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Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 43, No. 7. pp 1427-1435.1988.
0009-2509188 $3.00 + 0.00
Printed in Cheat Britain.
0 1988 Pergamon Press plc
THIRD P. V. DANCKWERTS
MEMORIAL LECTURE
PRESENTED AT THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS, LONDON, U.K.
4 MAY 1988
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING’S GRAND ADVENTURE
OCTAVE LEVENSPIEL
Chemical Engineering Department.
Oregon
State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-2702, U.S.A.
Fellow chemical engineers, I am honored that you
have invited me to speak to you today. On this
occasion, most memorable for me, I ask that you
join me in exploring an important but little con-
sidered aspect of our activities.
Let me start by proposing that the mission and
essence of chemical engineering is to come up with
processes to make materials wanted by man-new
or improved processes to replace older less efficient
ones, and processes to make completely new
materials. In a nutshell we are the chefs of science
and technology, and as I put it here, it’s a two-step
affair-conceiving or dreaming up a scheme, and
then making it come real.
The second step of this affair, transforming the
idea into reality and teaching how to go about it is
what concerns most of us most of the time, and we
are very good at this. But what about the first step of
this two-step affair, the creative or inventive step,
the dreaming up of a scheme? Who does this and
how does the doer go about doing it? Can this be
taught and if so how is it taught today, and who
teaches it? It is this first step in the development of a
process that I wish to talk about today.
Let me illustrate what I mean with a quick
example. A while ago Japanese chemists discovered
that hot (450°C) liquid indium was a versatile
catalyst, capable of making a variety of useful
reactions go, as shown in Slide 1. However, in all
Dehydrogenotion reaction
I-
5
Reactant -
I-z
+
cOnverSIOn
Liquid lndlum
-450=X
ethanol - acetaldehyde
2 - butanol
- MEK
cyclohexonol
- cyc10hexon0ne
I sopropanol
- acetone
Slide 1
cases, conversion to product was low, between 1 and
5%. With this information let’s try to come up with a
good scheme to treat 1 ton/day of feed (iZiG =
0.1 kg/mol) to 90% conversion, if experiments give
2% conversion for a gas feed rate of 1 cm3/s over a
reaction boat containing 1 g of liquid catalyst.
The first thought is to directly scale up from
experiment. However, a quick back-of-the-envelope
calculation shows that this would require about 6800
tubes in parallel, each containing over 110 boats of
catalyst, as sketched in Slide 2. But at fl.Yg, the
cost of catalyst alone comes to about fl million.
And how would you like to engineer such a process?
I think you will agree that we should be able to do
better.
A second thought is to try the bathtub reactor of
Slide 3. This would require 12 tons of catalyst
costing f18 million? Out of the question.
A third idea would use the spray tower, as shown
in Slide 4. This would use less catalyst, about
f500,OOO worth, but this still is awfully costly. And
how would we overcome the mechanical problems
of dealing with a hot liquid?
These direct approaches just don’t seem practical.
So let us put on our innovative thinking caps. If we
are imaginative enough we may come up with the
scheme of Slide 5. Mix, pelletize, calcine, reduce,
pack and then run with hot gas. What a simple idea
No need to handle hot liquid, and all it requires is
Direct scale up
, ton/day
of feed
Ll3 reactIonboats
per tube
Slide 2
1427
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OCT VE LEVENSPIEL
Bath tub reactor
12 tons of indium
,,f-at 450-C
/ .
1
:
Slide 3.
Spray
column
Everything --
at 450°C
Slide 4.
SLC - supported liquid
catalysts
MIX -
PelW 1ze
- carc1ne
-8CUs:
WS
>
8
%
mvers,o”
I
Reduce wth Hz
-4oo’C
Specks of In
03- 20$.,,
Pack and hecat
to 350°C
Reactant
US Pat 4.224.190
Slide 5.
just a few grams of indium for the whole operation,
costing not much more than a good dinner in
London today.
Why didn’t I think of it? A team at the Danish
Technical University headed by Professor John
Villadsen did, and I wonder what
it was
in their
background that led them away from the traditional
thinking about bubble columns, spray columns and
the like to come up with this unconventional and
neat idea, so simple and obvious in hindsight.
