Summary
This textbook provides an integral and integrated treatment of industrial-relevant problems for students of both chemistry and chemical engineering.
As such, this work combines the four disciplines of chemical technology - chemistry, thermal and mechanical unit operations, chemical reaction engineering and general chemical technology - and is organized into two main parts. The first covers the fundamentals, as well as the analysis and design of industrial processes, while the second section presents 20 concrete processes, exemplifying the inherent applied nature of chemical technology. These are selected so that they all differ with respect to at least one important aspect, such as the type and design of the reactor, the chemistry involved or the separation process used. As a result, readers will recapitulate, deepen and exercise the chemical and engineering principles and their interplay, as well as being able to apply them to industrial practice.
Instructive figures, rules of thumb for swift but reliable estimating of parameters, data of chemical media, and examples utilizing data from industrial processes facilitate and enhance the study process. A small general survey of selected modern trends, such as multifunctional and micro reactors, or new solvents for homogeneous catalysis, such as ionic liquids, point out to the reader that this is not a concluded discipline,
but a developing field with many challenges waiting to be solved.
Andreas Jess studied at the Technical University of Aachen. He obtained his PhD and habilitation from the University of Karlsruhe for his work on syngas formation and up-grading of raw coke-oven gas. In 1998 he became professor for technical chemistry in Aachen. Since 2001 he is owner of the chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bayreuth. His research interests are the optimization and modeling of catalytic processes, utilization of ionic liquids, and processes for production of fuels and chemicals from fossil and renewable resources.
Peter Wasserscheid studied chemistry at the Technical University of Aachen and obtained his PhD for the work on the use of ionic liquids. After a postdoc at BP Chemicals in Great Britain Wasserscheid returned to Aachen. In 2001 he became Scientific Supervisor of the Solvent Innovation Company and since 2003 he owns the chair of Chemical Reaction Engineering at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg.
At present he researches the development of concepts for highly selective catalytic processes. He has received several awards including the Max-Buchner-Award of DECHEMA (2001), the Innovation Award of the German Economy (2003, together with Solvent Innovation GmbH, Cologne) and the Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation (2006).
