Unit operations

Code

Course teacher

Associate teachers

Status of the course

Course objectives

Students gain knowledge about the basic unit operations in the process engineering through theoretical expressions based on the mass and energy balances. Students are also acquainted with the working principles of the most used devices and selection of their optimum working conditions regarding minimization of energy consumption and product quality.

Course enrolment requirements and entry competences required for the course

Students gain knowledge about the basic unit operations in the process engineering through theoretical expressions based on the mass and energy balances. Students are also acquainted with the working principles of the most used devices and selection of their optimum working conditions regarding minimization of energy consumption and product quality.

Learning outcomes expected at the level of the course (4 to 10 learning outcomes)

After passing the exam the student is expected to know:
- fundamental principles of mechanical and of heat and mass transfer operations
- explain the laws that follow performance of each of the various operation
- explain the influence of operating variable on each operation
- bring up the most common used equipment for particular operation and explain their working principle
- for a given process, select the equipment that would be the most effective
- some of the most common operating problems encountered in the process industry

Course content broken down in detail by weekly class schedule (syllabus)

1st week: Introduction to chemical engineering processes. Fluid transport.
2nd week: Coarse dispersed systems. Milling.
3rd week: Classification. Granulometric analysis.
4th week: Separation. Classification and separation equipment.
5th week: Filtration theory. Filtration equipment.
6th week: Mixing of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.
7th week: Mixing of particulate solids. Selection and dimensioning of mixing equipment.
8th week: Heat and mass transfer operations. Heat exchangers.
9th week: Condensers and vaporizers.
10th week: Theory of absorption and absorption equipment.
11th week: Drying in process engineering. Drying equipment.
12th week: Crystallization. Crystallization equipment.
13th week: Distillation.
14th week: Rectification and stripping. Fractionation.
15th week: Theory of extraction and leaching. Extraction equipment.
Laboratory exercises:
Milling - determination of the degree of particle size reduction. Particle size classification. Mixing - power consumption determination. Filtration - determination of filtration coefficient and filtration cake resistance. Heat exchanger - determination of overall heat transfer coefficient. Absorption. Drying rate determination. Crystallization – determination of nucleation and crystal growth rate. Distillation - determination of the number of theoretical plates.

Format of instruction:

Student responsibilities

Lecture attendance: 80 %. Laboratory exercises attendance: 100 %.