PE Chemical study guide
PE Chemical · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The PE Chemical exam is one of the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) examinations administered by NCEES. It tests for a minimum level of competency in chemical engineering and is designed for engineers who have gained a minimum of four years of post-college work experience in the discipline. The PE Chemical study guide has 10 sections and about 2,408 words.
01Basic Principles
Basic principles questions are the cheapest points on the exam and the easiest to lose. They test unit consistency, gas-law behavior, stoichiometry, vapor pressure and humidity, and elementary statistics.
244 words, about 1 min02Material and Energy Balances
Material balances around a control volume, coupled with the energy balance. Expect flowsheets with recycle, purge, and bypass, multiple units, and reacting systems where extent of reaction or a key component is the right basis.
266 words, about 1 min03Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics appears as property estimation, phase equilibrium, and work/heat device calculations: compressors, turbines, refrigeration, and power cycles. First and second laws; entropy generation; Carnot limits (efficiency = 1 − Tc/Th; refrigerator COP = Tc/(Th − Tc)).
249 words, about 1 min04Fluid Mechanics
Incompressible and compressible flow in pipes, pumps and fans, flow measurement, packed beds, and particle motion. Mechanical energy balance: P1/ρ + v1²/2 + g z1 = P2/ρ + v2²/2 + g z2 + hf, with Darcy-Weisbach hf = f (L/D)(v²/2).
239 words, about 1 min05Heat Transfer
Conduction, convection, radiation, exchanger design, and transient cooling. Resistance networks: R = L/(kA) for a slab, ln(r2/r1)/(2πkL) for a cylinder, 1/(hA) for a film; fouling resistances add in series.
259 words, about 1 min06Mass Transfer
Diffusion, interphase transfer, and stagewise or rate-based separations: absorption, stripping, distillation, extraction, drying, and adsorption. Fick's law; equimolar counterdiffusion versus diffusion through a stagnant film, where the log-mean partial-pressure driving force matters at high concentration.
223 words, about 1 min07Chemical Reaction Engineering
Rate laws and reactor sizing, temperature effects, selectivity, catalysis, and nonideal flow. Rate-law determination from batch data by the integral or differential method; order and rate constant; Arrhenius k = A exp(−E/RT).
227 words, about 1 min08Process Design and Economics
Capital and operating cost estimation, profitability analysis, and conceptual design heuristics. Cost-capacity (six-tenths) rule: C2 = C1 (S2/S1)^0.6, with exponents from 0.4 to 0.8 depending on equipment type.
204 words, about 1 min09Process Control
Loop hardware, PID behavior, tuning, and control strategy selection. Loop elements: sensor, transmitter, controller, final element, process.
246 words, about 1 min10Safety, Health, and Environment
Relief system design, flammability, hazard evaluation, and consequence analysis. Relief scenarios: blocked outlet, external fire, runaway reaction, thermal expansion, control valve failure.
251 words, about 1 min