Free Chemical Engineering E-Books

In NAP's website, (National Academy Press), there are free electronic books (e-books), some of which are chemical engineering-related. (To find them, search for CHEMICAL ENGINEERING) in the search engine. Other topics of interest are nanotechnology, new materials, etc.

Most of these books focus on science policy as well as defense.

Another source of books is Knovel, including Perry's Handbook and many other classics. It is fee-based but it is possible to download the PDF's by registering for a sample subscription.

The Internet Archive has an old chemical engineering manual. This is in DejaVu format and requires downloading a plugin.
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Timeglider screenshots

Click images to zoom.



Timeglider is a flash-based web tool used to create timelines. The creators suggest it can be useful for teaching, research or project planning. Unfortunately very few screeshots are available, so I show a couple of them here.
It's fairly easy to use.
Surprisingly it lacks some features one would expect such as image resizing or the possiblilty of moving events using the mouse.


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Nanofluids improve fuel efficiency

The so-called nanofluids are suspensions of particles a few nanometers in size, made of highly conducting materials. These fluids have good heat transfer properties.

According to a recent study by W. Yu at Argonne National Laboratory, smaller radiators are needed in vehicles that incorporate nanofluids. Vehicles with a smaller radiator can be made more aerodynamic. Fuel savings of more than 2.5 percent are projected.

Clic here for a presentation with details about these findings.

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Handbook of Green Chemistry and Technology

The Handbook of Green Chemistry and Technology is available on Google books.

It has examples of sustainable processes and methods to reduce their environmental impact.

An issue of interest for the agricultural sector is the production of agrichemicals without using fossil fuels. Substances such as glyphosate herbicide can be produced via a purely biochemical route.


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Chemical equipment cost estimation

This PDF document has tables and plots for cost estimation of chemical equipment including:

*Vessels
*Tanks
*Columns
*Heat exchangers
*Boilers
*Evaporators
*Mills
*Dryers
*Centrifugues
*Filters
*Mixers
*Pumps
*Compressors
*Turbines

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Impact of Wall Street crisis on the chemical industry

The recent financial crisis is expected to impact the chemical industry. According to a report in Chemical and Engineering News, the scarcity of credit will not have a direct impact on chemical producers, since according to chemical stock analyst Dmitry Silverstyn, "they have strong free cash flow and relatively low debt and can ride out a short-term credit crunch."

Consumers of chemicals, on the other hand, may be forced to reduce their inventories or default on payments.

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New mirror for Helium scattering microscope

A Spanish research group has developed a material that would facilitate the construction of better microscopes based on Helium atom scattering. While Helium scattering has been known since the 1930's, the new material can be used to build a a mirror that reflects the atoms with a higher efficiency than previously possible.

Reference: Advanced Materials 20, 3492 (2008), Author(s): D. Barredo, F. Calleja, P. Nieto, J.J. Hinarejos, G. Laurent, A.L. Vázquez de Parga, D. Farías and R. Miranda

Photo: STM image shows the absence of step defects in the new material at various temperatures. Images are 500nm x 500nm.

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