Customer Reviews

Separation Process Principles

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I thouroughly enjoy reading this book. The first chapters set up a framework for separations technologies. The rest of the book adds the important details. The first three chapters provide an excellent review of thermodynamics and mass transfer. In fact, I finally understood fugacity and how to estimate activity from equations of state after reading this book. The authors also incorporate principles of energy conservation not found in similar books. The topics include emmerging technologies in reactive distillation, membranes, and adsporption. Many HW problems are set-up for solution on process simulators. There are several chapters on advanced separations that will make this a valuable resource for lif-long learning. I wish I could have access to the chapters on solids processing - if they are anything like the rest of the book they would be useful. I will _NOT_ sell this book back at the end of the year. It's a keeper!

During my final year of undergrad coursework I used this textbook for my design courses. The good thing is Dr. Seader was the professor for my second design course. As a teacher I think he is great with an ability to effectively communicate theory and its practical application without getting caught up in the details. Unfortunately I felt this textbook tries to consolidate the knowledge he has gained in his career resulting in a very dense book. Some problems are solved using direct calculations but a large amount are done using Aspen (a program no one in my class had used) which I felt didn't adequately help develop sequential problem solving skills. The costing analysis theory is good but most of us used Peters & Timerhaus for homework. If you work with Aspen or want a detailed book this will satisfy your desires.

As my professor for this class put it, "the good news is that this book is incredibly thorough. the bad news is that it's incredibly thorough." tough for an introductory text on the subject, mainly because the notation is different from most other books i've used, and the style of writing is not quite as straightforward as could be hoped. if i could add one thing to this book, it would be a general overview in each chapter -- the authors just jump into each topic without introducing the bigger picture, so it's easy to wonder "why are we doing this calculation?" then again, maybe a professor could take that role during lecture. as another reviewer noted, this book does have an excellent review of thermo and mass transfer; it was only during this class that i started to really understand these two subects in any kind of depth.

My professor for separations was really smart, but like most chemical engineering professors that I have met, they are too smart for their own good. He chosed this book because it was "easy to understand".
Chemical engineering is hard enough, and the fact that this book is used in most separations classes does not help. Each chapter starts off with an industrial example, which is confusing if you're not familar with it already. The authors just throw out concepts that you've never heard before and assume you're an industry expert. As thorough as the book is, you won't feel like a better person after having read it. The authors don't seem to want to teach the subject but rather flaunt their knowledge. The most annoying thing is when the authors get to solving problems. They just start applying equation after equation and don't tell the readers where they get it from. Sometimes, it's not even an equation from that chapter or from the book!
I don't consider myself a bad student, but I seriously could not do most of the assigned problems at the end of the book. How do I become a chemical engineer then? I prefer McCabe's Unit Operations in Chemical Engineering. Although it is not as thorough, and the equations are presented differently, I actually learned something and was interested in the subject matter. The authors relate the theory to real life, and it actually makes sense. In fact, I had to use the McCabe to solve some of the problems from this hellish book.

This is the core of someone whose seems to spent his life time in the field of separation processes, designing, modifying, and teaching. i am one of the students of Applied Chemical Engineering Part Time student and i had this book in my last semester @ JIC, it will diffidently help you very much in you career life ,too.

Thanks Professor Seader, and Ernest; for this great achievement a lot of students were lighted through your book.

I used this book for my separations class in undergraduate studies and found it to be very helpful as a supplement to my professor's lectures. The book is very thorough and is great for understanding the theory behind equations. The industrial examples were very confusing at the beginning of chapters unless you already knew something about the process. I plan on keeping this textbook for future reference although I would have found this book very difficult to make sense of as a stand alone. If you have a poor professor the material will be very difficult to learn from just this book.

The book is decent for an undergraduate course but there are numerous typos throughout the book and some of the HW problems are poorly written. The poorly written questions gave many of my students problems because the wording is confusing. Treybal is a much better book; unfortunately, it is a bit outdated and does not have all of the latest separations processes included. I will contiue to look for a better book. I will post the name of any other books I come across for those who are interested.

This is one of the worst textbooks I have ever read. Separations is a difficult topic to understand, and this textbook is just terrible at explaining anything. If you already understand the underlying principles explained in the book, it is possible this would be a good reference. If, however, you are learning this stuff for the first time, it is nearly impossible to make any sense of it.

The exercises at the end of the chapters are so difficult the solutions manual is a must, and even the author of the solutions manual has to, at times, use sophisticated engineering software to come to an answer. Without proper example problems in the chapter I would not have understood much of anything without the solutions manual.

Information is so spread out that it is difficult to come to a coherent understanding of almost any topic, many times the solution to a problem is scattered over several chapters. If you looking at buying this book it is likely you have no choice, your academic department made that choice, and you have my sympathy. I have used this book this summer, and have another semester in the fall to suffer through it. Pity me, truly.

I recieved the book promptly, but it ended up being the wrong book. I was able to contact Cowboy Books and get the book and shipping I paid to send the book back refunded.

Book was needed for course, it was required. Not a great book. Hard to read, not ideal but my prof. selected this.