Chemical Engineering

Are you confused about how chemical engineering differs from pure chemistry or other types of engineering? Here's an explanation of what chemical engineering is and what chemical engineers do.

This is a job profile and career information for a chemical engineer.

Chemical engineering is one of the highest paying degrees for entry level jobs, with even higher payscales for experienced chemical engineers. Here's a look at typical salary ranges for chemical engineers.

Are you a chemical engineer? What would you tell someone interested in becoming a chemical engineer about your job?

Scientist versus engineer: are they the same? Different? Here's a look at the definitions of scientist and engineer and the difference between a scientist and engineer.

Look up engineering definitions and acronyms with this engineering glossary and dictionary.

Are you interested in what types of jobs you could get with a degree in chemical engineering? Here are some employment options you could get with a bachelors or masters college degree in chemical engineering.

Are you interested in studying chemical engineering? Here's a look at some of the courses chemical engineering students are expected to take in college.

There's a worked example for coffee cup calorimetry and another for bomb calorimetry, with links to review calorimetry and thermochemistry concepts.

Certain rules or laws apply to thermochemical equations and enthalpy. These are explanations and examples of these laws, including Hess's Law.

Columbia's STS-107 carried Australia's first animals into space. Learn about the Columbia spider experiment and the Skylab 3 experiment and visit links to ground-based research and space exploration.

Distillation is a common chemistry process used to separate materials by changing their states of matter. Learn more about how the process works and find out about different types of distillations.

This handy technique is used to desalinate seawater and purify bottled water. Find out how it works!

Learn about the chemistry of stainless steel. This article, from your About Guide, also includes descriptions of the different types of stainless steels, comments on passivation, and numerous links to sites offering related information.

As the price of diesel continues to climb, you may wish to consider making your own diesel from cooking oil, called biodiesel. It's easy and could save you money.

Materials science involves physical science and engineering. Science fair projects can invent new materials, improve existing materials, test the properties of materials, or compare the suitability of different materials for a specific purpose. Here's a look at some science fair project ideas in this field of research.

Learn about endothermic and exothermic chemical reactions and get instructions to perform your own hot and cold chemistry demonstrations.

From Christopher Haslego, facts, conventional production methods, and production methods from renewable resources.

Page by Michel Pons about the principle of adsorption cycles for refrigeration.

An introduction: adsorbents, applications, types of adsorption isotherms, batch adsorption, design of adsorption columns.

Introductory article written by employees of AspenTech about process heat integration and Linnhoff's pinch technology.

Article by Christopher Haslego, description of the process, drawing and photo of an injection molding machine.

An introduction to phase equilibria and their role in chemical engineering from the Chemical Engineers' Resource Page.

By Cheryl R. Blanchard, article from Technology Today on biomaterials for implants. Long with many pictures.

From Pump World, terms, operation, pump curves, calculation of total dynamic head and system head curves, NPSH and cavitation, operation in parallel and in series, and charts.

From ExperTune, about differences in PID control algorithms and controllers.

From the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a primer on renewable energy.

From Carter McNamara, an extensive online ethics toolkit for managers.

From Christopher M. A. Haslego, article about main types, theory, design and operation of cooling towers.

From the Copper Page, database of corrosion resistances of copper and copper alloys. Searchable by alloy, resistance level, and environment.

From the Structure Commission of the International Zeolite Association, provides structural information on all zeolite structure types.

From Michael Karweit's Virtual Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, explore two-dimensional diffusion phenomena by configuring and running the Diffusion Simulator (Java applet).

From The Distillation Group, an overview of distillation processes.

Article by Eric Carlson that discusses criteria you can use to choose thermodynamic models for phase equilibria calculations. Adobe PDF file (233 kB).

Online calculator for compressible fluid pressure drops in rectangular or cylindrical ducts.

From the Chemical Engineers' Resource Page, examples for energy savings in distillation processes.

Feedback control demonstrated at the example of an oven controlled by a PID temperature controller. Includes an interactive simulation of the oven-controller system to experiment with.

