Murzin - Chemical Reaction Technology

Dmitry Yu. Murzin studied chemistry and chemical engineering at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology in Moscow, Russia (19801986), and graduated with honors. He obtained his PhD (advisor Prof. M. I. Temkin) and DrSc degrees at Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry, Moscow, in 1989 and 1999, respectively. He worked at Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, and bo Akademi University, Turku, Finland, as a post-doc (19921994). In 19952000, he was associated with BASF, being involved in research, technical marketing, and management. Since 2000, Prof. Murzin holds the Chair of Chemical Technology at bo Akademi University. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals in catalysis and chemical engineering field. He is an elected member of the Societas Scientiarum Fennica and Svenska Tekniska Vetenskapsakademien i Finland science academies. Prof. Murzin is the co-author (with Prof. T. Salmi) of a monograph ( Catalytic Kinetics , Elsevier, 2005) and an author of a textbook ( Engineering Catalysis , De Gruyter, 2013). He holds several patents and is an author or co-author of ca. 600 journal articles and book chapters.

It is the authors opinion that the content of textbooks for graduate students should be accurate and precise rather than original. Therefore, during the writing of this textbook, the author had consulted different sources including various encyclopedia, textbooks, review papers, original articles, companies websites, information portals, etc., with the aim of giving as precise and correct information as possible. However, some relevant information on novel technologies might be missing or obsolete technologies are described; therefore, any comments, corrections, and updates would be highly appreciated.

In very many cases, while compiling the text, difficult decisions had to be taken regarding the level of details that should be included for particular processes. There are many textbooks and reference books that provide much more extensive descriptions. The author has, for example, books of several hundreds of pages devoted just to ammonia or methanol synthesis, hydroformylation, oxychlorination, etc. A helicopter view showing how general principles of chemical reaction technology are utilized for particular cases was thus adapted in the textbook. More specialized literature should be consulted in a quest for more precise descriptions of various chemical processes.

The author is grateful to the editorial team at De Gruyter, namely Karin Sora, Julia Lauterbach and Sabina Dabrowski, for efficient collaboration. Technical help of Elena Murzina with drawing figures is highly appreciated.

Finally, the author hopes that the knowledge on chemical reaction technology can be transferred from one process to another and that the book could be interesting not only for students, but also for professionals working in chemical process industries.