In and Out Reactor
These distillation columns at a distillation plant separate oil into all its different hydrocarbon components. Mole balances are used to better design and control these complex pieces of equipment.Copyright 2006 Luigi Chiesa, Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colonne_distillazione.jpg
Students learn about material balances, a fundamental concept of chemical engineering. They use stoichiometry to predict the mass of carbon dioxide that escapes after reacting measured quantities of sodium bicarbonate with dilute acetic acid. Students then produce the reactions of the chemicals in a small reactor made from a plastic water bottle and balloon.
Chemical and biological engineers apply the basic principles of conservation of mass and energy to design and control chemical and biological systems. Chemical engineers calculate energy balances to help them design equipment used to separate crude oil into useable components. Chemical engineers use material balances to predict how much product will be produced in chemical reactions. A biological engineer uses material balances to calculate the efficiency of a cell's metabolism, or to predict how fast medicines dissipate in the body. Engineers use these concepts to produce new materials and re-analyze old manufacturing processes to make them safer, more efficient and less harmful to the environment.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain how the conservation of mass can be used to predict the products of a chemical reaction.
- Compute molar-mass conversions.
- Give examples of chemical engineering projects and products.