Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering

Citation

Fogler, H. S., Goldsmith, B. R., Nikolla, E., & Singh, N. (2025). Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering (7th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The book has 19 chapters and ten appendices, more than 1,000 pages in all. Every chapter ends with a safety lesson, "And Now... A Word from Our Sponsor—Safety" (AWFOS–S), and the companion website adds interactive simulations and extra material. The introduction says the undergraduate course usually focuses on Chapters 1–13, while the graduate course adds diffusion limitations and effectiveness factors (Chapters 14–15), nonideal reactors and residence time distributions (Chapters 16–18) and electrochemical reactors (Chapter 19).

Chapters 1–2: Mole Balances; Conversion and Reactor Sizing

The first building block. Chapter 1 defines the rate of reaction and the general mole balance equation, applies it to batch, continuous-stirred tank, tubular, packed-bed and fluidized-bed reactors, and surveys industrial reactors. Chapter 2 defines conversion, derives the design equations for each reactor type, sizes continuous-flow reactors, treats reactors in series, and introduces space time and space velocity.

Chapters 3–4: Rate Laws; Stoichiometry

Chapter 3 covers rate laws, from elementary and power-law forms to nonelementary and reversible reactions, the rate constant and its temperature dependence through the Arrhenius equation, and molecular simulations. Chapter 4 handles stoichiometry for batch and flow systems, including liquid- and gas-phase concentrations, and reversible reactions and equilibrium conversion.

Chapters 5–6: Isothermal Reactor Design: Conversion; Isothermal Reactor Design: Moles and Molar Flow Rates

Chapter 5 combines the first four blocks into design algorithms for batch reactors, CSTRs and tubular reactors, including pressure drop in packed beds, and ends by synthesizing the design of a chemical plant. Chapter 6 recasts the design in terms of moles and molar flow rates and applies it to microreactors, membrane reactors, unsteady-state stirred reactors and semibatch reactors.

Chapters 7–8: Collection and Analysis of Rate Data; Multiple Reactions

Chapter 7 covers how to obtain rate laws from data: the integral and differential methods, nonlinear regression, differential reactors and experimental planning. Chapter 8 treats multiple reactions through selectivity and yield, parallel, series and complex reactions, and membrane reactors that improve selectivity.

Chapters 9–10: Reaction Mechanisms, Pathways, Bioreactions, and Bioreactors; Catalysis and Catalytic Reactors

Chapter 9 covers active intermediates and the pseudo-steady-state hypothesis, enzymatic reactions with Michaelis-Menten kinetics and inhibition, and bioreactors with cell growth, chemostats and washout. Chapter 10 treats catalysts, the steps in a catalytic reaction, synthesizing a rate law and rate-limiting step, heterogeneous data analysis, reaction engineering in microelectronic fabrication, and catalyst deactivation.

Chapters 11–13: Nonisothermal Reactor Design

Chapter 11 develops the steady-state energy balance and adiabatic plug-flow reactors, including adiabatic equilibrium conversion, interstage cooling or heating and optimum feed temperature. Chapter 12 adds heat exchange for flow reactors, CSTRs with heat effects, multiple steady states, nonisothermal multiple reactions and temperature variations in tubular reactors. Chapter 13 turns to unsteady-state energy balances for batch and semibatch reactors, including a runaway-reaction case history.

Chapters 14–15: Mass Transfer Limitations in Reacting Systems; Diffusion and Reaction

Chapter 14 introduces diffusion, the mass transfer coefficient, mass transfer to a single particle, the shrinking core model and mass-transfer-limited reactions in packed beds. Chapter 15 treats diffusion and reaction in catalyst pellets: effective diffusivity, internal and overall effectiveness factors, falsified kinetics, and criteria for diffusion limitations.

Chapters 16–18: Residence Time Distributions of Chemical Reactors; Predicting Conversion Directly from the Residence Time Distribution; Models for Nonideal Reactors

Chapter 16 defines and measures the residence time distribution and uses it for diagnostics and troubleshooting. Chapter 17 predicts conversion from it with the segregation and maximum mixedness models and the tanks-in-series model. Chapter 18 develops dispersion and two-parameter models of nonideal reactors.

