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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Reactions and Reactors

Endothermic

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

/ˌɛndoʊˈθɜːrmɪk/adjectiveCommon term

In chemical engineering, endothermic means: Describes a reaction or process that takes in heat from its surroundings, so heat has to be supplied to keep it going, as in steam reforming or cracking.

In Turkish: endotermik, ısı alan

How it is used

Used in reactor and furnace design. Endothermic reactions are often run in fired heaters or with interstage reheating, and the temperature drops as the reaction proceeds if heat is not added.

Example sentences

  1. Steam reforming is strongly endothermic, so the tubes sit inside a large furnace.

  2. In the endothermic dehydrogenation, the gas is reheated between the reactor beds.

Common collocations

  • endothermic reaction
  • strongly endothermic
  • endothermic process
  • supply heat
  • exothermicDescribes a reaction or process that releases heat to its surroundings, such as combustion, neutralization or most polymerizations.
  • enthalpyA measure of the heat content of a substance, used to calculate how much energy is needed to heat, cool, vaporize or react it at constant pressure. Usually given in kJ/kg or kJ/mol.
  • heat dutyThe amount of heat that a heat exchanger, reboiler, condenser or furnace must transfer per unit time, usually given in kW or MW.
  • activation energyThe minimum energy that reacting molecules need for a reaction to happen. A high value means the rate is very sensitive to temperature; a catalyst lowers it.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Reactions and Reactors

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