Industrial chemistry course

Philip J. Chenier is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, which he joined in 1970. He has worked for General Mills Chemicals and 3M Company. Dr. Chenier received his B.A. from St. Mary s College, Winona, Minnesota, and his Ph.D. from Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Minnesota. He has published extensively in research and scholarly journals, and earlier versions of his book on industrial chemistry have been used by various schools since 1986. He has developed and taught an industrial chemistry course for the past twenty years. 

In recent years many faculty members of Departments of Chemical Engineering have presented detailed or often cursory "histories" of their Departments (see for example the 1968-1986 issues of Chemical Engineering Education). In these articles one finds a persistent effort of many of the authors to prove that their Schools have existed for more than 75 years, in one case since 1853 The truth is tliat even if an "industrial chemistry" course was taught at a university, this would not constitute acceptance of a chemical engineering curriculum. 

The fact that our daily lives are so dependent on the chemical industry does not appear to be widely recognized, even by those working in the chemical industry. And so, as companies are forced in a world economy to become more productive and more quality conscious, as well as having a greater concern for the environment, it becomes essential that their present and future employees understand the basic concepts upon which the chemical industry (indeed, our modern existence) is based. This book is designed to aid in that understanding by reviewing the important aspects of industrial chemistry in a way that can be understood even by those who have not taken any formal chemistry courses. 

Terrence Collins is the Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University who contends that the dangers of chlorine chemistry are not adequately addressed by either academe or industry, and alternatives to chlorine and chlorine processors must be pursued. He notes, Many serious pollution episodes are attributable to chlorine products and processes. This information also belongs in chemistry courses to help avoid related mistakes. Examples include dioxin-contaminated 2,4,5-T, extensively used as a peacetime herbicide and as a component of the Vietnam War s agent orange chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs the pesticides aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, DDT, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, lindane, mirex, and toxaphene pentachlorophe-... 

This book contains some information on approximately 90% of the chemical and related industries. This material can be covered well in a one-semester course. Examples of special areas of industrial chemistry are listed below and are ideal for study via written or oral reports, or for self-study. Good starting points for these are the Kiric-Other or Ullmann encyclopedias. 

We will consider only the batch reactor in this chapter. This is a type of reactor that does not scale up well at all, and continuous reactors dominate the chemical industry. However, students are usually introduced to reactions and kinetics in physical chemistry courses through the batch reactor (one might conclude fi om chemistry courses that the batch reactor is the only one possible) so we wiU quickly summarize it here. As we vrill see in the next chapter, the equations and their solutions for the batch reactor are in fact identical to the plug flow tubular reactor, which is one of our favorite continuous reactors so we will not need to repeat all these definitions and derivations in the section on the plug flow tubular reactor. 

The next speaker to discuss tools and materials for green chemistry and engineering education was Dr. John Andraos from York University. Andraos discussed his chemistry course. Industrial and Applied Green Chemistry, which is offered as an advanced course at the third-year level. Andraos stated, I am one of the proponents who believe that it should be taught a little later so that students have acquired a real mastery of the subject. He explained that there are two prerequisites for the class (1) second year or-... 

The course has many components, such as Chemistry and Society, Development of Industrial Chemistry, and Genealogy, to connect chemistry to history, world events, and real-case problems. Students are required to research resources such as journal articles, society news magazines, books, and patent literature to enhance skills in decision making, inter-... 

Data were collected from students enrolled in three different courses. Class A was a one-semester introductory quantum mechanics course intended for junior physics majors that typically enrolled about 10 students. Class B was the second-half of a two-semester physical chemistry course for chemistry majors that typically enrolls 30-40 students. The first semester of this course focuses primarily on thermodynamics the second-half spends the first two-thirds of the semester on quantum mechanics and then concludes with a discussion of statistical mechanics. Class C is offered every semester for junior-year chemical engineering majors, and was observed three times Cl, C2, and C3. Cl and C3 were offered during the fall semester, when the mainline population of chemical engineering majors take the course and had enrollments of approximately 70 students. C2 was offered in the spring semester and is frequently taken by students who have done a "co-op" or internship in industry, which requires them to be off-campus for a semester at a time. C2 had an enrollment of around 30 students. The material in Class C is quite similar to the material offered in Class B. The first three-quarters of this class covers quantum mechanics, the remaining time is spent on statistical mechanics. 

Chemical kinetics studies as practiced in industry are far more complex than the smattering of examples presented in typical undergraduate physical chemistry courses. The few hours we spend in typical physical chemistry courses do not include the more complex and more interesting examples in the literature because of the level of mathematics required. However, students can be introduced to more complex processes through the use of simulation software which is available via the WWW (40). Most important is that students develop an appreciation of what a mechanism is and what steps are taken to develop a mechanism for a new chemical reaction. Carefully designed simulations can help students develop these skills as reported by Houle (41). 

There were special circumstances that made this possible. Rollins College in Florida generously gave me a four-year full scholarship in 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression. My most important professor there, Guy Waddington, after my first chemistry course with him, told me I might make a good chemist for industry, but he doubted I could become a research... 

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