Maybe this is a good place to look at what we do
teach future chemical engineers and see where we
encourage this kind of creative thinking. Put simply,
Slide 6 shows what we do in typical chemical
engineering programs. At the BS level we prepare
the young chemical engineer primarily for plant
operations. Then in postgraduate programs we focus
on research in a variety of areas: physicochemical
information, theory for predicting behavior, design
methods, ways of optimizing operations, and so on.
All this has as its final goal the transformation of a
design concept into an efficient reliable process for
making a product material.
But what about the breakthroughs which lead to
new and better processes. As shown in Slide 6 this
can follow the discovery of a new chemical pathway
or the creation of a new catalyst. It can also come
from dreaming up a new contacting concept.
Gossett’s twig-filled windmill to give Britain’s first
industrial absorber, and Villadsen’s supported liquid
catalyst are such examples. This third step in Slide 6
is something which we in the educational world in
large part ignore. Why? Maybe we don’t know how
to teach it, maybe we consider it to be unteachable.
Let us see whether we can gain an insight into this
activity by seeing how our profession actually goes
about doing it. For this let’s select two examples,
pertinent today, for which there are many possible
routes from given reactants to given products.
First consider the production of liquid fuel from
shale rock. The concept is simple and is shown in
Slide 7. In step 1 shale rock is heated to about
500°C. This drives off the organics but leaves some
fixed carbon on the rock.
One
may follow this
primary operation with a second step in which the
fixed carbon is burned off the rock with air. This
releases heat which is then recycled to heat the raw
, Operate with understanding
1
* Handle emergencies
I
Tmlnlng
I
* Make lmpmvements
of
i
* Theory
developing
.
.
Language new processes
Innovations
- New catalyst
* New reoctlon pathways
* New contoctlng patterns
Slide 6.
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Chemical engineering’s grand adventure
Downflow moving
Raw shale
beds
0
1429
Liquid fuels from shale
RCIW
shale
rnck
step
I
Heat,
no
q
lr
.
1
t
I
I
tieat
released In step
2
)
X-e-- may be used to
_____-x
feed stepl
Slide 7.
shale in the first step. Without step 2 one has to use
some other source of energy, usually a part of the
volatiles produced, to heat the shale rock.
This looks like a simple straightforward operation
so why shouldn’t one single design concept emerge?
With autos we have settled on four wheels, for
railroads two tracks, for commercial aircraft one
body with just one wing on either side, so shouldn’t
we all agree on moving beds or multifluidized beds,
or something else? Well, many large organizations
have worked on this and a whole host of distinctly
different design concepts have been selected, as
listed in Slide 8.
Let me sketch some of these concepts to show you
how different they are. First of all there is the
downflow moving bed of solids. As shown in Slide 9,
there are a number of commercial processes operat-
ing today which have opted for this approach. These
are not small pilot scale operations. For example the
Petrosix uses an 11 m i.d. unit, and the Brazilians
are planning to build 19 more of these giants. Slide
10 shows a horizontal moving bed design, in
operation today in Mexico. And to complete the
picture of moving-bed designs Slide 11 shows a U.S.
Counterflow
moving beds
cross
f low
n-wing beds
Clrculoting
solid schemes
IGT
Poroho
Occidental
union 011
Pet robros
c
Kerr - McGee
Kwiter
Superior Oit
Cities
Chevron
LUrQl
AX0
Shell
I
Rod iont heot
M~crowove heat
Vacuum extraction
Molten solt
From “Oil Processing TechnOloQy” (Edited by V. D. Allred 1
Center for Professional Advancement. 1982
Slide 8.
Paroho
Klviter
Tosco
8 Petrosix
(II rn i.d.1
Volotiles
Air or product
go=
Cold product
gas
Spent shale
Slide 9.
Superior Oib
horizontal
moving bed
(merry
-go - round)
ws
Slide 10.
Unocal’s upflow moving bed
Hot recycle ~0s
Downflow
of
Qas
Shale + C
ze *---Rock
pump pushes
shale upward
Slide 11
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upflowing-solids process which just produced its first
barrel of comm ercial product la st year. Up flow,
downflow, horizontal flow-shouldn’ one be best?
In the suspended-solid approach, Slide 12 shows
an all-fluidized circulating solid system ; Slide 13
shows a variation of this in which hot and cold sh ale
are intimately contacted in a screw conveyer; and
Slide 14 shows the ball mill design wherein heat is
fed to cold fresh shale by circulating hot balls.
