A Cornier Idea

Popcorn, Part 2

Abstract

Here’s another edifying use for popcorn in chemical engineering: fluid mechanics! This problem actually sits at the border of several conceptual areas in our discipline - fluid mechanics, separations, and a tiny bit of reactor design. How does popcorn accomplish all this? It turns out that a once-common household appliance is actually a simplified version of the same unit operation as a catalytic cracker and is described by the same design equations - but at a fraction of the size and cost. That’s right, the air popcorn popper is, in fact, a fluidized bed. Further, it also demonstrates how cyclonic separation works. And finally, at the end of it all, you end up with a nearly fat free snack!

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