School: Engineering

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Reaction Engineering
  • Unit Code

    ENS6171
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    3
  • Credit Points

    15
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    On Campus
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Nurudeen YEKEEN

Description

Reaction engineering deals with the performance analysis and design of equipment for carrying out chemical reactions. The analysis involves principles of chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer as well as fluid mechanics. In this unit the basic principles of chemical kinetics and reaction equilibrium are covered, and then various ideal reactors in which the complexities arising from resistances associated with fluid flow as well as heat and mass transfer are sequentially introduced. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic systems are considered.

Co-Requisite Rule

Must have passed, or be concurrently studying ENS6169

Equivalent Rule

Unit was previously coded ENS5559

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Calculate the conversion for an ideal isothermal reactor starting from a general mass balances.
  2. Calculate the impact of changing solid (or fluid) properties on the conversion of a heterogeneous reaction.
  3. Calculate the thermodynamic limit of a given reaction at given conditions.
  4. Combine mass and energy balances to calculate the conversion in an ideal non-isothermal reactor.
  5. Formulate a residence time distribution from tracer experiment results and use it to predict conversion in a non-ideal reactor.
  6. Identify the mechanisms involved in a heterogeneous reaction and formulate an effective rate equation.
  7. Research and evaluate real reactor performance and compare to appropriate ideal models at an advanced level.
  8. Specify/design the configuration of a reactor to achieve optimal fluid flow, mixing, heat transfer and mass transfer for a given reaction(s).
  9. Write reaction rate equations for common types of homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions.

Unit Content

  1. Analysis and design of batch reactors.
  2. Case studies in real reactor performance.
  3. Catalysis and heterogeneous reactors: analysis of reaction rates in single catalytic particles and the design of catalytic reactors.
  4. Isothermal flow reactors and non-ideality: design and behaviour.
  5. Non-ideal reactor behaviour: mixing and residence time distributions.
  6. Non-isothermal chemical reactors: energy balances and temperature changes.
  7. Plug-flow and continuous stirred tank reactors.
  8. Reaction equilibrium, rates and stoichiometry.
  9. The chemical reactor and the concept of reaction rate.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 213 x 1 hour labNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 213 x 2 hour lectureNot OfferedNot Offered
Semester 213 x 1 hour tutorialNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
ProjectChemical reactor design (group work)15%
Laboratory Work ^Laboratory work and reports20%
TestMid semester test25%
Examination ^End of semester examination40%

^ Mandatory to Pass


Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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