- Email: [email protected]
Chemical and Process Engineering, Unit Operations, a bibliographical guide
Book Reviews KAY BOURTON; Chemical and Process Engineering, Unit Operations, a bibliographical guide. Macdonald 1967.534 pp.,
papers have been selected to fll what would otherwise have been gaps and these latter have necessarily been chosen somewhat arbitrarily”. The period covered by the survey is from 1950 to June 1966, but bibliographies, textbooks and other similar works are also taken from outside these limits. The information given on each item is the title (and translation for a paper in a foreign language), authors, literature reference, number of papers quoted and their date range, and a short note on the content of the paper. Unfortunately, where there is more than two authors, only the first-named is quoted and indexed. This is a serious weakness, especially in cases where the names of authors of papers are arranged alphabetically, because the name of the senior author may not appear. The guide contains over 4500 individual entries, but still, of course, only covers a fraction of the total literature. The selection of items to include is extemely difficult, but nevertheless the choice can be criticised in several cases. Sometimes a relatively minor paper of a given author is quoted while a major work is omitted. Further, where a Dublication is in the f&m of a series of papers, it would seem sufficient to quote only the latest since this will invariably give the reference to the earlier ones. Inclusion of a selection of Russian papers is particularly welcome. A comprehensive index is included in order to eliminate the necessity for multiple entries. Every technical library should have a copy of the book, but individuals may query whether they can afford to pay out 8 guineas for a work which will need such frequent updating. J. F. RICHARDSON
f8 8s. WITH the rapid increase in the literature of chemical engineering, bibliographical aids are becoming essential to anyone moving outside his own immediate specialisation. Whereas most large industrial organisations have their own bibliographical service, the individual worker is not well supplied with aids. He therefore will particularly welcome the appearance of this work which has grown from the author’s experience with the library of Constructors John Brown. This guide covers the physical aspects of chemical engineering; the chemical aspects will be dealt with in a second volume. It is divided into 38 main sections, with 100 subdivisions. The first section gives a comprehensive survey of reference books, directories and other important sources of information. Each of the other sections deals with a main branch of the subject-either a unit operation or an aspect of the subject such as education and research, or safety-and, to quote from the Preface “comprises a listing of all relevant bibliographies together with a selection of books and papers. The basis of selection is that the works cited fall within one or other of the following categories: authoritative textbook, survey paper, pioneer paper, special issue of a journal devoted to a particular topic, classic paper or one reporting a significant advance, proceedings of a major convention or conference, tutorial paper, or a paper noteworthy for the references it cites or for the survey of literature it provides. Moreover, in order that as many topics as possible should be covered within each field, a certain number of representative
Heat and Mass Transfer in Procesa Metallurgy. A symposium edited by A. W. D. HILLS and published by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 1967. ix+ 252 pp., f3. THIS
book presents the proceedings of a symposium held by the John Percy Research Group in Process Metallurgy, Imperial College, London, in April 1966, at which seven papers were presented and discussed. All these papers make interesting reading, but the reviewer must be pardoned if he draws particular attention to those which seem to him to have the greatest interest for chemical engineers. The role of beat and mass transfer in gas-solid reactions involving two solids with a reaction interface between them is discussed by Hills. He shows that extreme care is necessary in the deduction of rate-controlling mechanisms from simple experiments. Transport-controlled processes can exhibit many of the characteristics of reaction-controlled processes, including high apparent activation energy. He suggests that these reactions should first be analysed on the basis of transport control, and only if the observed rate is much less than so predicted should reaction control be considered. Porter, Richardson and Subramanian describe studies on mass transfer across interfaces agitated by bubbles. An apparatus containing mercury and water was constructed as a room-temperature analogue for slag and molten steel.
Reaction and exchange of indium between the phases was accelerated by passing bubbles of argon through the interface. Photographs of the mercury-water interface revealed interesting ‘skinned’ bubbles. Mass transfer seems more enhanced by the waves propagating from the point where the bubble breaks the interface than by the bubble itself. Hills and Moore discuss the use of integral-profile methods to treat beat transfer during solidification. This is of particular interest to those concerned with continuous casting of metals, but the method has applications to wider fields of chemical engineering, and to boundary-layer theory. A short paper by Szekely shows that continuous steel making, using familiar types of plant under practical conditions, can only possess significant advantages if carried out in counter-current flow through a cascade of reactors. He does not, however, consider spray-refining processes. Finally Davenport, Wakelin and Bradshaw examine the action of gas jets on liquid surfaces and the mixing of liquids caused by using bubbles. It is clear from this book bow closely chemical engineering and process metallurgy are related, and how the one can illuminate the other. The papers are all well presented and, with the discussions also, are very readable. The book is very clearly printed and laid out. J. C. R. TURNER.
