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Chemical Engineering: General Chemical Engineering

Subject guide for chemical engineering

Locating Books

To locate books on your topic, use the UCSB Library Search. As a starting point, use a keyword search on the likely terms. You are unlikely to find references to a single compound, but may be able to find useful books on classes of compounds. If the more specific subject fails, browse the subject heading "Chemical Engineering" itself. Call number ranges for chemical engineering include:

  • TP 145 - General works
  • TP 151 - Handbooks, tables, etc.
  • TP 156 - Chemical processes
  • TP 159 - Apparatus
  • TP 161-168 - Lab manuals and textbooks
  • TP 213-245 - Inorganic industrial chemicals
  • TP 247-249 - Organic industrial chemicals

General Reference Works

Acesss Engineering -selected titles UCSB only (http://uclibs.org/PID/146414)
McGraw Hill's Acess Engineerning is a collection of handbooks spanning the engineering discipline The California Digital Library has purchased come of thes titles and mad them available, available online as PDF copies. Included is the 8th edition of Perry's Chemical Engineer's Handbook (see below.)

Chemical Process and Design Handbook UCSB only (SEL Ref TP 155.7 .S63 2002)
This one volume handbook is organized in two sections: Basic Reaction Types (19 types used in organic chemical synthesis) and Manufacture of Chemicals (over 700 specific chemicals, including commodity organics and inorganics, and some drugs.)

Comprehensive Membrane Science and Engineering UCSB only (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/referenceworks/9780080932507)
This four volume reference work contains expert review articles covering a wide range of membrane science, divided into Basic Aspects, Molecular Separations, Chemical and Biochemicaal Transformations, and Membrane Contactors and Integrated Membrane Operations.

CRCnetBASEUCSB only (http://www.crcnetbase.com/)
CRCnetBASE contains a wealth of handbooks and monographs of interest to chemical engineers, especially in the Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science and Engineering and Food and Nutrition subject categories.They are full-text searchable, or browsable by table of contents.

Encyclopedia of Chemical Processing and Design (SEL Ref TP 9 .E66)
This 68 volume encyclopedia, commonly referred to as "McKetta's" after editor John J. McKetta, was begun in 1976 and completed in 1999. It contains excellent detailed articles on chemical processes and industrial chemistry. Articles tend to be briefer and more specific than those in Kirk-Othmer or Ullman's (see below).

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical TechnologyUCSB only (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/0471238961

The Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology is a wide-ranging, authoritative source of information on chemicals and chemical processes, with detailed references for each article. The online version includes the current Fourth Edition, with some articles updated each year. The print version is available in the SEL Reference Area at TP 9 .E685 1991.

Knovel.com UCSB only
Knovel provices access to a wide range of handbooks and other reference works in chemical engineering, biotechnology, chemistry and biochemistry, among other areas. You may search within a particular work, or across te entire Knovel collection. Searching may be done by keyword, or by numeric data ranges.

Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, 8th ed. UCSB only (7th ed. available in print at  TP 151 .P45 1997)
Perry's is the classic one-volume handbook of basic information and tables for key areas of chemical engineering.

Process Engineering Equipment Handbook (SEL Ref TP 157 .S658 2002)
A one-volume encyclopedia of process engineering information, focusing on equipment.

Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial ChemistryUCSB only (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/14356007)
Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry is a state-of-the-art reference work detailing the science and technology in all areas of industrial chemistry, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, plymers and plastics, advanced materials, environmental protection and analytical methods. The online version is the 6th Edition; the 5th Edition is available in print in the SEL Reference Area at TP 9 .U5 1985.

Locating Articles

SciFinder: UCSB only SciFinder is an end-user oriented interface to the Chemical Abstracts, REGISTRY and CASREACT databases. Its databases cover the entire literature of chemistry and chemical engineering, including journal articles, patents, conference papers and more, from 1900 to the present, by far the most comprehensive database of the chemical literature. It may be searched by author, topic, corporate source, chemical name, molecular formula or chemical structure (including substructures and reaction diagrams). SciFinder Web is a web interface for the databases, which requires users to register using a current ucsb.edu e-mail address. SciFinder Scholar is a client-server system, which requires installation of the SFS client on the terminal where you wish to use it. 

Business Source Complete UCSB only Business Source Complete is an excellent source for the business side of the chemical industry, including prices, markets and new products. It offers indexing and abstracts for the 350 most important scholarly business journals back to 1965 or the first published issue. The database includes searchable cited references for 1,205 journals. It also contains full text for 7,418 periodicals and other sources, including: Peer-Reviewed Journals, Trade Journals & General Business Magazines, Monographs, Country Economic Reports, Industry Reports & Yearbooks, Market Research Reports.

Compendex Plus UCSB only Compendex is the most comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering abstracts database in the world. Covers over 2,600 international engineering journals, technical reports and conference proceedings. Each year more than 200,000 new abstracts are added. Compendex covers 1884 to present, with the UCe-Links feature for linking to full text journal articles.

Web of Science (Science Citation Index) UCSB only The Science Citation Index database in Web of Science covers key journals in all areas of science and engineering. It covers 1945-present, and for recent years has searchable abstracts. It also has searchable cited references, so you can track an older reference on, for instance, fluidized bed reactors, forward to more recent applications or to other related records. It has the UCe-Links feature for linking to full text journal articles.