Poiseuille

FIRST ORDER DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

2010-07-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

MIT circa 2006 Arthur Matchuk

WHY NOT CHEM EEEEE!

2010-04-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

....three videos for LOLNESS...

AD here:

Why nowt? It's awwwesome!

Why not, again?

Ciao!
***

TERENCE TAO

2010-03-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

Terry genius!

Winning the fields medal at age 26.

I've been following his careen for years! I think is IQ is way over 200.
***

Pharmaceutical Industry - A look

2010-02-12T02:57:00.000-08:00

... video

Ciao!

Bringing Back Poiseuille to Life...

2010-02-12T02:11:00.000-08:00

...as my interest in Chemical Engineering increases...

So, what happened to almost one year of silence? Most of the time I spent was sulking at Foust and McCabe trying to find out what my future would be if i finished my degree in Chemical Engineering. My second semester of my Senior Year opened a lot of door for possibilities, something that is extensively concrete and intriguingly easy to reach. Possibilities such as pursuing a Masters Degrees in Process Engineering or Petroleum Engineering has come out of me, but i lack the confidence to face the fact that the best education I could get out of these fields is by going abroad and studying at a central universities. Numerous university options, high possibility but resource-limited. I don't have money, to put it in a simple way.

I really wanted to pursue Masters and Doctorate degrees for one reason: expertise. If there is one thing that separates an ordinary Chemical Engineer and a Chemical Engineer with a Doctorate Degree - research knowledge. If there is something in the world that excites me in any field, it's research coupled with practical applications.

The relaunching of my chemical engineering blog needs a lot refocusing. But mainly, the focus is my upcoming research in my 5th year on plant design. Much of the contents will involve the discussions of the main design equations elementary to specific processes, thermodynamics and kinetics of several chemical process, petrochemical engineering, biochemical engineering, updates in fluid mechanics, wastewater treatment, nanotechnology and some other topics related to chemical engineering work.

With almost 80% knowledge in the basics of chemical engineering, i hope to make this blog a center 'notebook' to further my future research on plant design.

Ciao!

***

Essential Lectures!

2009-03-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

College Life 3

2009-03-03T02:07:00.000-08:00

A Happy Meal

plus

A millions things to do!

College Life 2

2009-03-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

something to remember

-----------------------
Comm 3 why me?

Second coffee for the night

--------------

What: BIO 1 cramming sessions
Who: Me and Some close friend of mine
When: Around 1 AM (see date of blogpost)
Where: Yahoo Messenger
How: Uhmm... Chatting
Why: To enhance thinking skills

LOL

College Life

2009-03-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

Coffee plus cup noodles!

I'm broke!

Our ANSWERS TO ChE 132 Homework

2009-02-28T10:19:00.001-08:00

7.35 answer ( i hope it's correct)

7.38 answer

Performing stepping off on Fig 3.4

Ciao!

ChE 132 Homework: On Ethanol-Water Distillation Systems

2009-02-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

two-problem post

[photo credits to wikipedia]

The system to work on

Our instructor gave us two homework problems about a week ago concerning ethanol-water distillation systems. These two problems were from the book, Principles of Unit Operations by Alan Foust et. al.

A distillation column would look like this:

Here are the problems:

7.35

An equimolar mixture of ethanol and water to be fractionally distilled to produce a distillate of composition 0.80 mole fraction ethanol and bottoms of 0.05 mole fraction ethanol. The feed is a saturated liquid and there is a total condenser and a total reboiler.

(a) As a reflux ratio of 2.0, how many equilibrium stages are required?
(b) How many stages are required at total reflux?