Most of the moving-bed processes are simple from
the engineerin g standp oint, but do not try to recover
the energy in the fixed carbon. Thus spent shale is
returned to the waste dump with a portion of its
l l
Chevron’s STB
m
staged turbubnt bed)
-bust aon
lift p*pe
_ Downflow of soltds
=
I
-3cm/s
Solids recycle
rotio = 2- 5
Slide 12
Lurgi
- Ruhrgas
IL1
meatgrinder)
Solid recycle rotio = 2 - 4
and fuel
Tosco II
n
ball miW
3:
“I
Elevator
i
.I
_ Lift pipe
Raw shale
/
c I-bt waste gas
carbon burn
UP
Slide 14.
energy unextracted. On the other hand, the
fluidized-bed processes are more complicated, but
in most cases they are designed to extract all the
energy from the shale.
Some designs go to great lengths to recover the
energy from the fixed carbon. As an example Slide
15 shows U.S. Shell’s concept. The left half of the
slide with its two fluidized beds and its circulating
heat-carrying steel balls has just one purpose, to
transfer heat from hot spent shale to fresh cold
shale.
Look at the designs of Slides 12, 13 and 15. In
their very differen t ways they all try to recycle heat
from spent shale to fresh shale. Thus solid-solid
heat exchange is the problem here, and an efficient
way of doing this may then be the key to a good
shale process.
We chemical engineers are quite comfortable with
fluid-fluid heat exchange. There are books upon
books on this subject. But what about solid-solid
heat exchange? There is hardly anything
on
this
Shell’s Spher 3 bed concept
_..-..
Hot balls
Ti
‘-/
Slide 13.
Siide 15.
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Chemical engineering’s grand adventure
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topic in the literature, and not one word on it in
Perry’s Handbook. So let us probe in the literature
to see what is available.
Slide 16 shows Professor Leung and Chong’s
proposed shell-and-tube design. Unfortunately, for
shale processing,
temperature limitations and
stability of operations would be serious problems
with this design. Slide 17 shows a somewhat simpler
alternative proposed by Professor Potter which uses
side-by-side fluidized beds, and this design could
possibly be incorporated into a shale process.
But now let our minds wander and explore other
ideas. Why not consider using heat pipes? These
devices were made practical about 25 years ago, and
are widely used today in consumer electronics and in
space applications. Even the Alaska pipeline uses
close to 100,000 of them. They are most efficient
heat transfer devices which can be designed to
operate in various temperature ranges from below
room temperature to 1000°C and higher, and in any
orientation-vertical, horizontal or around corners.
Slide 18 shows how heat pipes could be used in a
solid-solid heat exchanger. Sketch A shows what
happens when we just pour solids down past finned
heat pipes. Heat transfer is rapid, but unfortunately
Leung and Chong’s SBT exchanger
Slide 16.
Cooted fluidized
solids out
Hwted fluldized
solids out
Potter’s fluidized exchanger
l-lot
solids
Cold
sol Ids
Slide 17.
Heat pipe s/s heat
(A)
0°C
100°C
exchanger
48°C
52°C
(El
Upflow of condensate
Slide 18.
this arrangement represents cocurrent heat ex-
change for which the maximum heat recovery
efficiency is only 50%.
Of course if we are able to coax one stream of
solids to flow upward then we could approach 100%
efficiency. But how do you coax solids to flow
upward on their own? However, there is a simple
alternative. Rearrange the heat pipes as in sketch B
of Slide 18. This results in a downflow of both solid
streams with counterflow heat exchange and close to
100% heat recovery efficiency. Even better still,
locate the cold unit above the hot unit, as shown in
sketch C. Then the working fluids in all the heat
pipes condense in the upper unit and flow down to
the lower unit, a more efficient arrangement.
So why not consider incorporating heat pipes into
a shale process. Slide 19 shows a possible design.
With no need for very fine solids, no fluidizing gas,
gravity flow of solids throughout the exchanger
section, a process with this type of heat exchanger
should be much simpler than many of the present
designs on which so much effort and money have
been spent.