Report about a system that provides "flowsheeting", i.e. mass and energy balance computation, across the WWW. A VRML viewer (e.g. Live3D integrated in Netscape Navigator) is required to see the generated flowsheet.

From the Mc Nally Institute, a list from anodic or least noble to cathodic or most noble.

A mini-tutorial by W. R. Smith that discusses the calculation of dew-point temperatures and pressures in gas-vapor systems.

From the California Energy Commission, an alphabetical listing of terms related to energy in its various forms.

From Y.-h. Taguchi, mixing, flow, vibration, fluidization for beginners.

From Michael Karweit's Virtual Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, Deduce the cross-sectional profile of a heated conductive bar based on its temperature (Java applet).

Introduction to battery chemistry and construction on a basic level. One of the many articles from the How Stuff Works series by Marshall Brain that explains technical topics.

A note by Prof. John W. Chinneck about graduate research and how to write Master's and Doctoral theses. Contains also a generic thesis skeleton.

Hypothermia and the modes of heat transfer from the human body to the environment, online or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version.

...for environmental protection. Paper by K.-D. Henning and S. Schäfer, CarboTech-Aktivkohlen GmbH.

Article by Dominic Foo Chwan Yee at the Chemical Engineers' Resource Page.

From Reade Advanced Materials, a table comparing various sieve standards (ASTM, JIS, BSI, AFNOR, DIN, Tyler®, particle diameter, mesh).

Book by Brian Kennett in PostScript format. Covers the concepts of deformation and stress field, constitutive relations for various materials including fluids, and the Navier-Stokes equation.

Derivation of the Langmuir equation and graphical illustration (Java applet).

Description of an absorption process in which natural gas liquids (NGLs) are removed from natural gas by contacting with a liquid hydrocarbon solvent (oil).

Term project by Chris Patillo at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute about the liquid membranes.

From Christopher M. A. Haslego, about insulation of pipes and other equipment: theory, economics, safety, and process conditions.

Online calculator for the number of theoretical plates in a distillation column using the McCabe-Thiele method.

Design and operation of the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC).

Calculation of pressure losses for flowing liquids in piping, fittings, and valves.

Interactive (JavaScript) application for pump sizing and design, contains extensive "Pump Terminology" and "Technical Data" screens.

...what they are; a brief introduction by Uri Lachish.

From San Diego Plastics, Inc., an introductory text covering the history, properties, processing, and selection of plastics.

Section from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Environmental, Safety, and Health Manual about the test procedures that LLNL uses for their pressure vessels.

Requirements for the design of pressure vessels and systems at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Useful reference.

Free online copy of the book by J. F. Steffe, second edition (second printing) 1996, Freeman Press, East Lansing, MI, USA; PDF file.

Dealy, J. M., "Official nomenclature for material functions describing the response of a viscoelastic fluid to various shearing and extensional deformations," J. Rheol., 39(1), 1995, Acrobat (PDF) format.

Demonstrations developed by students at Johns Hopkins University, mostly with Java applets.

Review of equipment for solid-liquid separation such as vacuum and pressure filters, filtering and sedimenting centrifuges, thickeners, and clarifiers.

Excellent article by Christopher Haslego about the basics of SPC for monitoring chemical and other processes.

Paper by Andrew W. Sloley, The Distillation Group, Inc., about distillation pressure control.

Java applet to experiment with and visualize elementary two-dimensional ideal flows. Sources, sinks, vortexes etc. can be placed and the streamlines are plotted.

From Christopher M. A. Haslego, Excel spreadsheet for preliminay sizing and cost estimation of distillation columns with internal trays.

Four lessons about microreactors done by students as a project in a chemical engineering course.

What molecular nanotechnology will mean in practical terms. Web version of the book by K. Eric Drexler, Chris Peterson, and Gayle Pergamit.

From Reade Advanced Materials, definitions of important quantities and units.

Online article by Mario S Pennisi on the finishing.com site, the requirements for corrosion to proceed, types of corrosion and techniques to restrict corrosion.