Chemical Engineering

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As I mentioned at the introduction, steady state is much easier to think about than unsteady state. Furthermore, 'equilibrium' is the simplest state in it. I would define equilibrium as the state where there's no flow in a system. For instance, when water overflow a cup which is full of water, it can be a steady state having flow, means not equilibrium. On the other hand, if you stop water and put a lid on the cup, it can be an equilibrium state.

Why is 'equilibrium' important for chemical engineering? A clue is in the figure Why is 'equilibrium' important for chemical engineering? A clue is in this figure. They usually synthesis something in chemical plants, but at the beginning they have shoddy products which are unacceptable to sell. Therefore, what you've got to do is to separete them and increase their purity. The most common way for separation is distillation by using the different concentration between vapor and liquid. There're two distillation towers in the figure. You will find another processes based on the theory about equilibrium.
( 21th Oct 2004 )
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