Chemical Engineering

Introduction

A degree in chemical engineering helps in giving the theoretical and practical knowledge that is needed to get registered as a professional chemical engineer. The course may specifically centre on the modelling of chemical processes and mechanics of fluid. A Chemical engineering course is extremely feasible for the candidates who are willing to join the chemical industry, manufacture products and trace research in the future. The training of chemical engineers becomes crucial in certain areas when procedures include physical or chemical matter. Chemical engineers do their job to develop the quality of life of the people. Chemical engineering qualifies are assisting to end disease, poverty and starvation.

What is chemical engineering?

Chemical engineering is defined as the engineering branch in which the principles of microbiology, economics, chemistry, biochemistry, applied mathematics and physics effectively utilise and transform matters, energy and chemicals.

Chemical engineers design and conceive procedures to create transport and transform materials (Saadatkhah et al. 2020). It is initiated with the laboratory's experimentation followed by the establishment of the technology in the production of full scale.

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Figure 1: Process flow in Chemical engineering

A chemical engineer's role is to maintain and structure projects by which the organic matter and raw material are altered to effectively utilise chemical substances.

In recent times, chemical engineering is in huge demand owing to a large industrial number that relies on the processing and synthesis of materials and chemicals (Parra- Cabrera et al. 2018).

The chemical engineers grab the deals and enjoy maximising opportunities in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and fabrication of electronic devices and engineering of the environment.

Skills required becoming a chemical engineer

• A chemical engineer should have a quantitative and comprehensive understanding of both the scientific and engineering principles underlying the procedures of technology.

• The candidate must have the proper knowledge of mass transfer as it is the core component of chemical engineering. Basic equipment designing is extremely important and mandatory to be a designing engineer in this respective field. The courses of chemical engineering are structured in a way to provide the students with a strong foundation in the sciences of biology, chemistry and physics.

• In functioning and designing the control systems, the candidates must have an appropriate acknowledgement of mathematics such as Laplace transformation which may come in handy.

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Figure 2: Block flow diagram

In chemical engineering, block flow diagrams are mainly utilised to represent complicated procedures more than a single sheet. In this diagram, mainly mass flow rate is mentioned to discuss the balance of material over the point.

• The students or future chemical engineers are accustomed to distinct physical quantities' units which emerge under mass transfer, heat transfer, thermodynamics, measurement and fluid flow.

• Knowing the pump functions, and remembering all the constants that are dimensionless such as Nusselt numbers are some of the important facts that the candidates of chemical engineering must have the skills and ability to acquire.

• They must possess the skills of capturing the technical knowledge wholly and focus on learning the periodic table and elements' chemical valences. Derivations of some of the topics like Navier strokes, McCabe Thiele diagram, Kremser- Brown equation and more are important for a chemical engineer to remember for its future aspects.

Future prospects of chemical engineering

The candidates of chemical engineering work in the chemical industry scrutinise and research new materials of polymeric with crucial mechanical, optical or electrical properties.

Attention in this context is highly required for the polymer synthesis and flow and creating methods are essential to make the ultimate product. As opined by Venkatasubramanian (2019), chemical engineering candidates assist in structuring the facilities of production that utilise enzymes and microorganisms to consolidate the new drugs. Chemical engineers have wide career opportunities.

The graduates in this respective field may act breaking scientific research, occupy the position of senior manager or do their job as field engineer (Hartings & Ahmed, 2019). It has been visible that the graduates employed by MNCs often travel across the nation for their jobs. The graduates of chemical engineering can have successful careers in consultancy, finance or scientific journalism.

Difference between chemical chemistry and chemical engineering

Chemical Chemistry	Chemical engineering
Chemists have the tendency to centre on improving novel processes and materials, evaluating substances, calculating the substances’ physical properties and testing theories.	The chemical engineers put all their attention on turning new discoveries and ideas into beneficial goods that are attainable.
Most of the work falls into the operation, manufacture and design of machinery and plants and the enhancement of new substances and materials.	The chemical engineers centre on creating goods on a scale and for-profit that are accessible to the many.
Chemical chemistry researches the science background encompassing the aspects of inorganic, analytical, organic, biochemistry and physical.	Chemical engineering concerning chemical chemistry is more disciplined in its approach as it covers every subject ranging from biology to physics.

Table 1: Distinction between chemical chemistry and engineering

Conclusion

Chemical engineering has a diverse field and aspirants have the probability to search for the exact jobs that may suit their fantasy. The scope of chemical engineering is never huge with the challenges of pollution and global warming being the major reason. Candidates have the opportunity to avail themselves of the online courses of chemical engineering on account of the rising pandemic situation due to COVID-19. Most of the chemical engineers in future become processes engineers in the graduation and initiation of their careers. Process engineering is crucially the principle of chemical engineering's application to optimise operations and design. They do their work to protect the environment by enhancing changing technologies to lead to greenhouse impact, lead pollution and combat acid rain.

FAQs

Q1. What is the main work of a chemical engineer?

The chemical engineers design and develop the methods of chemical manufacturing. They apply the principle aspects of distinct subjects to mitigate the issues that include the creation or utilisation of chemicals, drugs, fuels and others.

Q2. What is created by chemical engineers?

Plastics, Medicines, petrochemicals, fertilisers and other related products are created by Chemical engineers. Chemical engineers are mostly demanded by the oil and energy industry.

Q3. What are the core classifications of Chemical engineering?

Engineers in the Chemical industry focus mainly on four parts. The areas included R & D (research and Development), operations, designing and commissioning.

Q4. What basic knowledge must be adopted by Chemical engineers?

Knowledge of materials science, information technology, biochemistry and chemistry must be acquired by the candidates of chemical engineers. Apart from this, they must manage, the environment and safety and economics.

References

Journals

Hartings, M. R., & Ahmed, Z. (2019). Chemistry from 3D printed objects. Nature Reviews Chemistry, 3(5), 305-314. Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41570-019-0097-z

Parra-Cabrera, C., Achille, C., Kuhn, S., & Ameloot, R. (2018). 3D printing in chemical engineering and catalytic technology: structured catalysts, mixers and reactors. Chemical Society Reviews, 47(1), 209-230. Retrieved from:  https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2018/cs/c7cs00631d

Saadatkhah, N., Carillo Garcia, A., Ackermann, S., Leclerc, P., Latifi, M., Samih, S., ... & Chaouki, J. (2020). Experimental methods in chemical engineering: thermogravimetric analysis—TGA. The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 98(1), 34-43. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cjce.23673

Venkatasubramanian, V. (2019). The promise of artificial intelligence in chemical engineering: Is it here, finally. AIChE J, 65(2), 466-478. Retrieved from: https://corsi.unibo.it/magistrale/IngegneriaChimicaProcesso/bacheca/seminario-the-promise-of-artificial-intelligence-in-chemical-engineering-is-it-here-finally-1/venkat-seminar-abstract-2019.pdf/@@download/file/Venkat%20seminar%20%20abstract%202019.pdf

Websites

Conceptdraw (2022). About How to draw a chemical process flow diagram. Retrieved from: https://www.conceptdraw.com/examples/chemical-process [Retrieved on: 27th June 2022]