B.2 To Develop a Fundamental Understanding of Reaction Engineering

The second goal of this book is to enable the reader to develop a clear understanding of the fundamentals of chemical reaction engineering (CRE). This goal will be achieved by presenting a structure that allows the reader to solve reaction engineering problems through reasoning rather than through memorization and recall of numerous equations and the restrictions and conditions under which each equation applies. The algorithms presented in the text for reactor design provide this framework, and the homework problems will give practice using the algorithms. The conventional home problems at the end of each chapter are designed to reinforce the principles in the chapter. These problems are about equally divided between those that can be solved with a calculator and those that require a personal computer and a numerical software package, such as Polymath, AspenTech, or COMSOL.

To give a reference point as to the level of understanding of CRE required in the profession, a number of reaction engineering problems from the California Board of Registration for Civil and Professional Engineers—Chemical Engineering Examinations (PECEE) are included in the text.¹ Typically, these problems should each require approximately 30 minutes to solve.

Finally, the DVD-ROM should greatly facilitate learning the fundamentals of CRE because it includes summary notes of the chapters, PowerPoint slides of class lecture notes, added examples, expanded derivations, and self tests. A complete description of these learning resources is given in Appendix H.