The prime objective of this book is to present fundamentals of chemical engineering in a simple and forthright manner and provide the broad background for applying these principles to industrial and theoretical problems. The importance of stoichiometry—material and energy balances—is widely known and accepted in the chemical industry in analysing a particular process in whole or in part and also in evaluating the economics of the various processes. Basically, stoichiometry deals with the laws of conservation of mass and energy. With this, if the prin-ciples of unit operations and chemical reaction engineering are carefully bridged, the subject becomes extremely valuable to the chemical engineers who apply these principles in solving prob-lems. This has been our main consideration in selecting and preparing the material for this book. An introduction to the topic on material and energy balances of unsteady state opera-tions will be of special interest as the topic is gaining more and more industrial importance. In addition to these, extra care has been taken to include the most reliable thermodynamic and other useful data so that the book can serve as a standard text for students and as a reference book for practising engineers. The material has been so organised that the subject can be easily grasped by undergraduate students, nevertheless inclusion of many advanced problems makes the text quite appropriate for postgradu-ate students and process and design engineers.

The main advantages of the book that can be mentioned here are: a simple introduction of chemical engineering fundamentals, a careful and proper organisation of the subject that allows the student for self-progress, and a treasure of examples and exercises of advanced levels enveloping a wide range of subjects for students of all levels and practising engineers.

We are grateful to Professor M M Sharma, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, University Department of Chemical Technology, University of Bombay, for sparing his valuable time in reviewing the text and writing a Foreword to this book. We also thank Professor J B Cordiner and Professor P A Bryant of Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, and Mr J B Joshi of the Department of Chemical Technology, University of Bombay, for their valuable comments to make this book more com-plete. We are very grateful to various organisations and institu-tions for granting us permissions to reproduce their copyright material in this book. Due acknowledgements have been made at appropriate places in the book. In addition, we are thankful to all those who directly or indirectly helped us in our venture.

Special thanks are extended to the National Book Trust, India, for granting the subsidy. We are also grateful to the management and proper authorities of IFFCO, Kalol Unit, Gujarat, and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, for granting us the permission to publish this book. Our thanks are also due to our wives, Minaxi Bhatt and Kapila Vora, whose patience and encouragement during this work were very helpful.

B I BHATT
S M VORA