Preface
The title of this text has been changed from Transport Processes and Unit Operations to Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles (Includes Unit Operations). This was done because the term "unit operations" has been largely superseded by the term "separation processes," which better reflects the modern nomenclature being used.
In this fourth edition, the main objectives and the format of the third edition remain the same. The sections on momentum transfer have been greatly expanded, especially the sections on fluidized beds, flow meters, mixing, and non-Newtonian fluids. Material has been added to the chapters on mass transfer. The chapters on absorption, distillation, and liquid-liquid extraction have also been enlarged. More new material has been added to the sections on ion exchange and crystallization. The chapter on membrane separation processes has been greatly expanded, especially for gas-membrane theory.
The field of chemical engineering involved with physical and physical-chemical changes of inorganic and organic materials and, to some extent, biological materials is overlapping more and more with the other process-engineering fields of ceramic engineering, process metallurgy, agricultural food engineering, wastewater-treatment (civil) engineering, and bioengineering. The principles of momentum, heat, and mass transport and the separation processes are widely used in these processing fields.
The principles of momentum transfer and heat transfer have been taught to all engineers. The study of mass transfer has been limited primarily to chemical engineers. However, engineers in other fields have become more interested in mass transfer in gases, liquids, and solids.
Since chemical and other engineering students must study so many topics today, a more unified introduction to the transport processes of momentum, heat, and mass transfer and to the applications of separation processes is provided. In this text the principles of the transport processes are covered first, and then the separation processes (unit operations). To accomplish this, the text is divided into two main parts.
