Ever wondered how materials like nylon and polyester are made? How it’s possible to make food stay fresh for longer? Or what happens inside a water treatment plant? Maybe you know all that, but are curious about how bionic plants, fog harvesting and carbon nanotubes can be used to improve the world around you. These are just some examples of topics you might cover as part of a chemical engineering degree – essentially the study of how to turn raw materials into useful, everyday (or perhaps more specialized) products.

So, what is chemical engineering? Chemical engineering is a multi-disciplinary branch of engineering that combines natural and experimental sciences (such as chemistry and physics), along with life sciences (such as biology, microbiology and biochemistry) plus mathematics and economics to design, develop, produce, transform, transport, operate and manage the industrial processes that turn raw materials into valuable products.

Many of the processes within chemical engineering involve chemical reactions, and the field takes cues from chemists who are looking for new ways to create products and to investigate the mechanisms within chemical reactions. Chemical engineers then translate this chemical information to formulate designs. As such, there are two broad subgroups that better answer the question “What is chemical engineering?” – more precisely:

1. Designing, manufacturing and operating plants and machinery for carrying out large-scale industrial chemical, biological or related processes
2. Developing new or adapted substances for a wide range of products

Chemical engineers may be specialized in one or the other subgroup, but work from both side will be required in order to create a final product. They will need to consider economic viability, management of resources, health and safety, sustainability and environmental impact.

Areas of Research in Chemical Engineering  

Prior to the 1970s, a large number of chemical engineers secured work in the booming petroleum industry and became involved in continuous processes. In more recent times, chemical engineers have entered many diverse fields—in particular, the pharmaceutical industry—working on the batch process level. 

Chemical engineers have also found employment with specialty chemical companies, as well as within the consumer and electronics industries. 

Chemical engineers are actively involved in developing improved polymer processing and devices relevant to biomedical engineering. Another important research area is the physical and biological treatment of hazardous wastes. Computational methods are now used extensively in modeling studies, and computer simulation is routinely employed in plant design. 

A further key area of interest involves, separation techniques and technologies for solving separation problems in the chemical, environmental, food, pharmaceutical, and biotechnological industries. 

Other exciting frontier areas of research in chemical engineering include molecular and nanoscale engineering, molecular simulation, surface modification, protein separation processes, supercritical fluid extraction, fluid particle systems, catalysis and reaction engineering, biochemical engineering, and computer-aided design. 

Chemical engineering courses

While its origins are in oil refining and petrochemical production, and the fundamentals of the subject have changed relatively little, chemical engineering is constantly evolving. It is constantly pioneering new and improved materials and related techniques which help advance scientific knowledge in fields such as nanotechnology, fuel cells, fabric development, mineral processing and bioengineering.
Some typical chemical engineering courses you may cover include fluid mechanics, mass and heat transfer, techniques for separation of materials, thermodynamics, plant design, process systems, process economics, process analysis and process operations.
Other courses could cover biochemical engineering, colloid and interface science, engineering management, environment, food engineering, food processes, fossil fuels, gas absorption and adsorption, liquid effluent treatment, membrane science, nanoscience, nuclear energy, petrochemicals, pharmaceutical process development, reaction engineering, reactor design, safety and hazard engineering, sustainable engineering and waste management.
Some of the most popular chemical engineering courses you may choose are explored below:

Chemical reaction engineering

Also called reaction engineering or reactor engineering, chemical reaction engineering deals with chemical reactors (vessels designed to contain chemical reactions) such as those found in industrial plants. Chemical reaction engineering is the management of industrial reactor/plant processes and conditions to ensure optimal reactor/plant operation. The term is frequently used specifically in relation to catalytic reaction systems where a homogenous or heterogeneous catalyst is present in the reactor. You’ll learn about multi-produce and multi-purpose plants, how to analyze reaction kinetics and mechanisms, how to study and optimize chemical reactions in order to define the best reactor design, how to construct models for reactor analysis and design and how to use laboratory data and physical parameters to solve problems and predict reactor performance. You’ll draw upon many topics within chemical engineering, including the others explored here.

Plant design

Plant design involves creating plans, specifications, and economic analyses for new industrial plants and/or plant modifications. You’ll gain an understanding of the fundamental basis of designing industrial plants, and learn how to use the design tools most commonly employed by engineers in industry. You’ll learn about the design criterions for process equipment such as pumps, heat exchangers and phase separators, and gain an understanding of plant economics and plant optimization using cost models. You’ll also learn about the safety, regulatory and economic concerns within plant design (such as during the choice of process, material and equipment).

Process engineering

The field of process engineering is the application of chemical engineering principles to optimize the design, operation and control of chemical processes. You’ll develop an understanding of the concepts and techniques involved in materials extraction and processing, the basic terminology used in the chemical, minerals and material industries, and the basic science involved in a range of unit operations such as: crystallization, distillation, gas absorption and adsorption, evaporation, filtration and drying. You’ll become familiar with the design and operation of a range of process engineering equipment and operations, learn about different fuel sources and energy consumption patterns and learn about safety, regulatory and economic concerns within plant design (for example regarding the choice of process, material and equipment).

Transport phenomena

The umbrella term “transport phenomena” encompasses all agents of physical change in the universe. It is a name given to describe a range of phenomena that frequently occur within industrial problems. It concerns the exchange of mass, energy and momentum between observed and studied systems. This includes topics such as fluid dynamics (momentum), heat transfer and mass transfer. You will gain a thorough understanding of the mathematics needed for describing transport phenomena at macroscopic, microscopic and molecular levels, and for drawing deep mathematical connections between them.

Process design

Specializing in process design means becoming an expert in the design of unit processes. The chemical equivalent of one unit operation, one unit process, is the individual physical step in a chemical engineering process (like crystallization, drying or evaporation), which is used to prepare elements during chemical processing in reactors. Unit processes and unit operations go hand in hand to constitute a process operation, involving the conversion of material by chemical (bio- or thermo-) means.
Considered central to chemical engineering and one of the most challenging fields within it, process design brings together all of the components within chemical engineering. You’ll learn how to create processes, design the equipment for a process, operate processes and improve processes in order to achieve the desired physical and/or chemical transformation of materials. As design usually starts at a conceptual level, you’ll also learn how to use specialist computer software for process simulation.