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Students will learn, discuss and apply knowledge of the chemical structure and reactivity of industrial catalytic compounds, with particular emphasis placed upon the integration of fundamental catalytic chemistry with the principles of chemical reaction engineering, transport phenomena and thermodynamics. Industrial processes of interest include homogeneous ionic, radical, and coordinative catalytic systems, as well as heterogeneous fluid-solid systems. The design component of the course will require students to develop catalytic processes to meet productivity targets from provided kinetic and thermodynamic data. (0/11/0/20/11)

Prerequisites: ENCH 245, CHEE 321, CHEE 330 or permission of the Chemical Engineering department

Knowledge of the chemical structure and reactivity of catalytic compounds will be applied to the analysis of homogeneous ionic, radical, and coordinative and heterogeneous fluid-solids catalytic processes, as well as heterogeneous fluid-solid systems. For each system, the engineering principles employed for the design and operation of industrial processes will be discussed, including the development of reaction rate expressions using knowledge of reaction mechanisms, and the integration of these kinetic expressions with mass transfer principles.

The specific course learning outcomes include:

1. Apply rate determining step, steady state hypothesis, and material balance equations appropriately to derive rate expressions from reaction coordinate diagrams and/or mechanisms for ionic, radical, and catalytic reaction networks.
2. Integrate principles of chemical thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, interfacial mass transfer and diffusional mass transfer to develop mathematical models of multi-phase reactors.
3. Design catalytic reactors to meet productivity targets from provided kinetic and thermodynamic data.

The course outcomes are mapped to the following program attributes:

Knowledge base for Engineering (CLO 1, CLO2)

• CHEE-KB-CHEM-1. Describes ionic, chain and catalytic multi-reaction sequences and identifies transport, kinetic rate, or equilibrium limitations in multiphase systems.
• CHEE-KB-RE-1.  Analyzes reaction mechanisms, and develops expressions describing reaction kinetics for non-catalytic, catalytic, or electrokinetic processes.             

Design (CLO 3)

CHEE-DE-3. Develops equipment, process or product design incorporating performance requirements and constraints such as quality, yield, reliability, economics, safety, and standards and codes as appropriate.