954
papers have been selected to fll what would otherwise have been gaps and these latter have necessarily been chosen somewhat arbitrarily”. The period covered by the survey is from 1950 to June 1966, but bibliographies, textbooks and other similar works are also taken from outside these limits. The information given on each item is the title (and translation for a paper in a foreign language), authors, literature reference, number of papers quoted and their date range, and a short note on the content of the paper. Unfortunately, where there is more than two authors, only the first-named is quoted and indexed. This is a serious weakness, especially in cases where the names of authors of papers are arranged alphabetically, because the name of the senior author may not appear. The guide contains over 4500 individual entries, but still, of course, only covers a fraction of the total literature. The selection of items to include is extemely difficult, but nevertheless the choice can be criticised in several cases. Sometimes a relatively minor paper of a given author is quoted while a major work is omitted. Further, where a Dublication is in the f&m of a series of papers, it would seem sufficient to quote only the latest since this will invariably give the reference to the earlier ones. Inclusion of a selection of Russian papers is particularly welcome. A comprehensive index is included in order to eliminate the necessity for multiple entries. Every technical library should have a copy of the book, but individuals may query whether they can afford to pay out 8 guineas for a work which will need such frequent updating. J. F. RICHARDSON
f8 8s. WITH the rapid increase in the literature of chemical engineering, bibliographical aids are becoming essential to anyone moving outside his own immediate specialisation. Whereas most large industrial organisations have their own bibliographical service, the individual worker is not well supplied with aids. He therefore will particularly welcome the appearance of this work which has grown from the author’s experience with the library of Constructors John Brown. This guide covers the physical aspects of chemical engineering; the chemical aspects will be dealt with in a second volume. It is divided into 38 main sections, with 100 subdivisions. The first section gives a comprehensive survey of reference books, directories and other important sources of information. Each of the other sections deals with a main branch of the subject-either a unit operation or an aspect of the subject such as education and research, or safety-and, to quote from the Preface “comprises a listing of all relevant bibliographies together with a selection of books and papers. The basis of selection is that the works cited fall within one or other of the following categories: authoritative textbook, survey paper, pioneer paper, special issue of a journal devoted to a particular topic, classic paper or one reporting a significant advance, proceedings of a major convention or conference, tutorial paper, or a paper noteworthy for the references it cites or for the survey of literature it provides. Moreover, in order that as many topics as possible should be covered within each field, a certain number of representative
Heat and Mass Transfer in Procesa Metallurgy. A symposium edited by A. W. D. HILLS and published by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 1967. ix+ 252 pp., f3. THIS
book presents the proceedings of a symposium held by the John Percy Research Group in Process Metallurgy, Imperial College, London, in April 1966, at which seven papers were presented and discussed. All these papers make interesting reading, but the reviewer must be pardoned if he draws particular attention to those which seem to him to have the greatest interest for chemical engineers. The role of beat and mass transfer in gas-solid reactions involving two solids with a reaction interface between them is discussed by Hills. He shows that extreme care is necessary in the deduction of rate-controlling mechanisms from simple experiments. Transport-controlled processes can exhibit many of the characteristics of reaction-controlled processes, including high apparent activation energy. He suggests that these reactions should first be analysed on the basis of transport control, and only if the observed rate is much less than so predicted should reaction control be considered. Porter, Richardson and Subramanian describe studies on mass transfer across interfaces agitated by bubbles. An apparatus containing mercury and water was constructed as a room-temperature analogue for slag and molten steel.
Reaction and exchange of indium between the phases was accelerated by passing bubbles of argon through the interface. Photographs of the mercury-water interface revealed interesting ‘skinned’ bubbles. Mass transfer seems more enhanced by the waves propagating from the point where the bubble breaks the interface than by the bubble itself. Hills and Moore discuss the use of integral-profile methods to treat beat transfer during solidification. This is of particular interest to those concerned with continuous casting of metals, but the method has applications to wider fields of chemical engineering, and to boundary-layer theory. A short paper by Szekely shows that continuous steel making, using familiar types of plant under practical conditions, can only possess significant advantages if carried out in counter-current flow through a cascade of reactors. He does not, however, consider spray-refining processes. Finally Davenport, Wakelin and Bradshaw examine the action of gas jets on liquid surfaces and the mixing of liquids caused by using bubbles. It is clear from this book bow closely chemical engineering and process metallurgy are related, and how the one can illuminate the other. The papers are all well presented and, with the discussions also, are very readable. The book is very clearly printed and laid out. J. C. R. TURNER.
954