2020

Professor when you took the course: Prof. N. Venkataramani and Prof. Ajay Panwar

Motivation for the course: This course is an introduction to the basic concepts of chemical reaction kinetics and chemical reactor design. It emphasizes the aspects of chemical kinetics and material and energy balances that form the foundation for the practice of reactor design. This course provides a flavour of the chemical process industry and therefore is a very interesting course.

Course Content:

1.Thermodynamics vs kinetics; Homogeneous vs heterogeneous reactions. Chemical reaction kinetics: order of reactions, Arrhenius equation. Rate theories.

2.Homogenous reactions. Ideal batch reactors, continuously stirred tank reactors, plug flow reactors. Residence time & RTD. Mixing. Design of reactors for homogenous Reactions.

3.Heterogeneous Reactions - Elements of mass transfer, diffusion in fluids, mass transport equation, mass transfer coefficient Mass transfer in porous materials, ordinary & Knudsen diffusion, pore size distribution. Adsorption: Physical vs Chemical, Adsorption isotherms, BET method. Surface reactions & their Kinetics.

4.Fluid-fluid reactors with homogeneous& heterogeneous reactions. Fluid-solid contactors/reactors: packed bed, fluidized bed. Heat transfer controlled reactions.

5.Examples from materials processing: CVD/PVD reactors, thin film deposition, Combustion, oxidation/reduction, drying, calcination, precipitation etc.

Feedback on Lectures and Teaching: The lectures were good and covered everything from the basics to the practice problems. Some of the lectures were pre-recorded and were revised in the live class lectures. Overall the mode of conduct of classes was live lectures followed by a tutorial. Weekly two classes were conducted and it was very important to attend each and every lecture as after each class, you have to solve a tutorial with 1,2 days time. So try to focus on basic concepts in the class itself and clear your doubts in the class itself to have a good understanding of the course.

OCTAVE was taught for a better understanding of the chemical reactions and to visualize the differential equations. A few tutorials were based on OCTAVE.

Feedback on evaluation process:

Evaluation 4 Quizzes- 10 marks each 23-25 tutorials - 20 marks Endsem - 40 marks No midsem

As there was continuous evaluation in the form of tutorials, the course was a bit hectic but was manageable.Solving the tutorials and problems from the lecture slides will help in solving the quizzes.

Difficulty level: 3.5/5

How is the Grading?: Grading Statistics was left skewed normal distribution and was slightly better that the offline semester.

Grading Statistics AA 8 AB 17 AP 2 BB 26 BC 15 CC 12 CD 8 DD 13 FR 7

Reference: H.S. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 4thEd., Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 2008. (can be used to solve additional problems)

Thanks to Harshada Suryawanshi for the review!

2017

Professor when you took the course: Prof. Venkatramani

Motivation behind the course: Having learnt thermodynamics, you have studied the feasibility of reactions. This course will describe the speed of reactions and the products formed as such.

Prerequisites: None

Course Content: Homogenous reactions. Ideal batch reactors, continuous stirred tank reactors, plug flow reactors. Residence time & RTD. Mixing. Design of reactors for homogenous reactions.

Heterogeneous Reactions - Elements of mass transfer, diffusion in fluids, mass transport equation, mass transfer coeff. Mass transfer in porous materials, ordinary & Knudsen diffusion, pore size distribution. Adsorption : Physical vs chemical, Adsorption isotherms, BET method. Surface reactions & their kinetics.

Fluid-fluid reactors with homogeneous & heterogeneous reactions. Fluid–solid contactors / reactors : packed bed, fluidized bed. Heat transfer controlled reactions. Examples from materials processing: CVD/PVD reactors, thin film deposition, combustion, oxidation/reduction, drying, calcinations, precipitation etc.

Feedback on labs, tutorials, assignments and exams: The lectures contain theory and practice problems related to it. It is very useful to attend lectures as the following tutorials are generally based on its preceding lectures. The exams have problems based on the tutorials and are slightly lengthy. Hence, solving tutorials during the class and before the exams is enough to get a good grade. Try to clear the basic fundamentals. That would be really helpful and you’ll be able to solve most of the problems.

The marks distribution as far as I remember when I took the course was a bit arbitrary. There were two quizes one of 10 marks and the other one of 11. The Midsem was of 16 marks and the endsem was 50 marks. The tutorials comprised the rest.

Difficulty level: 4/5

Grading statistics: It follows a normal distribution, with few people getting AA grade.

Study Material and References: Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering by Fogler and Chemical Reactions and Chemical Reactors by George W. Roberts

Thanks to Siddharth Khuteta for writing this course review

2016

Prof. when you took the course: Prof. Venkatramani

Motivation behind the course: Having learnt thermodynamics, you have studied the feasibility of reactions. This course will describe the speed of reactions and the products formed as such.

Pre requisites: None

Feedback on lectures, tutorials and exams: The lectures contain theory and practice problems related to it. It is very useful to attend lectures as the following tutorials are generally based on its preceding lectures. The exams have problems based on the tutorials and are slightly lengthy. Hence, solving tutorials during the class and before the exams is enough to get a good grade.

Difficulty level: 3/5

Grading: It follows a normal distribution, with few people getting AA grade.

Study materials and references: Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineerin by Fogler

Thanks to Karthik Sankaran for Writing this course review

Professor when you took the course: Prof. Venkat Ramani

Motivation behind the course: This one the first technology course that you will encounter. Technology as in it has a direct engineering application and is not just a science course. Its a interesting course in which you learn about the kinetics of various processes such as reactors etc. This is very helpful in future in designing applications.

Feedback on lectures: The lectures were good. Attendance was not compulsory but its better to attend the classes as the course is not similar to what we have done till now. So, to get a perspective one will need to attend classes.

Feedback on tutorials, assignments and exams: Yes, tuts and exams are similar. Exams are slightly more difficult.

Difficulty level: Since this is done in 2nd year as of now, it tends to get difficult.

How is the grading?: Normal Distribution

Study Material and References: Fogler - Easily available on DC

Thanks to Ayush Agrawal for writing this course review