AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The goal of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and analytical tools for understanding the elementary phenomena that govern unit operations in the chemical process industry. Specifically, the course will deepen knowledge in the following areas:

• microscopic description of mass, energy, and momentum transport phenomena;
• mixing phenomena;
• transport phenomena in porous media;
• principles of operation of some less common unit operations: adsorption (industrial chromatography) and mixing in agitated systems.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• formulate conceptual models that describe the phenomenology of chemical-physical processes of interest;
• formulate continuity equations (mass and energy) in distributed parameter systems;
• manage the scale-up process from laboratory scale to industrial scale;
• formulate design equations for the preliminary sizing of equipment used in physical separations;
• select the most appropriate unit operations for the specific application;
• acquire the ability to express themselves with appropriate technical terminology.

TEACHING METHODS

The course is delivered through lectures for a total of 40 hours (equivalent to 5 CFU). During the year, homework assignments will be given in order to help students to acquire the concepts covered during the lectures.

The supporting teaching material for exam preparation will be made available on the AulaWeb instance dedicated to the course.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

• In-depth study of transport phenomena; critical analysis of available correlations for estimating material and thermal transport coefficients in two-phase systems (gas-liquid and gas-solid) and three-phase systems (gas-liquid-solid). Stefan-Maxwell diffusion model; transport models in porous media.
• Traditional unit operations: rigorous solution of a binary distillation column (Ponchon-Savarit method); kinetic design equation for continuous contact equipment – packed bed columns.
• Agitation systems: introduction to the selection and design of agitation systems.
• Adsorption processes: introduction to the adsorption process in packed beds; introduction to linear and non-linear theories of adsorption processes; moving bed and simulated moving bed separations; ion exchange processes.
• Scale-up issues: operating regime concepts, laboratory scale research, pilot plant, and demonstration unit.

Optional topics:

• Introduction to process control and monitoring issues.
• Introduction to risk analysis concepts (Process Safety).

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Notes provided by the teacher and used for the lectures

Textbooks

W.L. McCabe, J.C. Smith, and P. Harriot, Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 7th edition, McGraw-Hill (2005).

Metcalf & Eddy, Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York (2013).

H.S. Fogler, Elements of Chemical reaction Engineering, 4th edition, Prentice Hall (2006).

R.E. Treybal, Mass-Transfer Operations, 3-rd edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1980 (International Edition, softcover) (alternative to McCabe).

Reference texts:

R.B. Bird, W.E. Stewart, and E.N. Lightfoot, Transport Phenomena, 2nd edition, John Wiley (2007)

R.E. Cunningham and R.J.J. Williams, Diffusion in Gases and Porous Media, Springer Science + Business Media New York (1980).

P.C. Wankat, Rate-Controlled Separations, Elsevier Applied Science (1990).

Additional materials for working students or students with specific learning disabilities is available upon request.

Note: the copies of the lecture slides are not sufficient for a good preparation for the exam; it is strongly recommended to use the textbooks and reference books.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

This course is held on the first semester. Lesson starting is managed according to the Manifesto (avaialble at https://corsi.unige.it/corsi/11767/). A specific communication will be sent to registered students.

The class schedule is available at https://easyacademy.unige.it/portalestudenti

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Oral exam only. Admission to the oral exam is conditional on the submission of the project assigned during the year. The project involves the sizing of equipment for physical separation (absorption, distillation, or water cooling tower) or an isothermal heterogeneous catalytic reactor.

The oral exam consists of three questions: a) discussion of the project, b) two questions on topics covered during the lectures.

Registration must be done online and by sending an email to the course instructors within 7 days of the exam date. Online registration for the exam can be done from the webpage: https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/prenotazione.

For students with disabilities or with SLD, the assessment method corresponds to the UNIGE rules summarized at https://unige.it/disabilita-dsa.

Only in urgent cases can the exam be conducted online, in accordance with the regulations issued by the University.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exammination committee is composed of at least two members, one of whom is A. Servida. The oral exam lasts at least 30 minutes. With these modalities, the committee is able to verify the acquisition of knowledge in:

• mixing phenomena in agitated systems;
• transport phenomena in porous media;
• principles of operation of some less common unit operations: adsorption (industrial chromatography).

If these knowledge areas are not acquired, the student is invited to deepen their study, requesting additional explanations from the responsible instructors if necessary.

The overall evaluation also takes into account the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to solve industrially relevant problems.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students who have valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the instructor and with Professor Sergio Di Domizio (sergio.didomizio@unige.it), the Department’s disability liaison.