Unit operation

Principles of Chemical Engineering and explained that the

variety of chemical industries have processes which fol-
low the same physical laws.[2] They summed up these
similar processes into unit operations. Each unit opera-
tion follows the same physical laws and may be used in all
relevant chemical industries. For instance, the same en-
gineering is required to design a mixer for either napalm
or porridge, even if the use, market or manufacturers are
very dierent. The unit operations form the fundamental
principles of chemical engineering.

2 Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering unit operations consist of ve
classes:

1. Fluid ow processes, including uids transportation,

ltration, and solids uidization.

2. Heat transfer processes, including evaporation and

heat exchange.

3. Mass transfer processes, including gas absorption,

distillation, extraction, adsorption, and drying.

4. Thermodynamic processes, including gas liquefac-

An ore extraction process broken into its constituent unit opera- tion, and refrigeration.
tions (Quincy Mine, Hancock, MI ca. 1900)
5. Mechanical processes, including solids transporta-
In chemical engineering and related elds, a unit opera- tion, crushing and pulverization, and screening and
tion is a basic step in a process. Unit operations involve a sieving.
physical change or chemical transformation such as sep-
aration, crystallization, evaporation, ltration, polymer- Chemical engineering unit operations also fall in the fol-
ization, isomerization, and other reactions. For example, lowing categories which involve elements from more than
in milk processing, homogenization, pasteurization, chill- one class:
ing, and packaging are each unit operations which are
connected to create the overall process. A process may
require many unit operations to obtain the desired prod- Combination (mixing)
uct from the starting materials, or feedstocks. Separation (distillation, crystallization)

Reaction (chemical reaction)

1 History
Furthermore, there are some unit operations which com-
Historically, the dierent chemical industries were re- bine even these categories, such as reactive distilla-
garded as dierent industrial processes and with dierent tion and stirred tank reactors. A pure unit operation
principles. Arthur Dehon Little propounded the concept is a physical transport process, while a mixed chemi-
of unit operations to explain industrial chemistry pro- cal/physical process requires modeling both the physical
cesses in 1916.[1] In 1923, William H. Walker, Warren transport, such as diusion, and the chemical reaction.
K. Lewis and William H. McAdams wrote the book The This is usually necessary for designing catalytic reactions,

1
2 4 REFERENCES

and is considered a separate discipline, termed chemical

reaction engineering.
Chemical engineering unit operations and chemical en-
gineering unit processing form the main principles of all
kinds of chemical industries and are the foundation of de-
signs of chemical plants, factories, and equipment used.
In general, unit operations are designed by writing down
the balances for the transported quantity for each ele-
mentary component (which may be innitesimal) in the
form of equations, and solving the equations for the de-
sign parameters, then selecting an optimal solution out
of the several possible and then designing the physical
equipment. For instance, distillation in a plate column
is analyzed by writing down the mass balances for each
plate, wherein the known vapor-liquid equilibrium and
eciency, drip out and drip in comprise the total mass
ows, with a sub-ow for each component. Combining a
stack of these gives the system of equations for the whole
column. There is a range of solutions, because a higher
reux ratio enables fewer plates, and vice versa. The en-
gineer must then nd the optimal solution with respect
to acceptable volume holdup, column height and cost of
construction.

3 See also
Distillation Design
Separation process

Transport phenomena
Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering

Process simulation
Unit process

4 References
[1] Arther Dehon Little. Scatter Acorns That Oaks May
Grow. MIT Libraries. Retrieved 13 November 2013.

[2] Arthur D. Little, William H. Walker, and Warren K.

Lewis. Chemical Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 13
November 2013.
 3

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