Recommend a basic Chemical Engineering text

[Sho'Nuff]

Hi everyone:

I recently became the patent counsel of a relatively small chemical engineering company. Being a chemist by training, I have no difficulty understanding much of our process chemistry. However, the Chem. E. concepts and terminology are proving to be a challenge.

That being said, please recommend a basic chemical engineering book that I could read and pick up most of the basics. If that request is too general, I would be particularly interested in texts covering steam cycle power generation, ammonia production, and carbon capture sequestration and monitoring.

Thanks in advance.

 

[CycloWizard]

The basic book that just about every chemical engineer in the country uses for their first class(es):

http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Pri...8842529&sr=1-1

This covers mass and energy balances, which are the foundation of chemical engineering. I can't recommend any books on ammonia production or carbon sequestration, but if you want to learn about power cycles from a chemE perspective, the standard book is

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-C...8842659&sr=1-5

 

[akenbennu]

Also, Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot have an excellent text for diffusion/heat exchange (but it's not good for light reading.)

http://www.amazon.com/Transport-Phen...8846537&sr=8-1

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going to start with the Felder book recommended by Cyclo and move up from there. I taught myself Polymer chemistry by reading textbooks . . . hopefully I can do the same with Chem. E. The math is going to be troublesome though. The last math classes I took (Differential Equations and Advanced Calc) were back in 1996!@!@1

 

[CycloWizard]

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going to start with the Felder book recommended by Cyclo and move up from there. I taught myself Polymer chemistry by reading textbooks . . . hopefully I can do the same with Chem. E. The math is going to be troublesome though. The last math classes I took (Differential Equations and Advanced Calc) were back in 1996!@!@1

That book is very light on math - I don't even think you'll need anything but algebra for it. Once you move towards thermodynamics, transport phenomena, and control systems, calculus and differential equations will become very important.