Intro to Chemical Engineering: Chapter 1

Question 1

What is chemical engineering?

Answer 1

Chemical engineering combines chemister, physics and biology, along with math, to address the worlds needs by creating new technology and solving problems in existing technology.

Question 2

finished products

Answer 2

Made of intermediate products; Ex: shampoo

Question 3

intermediate products

Answer 3

Make up finished products; Ex: absorbents, dyes, preservatives

Question 4

raw reedstocks

Answer 4

raw materials; Ex: crude oil, ores, biological byproducts

Question 5

semiconductor fabrication

Answer 5

Developed and refined semiconductor fabrication to make smaller, more powerful semiconductor systems.

Question 6

medicine/antibiotics

Answer 6

Developed diagnostic and therapeutic devices, ways to mass produce antibiotic drugs and artificial organs.

Question 7

environmental protection

Answer 7

Environmental technology to clean up existing problems and prevent future problems; Ex: catalytic converters, double-hose gas pumps, modern jet engines

Question 8

crude oil processing

Answer 8

Discovered ways to break down carbon molecules in crude oil into smaller organic compounds.

Question 9

plastics

Answer 9

Helped develop new plastics in 1930’s followed by aerospace plastics, composites and laminates.

Question 10

synthetic fibers

Answer 10

First helped develop rayon in 1910 and nylon in 1939. Today 8 million lb of synthetic fibers are produced every year for everything from clothing to bulletproof materials.

Question 11

synthetic rubber

Answer 11

Helped develop synthetic rubber when natural rubber was hard to find during WWII.

Question 12

gases from air

Answer 12

Developed processes used to purify and use oxygen and nitrogen. Also developed insulated tank trucks for gas transportation.

Question 13

food

Answer 13

Pioneered production of fertilizers and pesticides. Also improved food processing technology such freeze-drying and microwave processing.

Question 14

separation and use of isotopes

Answer 14

Developed processes that separate isotopes and played a major role in using isotopes in nuclear medicine . Radioisotopes are also useful in medical imaging and monitoring, biochemical research, carbon dating and nuclear energy production.

Question 15

make solar energy econimcal

Answer 15

Reduce cost and increase efficiency of solar collectors.

Question 16

provide energy from fusion

Answer 16

Discover the and design the conditions and materials needed to induce fusion reactions and the reactors needed to contain those reactions.

Question 17

develop carbon sequestration methods

Answer 17

Capture or “sequester” CO2 produced by burning fuels and convert it to useful products or store it.

Question 18

manage the nitrogen cycle

Answer 18

Find ways of increasing denitrification, increasing the efficiency of fertilizer without hampering food production and minimizing the conversion of nitrogen to nitrogen oxide in combustion.

Question 19

provide access to clean water

Answer 19

Develop better and less expensive methods for removing microbes and toxins from water and for removing salt from sea water.

Question 20

restore and improve urban infrastructure

Answer 20

Improvement of water treatment systems and power plants and the reduction of car pollution.

Question 21

advance health informatics

Answer 21

Develop sensors to constantly monitor health and detect hazardous substances.

Question 22

engineer better medicines

Answer 22

Develop effective diagnosis techniques and processes for rapid production of personalized medicine.

Question 23

reverse-engineer the brain

Answer 23

Knowledge of brain patterns could provide key to more effective diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases .

Question 24

prevent nuclear terror

Answer 24

Develop devices to track nuclear material and more effectively detect stolen material in shipping containers.

Question 25

secure cyberspace

Answer 25

More rigorous authentication of users, protection of data during transfer and countermeasures to minimize failure and cybercrime.

Question 26

enhance virtual reality

Answer 26

Virtual reality for training medical professionals.

Question 27

humanitarian engineering

Answer 27

Designed to meet needs of marginalized or undeserved groups. Success must be sustainable and interface with and respect the local culture.

Question 28

material balances

Answer 28

Describes how material moves in and out of a process and helps determine how much material is needed for process as well as amount of desired and undesired products leaving the process.

Question 29

fluid mechanics

Answer 29

Describes the movement of fluids and helps one design systems to produce such movement.

Question 30

heat transfer

Answer 30

Describes how heat transfers and helps one design systems to produce heating or cooling of materials to sustain desired chemical reactions and recover energy from high-temperature processes.

Question 31

mass transfer

Answer 31

Describes how molecules move relative to each other and helps one design systems to produce the mixing or separation of chemical species

Question 32

distillation

Answer 32

Boiling a mixture to remove some substances from the mixture that boil off in higher proportion than the other substances in the mixture.

Question 33

evaporation

Answer 33

removing a substance from a mixture by vaporizing.

Question 34

drying

Answer 34

removing (by evaporation) all the liquid from a substance.

Question 35

filtration

Answer 35

separating solid particles from a suspension using a filter.

Question 36

liquid-liquid transfer

Answer 36

transferring a substance from one liquid mixture to another by contacting the two liquids (the two liquids must be immiscible i.e. must not dissolve into one another), also called extraction.

Question 37

gas-liquid transfer

Answer 37

transferring a substance from a gas mixture to a liquid by contacting the gas with a liquid into which the desired substance preferentially dissolves, also called absorption.

Question 38

reaction engineering

Answer 38

Describes how fast chemical reactions occur and helps one design reactors to produce desired quantities of material by reactions.

Question 39

process control

Answer 39

describes how the outputs of complex systems respond to changes in input conditions and helps one design and optimize systems to hold product quality within desired specifications and to lower operating costs.

Question 40

materials

Answer 40

describes how materials respond to mechanical and chemical stress and helps one select and fabricate materials with unique properties for desired products and processing equipment

Question 41

economics

Answer 41

Describes the variables that affect the cost of chemical processes and helps predict costs of various design and operation options.

Question 42

process development research

Answer 42

Develop and refine methods to produce products with existing market or new products.

Question 43

technical chemical sales

Answer 43

Assess customer needs and match their products with those needs.

Question 44

plant design

Answer 44

Formulate specifications of equipment and plants and direct construction.

Question 45

process engineering

Answer 45

Deal with operations of existing plants including quality control, environmental harmony, operations management, troubleshooting, safety, and maintenance.

Question 46

environmental engineering

Answer 46

Monitor the compliance of process operations to environmental regulations and implement measures and processes to prevent violations of those standards or clean up hazardous waste.

Question 47

fundamental research

Answer 47

Typically have Ph.D. Work to understand the fundamental processes that limit new technology and invent new and creative ways to overcome those limitations.