CPE225   Fuel and Energy Utilisation   (10 credits)

Description

The unit provides an introduction to industrial fuel and energy utilisation for all chemical engineering courses and is a starting point for the modules in the third and fourth years of Chemical Engineering with Energy degree. The unit aims to give students a clear grasp of fundamental principles involved in the production/utilisation of energy from various fuels such as fossil fuels and renewables and the associated heat and power generation systems. It also considers the key environmental impacts of these energy systems, and a number of the major challenges and options for decarbonising energy. The fundamental engineering issues affecting the world energy scene and the environmental aspects of the use of various energy sources (e.g. fossil fuels, renewables, nuclear) are incorporated in this course in order to give a global view of the availability and use of such sources of energy. This course provides an in depth understanding of the characteristics and the mechanism of combustion of fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) and includes a brief study of the industrial equipment required for achieving efficient energy conversion (e.g. boilers, furnaces, burners, CHP units). The course also introduces the topics of climate change / carbon capture technologies, development of industrially relevant material and energy balances, thermodynamic cycles, chemical reactions / mechanisms, determination of energy efficiency and heat and power ratio calculations.

Reading List