Lecture

Separation Processes: Fundamentals and Applications

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In course

ChE-310: Fundamentals of separation processes

The course will cover fundamentals concepts of separation processes involving chemical equilibrium and mass transfer. Students will design separation processes widely used in the industry, for the separation of liquid mixtures, gas-liquid mixtures, and gas ...

Description

This lecture introduces the fundamentals of separation processes essential for chemical engineering. It covers various methods such as distillation, extraction, and adsorption, emphasizing their importance in industrial applications. The instructor discusses the energy and mass balances involved in these processes, along with phase equilibria and mass transfer principles. Students will learn to design equilibrium-stage separation processes, calculate stream compositions, and understand the role of energy and mass separating agents. The course also highlights the significance of separation processes in terms of energy consumption in the chemical industry and their environmental impact, particularly in carbon capture. The lecture includes interactive polling to engage students and assess their understanding of key concepts. Overall, this session sets the foundation for further exploration of advanced separation techniques and their applications in real-world scenarios.

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Instructor

Kumar Varoon Agrawal

Expertise Prof. Kumar Varoon Agrawal leads research at EPFL on advanced membrane materials and processes for energy-efficient molecular separations. His work focuses on atomically thin porous graphene film, and two-dimensional zeolite & metal–organic framework membranes that enable selective transport of gases and ions, with applications in carbon capture, hydrogen purification, ammonia separation, and resource recovery. By combining materials chemistry, nanofluidics, transport phenomena, atomistic simulati

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Thermodynamics: Statistical mechanics

Related concepts (32)

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with physical systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium but can be described in terms of macroscopic quantities (non-equilibrium state variables) that represent an extrapolation of the variables used to specify the system in thermodynamic equilibrium. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is concerned with transport processes and with the rates of chemical reactions.

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of thermodynamics which convey a quantitative description using measurable macroscopic physical quantities, but may be explained in terms of microscopic constituents by statistical mechanics.

Laws of thermodynamics

The laws of thermodynamics are a set of scientific laws which define a group of physical quantities, such as temperature, energy, and entropy, that characterize thermodynamic systems in thermodynamic equilibrium. The laws also use various parameters for thermodynamic processes, such as thermodynamic work and heat, and establish relationships between them. They state empirical facts that form a basis of precluding the possibility of certain phenomena, such as perpetual motion.

Chemical thermodynamics

Chemical thermodynamics is the study of the interrelation of heat and work with chemical reactions or with physical changes of state within the confines of the laws of thermodynamics. Chemical thermodynamics involves not only laboratory measurements of various thermodynamic properties, but also the application of mathematical methods to the study of chemical questions and the spontaneity of processes. The structure of chemical thermodynamics is based on the first two laws of thermodynamics.

First law of thermodynamics

The first law of thermodynamics is a formulation of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for thermodynamic processes. A simple formulation is: "The total energy in a system remains constant, although it may be converted from one form to another." Another common phrasing is that "energy can neither be created nor destroyed". While there are many subtleties and implications that may be more precisely captured in more complex formulations, this is the essential principle of the First Law.

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