CAREERS

BOOK REVIEW tce

Fundamentals of Petroleum and

Petrochemical Engineering

Uttam Ray Chaudhuri;

ISBN 9781439851609;
CRC Press; 385pp; 89

RITTEN with the ambition of

covering a wide range of subjects,
Fundamentals of Petroleum
and Petrochemical Engineering includes
the basics of crude oil, petrochemicals,
refineries and hydrocarbon processing
plants. The book begins with a brief
introduction of crude exploration and
production, and concludes with plant
management and economics.
The book is divided into 15 chapters, which
broadly fall into four areas:
Chapters 15 provide a brief overview of
petroleum and petrochemical products and
processes. The chapters discuss exploration
and production of oil and gas, analysis of
crude oil, and petroleum products, followed
by brief descriptions of processing of
petroleum in refineries. They also introduce
lubricating oil, grease and petrochemicals,
focusing on their raw materials, end products
and manufacturing processes.
Chapters 612 provide a theoretical
background of unit operations and the
processes involved in refineries and
petrochemical plants. The subjects covered
range from the basics of material and energy
balances through specific unit operations
such as distillation and reaction calculations
to utilities and pipelines.
Chapters 13 and 14 discuss control,
instrumentation and automatic operations,
including start-up, shutdown and
maintenance.
Chapter 15 discusses commercial and
managerial activities, including CAPEX,
OPEX and audits.
In his desire to cover diverse subjects, the
author appears to lose focus on who the
book is aimed at. While the first five chapters
can be useful to students who want to learn

Available for review

Formulation
Anne-Marie Pens-Lhritier; ISBN:
9781848212596; Wiley-Blackwell; 83.50
This title deals with the formulation of
industrial products. It discusses how
the principles of development always
follow the same methodology whether
the field of application is in the food
processing or elastomers industry.
Intended for engineers in the early
stages of process development.

about the fundamentals of petroleum refining

and petrochemicals, the remaining chapters
target students at different levels, covering
fundamental chemical engineering, unit
operations and plant design topics. While the
solved problems provided throughout are a
welcome addition, the book is basic and does
not offer in-depth material for industrialists
or experts. It could have benefited from
a consistent framework of headings,
encouraging all topics to be treated with
similar levels of detail.
The order of the chapters is confusing,
because after starting with five chapters
introducing oil refining and petrochemical
processes, there is no rationale to revert to
basic chemical engineering fundamentals or
unit operations. Those interested in learning
more about refining and petrochemicals
should already be familiar with these and
may be disappointed with the latter chapters,
which are outside the scope of the title.
Throughout, the author presents diagrams
illustrating various processes and unit
operations. While these are helpful in
illustrating the concepts, the quality is
extremely low, and sometimes it is hard to
visualise the details. One oversight for a book
focusing on petroleum and petrochemical
engineering is a diagram giving an illustrative
overview of a typical oil refinery, which is
an essential outline for understanding the
interplay between all the processes.
Finally, the book omits any reference list or
bibliography. This list would have enhanced
the book immensely by providing interested
readers with useful leads. tce
Reviewed by Basel Asmar, associate
director, IHS CERA

To review these and other books, email aduckett@icheme.org

Flexibility Measurement in
Production Systems
Sven Rogalski; ISBN 9783642181160;
Springer; 53.99
The requirements for production systems
are constantly being modified as a result
of changing competitive conditions. This
book explores the current developments
and trends as well as their impact on
todays production systems and an everincreasing need for flexibility.

Analytic Combustion
Anil Date; ISBN 9781107002869;
Cambridge University Press; 366pp; 75
Written for advanced undergraduates,
graduate students and professionals
working in the fields of chemical,
mechanical and aeronautical engineering.
This book features more than 60 solved
numerical problems and analytical
derivations, and nearly 145 end-ofchapter exercises.

september 2011

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