porate membership of the Institution of Chemical En­gineers.

CONCLUSIONS

A number of Engineering Applications related ex­periments have been introduced into the course by modifying existing equipment and by provision of new items at a cost of = £6000. The changes have given the students more hands-on experience in the labora­tory and have encouraged an engineering approach to problems. The pumping circuit equipment allows the students to develop their own thinking on the construc­tion and functioning of a simple rig, and it lets them make their own mistakes under carefully controlled and safe conditions.

Overall it has been found that the students are responding to this approach and are more receptive to the laboratory sessions. Their laboratory reports re­flect both an increasing awareness of a practical en­gineering approach and improved communication skills.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors acknowledge the support of other members of the School of Chemical Engineering in the

llbN book reviews

CHE:MICAL REACTION AND REACTOR ENGINEERING edited by James J. Carberry andArvind Varma Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, NY 10016; 1088 pages, $150 (1987)

Reviewed by Anthony G. Dixon Worcester Polytechnic Institute

This book is made up of fifteen chapters on various topics in reaction engineering, by leading workers in the field. It is similar in concept to the Wilhelm memorial vol­ume of ten years ago (Chemical Reactor Theory. A Re­view, L. Lapidus and N. R. Amundson, eds., Prentice-Hall, 1977), but strikes a much more even balance between theory and application. The editors claim the book to be "hardly a textbook or a handbook," but most chapters have aspects of both functions. Practitioners will find it a useful reference, while teachers will want to assign particular chapters as collateral reading for graduate courses in reactor design and related areas. The produc­tion of the book is high quality, with uniform type and il­lustrations for all chapters, which has had some trade-

SUMMER 1989

development of the laboratory programme.

REFERENCES

1. Levy, J. C., Standards and Routes to Registration (1985 Onwards), The Engineering Council, London (1983)

2. Kletz, T. A., HAZOP and HAZAN: Notes on the Identification and Assessment of Hazards, Institution of Chemical Engineers, London (1983)

3. Kletz, T. A., "Eliminating Potential Process Hazards," Chemical Engineering, 48, (April 1985)

4. Lees, F. P., Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, Butterworth, London (1980)

5 . Health & Safety Executive, Entry into Confined Spaces, Guidance Note GS5, HMSO, London (October 1984)

6. Health & Safety Executive, Industrial Use of Flammable Gas Detectors, Guidance Note CSl, HMSO, London (September 1979)

7. Health & Safety Executive, Safety in Pressure Testing, Guidance Note GS4, HMSO, London (July 1977)

8. Health & Safety Executive, Electrical Apparatus for Use in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres, Series booklet HS(G)22, HMSO, London (1984)

9. Health & Safety Executive, Automatically Controlled Steam and Hot Water Boilers, Guidance Note PMS, HMSO, London (September 1985)

10. Mattews, A. T., A. N. Main, and G. S. G. Beveridge, "Getting Experience," Engineering Design Education, Design Council, 2-5 (Spring 1985) 0

offs in terms of the high price and the delay in publish­ing-the almost complete lack of references after 1983 belies the 1987 publishing date.

General topics are covered first. Villadsen and Michelsen open with a chapter on numerical methods, beginning with a short review of basic techniques. Most of the chapter emphasizes collocation methods, especially newer developments. A section on parameter estimation is most welcome. Shinnar's chapter on residence-time distributions gives a clear exposition of the limitations of the method, marred only by the many typographical er­rors. The author eschews mathematical complexity in fa­vor of conceptual understanding and common sense.

In their chapter on catalytic surfaces, Delgass and Wolf provide an excellent guide to the alpha.bet soup of surface analysis and catalyst characterization techniques. They explain what each technique is used for, basic prin­ciples, equipment, interpretation of data, and difficulties. Both surface and adsorbed species methods are covered.

Diffusion and reaction in catalyst pellets is covered by Luss in a chapter that provides a comprehensive litera­ture survey. The emphasis is less on physical insight and more on the mathematical development. A good section on effectiveness factors is provided. Doraiswamy and Kulkarni cover gas-solid noncatalytic reactions, begin­ning with single pellet models and moving to reactor Continued on plJ{le 153

149

fees, and it has been difficult locating common brands that give substantial taste differences. We will be happy to share our knowledge of which brand is un­usually distasteful with anyone who writes. A copy of the write-up appearing in our lab notebook is also available.

