The goal of this textbook is to provide first-year engineering students
with a firm grounding in the fundamentals of chemical and bioprocess
engineering. However, instead of being a general overview of the two
topics, Fundamentals of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering will
identify and focus on specific areas in which attaining a solid
competency is desired. This strategy is the direct result of studies
showing that broad-based courses at the freshman level often leave
students grappling with a lot of material, which results in a low rate
of retention. Specifically, strong emphasis will be placed on the topic
of material balances, with the intent that students exiting a course
based upon this textbook will be significantly higher on Bloom's
Taxonomy (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis,
evaluation, creation) relating to material balances.
In addition, this book also provides students with a highly developed
ability to analyze problems from the material balances perspective,
which leaves them with important skills for the future. The textbook
consists of numerous exercises and their solutions. Problems are
classified by their level of difficulty. Each chapter has references and
selected web pages to vividly illustrate each example. In addition, to
engage students and increase their comprehension and rate of retention,
many examples involve real-world situations.
