CN2116 Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design is a 4 MC module that focuses on designing the best reactors for our reaction in concern. This module is not easy to understand as it can be rather unpredictable and there isn't exactly that "standard procedure" for solving questions, like for the other level 2000 core modules in Chemical Engineering.
Assessment
10% Weekly Homework Assignments (9 homework assignments in total)
15% Quiz 1 (1 hour, Open Book)
15% Quiz 2 (50 mins, Open Book)
60% Finals (2.5 hours, Open Book)
15% Quiz 1 (1 hour, Open Book)
15% Quiz 2 (50 mins, Open Book)
60% Finals (2.5 hours, Open Book)
Lecturer:
First half (Weeks 1 - 7): A/Prof Lee Jim Yang
Second half (Weeks 8 - 13): A/Prof Xie Jianping
First half (Weeks 1 - 7): A/Prof Lee Jim Yang
Second half (Weeks 8 - 13): A/Prof Xie Jianping
Tutor:
First half (Weeks 2 - 8): A/Prof Lee Jim Yang
Second half (Weeks 9 - 13): A/Prof Xie Jianping
First half (Weeks 2 - 8): A/Prof Lee Jim Yang
Second half (Weeks 9 - 13): A/Prof Xie Jianping
Textbooks/Readings
1. Chemical Reaction Engineering Third Edition by Octave Levenspiel.
2. Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering Fourth Edition by H. Scott Fogler.
Between these two textbooks, I recommend the first one since the lecturers take the graphs and figures from that textbook. I recommend getting at least the online pdf version of the first textbook as it will supplement some parts of the lecture notes.
Lectures
1. Chemical Reaction Engineering Third Edition by Octave Levenspiel.
2. Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering Fourth Edition by H. Scott Fogler.
Between these two textbooks, I recommend the first one since the lecturers take the graphs and figures from that textbook. I recommend getting at least the online pdf version of the first textbook as it will supplement some parts of the lecture notes.
Lectures
There were 2 lectures per week. One lecture is one hour long and the other is 2 hours long. All lectures were webcasted. Well, CN2116 is actually a very conceptual module and to be honest, it isn't like CN2125 where there is a lot of content. There is still quite an amount of content but the emphasis is on knowing our fundamental concepts well. In my opinion, it wasn't easy understanding the lectures. I had to read the lecture notes a few times before I could understand them (just like the other level 2000 modules in Chem Eng, lol). The two Profs teach the module well in my opinion. I felt that attending lectures for this module was pretty crucial as the Profs tend to talk about things/important points that are not covered or not explained well in the lecture notes.
Prof Lee likes to deviate a lot in his lectures by giving real life examples which is good in my opinion. He always gave his sly smile when talking about setting tricky questions for tests and exams. Prof Xie likes to link what he teaches to the industry too but his style is more content oriented. I would say that overall, Prof Xie's portion is easier to understand than Prof Lee's portion. It's not because Prof Xie teaches better (I think they're equally good), but it's just that naturally the content on the second part of the modules is easier to understand and has at least some form of "pattern" to recognize. Prof Lee covered basic ideal reactors, rate law data, design of reactors for single and multiple reactions and for non-isothermal conditions. Prof Xie covered non-ideal reactors and heterogeneous catalysis.
Prof Lee likes to deviate a lot in his lectures by giving real life examples which is good in my opinion. He always gave his sly smile when talking about setting tricky questions for tests and exams. Prof Xie likes to link what he teaches to the industry too but his style is more content oriented. I would say that overall, Prof Xie's portion is easier to understand than Prof Lee's portion. It's not because Prof Xie teaches better (I think they're equally good), but it's just that naturally the content on the second part of the modules is easier to understand and has at least some form of "pattern" to recognize. Prof Lee covered basic ideal reactors, rate law data, design of reactors for single and multiple reactions and for non-isothermal conditions. Prof Xie covered non-ideal reactors and heterogeneous catalysis.
Tutorial
Tutorials took place once a week, and they were 1 hour long. There were 2 sets of questions every week, one known as homework questions and another known as discussion questions. The discussion questions will be discussed by the tutors during tutorial while the homework questions are meant to be attempted by ourselves and then we have to submit them at the Chem Eng office the week after. (Meaning the tutors won't go through the homework questions. They'll just upload the homework answers a week later and if we have questions, we have to consult them ourselves.) I would have to tell you that the tutorial questions are NOT EASY hahaha. They can deviate quite a little from what is covered during lecture. Basically, there are new concepts highlighted or new ways to look at the topic through the tutorial questions. There is also no "standard procedure" to approach each question so it gets a little tough. BUT of course, the assignments can be discussed among friends and the Profs do reuse some/most of the questions from the previous year assignments as well. The solutions provided by seniors can be a form of reference when doing the homework questions. (My advice is to take note of the questions you've done as it will help you get used to the style of questioning for this module, especially for tests and exams.)
