Lecture 2

Concepts and Classification of Different

Instructor : Kiros B.
 Every industrial chemical process is based on unit
operations (physical treatment) and unit process
(chemical treatment) to produce economically desired
products from specific raw material.
The raw materials are treated through physical steps to
make them suitable for chemical reaction.
Chemical processes usually have three interrelated
elementary processes:
1. Transfer of reactants to the reaction zone
2. Chemical reactions involving various unit processes
3. Separation of the products from the reaction zone using
various unit operations
 Unit operation
A Unit operation is a basic step in a chemical
engineering process.
Unit operations involve bringing a physical change
such as separation, crystallization, evaporation,
filtration etc.
A process may have many unit operations to obtain the
desired product.
The Following are some examples of physical
processes:
1. Milk processing,
Homogenization, pasteurization, chilling, and packaging
are each unit operations which are connected to create the
overall process.
 Con…
2. Sugar Manufacture:
Sugar cane crushing →sugar extraction→ thickening
of syrup → evaporation of water →sugar
crystallization →filtration →drying →screening
→packing.
3. Pharmaceutical Manufacture:
Formulation of chemicals, mixing, granulation
→drying of granules→ screening →pressing tablet
→packaging.
 unit operation…
A unit operation is any part of potentially
multiple- step process which can be considered to
have a single function.
It is a basic step in a process because large
processes can be broken into unit operations in
order to make them easier to analyze.
It can involve a physical change.
 What is the difference between unit operation
and unit process?
Unit operation involves a physical change: examples
drying, size reduction, distillation, filtration etc.
Whereas,
Unit process involves a chemical change or
sometime it referred as chemical changes along with
physical change.
Example:- Production of paracetamol from benzene.
 Con…
Examples of Unit operation
 Con…
Chemical engineering unit operations can be
grouped into five general classes:
1. Fluid flow processes
2. Heat transfer processes
3. Mass transfer processes
4. Thermodynamic processes
5. Mechanical processes
 Fluid Flow Process
Fluid flow processes: deals about fluids
transportation, filtration and solids fluidization.
It includes fluids transportation (pump, compressor,
blowers, pipes and fittings), gas-liquid two-phase
flow, filtration, solids fluidization, mixing, etc.
 Heat transfer processes
Heat transfer is the exchange of thermal energy
between physical systems, depending on the
temperature and pressure, by dissipating heat
It includes heat exchange, evaporation, and
condensation.
Con…
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Modes of HT
Conduction
Convection
Radiation
 Conduction
 Heat transfer takes place whenever a temperature
gradient exists in a stationary medium.
 On a microscopic level, conduction heat transfer is
due to:
1. The elastic impact of molecules in fluids
2. Molecular vibration and rotation about their
lattice positions in solids
3. Free electron migration in solids
 Convection
Convection heat transfer takes place between a
surface and a moving fluid, when they are at
different temperature.
It is the transfer of energy between an object and
its environment, due to fluid motion.
• All convective processes also move heat partly by
diffusion/conduction, as well.
• Convective heat transfer consists of two
mechanisms operating simultaneously:
 Con……
1. Energy transfer due to conduction through a fluid layer
adjacent to the surface
• Hydrodynamic boundary layer: when fluid flow on the
surface, fluid layer adjacent to surface attain velocity of
surface. If surface is stationary, then fluid layer is stationary.
• Similarly, when a fluid flow on surface whose temperature
different from fluid surface, then the fluid layer adjacent to
the surface attain temperature of surface. This is called
thermal boundary layer. And the heat transfer is initially
from surface to fluid stationary layer by conduction. Then
the heat transfer will be by motion of the bulk fluid.
 Con……
2. Energy transfer by macroscopic motion of fluid
particles by using of an external force (due to a
fan/pump or buoyancy).
• If you are using external force e.g. due to a fan/pump/
stirrers or other mechanical means, this is called forced
convection.
• If it is without using any external force, it is called
free/natural convection.
• Free, or natural, convection occurs when bulk fluid
motions(streams and currents) are caused by buoyancy
forces that result from density variations due to
variations of temperature in the fluid.
 Con……
Convective heat transfer, or convection, is the
transfer of heat from one place to another by the
movement of fluids, a process that is essentially
the transfer of heat via mass transfer.
• Convection is usually the dominant form of heat
transfer in liquids and gases.
 Radiation
Radiation heat transfer does not require a medium for
transmission. And it is more effective in vacuum.
It is the transfer of energy from the movement of charged
particles within atoms is converted to electromagnetic
radiation.
Energy transfer occurs due to the propagation of
electromagnetic waves such as microwave and light wave.
A body due to its temperature emits electromagnetic
radiation.
