03 ChE 101 Week 2 Lecture Notes- Birth of Chemical Engineering.pdf

HISTORY OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Prepared by Dennis C. Ong for ChE 101 2023 OBJECTIVE ▪ Find out How the Chemical Engineering came about. OUTLINE ▪ The Birth ▪ The Father ▪ The Unit Operations ▪ The Unit Processes ▪ The Progress THE BIRTH ▪ The chemical engineering profession is a relatively young...

HISTORY OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING Prepared by Dennis C. Ong for ChE 101 2023 OBJECTIVE ▪ Find out How the Chemical Engineering came about. OUTLINE ▪ The Birth ▪ The Father ▪ The Unit Operations ▪ The Unit Processes ▪ The Progress THE BIRTH ▪ The chemical engineering profession is a relatively young profession, less than 100 years old. Manufacturing of chemicals at various scales or plant capacities, however, has been going on for a much longer period. ▪ Its heritage dates from the fermentation and evaporation processes operated by early civilizations. ▪ In the early days before the formal chemical engineer was born, mechanical engineers with a good knowledge of industrial chemistry were responsible for the operation of chemical plants. ▪ The demand for plants capable of operating physical separation processes continuously at high levels of efficiency was a challenge that could not be met by the traditional chemist or mechanical engineer. THE BIRTH ▪ Despite its emergence in traditional chemicals manufacturing, it was through its role in the development of the petroleum industry that chemical engineering became firmly established as a unique discipline. ▪ Modern chemical engineering emerged with the development of large-scale, chemical-manufacturing operations in the second half of the 19th century. ▪ The term chemical engineer was in general use by about 1900. ▪ Throughout its development as an independent discipline, chemical engineering has been directed toward solving problems of designing and operating large plants for continuous production. THE BIRTH ▪ The focus in the early days was on individual technologies and not on unification of principles. ▪ Thus, students would get trained in the manufacture of a particular chemical but would not have basic concepts to solve problems arising in another industry. ▪ The similarity in processes is easily seen and understood by a chemical engineer because of his training. ▪ There was hence the need for the profession to train people to work in chemical process plants by understanding the basic similarities in the processes taking place in the various units. ▪ A chemical engineer has a good fundamental understanding of the various processes occurring in a plant. ▪ This gives him the necessary skills to work in different chemical process industries which operate under the same basic fundamental principles. THE FATHER ▪ George E. Davis is considered the father of chemical engineering. Davis studied at the Slough Mechanics Institute and the Royal School of Mines in London (now a part of Imperial College, London). He worked in chemical industries around Manchester. https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/george-e-davis THE FATHER ▪ Before he embarked on a career as a consultant, Davis held various positions—one as an inspector for the Alkali Act of 1863. ▪ This was a very early piece of environmental legislation that required soda manufacturers to reduce the amount of hydrochloric acid gas vented into the atmosphere from their factories. ▪ His job profile was such that he had to visit various chemical plants and inspect their operations. ▪ During the course of these visits, he found several similarities in the processes occurring in various units of different plants. ▪ He made a comprehensive study of the different processes in these plants and highlighted the fundamental principles on which these processes were based. THE FATHER ▪ In 1887, George E. Davis, a British chemical consultant, gave a series of 12 lectures at the Manchester School of Technology, which formed the basis of Handbook of Chemical Engineering. ▪ At that time there were already several industrial chemistry books written for each chemical industry—for example, alkali manufacturing, acid production, brewing, and dyeing. ▪ Davis’s contribution was that he organized his text by the basic operations common to many industries—transporting solids, liquids, and gases; distillation; crystallization; and evaporation, to name a few. ▪ His lectures were criticized as being common place know-how since these were designed around operating practices used by British chemical industries. THE UNIT OPERATIONS ▪ A landmark in the development of chemical engineering was the publication in 1901 of the first textbook on the subject by George E. Davis ▪ This concentrated on the design of plant items for specific operations. ▪ The notion of a processing plant encompassing a number of operations, such as mixing, evaporation, and filtration, and of these operations being essentially similar, whatever the product, led to the concept of unit operations. ▪ This was first enunciated by the American chemical engineer Arthur D. Little in 1915 and formed the basis for a classification of chemical engineering that dominated the subject for the next 40 years. ▪ The number of unit operations—the building blocks of a chemical plant—is not large. ▪ The complexity arises from the variety of conditions under which the unit operations are conducted. THE UNIT OPERATIONS ▪ The observation of the fundamental similarity in the different processes in the various plants led to the introduction of the concept of unit operations. ▪ This concept provides a scientific basis and a unified approach for understanding the behavior of processes in the various units; reactors, separators, etc. in apparently different chemical plants. ▪ This approach helps us in providing a unified framework for understanding and describing processes operating on similar principles. ▪ Adopting this approach in the curriculum helped develop confidence and versatility in the students to work in different chemical plants. ▪ This shifted the emphasis from a technology-based approach to a science-based approach. THE UNIT PROCESSES ▪ In the same way that a complex plant can be divided into basic unit operations, so chemical reactions involved in the process industries can be classified into certain groups, or unit processes (e.g., polymerizations, esterifications, and nitrations), having common characteristics. ▪ This classification into unit processes brought rationalization to the study of process engineering. THE CORE CONCEPTS ▪ Since World War II, closer examination of the fundamental phenomena involved in the various unit operations has shown these to depend on the basic laws of mass transfer, heat transfer, and fluid flow. ▪ This has given unity to the diverse unit operations and has led to the development of chemical engineering science in its own right; as a result, many applications have been found in fields outside the traditional chemical industry. THE PROGRESS ▪ Study of the fundamental phenomena upon which chemical engineering is based has necessitated their description in mathematical form and has led to more sophisticated mathematical techniques. ▪ The advent of digital computers has allowed laborious design calculations to be performed rapidly, opening the way to accurate optimization of industrial processes. ▪ Variations due to different parameters, such as energy source used, plant layout, and environmental factors, can be predicted accurately and quickly so that the best combination can be chosen. REFERENCES ▪ https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/george-e-davis ▪ George E. Davis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical- profile/george-e-davis ▪ Carl Hanson (2018). Chemical engineering. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/technology/chemical-engineering