In looking at all these different ways of extracting
oil from shale rock-in fluidized beds or moving
beds, using upflow, downflow or horizontal flow of
shale, with or without using inert heat-carrying
solids-it should be evident that it is the first
step
in
the development of a process, the choice of process
concept, that we are considering here. Maybe you’ll
agree with me that this is the crucial step in the
development of a process, because once the process
concept is chosen it determines the path to be taken
in all the supporting research, testing, development
and design which follows.
In general terms, not just for shale processing,
what I’d like to suggest is that before starting work
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OCTAVE LEVENSPIEL
DMB.HPC -
downf low moving
bed heat pipe
Cold row stale
concept
(+I
No C remains
on solids
(+) No N2 I”
VOlOtlleS
I+1 No fuel neede d
(+) Can handle Large
solids
(+) S1mpte
Cold spent shale
Slide 19.
on a particular process concept one should set out
the criteria for the ideal-never mind whether
practical or not-and then see how close one can get
to the ideal. This requires “thinking” research,
sitting around in easy chairs, discussing and dis-
cussing-all this before building even the smallest of
pilot plants.
Let’s try this type of thinking with another system,
the production of synthesis gas from coal. This is
likely to become one of the most important pro-
cesses worldwide by early next century as coal will
progressively replace petroleum as the feedstock for
organic chemicals.
Slide 20 shows. in simple terms, that two reactions
are involved: the desired reaction of coal with steam
which is endothermic, and a combustion reaction
which supplies the heat for the desired reaction.
And since this would be a large-volume operation
we’d like to use only cheap easily obtainable
feeds-air, water and coal, and nothing else.
Synthesis gas
from coal
The rdeat process should only use
COAL. AIR
and
WATER
Desired
\
Cool +
steam e
CO + H,
+Q
Coat + t;;:r,
- CO, + N,)
-
30
How to run these two reactions ?
Slide 20.
In considering this operation we spot a number of
potential problems:
If coal is reacted with air and steam at the same
time then nitrogen is present in the product gas,
and this is costly to remove.
If we try to avoid this problem by reacting with
oxygen instead of air, then we would need an
oxygen plant-again cost1 y.
We can avoid the nitrogen problem by running
the two reactions in different locations, but then
we have the problem of transferring heat from
one location to the other.
And in all of these schemes if the product gases
are rapidly cooled then a lot of tar forms and this
also is costly to remove. To avoid this we must
keep the product gases hot for a while to let the
tars crack into lower molecular weight com-
pounds.
These considerations lead us to jot down the
requirements for an ideal gasification process, as
shown in Slide 21. Let me comment on the last two
items on this list. Thermodynamics, reinforced by
common sense, suggests that if we want to squeeze
the most from a process then ideally all the product
streams should leave the process at ambient con-
ditions.
The last item on this list is most important, for to
dream up a process which is basically complex is
risky. An example of this is the CO,-Acceptor
process in the U.S. for coal gasification. It was a
beautiful concept and many millions were spent on
its development. However, the developers had to
call it quits precisely because of its complexity.
Slide 22 shows that all sorts of schemes have been
dreamed up for coal gasification. As you can see
there is no agreement on the best way to gasify coal.
Well, just for fun let us look at the four main
schemes and see how they compare with our six
criteria for the ideaI.
Scheme 1 Slide 23) uses air and countercurrent
gas-solid contacting with both reactions taking
place in one bed. During reaction a narrow hot zone
forms and the product gas quickly cools. The main
problems with this design are shown in Slide 23.
Requirements for an ideal synthesis gas process
(+I Onky “se AIR. WATER and COAL
(+I No N, leaves with product gas
+I No tar or liquid formed
(+I No O2 plant to be used
(+I A11 flow streams Leave at room tempemture
(+I Proc ess must be slmpk, procticol, and easy
to opemte and control
SIide 21.