This experiment, like all good research projects, has numerous facets worthy of additional exploration. Fundamental modeling of the drip making process, scale-up considerations, and effects of aging are all topics of interest. Another possible extension would have students report on the commercial processing of coffee beans [7]. Furthermore, there remains a con­troversy over whether professors' taste buds differ significantly from those of undergraduates.

In summary, our experience with this experiment has been quite positive. Almost all lab groups are able to sort through many process variables and make a reasonable recommendation to the Peyton Hall Coffee Co. Some students come away with an appreciation of factorial experiments and some do not. They all share the experience of utilizing dollar signs in the evalua­tion of their results. Operation of the experiment goes well, and, importantly, most students report they have fun.

REFERENCES

1 . Bethea, R. M., B. S. Duran, and T. L. Boullion, Statisti­cal Methods for Engineers and Scientists, Marcel Dekker, New York (1975)

2. Box, G. E. P., W. G. Hunter, and J. S. Hunter, Statistics for Experimenters, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1978)

3. Cheremisinoff, N. P., Practical Statistics for Engineers and Scientists, TECHNOMIC Publishing Co., Lancaster, PA (1987)

4. Hunter, J. S., "Applying Statistics to Solving Chemical Problems," Chemtech , pp 167-169, March 1987

5. Jones, B. A., "Design Lab Experiments to Assure Product Quality," Research & Development, pp 54-58, December 1987

6. Deming, S.N., "Quality by Design," Chemtech, part 1, p. 56, September (1988); Part 2, p. 52, January (1989)

7. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd Ed., Vol. 6, p 511, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1979) 0

REVIEW: Reactor Engineering Continued from page 149

models, which somewhat anticipates the next two chap­ters. This chapter also covers the literature extensively, but the authors give good physical explanations of the models.

The next few chapters deal with some old favorites. The task of covering fixed-bed gas-solid catalytic reactors falls to Froment and Hofmann, who present a range of

SUMMER 1989

models. This chapter is not as comprehensive as the cor­responding one in Froment and Bischoffs book

(Chemical Reactor Analysis and Design, Wiley, 1979). The authors emphasize uncertainties in reaction kinetics and reactor transport parameters, and deal mainly with phenomena actually seen under industrial conditions. In a well-written chapter, Rowe and Yates give a very clear description of the bubbling bed model and bubble be­haviour in fluidized beds. They also emphasize the importance of the distributor and freeboard regions in reactor design. Denn and Shinnar cover the area of coal gasification with a strong emphasis on reactor efficiency and energy analysis. Some of their references may be difficult for students to find, and some familiarity with specialized terms is assumed.

In the longest chapter, Carra and Morbidelli give an extensive catalog of correlations, model equations, and solutions for gas-liquid reactors. Some interesting com­ments on scale-up and reactor power requirements are made at the end.

Shah and Sharma treat trickle bed and slurry reactors under the heading of gas-liquid-solid reactors. Again, many references and results are given. The part on slurry reactors contains many typographical errors, but also provides a useful worked example of slurry reactor design.

Some newer and more specialized reactor types are the subject of the concluding chapters. Tyrell, Galvan, and Laurence provide a short chapter that tries to make clear the focus of polymer reaction engineering, rather than being comprehensive. They concentrate on model­ing the product distribution by step-growth and chain­growth mechanisms. There is relatively little on actual reactor design.

Erickson and Stephanopoulos give an introduction to biological reactors that is reasonably accessible for non­specialists. A short introduction to microbial growth con­cepts and a review of mass transfer (02 supply) set the stage for an interesting chapter on reactors. In possibly the first treatment in a reaction engineering book, DeBarnardez, Claria, and Cassano give a necessarily ex­pository view of photochemical reactors. They stress the differences between these and more traditional reactor designs, especially the need for proper models of emis­sion and absorbance of radiation. Several examples of photoreactor design are presented.

Trost, Edwards, and Newman give a very readable survey of electrochemical reactors, with strong emphasis on porous electrode systems, following a general intro­duction.

There is unfortunately no chapter in this book on de­position reactors, such as are used in the semiconductor industry. Maybe next time!

The final chapter is by Morbidelli, Varma, and Aris, and is somewhat different from the rest of the book in that it is completely theoretical, covering reactor steady­state multiplicity and stability. The two limiting cases of CSTR and plug-flow reactor are analyzed extensively. O

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