Chapter 19: Electrochemical Reactor Design

New in the seventh edition. It covers uses of electrochemical reactions (energy storage and conversion, electrodeposition, corrosion, chemical production), basic definitions and rate laws, and the modeling of isothermal and nonisothermal electrochemical reactors.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–6: The core isothermal algorithm

• Mole balance: the starting equation, applied to each reactor type.
• Rate law and stoichiometry: the blocks that express rate in terms of concentration and conversion.
• Reactor sizing and design algorithm: combining the blocks to find reactor volume or time.

Chapters 7–10: Data, multiple reactions, mechanisms and catalysis

• Rate-data analysis: integral, differential and regression methods.
• Selectivity and yield: measures for multiple reactions.
• Pseudo-steady-state hypothesis and Michaelis-Menten kinetics: tools for mechanisms and enzymes.
• Catalyst deactivation: the loss of activity of a catalyst.

Chapters 11–13: Nonisothermal design

• Energy balance: the block that replaces the "combine" step for nonisothermal reactors.
• Multiple steady states and runaway: the instabilities of exothermic reactors.

Chapters 14–19: Transport limitations, nonideal flow and electrochemistry

• Effectiveness factor: the ratio that accounts for internal diffusion limits in a catalyst pellet.
• Residence time distribution: the tool used to characterize and diagnose real reactors.
• Segregation and maximum mixedness models: ways to predict conversion from the distribution.
• Electrochemical reactors: reactors whose rate is tied to current and potential.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A single algorithm. The introduction describes building blocks (mole balance, rate law, stoichiometry, then combine and evaluate, with the energy balance replacing "combine" for nonisothermal reactions) so that problems are solved by reasoning rather than by memorizing many equations.
• Interactive material. The book is tied to a companion website with more than 80 interactive simulations (Living Example Problems) in Wolfram and Python, Polymath, Wolfram, Python, MATLAB and COMSOL tutorials, and extra help, self-tests and web modules.
• Safety in every chapter. Each chapter ends with a safety lesson built on a real incident or concept, from the NFPA diamond and the Swiss cheese model to the T2 Laboratories incident and lithium-ion battery overheating.
• Wide range. The authors designed it as a text for both undergraduate and graduate courses, with the division between the two falling after Chapter 13, and the seventh edition adds a chapter on electrochemical reactors.

Limitations

• Very long. At more than 1,000 pages the book holds far more than a single course, and the introduction notes that further material was moved to the web.
• Reliance on the web resources. Much of the extended material, the Professional Reference Shelf and the simulations lives on the website, so the book alone does not give the full experience; appendices cover the software tools.
• Heavy use of software. The Living Example Problems and many homework problems require Polymath, Wolfram, Python or MATLAB.

Where It Fits in the Course

Fogler is the reactor design text in this chemical-process course list. Felder, Rousseau and Bullard's Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes and Denn's Chemical Engineering: An Introduction are first-course texts on material and energy balances and are the usual preparation; Fogler's mole-balance approach builds on them. McCabe, Smith and Harriott's Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering treats unit operations and transport phenomena, and Geankoplis's Transport Processes and Separation Process Principles treats momentum, heat and mass transfer and separation processes; both complement Fogler's Chapters 14–15 on diffusion and reaction.

Towler and Sinnott's Chemical Engineering Design comes after it, as the capstone text on process and plant design, including reactors in Chapter 15; Fogler supplies the reaction kinetics and reactor analysis that design uses.

How to Use This Book

The introduction says the book is intended as both an undergraduate and a graduate text. Readers should have material and energy balances, thermodynamics, differential equations and some physical chemistry.

A practical plan:

• Undergraduate core: Chapters 1–13 in order. Chapters 1–6 are the foundation and should not be skipped; Chapters 5 and 6 are where the pieces come together, and Chapters 11–13 add the energy balance.
• Graduate and advanced topics: Chapters 14–15 for diffusion limitations, Chapters 16–18 for nonideal reactors and Chapter 19 for electrochemical reactors.
• Alongside the book: run the Living Example Problems and change parameters, work the safety lessons, and use the web notes and self-tests.

Learn the building blocks first and use them to set up every problem the same way before reaching for software.