Revised Nuffield Advanced Chemistry: Chemical Engineering

This was one of the six Special Studies to feature in the Revised Nuffield Advanced Chemistry course. Each student was expected to work through one of the studies in about four weeks. The aim was to show students how chemistry is applied in agriculture, industry, and medicine, and to help them to appreciate that the social and economic aspects of science must be considered.

Purposes of the Special Study

1. To show the importance and scope of chemical engineering as the technology underlying chemical manufacturing processes.

2. To examine the problems associated with the manufacture of chemicals on a large scale and the ways in which chemical engineers deal with these problems.

3. To show that chemical engineering involves an application of the principles of chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

4. To show that in manufacturing processes economic factors must be considered alongside scientific factors.

5. To show the importance of the chemical industry to the national economy.

Contents

Chapter 1: Chemical engineers and the chemical industry

Chapter 2: Fluid flow

Chapter 3: Unit operations

Chapter 4: The chemical reactor

Chapter 5: Distillation

Chapter 6: The development of a process Review section