Separation Process Essentials

Separation Process Essentials provides an interactive approach for students to learn the main separation processes (distillation, absorption, stripping, and solvent extraction) using material and energy balances with equilibrium relationships, while referring readers to other more complete works when needed. Membrane separations are included as an example of non-equilibrium processes.

This book reviews and builds on material learned in the first chemical engineering courses such as Material and Energy Balances and Thermodynamics as applied to separations. It relies heavily on example problems, including completely worked and explained problems followed by "Try This At Home" guided examples. Most examples have accompanying downloadable Excel spreadsheet simulations. The book also offers a complementary website, http://separationsbook.com, with supplementary material such as links to YouTube tutorials, practice problems, and the Excel simulations.

This book is aimed at second and third year undergraduate students in Chemical engineering, as well as professionals in the field of Chemical engineering, and can be used for a one semester course in separation processes and unit operations.

Dr. Alan M. Lane is Professor Emeritus of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Alabama. He has worked for Union Carbide Corporation (polymerization processes, 1984-1986), Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Laboratories (nuclear waste treatment, 1977-1979) and Pacific Northwest Testing Laboratories (ASTM testing, summers 1968-1976). He has been a visiting scholar at Boise Cascade Corp. (dioxin from pulp bleaching, 1990), Qingdao Institute of Chemical Technology (chemical reactor modeling, 1993), the University of Wales (magnetic ink characterization, 1995), and Argonne National Laboratory (fuel processing to make hydrogen, 1999). Lane earned BS degrees in both Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington (Seattle) in 1977. He obtained a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) in 1984. His academic research projects have covered a broad spectrum of chemical reaction engineering, especially heterogeneous catalysis: chemical reactions during metal casting, dioxin formation during waste incineration, selective synthesis gas reactions, green manufacturing, diffusion in porous media, hydrogen production for fuel cells, and fuel cell electrode reactions. He also studied the complex rheology of magnetic inks for information storage on tape as part of the MINT Center. His teaching interests are focused in chemical reaction engineering and separation processes.