Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of chemistry and engineering that deals with the application of physical science (e.g. chemistry and physics), with mathematics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms. As well as producing useful materials, chemical engineering is also concerned with pioneering valuable new materials and techniques; an important form of research and development. A person employed in this field is called a chemical engineer.

Chemical engineering largely involves the design and maintenance of chemical processes for large-scale manufacture. Chemical engineers in this branch are usually employed under the title of process engineer. The development of the large-scale processes characteristic of industrialized economies is a feat of chemical engineering, not chemistry. Indeed, chemical engineers are responsible for the availability of the modern high-quality materials that are essential for running an industrial economy.

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Examples

Following is an example that illustrates the engineering aspect of chemical engineering:

"The difference between chemical engineering and chemistry can be illustrated by considering the example of producing orange juice. A chemist working in the laboratory investigates and discovers a multitude of pathways to extract the juices of an orange. The simplest mechanism found is to cut the orange in half and squeeze the orange using a manual juicer. A more complicated approach that is found is to peel and then crush the orange and collect the juice.

"A company then commissions a chemical engineer to design a plant to manufacture several thousand tons of orange juice per year. The chemical engineer investigates all the available methods for making orange juice and evaluates them according to their economic viability. Even though the manual juicing method is simple, it is not economical to employ thousands of people to manually juice oranges. Thus, another -- cheaper -- method is used (possibly the 'peel and crush' technique). The easiest method of manufacture on a laboratory bench will not necessarily be the most economical method for a manufacturing plant."

A prototypic example of the development of chemical engineering as a science is the Haber-Bosch process.

Overview

Chemical engineers are aiming for the most economical process. This means that the entire production chain must be planned and controlled for costs. A chemical engineer can both simplify and complicate "showcase" reactions for an economic advantage. Using a higher pressure or temperature makes several reactions easier; ammonia, for example, is simply produced from its component elements in a high-pressure reactor. On the other hand, reactions with a low yield can be recycled continuously, which would be complex, arduous work if done by hand in the laboratory. It is not unusual to build 6-step, or even 12-step evaporators to reuse the vaporization energy for an economic advantage. In contrast, laboratory chemists evaporate samples in a single step.

The individual processes used by chemical engineers (eg. distillation or filtration) are called unit operations and consist of chemical reaction, mass-, heat- and momentum- transfer operations. Unit operations are grouped together in various configurations for the purpose of chemical synthesis and/or chemical separation. Some processes are a combination of intertwined transport and separation unit operations, (e.g. reactive distillation).

Three primary physical laws underlying chemical engineering design are conservation of mass, conservation of momentum and conservation of energy. The movement of mass and energy around a chemical process are evaluated using mass balances and energy balances which apply these laws to whole plants, unit operations or discrete parts of equipment. In doing so, chemical engineers use principles of thermodynamics, reaction kinetics and transport phenomena. The task of performing these balances is now aided by process simulators, which are complex software models (see List of Chemical Process Simulators) that can solve mass and energy balances and usually have built-in modules to simulate a variety of common unit operations.

Modern chemical engineering

The modern discipline of chemical engineering encompasses much more than just process engineering. Chemical engineers are now engaged in the development and production of a diverse range of products, as well as in commodity and specialty chemicals. These products include high performance materials needed for aerospace, automotive, biomedical, electronic, environmental and space and military applications. Examples include ultra-strong fibers, fabrics, adhesives and composites for vehicles, bio-compatible materials for implants and prosthetics, gels for medical applications, pharmaceuticals, and films with special dielectric, optical or spectroscopic properties for opto-electronic devices. Additionally, chemical engineering is often intertwined with biology and biomedical engineering. Many chemical engineers work on biological projects such as understanding biopolymers (proteins) and mapping the human genome.

Related fields and topics

Today, the field of chemical engineering is a diverse one, covering areas from biotechnology and nanotechnology to mineral processing.

Biochemical engineering Biomedical engineering Biomolecular engineering Biotechnology Ceramics Chemical process modeling Chemical Technologist Chemical reactor Distillation Design Electrochemistry Environmental engineering Fluid dynamics

Heat transfer Mass transfer Materials science Microfluidics Nanotechnology Natural environment Polymers Process control Process design Pulp and paper

Separation processes (see also: separation of mixture) Crystallization processes Distillation processes Membrane processes Thermodynamics Transport Phenomena Unit operations Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering

See also

• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
• Chemical engineer
• Education for Chemical Engineers
• History of chemical engineering
• Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
• List of chemical engineers
• List of chemical engineering societies
• Process design (chemical engineering)

Recommended chemical engineering books

• Kister, Henry Z. (1992). Distillation Design (1st Edition ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-034909-6. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Green, Don W. and Perry, Robert H. (deceased) (2007). Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook (8th Edition ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-049479-7. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Bird, R.B., Stewart, W.E. and Lightfoot, E.N. (August 2001). Transport Phenomena (Second Edition ed.). John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-41077-2. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• McCabe, W., Smith, J. and Harriott, P. (2004). Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering (7th Edition ed.). McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-284823-5. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Seader, J. D., and Henley, Ernest J. (1998). Separation Process Principles. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-58626-9.
• Chopey, Nicholas P. (2004). Handbook of Chemical Engineering Calculations (3rdEdition ed.). McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0071362622.
• Himmelbau, David M. (1996). Basic Principles and and Calculations in Chemical Engineering (6th Edition ed.). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0133057984. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Editors: Jacqueline I. Kroschwitz and Arza Seidel (2004). Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology (5th Edition ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 0-471-48810-0. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help); |edition= has extra text (help)
• King, C.J. (1980). Separation Processes. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-034612-7. {{cite book}}: Text "2nd Edition" ignored (help)

External links

• Chemical Engineering Magazine
• What is a Chemical Engineer?
• Chemical Engineering Information Exchange
• Chemical Engineers' Resource Page
• History of Chemical Engineering Timeline
• Learning Chemical Engineering Software
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (USA)
• Online Chemical Engineering Softwares
• Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK)
• Canadian Society for Chemical Engineers
• Brazilian Association of Chemical Engineering (BRA)
• Engineers Australia (AUS)
• Chemical Engineering Inter-American Congress
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