Course site

Separation Processes

Equilibrium-staged separations from first principles — flash, distillation, absorption, extraction, adsorption and membranes. Every chapter is a single self-contained page with live, interactive calculations you can drive yourself.

Instructor: Arvind Rajendran Textbook: Wankat, Separation Process Engineering Works offline · nothing leaves your browser

Chapters

CH 1Introduction Why separations matter, what they cost, and how a process is chosen. Includes the minimum work of separation. 2 appsMinimum workTechnique selector

CH 2Fundamentals Where the phase diagrams come from — and what happens when real molecules misbehave. 2aPhase Equilibria5 apps 2bDeviations from Ideality2 apps

CH 3Flash Distillation The single equilibrium stage: binary and multicomponent flash, Rachford–Rice, cascades, and external column balances. 4 interactive appsReady

CH 4Distillation Counting the stages a separation needs — and what each one costs. 4aBinary Distillation4 apps 4bAdvanced Binary2 apps

CH 5Multicomponent Shortcut Distillation Light and heavy keys, Fenske, Underwood, and the Fenske–Underwood–Gilliland method. 3 appsUnderwood rootsFUG CH 6Absorption & Stripping Henry's law, solute-free mole-ratio coordinates, the operating line and stage construction, minimum solvent, and Kremser. 3 appsKremserAbsorption factor CH 7Liquid–Liquid Extraction Immiscible cascades, ternary diagrams and tie lines, the lever rule, the conjugate curve, the Δ point and minimum solvent. 4 appsTernary diagramsΔ point CH 8Adsorption & Chromatography Adsorbents, the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, the isosteric heat, competitive adsorption, linear chromatography, PSA and TSA cycles, and breakthrough. 4 appsIsothermsChromatography CH 9Membranes Permeability and permeance, the selectivity trade-off, the pressure-ratio limit — then stage-cut design: membrane area, cross-flow modules and two-stage cascades with recycle. 4 appsStage-cut designCascades CH 10Gas–Liquid Contactors Tray anatomy and operating regimes, the flooding velocity and the Fair correlation, column diameter, tray pressure drop, entrainment and efficiency. 3 appsFair correlationReading chapter

Exam cheat sheet

One sheet, both sides Every key equation from all ten chapters, the ten constructions, six step-by-step recipes and the numbers worth carrying — laid out to fit one letter-sized sheet, printed back-to-back. Take the standard sheet, or tick exactly the chapters and topics you want and watch it repack itself. Drawn from the same source as each chapter's summary, so it can never drift out of date. 200 items on one sheet Two standard sheets Or build your own Prints at true scale

Data & plots

Printable diagrams and data tables Ten kinds of graph paper — x–y, T–xy, H–xy, mole-ratio, two ternary grids, isotherm and log–log paper, Gilliland and Fair — drawn at true scale for A4 or Letter, blank or with the equilibrium already on them. Thirteen binary systems, two ternaries, and every number behind every curve as a table you can download. Graphical construction is still the fastest way to understand a separation, and it needs paper. 10 sheet types Print at true scale SVG · PNG · CSV Reference data tables

Apps & tools

Planned Stand-alone calculators Four separate tools that live outside the chapters: the McCabe–Thiele designer used in Chapter 4, an interactive psychrometric chart, a plain-language unit converter, and a gas-constant builder for any unit combination. Each is a single HTML file — download it, keep it, use it offline for assignments, seminars and the design project. McCabe–Thiele designer Psychrometric chart Unit converter Gas constant Works offline

Weekly assignments

Seminars

Practice & assessment

BANKQuestion bank — searchable by topic, difficulty and yearPlanned

QUIZUnit self-check quizzes with instant feedbackPlanned

MOCKMock quizzes and a full mock final examPlanned

PASTPast-paper archive, 2012 – 2026Planned

SHEETCheat-sheet builder — see the section aboveLive

PLOTSPrintable diagrams and data tables — see Data & plotsLive

Design project

PROJMini design project — brief, deliverables and rubricPlanned

Build status. All ten chapters are live. Every chapter is a single stand-alone HTML file — it needs no other file on this site, no internet connection, and no server; download one and it still works. Chapter 10 is a reading chapter: it has worked examples and apps but no self-marking problem set.