Now for the tutors themselves. For both tutors, they love to write on the board and they don't use the visualizer (which is cool imo as they will literally draw out the concepts for you). Prof Lee's tutorials, I have to say, are rather mind blowing. He does summarize the lecture topic before going into the discussion questions. BUT he will always bring up concepts we've not heard before. OR like a new perspective to view the question. He provides an in depth explanation as well which is really good in my opinion. He usually uses the full 1 hour for the entire tutorial to cover the questions. He did give quite a number of tips that were pretty useful for the quiz and final exam as well. As I said before, Prof Lee likes to set tricky questions that require some reading in between the lines. So, do attend tutorials to take note of his tips.
As for Prof Xie's tutorial, he will also summarize the topic first before going into the discussion questions. Prof Xie also highlighted a number of points to take note which are rather important. Prof Xie's portion of questions are a little more predictable, so there is some form of "standard procedure" when solving his questions. BUT he still gives exam tips, which overall makes tutorials for CN2116 really worth going for.
Quizzes
Quiz 1 consisted of 10 MCQ questions and was 1 hour long. It tested Chapters 1 - 4 for Prof Lee's portion (up till reactor design for single reactions). Prof Lee sets MCQ questions for all his quizzes and final exam, which isn't exactly a good thing. I feel like when it comes to University exams/tests/quizzes, I would prefer them to be structured questions. This is because we can still get some method marks by writing the formulas out. However, one careless mistake can result in a wrong MCQ choice and the entire mark will be deducted. So, I feel MCQ in Uni isn't exactly real fair (especially for someone like me who makes careless mistakes often hahaha).
Another thing to note for CN2116 exams/quizzes is that when you think you require a lot of algebraic steps to solve the question, you're most probably thinking too much and there is an easier way to tackle the question. Well, this applies at least for the MCQ questions. Prof Lee's MCQ questions focuses more on the conceptual aspect of the module and it requires you to know your fundamentals very well. If you do your homework and discussion questions diligently, the quiz will not be toooo tough (I mean, it's still tough hahaha). Reading between the lines is definitely required for this quiz. A tip from me is that, whenever you're stuck on a question, always start off with the design equation of the reactor that is used in the particular question. That would be a good starting point to solve the question. Another thing is that 1-2 questions may be reall dumbbb - dumb meaning if you read carefully, you'll realise your answer is just 'none of the above' (for MCQ) and no legitimate calculations are required even though a lot of numbers are given to you.
Quiz 2 covers Chapters 7 - 9 for Prof Xie's portion (up till elements of heterogeneous catalyst). It consists of two structured questions and we were given 50 minutes to complete it. It wasn't an easy paper, mainly because there are many combinations that could possibly be tested for compartment modeling (Chapter 8). Basically, some trial and error will be required in order to obtain an answer. But I definitely prefer Quiz 2 over Quiz 1 because Quiz 2 is structured questions hahaha. It means that we can still get method marks even if we aren't able to fully answer the question. Similar to Quiz 1, do your homework and discussion questions diligently. Know the concepts well. Question every statement written in the problem statement. And you shouldn't do too badly for the paper.
Now for the tutors themselves. For both tutors, they love to write on the board and they don't use the visualizer (which is cool imo as they will literally draw out the concepts for you). Prof Lee's tutorials, I have to say, are rather mind blowing. He does summarize the lecture topic before going into the discussion questions. BUT he will always bring up concepts we've not heard before. OR like a new perspective to view the question. He provides an in depth explanation as well which is really good in my opinion. He usually uses the full 1 hour for the entire tutorial to cover the questions. He did give quite a number of tips that were pretty useful for the quiz and final exam as well. As I said before, Prof Lee likes to set tricky questions that require some reading in between the lines. So, do attend tutorials to take note of his tips.
As for Prof Xie's tutorial, he will also summarize the topic first before going into the discussion questions. Prof Xie also highlighted a number of points to take note which are rather important. Prof Xie's portion of questions are a little more predictable, so there is some form of "standard procedure" when solving his questions. BUT he still gives exam tips, which overall makes tutorials for CN2116 really worth going for.
