Balances, Kinetics of Heat and Mass Transfer

Process engineering attends to yield products with a set of desited properties, given some raw materials. This aim may be achieved through several different process variants, which are found by process design. They usually differ with respect to feasibihty, safety and particularly to cost effectiveness. It is thus necessaiy to appraise all process variants by means of process analysis. 

Process variants are to be modeled mathematically to evaluate them quantitatively. For this purpose a process is modeled by process elements and by their interlinks as they appear due to flows of energy and mass. The mathematical evaliration of the process model for ary given instance is denoted simulation of the process. Process simulations allow for assessment of the fixed and variable costs, the design of process equipment, of the necessary utihties, and thus for the assessment of the economic viability of the process variants. 

The interlinked elements comprise fimctionahties regarding material conversion. These functionalities are described by physicochemical models. Depending on the level of itemization, the respective element is for example a unit operation distillation or a unit operation chemical reactor. It may also be a plant component which in turn consists of several interlinked unit operations. 

Mersmann et al., Thermal Separation Technology Principles, Methods, Process Design, VDI-Buoh, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-12525-6 4, 

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