It is propagated with the speed of light in a straight line in
vacuum. Its speed decreases in a medium but it travels in a
straight line in homogenous medium.
 Mass Transfer Processes
Mass transfer is the net movement of mass from one
location to another.
It occurs in many processes, such as absorption,
distillation, extraction, adsorption, and drying
 Thermodynamics Process
A thermodynamic process may be defined as the
energetic development of a thermodynamic
system proceeding from an initial state to a final
state.
It includes:
Refrigeration
Air Conditioning (AC)
Gas liquefaction
 Mechanical Unit Operation
• Mechanical unit operation includes:
– Solids transportation: different types of conveyors
– Crushing and pulverization: reducing sizes
– Screening and sieving: separation of different
particles based on their size
There are also some chemical engineering unit
operations which involves more than one class
such as distillation, and reaction crystallization
A pure unit operation is a physical transport
process, while a mixed chemical/physical process
requires modeling.
 Mass transfer unit operations
Mass transfer – transfer of material from one
homogeneous phase to another.
Based on differences in vapor pressure,
solubility, diffusivity.
Driving force for transfer is a concentration
difference.
Mass transfer operations – gas absorption,
distillation, extraction, leaching, adsorption,
crystallization, membrane separations, etc.
 Mass transfer unit operations….
Absorption
A process in which a gas mixture contacts a
liquid solvent and a component (or several
components) of the gas dissolves in the liquid.
Example: Removal of ammonia from a mixture of
ammonia-air by means of liquid water. Ammonia is
transferred from gas to liquid phase.
 Con…
Stripping
A process in which a liquid contain a
dissolved gas flows down a column and a
gas(stripping gas) flows up column at
conditions such that the dissolved gas comes
out of solution and is carried off with the
stripping gas.
 Con…
Adsorption
A process in which a gas or liquid mixture contacts a
solid (the adsorbent) and a mixture component (the
adsorbate) adheres to the surface of the solid.
A solute is removed from either a liquid or a gas
through contact with solid adsorbent.
Adsorbent has surface of which has a special affinity
for the solute.
Example: Removal of dyes using activated carbon as
adsorbent.
 Con…
Condensation
A process in which an entering gas is cooled and/or
compressed, causing one or more of the gas
component to liquefy.
Uncondensed gases and liquid condensate leave the
condenser as separate stream.
 Con…
Crystallization
A process in which a liquid solution is cooled or
solvent is evaporated, to an extent that solids
crystals of solute form.
The crystal in slurry leaving the crystallizer may
subsequently be separated from the liquid in a
filter or centrifuge.
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Leaching
Is concerned with the extraction of a soluble
constituent from a solid by means of a solvent.
The process may be used either for the production
of a concentrated solution of a valuable solid
material, or in order to remove an insoluble solid.
 Con…
Distillation
Separation of a liquid mixture of miscible and volatile
substances into individual components or group of
components by vaporization.
A process in which a mixture of two or more species is
feed to a vertical column that contains either a series of
vertically spaced horizontal plates, or solids packing
through which fluids can flow.
Liquid mixture of the feed components flow down the
column and vapor mixture flow up. Example
1. Separation of ethanol and water into its components.
2. Crude petroleum into gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil.
Extraction (liquid extraction)
A mixture of two components is treated by solvent that
preferentially dissolves one or more of the
components in the mixture.
A process in which a liquid mixture of two species
(the solute and the free carrier) is contacted in a mixer
with a third liquid (the solvent) that is immiscible or
nearly immiscible with the feed carrier.
When the liquids are contacted, solute transfers from
the feed to the solvents.
The combined mixture is the allowed to settle into two
phases that are then separated by gravity in decanter.
 Liquid Extraction…
Examples:
1. recovery of penicillin from fermentation broth
solvent: butyl acetate
2. recovery of acetic acid (b.p 1180c) from dilute
aqueous (b.p 1000c) solutions
solvent: ethyl-acetate
 Con…
Filtration
A process in which slurry of solid particles
suspended in a liquid passes through a porous
medium.
Most of the liquid passes through the medium(e.g., a
filter) to form the filtrate, and the solids and some
entrained liquid are retained on the filter to form the
filter cake.
Filtration may be used to separate solids or liquids
from gasses.
 Con…
Evaporation
A process in which a pure liquid, liquid mixture, or
solvent in a solution is vaporized.
It is removal of large amount of water from
solutions.
Drying
Is removal of relatively small amounts of water from
solids.
A process in which a wet solid is heated or contacted
with a hot gas stream, causing some or all of the
liquid wetting the solid to evaporate.
The vapor and the gas it evaporates in to emerge as
one outlets stream, and the solid and residual liquids
emerge as a second outlet stream.
Thank you!