Knovel Solution

Knovel provides a wide range of resources for chemical engineers, including books, journals, and case studies and is a key benefit of IChemE membership, writes Luke Williams

KNOVEL is a great tool for jumping back into a topic you haven’t visited for a while, whether that’s from a previous project or a forgotten university module. I have used it to help with understanding of existing designs, selecting equipment during optioneering, and optimising systems to close out actions resulting from Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) studies.

I’ve been working in the nuclear industry since I graduated in 2019. During that time, I have had the opportunity to work on various projects, each of which has needed different chemical engineering knowledge to solve the problems being presented. I started my engineering career producing designs to keep the facilities on a nuclear-licensed site functioning in line with the design intent and configuring the reference design to capture changes, which has given me an understanding of how facilities are operated on a nuclear site. However, after a role change from design engineer to process engineer, I began to work on designs for new facilities so needed to refresh my memory on the process engineering fundamentals required for early phase design. I found Knovel was a great place to research subjects such as process equipment selection and sizing as well as to find references for calculations and rules of thumb that I had learned during my time at university.

Using Knovel

You can access Knovel via the IChemE Resources page. I find using a keyword search is the best way to initially find information relevant to a subject. Knovel searches the text of the resources and pulls up relevant results, which is particularly useful for quickly finding chapters of books that contain relevant information to a particular project.

Filters allow results to be selected based on industry, concept, date, and author. Any relevant citations can then be copied directly from Knovel using the “cite” button. Buttons that allow references to be saved and downloaded are also available. I’ve used the “save” button to collate my personal library of my most frequently used books. Chemical Engineering Design - Principles, Practice and Economics of Plant and Process Design, Chemical Process Equipment - Selection and Design and Coulson and Richardson’s Chemical Engineering are among my most cited sources, all of which are available from “My Knovel”, which is handily accessed via the taskbar that remains on the left of the screen.

I encourage anyone with IChemE membership to get stuck into Knovel and explore the resources that are available, whether it is to supplement university studies, bridge the gap between university and industry, expand knowledge of technological developments, or just rejog their memory on topics they haven’t needed to think about for a while. It is great to know that I have my saved books available anywhere I can access the internet, which is never a bad thing in a dynamic industry like chemical engineering.

It’s never a bad time to start building your own collection of saved books on Knovel (an old saying about when’s best to plant a tree springs to mind); you never know when you may need to urgently check something.