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Large
moving
bed
Cool gasification concepts
one
fluldized
bed
1
Two
ftuidired
I
beds
I
Mutt i
fluldized
beds
c
- Brltlsh Gas/Lurgi SlagQlnQ
With 0,
Dry ash Lurgl
Air. 02
Gas lntegrote
A1r
IGI - two stage
Air. O2
~erpely (USBM)
Air
Leuno
0,
Power go*
Air
Thyssen Galoczy
02
UGI water gos
A1r
Weltmon GoCusho
A1r
Wellman - Incandescent
Air
Woodoll Duckham
Air
Exxon
Onty steam
Hoffman
Only steam
HRI fast fluldized
Air
Synthone
0,
u - gas
Air
Wlnkter
Air
Battelle osh agglomerating Air
CD, - acceptor
Air
Cogas
Air
ICI moving turden
Air
Westinghouse
Air
IGT hygos
(3 stogesj
02
TrIgas
(3 stages) Air
CQQos
(5 stages)
Air
Babcock - W11cox
0,
Entrained
flow
gasi f iers
Bell - Aerospace
A,lr, 0,
Bionchi
0,
01 - gas
i2 stages)
0,
Combustion Engineering
Air
Foster - Wheeler (2 stages) Air
Koppers - Totzek
4
Ponindco
Air, 0,
Ruhrgas VOrtex
Air
Shell - Koppers
Air, 0,
Texo co
Air, 0
z
Also :
Molten baths
From “Cool Goslflcation Concepts:’ NoyeS
Doto Corp., krk Ridge, NJ, 1981
Slide 22.
Coal %
_ CO+Hz.
Scheme I
l l o t
zon
N,
tar
(+) Simple
(+I No O2 plant
Slide 25
.-
- Ropld
cooll”g
(+ 1 Cool products
(-1 Tar
(-1 N, with
product
Scheme 4
CO+Hz
N, + COz
Ash
+ air
Slide 23.
Cool
CO+ a.
Scheme 2
tar
“0 0,000
$2 “0
R
(+I
No N, with product
008
Hot zone
,“g
%o _,’
(+I Simple
*
,.oea 4
NZ
(+ 1 Cool product
&@$@
&3$x8
(-1 Tars
V
-Air
(- ) O2 plant
1
Ash
02
Slide 24.
Scheme 3 (Slide 2s) shows that nitrogen separ-
ation is the problem with single fluidized bed
processes, but not tar production, because the
product gases stay hot for a reasonably long time.
Scheme 4 (Slide 26) keeps the reactions separate
in two or more tluidized beds. Its main problem
concerns complexity, and the CO*-Acceptor process
shows what happens when this question is taken
lightly.
There are many variations of these four basic
designs, and we will not go into them. It suffices to
note that none of the processes proposed or
operating today approach, in principle, the ideals
listed in Slide 21. This means that it may be
worthwhile trying to conceive a radically different
and better concept, and not just an improvement of
existing technology.
So, keeping the ideal in mind, let’s see what we
can come up with. Here are two of more than a
dozen ideas that our easy-chair research group in far
CO + H,. N,
Scheme 3
Cool
==%I
(+I No tar
(+I No 0, plant
(+I Sample
(-1 N, with product
(-1 Hot products
Air + steam
(+I No N,
In
product
(+I No tar
(+ ) No Oz plant
needed
(-1 Not simple
(-1 Hot product
Scheme
(Slide 24) shows how the nitrogen
problem is avoided, but unfortunately at the cost of
an upstream oxygen plant.
Steam
Ajr
Slide 26.
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OCT VE LEVENSPIEL
away Oregon plus one Missourian, Professor Mike
Dudukovic, came up with.
First, how about treating powdered coal-gas
mixtures in parallel flow channels which are forested
with finned heat pipes, or more properly, with
finned thermosiphons, as shown in Slide 27? This
would mean treating only slightly dusty gases-a
simple matter. W e haven’ yet made the calculations
on this type of operation, in fact we don’ even know
whether cocurrent or countercurrent flow of the two
stream s is better, but it would be interesting to look
into this concept because of its simplicity.
Slide 28 show s a comp letely different idea.
Instead of running the two reactions at the same
time but in different reactors, why not run them in
the same reactor but at different times? This leads to
the RE-GAS process, standing for regenerator-
gasifier.
In this operation the reactor con sists of a large
long vertical vessel with insulated walls and packed
with structured solid. It operates like this.
In the first step of the cycle feed fine coal powder
suspended in air again very dilute in solids) to
the vessel. The coal burns, heats the bed solids,
and a hot front slowly moves up the vessel;
EX-GAS exchanger - gasifier) concept
/COz Nz
Slide 27.
