Chemical Reaction Engineering

Catalog description

This course teaches the principles of reaction engineering and reactor design. It is one of the core subjects in the chemical engineering curriculum and it is normally scheduled in the senior year. Students learn how to apply stoichiometry in combination with a rate law to design a chemical reactor that produces the desired conversion of reactants and selectivity to products. Students will formulate rate laws from various sources, including experimental data and sequences of elementary reaction steps. The design of various types of chemical reactors is discussed at length, including continuous stirred-tank (CSTR), plug-flow (PFR), continuous-operation and batch-operation reactors, and isothermal vs non-isothermal reactors. Additional topics include heterogeneous reactors, catalytic systems, and the design and optimization of reactor networks. It leads to the capstone design course in which chemical reactors are integrated into a chemical plant.