Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics

by J. Richard Elliott, Carl T. Lira

Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
ISBN: 0136068545

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Book Description

A Practical, Up-to-Date Introduction to Applied Thermodynamics, Including Coverage of Process Simulation Models and an Introduction to Biological Systems.

Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, helps readers master the fundamentals of applied thermodynamics as practiced today: with extensive development of molecular perspectives that enables adaptation to fields including biological systems, environmental applications, and nanotechnology. This text is distinctive in making molecular perspectives accessible at the introductory level and connecting properties with practical implications.

Features of the second edition include:

• Hierarchical instruction with increasing levels of detail: Content requiring deeper levels of theory is clearly delineated in separate sections and chapters
• Early introduction to the overall perspective of composite systems like distillation columns, reactive processes, and biological systems
• Learning objectives, problem-solving strategies for energy balances and phase equilibria, chapter summaries, and “important equations” for every chapter
• Extensive practical examples, especially coverage of non-ideal mixtures, which include water contamination via hydrocarbons, polymer blending/recycling, oxygenated fuels, hydrogen bonding, osmotic pressure, electrolyte solutions, zwitterions and biological molecules, and other contemporary issues
• Supporting software in formats for both MATLAB® and spreadsheets
• Online supplemental sections and resources including instructor slides, ConcepTests, coursecast videos, and other useful resources

From Book News, Inc.

The four units of this textbook address first and second laws, generalized analysis of fluid properties, fluid phase equilibria in mixtures, and reacting systems. Appendices summarize models for process simulators, and computer programs for calculators, spreadsheets and Fortran.

Ingram

An up-to-date introduction to applied thermodynamics, this book will help readers master the fundamentals of applied thermodynamics as practiced today: with a molecular perspective and extensive use of process simulation. The book presents extensive practical examples throughout and makes extensive use of models and equations that may be worked with low-cost calculators and spreadsheet software.

From the Author

Dear Readers, Thank you for your comments and criticisms. We welcome this opportunity to respond. We would like to begin by clarifying a couple of points. First, our text does cover chemical reaction equilibria in detail (Chapters 14 and 15). In addition to deriving the fundamental equations from first principles, we present examples, practice problems, and homework problems covering single reactions in a single phase, multiple reactions in a single phase, multiple reactions between vapor and liquid phases, and electrolyte reactions with partitioning between vapor and liquid phases. We also cover energy balances for reacting systems. The coverage of reacting systems is comparable with other introductory chemical engineering textbooks. Regarding inclusion of additional examples and resources, it is very valuable to refer you to the text's web site. Amazon prohibits us from giving the link but you can find it if you search for “Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics”. We are continually supplementing our textbook through updates on this web site. You will find sample tests for each unit, supplemental homework problems, review modules, abbreviated presentation slides, computer spreadsheets and programs, virtual guided tours through real plants and equipment, links to phase diagrams, on-line databases, and many more resources. At present, we are developing review modules that carefully lead students through key concepts with reinforcing examples. By using the web efficiently, we hope to provide effective supplements for review and self-study. We hope that you will find these comments and our web resources to be useful. Please keep those Amazon suggestions and criticisms coming.

About the Author

J. RICHARD ELLIOTT is Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Akron in Akron, OH. His research interests include thermodynamics of hydrogen bonding, molecular simulations, and PRISM theory; thermodynamics of supercritical fluids and hydrocarbon processing; and experimental phase equilibium measurements. He holds a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.

CARL T. LIRA is Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Michigan State University, specializing in the thermodynamics of complex systems. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.

Customer Reviews

I think the text was pretty good; it made you consult references frequently, and that is a necessary skill to have as an engineer. As an engineer you have to know how to pick up theory and put it to use quickly. The problems were rough and time consuming, but that's because no problems in engineering are easy! When completed, though, you are satisfied. To the last guy: "physics" is the one major that can do anything! Everything in science is either physics or bug collecting, whether you like it or not :) But, engineering is more marketable.

How do you write a textbook explaining everything in detail? You can't and this is why students have instructors. This book is an INTRODUCTORY text for thermodynamics. For example, you can't derive departure functions for every equation of state. There are just too many of them. The book did have many useful example problems. Still it wasn't enough. I just completed my thermodynamics course at the University of Akron and I had to develop my own comprehensive view of the ideas stated in the book. It was very useful as a tool, but don't expect to teach yourself thermodynamics from it. That's what your instructor is for. You can understand concepts by concentrating on the many useful analogies given in the book. For example, the parking lot analogy which explains radial distribution. I have some advice when going through this book. You are chemical engineer majors; the one major that can do anything. At this stage of the game, you should start thinking like an engineer thinks. For example, the guy who wanted to know why dh=0 for throttles. He should be try to figure out that on his own. That is what engineers are supposed to do. Instructors explain this in class, as well. I agree that Chapter 4 was very vague, but again, this is an introductory course. We have two more years of learning. In conclusion, don't expect to learn everything about thermodynamics from this book. You won't. But do expect to learn the basic principles about thermodynamics. That is the strong point of this book.

Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics is a very abstract course with very tough concepts to master. The book Introductory Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics by J. Richard Elliott was the book that got me through the course. In my opinion this book was the best book on thermodynamics for an introductory course. I'am comparing his book to two other books on thermodynamics; Chemical Thermodynamics by Peter A. Rock and, An Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics fourth edition by Smith and Van Ness. Elliott's book had a better steam table and more worked out example problems that were easy to find, compared to the two other books. The only hangup I had with the book were the concepts introduced in the section labled Unit III. The first concepts such as Bubble Pressure and Temperature were easy to follow but later concepts such as derivations of fugacity coefficientfrom different equations of state could be explained more clearly. Overall the book was better than the other two and I would recommend Dr. Elloitt's book to any of my peers.

I found this book to be rather unsatisfactory. I realize this is an APPLIED thermodynamics book intended for chemical engineers, but I still think it wholly incomprehensive. NOWHERE in the book is there even a sentence regarding the themodynamics of chemical reactions. Aren't chemical reactions important to the engineers performing them? Also, the majority of the mathematics behind all of the derivations is not included. Example: "for a throttle, dH=0." I realize this is somewhat intuitive, but mention could at least be made of the reasoning behind it, guys (and preferrably more than one paragraph).