RE - GAS regenerator - gasif ier 1 concept
N, CO,
H, co
t t t t t t
tool
Hot
Powdered Coal
l,r
Powdered CQQL steam
Heating step
Gasif ication step
Slide 28.
however waste gases would leave at close to
ambient conditions. This is shown in the first
three sketches of Slide 28.
At the right time switch the feed to steam and
coal powder which on heating up and passing
through the hot solids produces the desired
product gas. During this operation a cold front
slowly moves up the bed, as shown in sketches
4-6 of Slide 28.
At the end of the cycle only the top of the bed
contains hot solid. One then repeats the whole
cycle of operations, but upside d own.
Now if we compare this scheme with the ideal of
Slide 21 we s ee that it does satisfy a ll the require-
men ts for an ideal process, especially the criterion of
simplicity sinc e there is no circulation of solids
needed and since all external piping and valving is at
close to ambient conditions.
At this point one can raise a number of questions
with this type of operation. For examp le:
would the unit plug up with ash?
would the spread of the heat front lower the
efficiency of operations drastically?
would tem peratur e instabilities occur, and if so
how could they be controlled?
0 A re suitable materials of construction available?
andsoon.
Of course such questions have to be considered.
However, answering these questions represents the
second step in the development of a process, and as
I mentioned at the beginning of this talk, this is
something that we chemical engineers are good at.
In any case, it should be noted that in principle the
RE-GAS process is superior to those mentioned
earlier, and so much sim pler since one is only
pumping cool slightly dusty gases. Shouldn’ it be
looked at?
Let me go back to the question of conceiving new
process concepts.
1)
2)
How does an organization come to its concept
for a process, wheth er it be the antigravity, or
meat grinder or merry-go-round or what have
you?
Does the director of research com e in one
morning and say “Okay-I’ve been think-
ing that we should look into ball mills”?
Is it the result of the deliberations of a
committee?
Does the researcher ask his technician for a
sma ll unit, which, if success ful, is then
scaled up again and again?
Does the researcher deliberately look for
something different so. as not to infringe on
o thers’ patents?
I don’ know what the answer is.
Maybe the search for a process concept is best
done by getting together a
group of
knowledgeable free thinkers of varied back-
ground and interests, including mavericks,
technicians and “wild men ”, and let them go
at it. Ideas need time to ferment, so let them
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Chemical engineering’s grand adventure
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(3)
(4)
(5)
meet again and again
until they all enthusias-
tically agree that they’ve come up with the
very best.
tt may be risky to start out with small bench
scale pilot plants without thinking through the
whole operation, because as one progresses
one has more and more invested in following
the path which has already been chosen-not
just money invested, but intellectual effort
and reputation. A momentum is developed to
follow a given path which makes it more and
more difficult to change direction, to admit
that some other way may be better and that
one should maybe start afresh in a different
direction.
Some may suggest, especially after looking at
all the wildly different designs on Slides 8 and
22, that my whole discussion today may not
be pertinent because the difference in pro-
cessing costs may represent only a minor
factor in the overall economics. However, in a
large-scale operation I doubt that this is so.
To go back to the start of my talk, I pointed
out that the development of a process rep-
resents a two-step affair, thinking up a good
scheme and then transforming it into reality.
In chemical engineering education we focus
on the second step, and the way we teach this
is with courses of lectures. But would this
teaching method work with the first step?
(6)
Imagine trying to teach bicycle riding or
swimming in a course of lectures
In a way learning to swim and developing
the knack of inventing new processes is done
the same way-by practice, and then more
practice, not by lectures. For example, have
students work in teams trying to think up
schemes for making chemical y from x.
Encourage them to discuss, argue, throw out
the wildest ideas, but then have them rate
these schemes. I’ll wager that a most interest-
ing scheme will occasionally emerge from this
exercise.
This sort of program would be difficult to
set up, but isn’t this important enough for us
educators to try?
Finally, let me suggest that the driving force,
the “raison d ’ t re” of our profession is the
search for and the creation and development
of new processes to make materials wanted by
man. LeBlanc, Solvay, Haber-Bosch and
ammonia,
Ipatieff and platinum, FCC,
penicillin production, zeolites, these words
recall some highlights from the past. Who can
even dream of what will be tomorrow. This
then is the grand adventure of chemical
engineering.
Enough. 1 fear that I’ve left you with too many
questions and too few answers. It is time to stop. I
thank you for your attention.