Chemical Fundamentals

Moles, balances, energy and equilibrium — the language of process engineering. The core toolkit every chemical engineer uses daily: mole concepts and stoichiometry, material balances with recycle, energy balances and heats of reaction, and phase and reaction thermodynamics.

• Mole Concepts — The mole is the chemical engineer's counting unit. Learn molar mass, moles and kmol, mass/mole fractions and concentrations, ideal-gas molar volume, stoichiometry, limiting and excess reactants, conversion, selectivity and yield.
• Material Balances — Mass is conserved, so everything that enters a process must leave, react or accumulate. Learn the general balance equation, flowcharts, degrees-of-freedom analysis, balances on mixers, splitters, evaporators and distillation columns, and systems with recycle, bypass and purge.
• Energy Balances — Energy is conserved too. Learn the steady-flow energy balance with enthalpy, sensible and latent heat, heats of reaction and formation, Hess's law, heat duties for heaters, coolers and reactors, adiabatic temperature, and steam and cooling-water requirements.
• Thermodynamics — Chemical engineering thermodynamics predicts phase and reaction equilibria. Learn vapour pressure (Antoine), Raoult's law, bubble and dew points, relative volatility, K-values, activity coefficients for non-ideal mixtures, Gibbs energy and equilibrium constants, and equations of state.