Preface

Chemical Engineering Separations: A Handbook for Students is intended for use by undergraduate students who are taking a course in chemical engineering separations.  The handbook assumes that students have taken one or two semesters of chemical engineering thermodynamics, one semester of heat and mass transfer, and one semester of computational methods for chemical engineering.

The purpose of this handbook is to introduce students to chemical engineering separations in a way that most closely aligns with what most entry-level chemical engineers will do in the workplace.  Most newly hired chemical engineers will be responsible for monitoring and troubleshooting existing processes and proposing modifications to improve process performance. For this reason, we have written the handbook to emphasize how to optimize process conditions, how to retrofit an existing unit to meet a given separation objective while not exceeding operating capacity, or how to select the best existing or pre-fabricated unit to meet a separation objective while maintaining safe operation at a reasonable cost.

If you plan to reuse or adapt this text, please notify us by contacting us at mhlamm@iastate.edu or ljarboe@iastate.edu.