UNIT-1

Introduction
 Chemical Engineering is the branch of engineering which is concerned with the
design and operation of industrial chemical plants.
 A chemical or process plant is required to carry out transformation of raw
materials into desired products efficiently, economically and safely.
 Chemical Engineering is that branch of engineering which deals with the
production of bulk materials from basic raw materials in a most economical way
by chemical means.
 A chemical engineer plays a vital role in the production and processing of food, in
the manufacture of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides, plastics,
synthetic fibres, elastomers, drugs, pharmaceuticals, pulp, paper, etc.
 He is also engaged in the processing of petroleum crude, the production of
synthetic fuels, the utilisation of bio-mass and wind energy. He has to devise
methods and equipment’s to control the release of harmful substances to protect
the environment.

 Chemical engineering involves the conversion of raw materials into your desired
product at least possible cost. To convert raw materials into products there are
two processes involved, unit operations and unit processes.

Unit process: it involves the conversion of raw material into product chemically(by
a chemical reaction) means your raw material which had some chemical compound
is changed to your product which has different chemical compound.

Unit operations: it involves the separation(by means of heat transfer, mass

transfer, solubility, barrier), transportation, mixing, blending, size reduction of
components only physically(no chemical reaction). Unit operations can be used
before and after unit process according to the desired property of the raw material
and product.

Broadly, unit operations are: (i) Mechanical operations e.g., size reduction,
conveying, filtration, etc. (ii) Fluid flow operations in which the pressure difference
acts as a driving force, (iii) Heat transfer (operations) in which the temperature
difference acts as a driving force e.g., evaporation and (iv) Mass transfer operations
in which the concentration difference acts as a driving force e.g., distillation.

MECHANICAL SEPERATIONS:

These separation techniques are applicable to heterogeneous mixtures and grouped

into five headings as: (i) separation of solids from solids, (ii) separation of solids
from solids in liquids, (iii) separation of solids from liquids, (iv) separation of solids
or liquid drops from gases and (v) separation of liquids from liquids.
 Solids are separated in the dry state by screening, electrostatic separation and
magnetic separation.
 Solids are separated from gases by gravity settling, centrifugal separation/settling
filtration and electrostatic precipitation.
 Solids are separated from liquids by filtration and sedimentation.
 Various methods that are used for the separation of solids from solids in liquids
include jigging, flotation, classification and tabling.
 Immiscible liquids are separated from one another by using either a gravity
decanter or a centrifugal decanter.

SIZE REDUCTION:

 Size reduction refers to an operation wherein particles of solids are cut or broken
into smaller pieces.
 Size reduction is a mechanical process of breakdown of solids into smaller size
particles without altering the state of aggregation of solids. It is also called
comminution.
 Solids are reduced in size by compression, impact, attrition and cutting.

In general, compression is used for the coarse reduction of hard solids (to yield
relatively few fines), impact gives coarse, medium, or fine products, attrition gives
very fine products from soft, non-abrasive materials and cutting produces a product
of a definite particle size and sometimes a definite shape, with few or no fines.

Applications of Size Reduction (Examples): • Size reduction operation is carried out

in coal washeries, ore processing industries, chemical industry, paint industry,
cement industry and food processing industry.

ENERGY & POWER REQUIREMENT FOR SIZE REDUCTION EQUIPMENTS

 The cost of power is a major expense in the crushing and grinding operations.
Thus, an accurate estimation of the energy required is important in the design
and selection of size reduction equipment.
 During size reduction, the solid particles are first distorted and strained, work
required to strain them is stored temporarily in the solid particles as mechanical
energy of stress. By applying additional force, the stressed particles are distorted
beyond their ultimate strength and suddenly break into smaller particles. Thus,
new surface is generated.
 As a unit area of solid has a definite amount of surface energy, the generation of
new surface requires work, which is provided by the release of energy of stress
when the particles break. The energy of stress in excess of the new surface energy
created appears as heat.
 It is not possible to estimate accurately the power requirement of crushing and
grinding equipments to effect the size reduction of a given material, but a number
of empirical laws have been put forward, such as Rittinger's law, Kick's law and
Bond's law.