner production
12. Overview of the chemical process industry: past , present and future