7.38

An amount of 1000 lb moles/hr of a 25 mole percent ethanol-water mixture is to be fractioned at 1 atm into two ethanol-rich streams of composition 60% and 80% ethanol; 98% of the ethanol in the feed is to be recovered in these two products. That is, only 2% of the feed ethanol may go out in the bottoms, which are withdrawn from the reboiler. Equal quantities (in moles) of 60% and 80% products are to be produced. The feed, the bottoms, and the 60% product are liquids at the bubble point. The 80% product is a saturated vapor withdrawn from the partial condenser. The reflux ratio (Lo/D) at the top of the column is to be 3.0. The overall plate effeciency is 25%. Assuming constant molar overflow and using the xy diagram(see pic below), calculate:

(a) The number of actual plates required for the desired separation
(b) The actual plate on which to put the feed.
(c) The actual plate from which the 60% product is withdrawn
(f) The minimum reflux ratio at the top of the column
(g) The minimum number of stages at total reflux

The graph of the system

Thoughts to ponder:

7. 35

The feed is a saturated liquid. This implies that the slope of the i-line is infinity therefore it is vertical and parallel to the y-axis.

Total reflux - according to my classmate, Renz, the line for stripping section is ignored. hence, upon applying the technique on stepping off, use only the diagonal line for the enriching section.

7.38

Plate efficiency - The equilibrium produced by an actual plate of a distillation column or countercurrent tower extractor compared with that of a perfect plate, expressed as a ratio. [weblink here]

Partial condenser versus total condenser -

A total condenser - 100% of the vapor on the top part is condensed. The vapor composition at V1 is the same as that of the distillate D.

A partial condenser - the vapor is partially condensed. D' is purely vapor. The compositions D' is different from V1 and Lo. Lo is in equilibrium with D'.

Fig 1. Configuration for partial and total condensers

[more info on weblink here]

How should i locate the streams for 60% and 80% extract?

Since it is said in the problem that the feed, bottoms, and the 60% product are liquids at bubble point, i think they're located on the stripping section or much lower. I am still thinking on putting it on the bottom of the reboiler, but i have second thoughts. If it is at its bubble point (first bubble of vapor to be formed) then it's quite near the reboiler.

Revised configuration: the 60% stream should be drawn along the stripping section, probably to the left of the diagram before the bottoms. This suggest that the picture below shows a wrong configuration. I apologize. hehe!

Fig. 2 My thoughts on the stream for the 60% product (Wrong)

The 80% feed is obviously D' (see fig. 1) It is a saturated vapor therefore it follows that it comes from the partial condenser.

Okay. if you have other thoughts please leave a comment.

ABOUT Poiseuille

2009-02-26T00:44:00.000-08:00

an about page

[photo credits to this site]

Chemical Engineers

I think it is about time to consider a blog about the path that i chose, my major, Chemical Engineering. There are only a few blogs about Chemical Engineering existing in cyberspace. TO my best of my intentions, in celebration of my first anniversary at AUDITOIRE, i would like to give rise to this blog with the following goals:

1) To establish not just a chemical engineering blog but a personal blog as well
2) To regularly upload discussions, thoughts on about my lessons on my major subjects
3) To develop a link list for all chemical engineering blogs and web portals

Chemical Engineering is a young field. It sprouted from the tenets of Mechanical Engineering in order to develop a structure and academic approach on involving chemical process as an industrial field. The pure science of chemistry allows us to look at things on the microscopic level: How reactants interact to form new substance, how energy is transformed, how equilibrium is attained inside a laboratory. Chemical Engineering approach this fundamental concepts on a macroscopic scale not limited to the size of laboratory in institutions. it transforms these basic concepts into definite and useful products packaged and marketed for public use.

It is a diverse field not only focus on the production of various materials and goods, but also concerned with the remediation of the environment. Environmental engineering, a modern offshoot of chemical engineering, is a new field that focuses on ways to protect the environment by developing methods, materials and structures that can benefit the user and the environment.

To base from my personal experience, i chose chemical engineering because of its diversity. It is not limited to the fundamentals of chemistry but expands towards many other field like Bioengineering, Petroleum Engineering, etc.

It is definitely an exciting field!

ciao!