Quizzes
Quiz 1 consisted of 10 MCQ questions and was 1 hour long. It tested Chapters 1 - 4 for Prof Lee's portion (up till reactor design for single reactions). Prof Lee sets MCQ questions for all his quizzes and final exam, which isn't exactly a good thing. I feel like when it comes to University exams/tests/quizzes, I would prefer them to be structured questions. This is because we can still get some method marks by writing the formulas out. However, one careless mistake can result in a wrong MCQ choice and the entire mark will be deducted. So, I feel MCQ in Uni isn't exactly real fair (especially for someone like me who makes careless mistakes often hahaha).
Another thing to note for CN2116 exams/quizzes is that when you think you require a lot of algebraic steps to solve the question, you're most probably thinking too much and there is an easier way to tackle the question. Well, this applies at least for the MCQ questions. Prof Lee's MCQ questions focuses more on the conceptual aspect of the module and it requires you to know your fundamentals very well. If you do your homework and discussion questions diligently, the quiz will not be toooo tough (I mean, it's still tough hahaha). Reading between the lines is definitely required for this quiz. A tip from me is that, whenever you're stuck on a question, always start off with the design equation of the reactor that is used in the particular question. That would be a good starting point to solve the question. Another thing is that 1-2 questions may be reall dumbbb - dumb meaning if you read carefully, you'll realise your answer is just 'none of the above' (for MCQ) and no legitimate calculations are required even though a lot of numbers are given to you.
Quiz 2 covers Chapters 7 - 9 for Prof Xie's portion (up till elements of heterogeneous catalyst). It consists of two structured questions and we were given 50 minutes to complete it. It wasn't an easy paper, mainly because there are many combinations that could possibly be tested for compartment modeling (Chapter 8). Basically, some trial and error will be required in order to obtain an answer. But I definitely prefer Quiz 2 over Quiz 1 because Quiz 2 is structured questions hahaha. It means that we can still get method marks even if we aren't able to fully answer the question. Similar to Quiz 1, do your homework and discussion questions diligently. Know the concepts well. Question every statement written in the problem statement. And you shouldn't do too badly for the paper.
Final Exam
Finals consisted of 10 MCQ questions for Prof Lee's portion (Chapter 1 - 6) and 3 structured questions for Prof Xie's portion (Chapters 7 - 11). The paper was 2.5 hours long. In my opinion, there is definitely enough time to complete the paper. The only problem is whether you are able to solve the question anot. Similar to Quiz 1, the MCQ questions require some reading in between the lines. The structured questions were rather similar to the 2018 paper so it wasn't really that intense. But just know that for this module, the questions are real tricky and ain't that straight forward. There were some parts that I wasn't sure of whether I answered them correctly because I've not seen that style of questioning before. It shows that the Profs are real good at tweaking questions and require us to think quite a lot. For me, in order to prepare for this final paper, I redid all the tutorials, did up my own notes, and practiced some of the past year papers that were provided by seniors. You can refer to past year papers via Min Han's blog. AND you can refer to my CN2116 notes here. Hahaha my handwriting ain't that good so, please understand.
Finals consisted of 10 MCQ questions for Prof Lee's portion (Chapter 1 - 6) and 3 structured questions for Prof Xie's portion (Chapters 7 - 11). The paper was 2.5 hours long. In my opinion, there is definitely enough time to complete the paper. The only problem is whether you are able to solve the question anot. Similar to Quiz 1, the MCQ questions require some reading in between the lines. The structured questions were rather similar to the 2018 paper so it wasn't really that intense. But just know that for this module, the questions are real tricky and ain't that straight forward. There were some parts that I wasn't sure of whether I answered them correctly because I've not seen that style of questioning before. It shows that the Profs are real good at tweaking questions and require us to think quite a lot. For me, in order to prepare for this final paper, I redid all the tutorials, did up my own notes, and practiced some of the past year papers that were provided by seniors. You can refer to past year papers via Min Han's blog. AND you can refer to my CN2116 notes here. Hahaha my handwriting ain't that good so, please understand.
Expected Grade: A
Final Grade: A+
Final Comments
I felt that I did really well for this module because I followed all the Profs' advices. They always emphasized that this is a conceptual module, meaning that they're testing the concepts and not the math. With this approach, I studied hard and did good for this module. But still, I would say this is not an easy module. Take note of the tips I've given too and try to look at the problems from different perspectives. :)
Stay tuned for more updates.
- Alan
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