Customer Reviews

Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering (4th Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book is full of typos. Be careful when ordering because there are substantial differences between prints. I have the fifth print of the 4th edition (December 2008), and I have a friend who owns the 1st printing of the fourth edition, and he had typos in all 3 problems of our last homework set. Some of his problems contain fewer parts as well. Some of the values used in the problems of this text were clearly not chosen well enough to illustrate the principle they're supposed to illustrate. For example, in problem 8-8 they first ask you to plot temperature along the reactor with a coolant flow rate high enough to keep the coolant temperature approximately constant. Then the problem adjusts the coolant flowrate so that you have to account for the change in temperature of the coolant; however, the coolant flowrate is still large enough that the coolant temperature is approximately constant. This won't help the student see the importance of accounting for changes in coolant temperature; it just creates the illusion that you don't have to account for the change in coolant temperature. In problem 8-25, the mass of catalyst in the reactor is so large that all the changes in concentration occur within the first third of the reactor making the true shape of the plots generated difficult to see as all the changes are all occurring over a small distance. Another issue I have with the book (this one is subjective) is that the last part of many problems asks you how you would modify the problem to require more critical thinking. I understand that the intent of these parts is to force a student to think about what they are supposed to take away from the problem; however, a serious student will think critically about the problem anyway, and this open-ended component just ends up wasting the student's time. Please don't disregard this review; I'm being sincere.

If you are using this book for a class that the prof. assigns homework problems from, be forewarned that some of them were changed between the 3rd and 4th editions, and that the international edition is different from the US version. Stupid publishers. As other reviews have mentioned, there are a few typos &etc. thrown around too, just for fun. As far as math goes, for some of the problems you'd better have passed differential equations.

But the author has a sense of humor and explains the concepts well. The book is useful and practical. The summaries at the end of the chapters are great, and the progression of material is fairly logical.

The book was very clear in the concepts it introduced. Laid out clearly the derivations and especially appreciated the topic sentence on the side of each paragraph. Although the book is clear in the text, I wish the summaries at the end of each chapter would list the assumptions that it makes for each equation so you don't have to look back to the rest of the chapter.

I bought this book for an undergraduate class for over $200 brand new. My teacher only used the book for homework problems and explained the concepts his own way. I tried to read the book, but it just confused me because the text's approach to math is poor. After the class I sold the book. I had to buy it again for a graduate school course. Again, the more I read the book, the more confused I was about the subject, so I stuck to the approach I was taught, and I did much better in the course than those who tried to learn from the book. There are many typos. You would need a book just as thick of corrections. I feel like I could summarize the entire book with a few pages of equations. Yet people praise the book. I don't know why.

I actually like this book. You can tell the author has a sense of humor and so I think it's written in a easy to read way. I really like how there is a summary given at the end, and that some problems include the answer so you know if your calculations are correct. I'm only giving it three stars because I haven't gotten too far into it, so I can't rate how well it teaches the tougher material.

Although this book does provide useful information, it is not especially clearly presented. Example problems are often less than helpful. Three quarters of the way thorugh an example the next line will say Ooops! and explain why the approach used for the problem was incorrect. Overall not a very good book.

I ordered a new book and expected to receive a new book, however there is pencil marked writings in this book.

Excellent delivery time, great price, mint condition. The book even included the expected software. Overall, no complaints and speedy delivery. Would buy from again!

I did not have any problems. it arrived right on time and it is new anyway!