What Are Unit Operations

A typical process which a chemical engineer might work with is the production of gasoline from crude oil 

Any process can be subdivided into a number of steps which are performed in sequence to go from some initial starting material (crude oil, in this case) to some final material (gasoline). For example, we might start by heating the crude oil to lower its viscosity, then pump the oil to the distillation column, where we then separate various components of the crude. A unit operation is one of the steps of this sequence. Usually the term refers to steps intended primarily to perform some physical transformation (as opposed to chemical transformation) of the input stream. Examples of unit operations  

In this course, we will apply the principles learned in the engineering science courses you have had the last three semester to the design of equipment for physical transformations. We might divide up the courses in the curriculum as follows  

Thermo 1) conservation of energy 2) criteria for phase/chemical equilibria molecular 

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