Chemical Engineering
By: Carly Taschner
What is chemical engineering?
Chemical engineering combines natural and life sciences with mathematics to produce, transform, transport, and properly use chemicals, materials and energy. Chemical engineering deals with the engineering of chemicals, energy and the processes that create and/or convert them. Modern chemical engineers are concerned with processes that convert raw-materials or (cheap) chemicals into more useful or valuable forms.
What do chemical engineers do?
Chemical engineers develop economic ways of using materials and energy. Chemical engineers use chemistry and engineering to turn raw materials into usable products, such as medicine, petrochemicals and plastics on a large-scale, industrial setting. They are also involved in waste management and research. A chemical engineer may be involved in industry or university research where they are tasked in designing and performing experiments to create new and better ways of production, controlling pollution, conserving resources and making these processes safer. They may be involved in designing and constructing plants as a project engineer.
Skills of a chemical engineer
To be a chemical engineer, you must be good at critical thinking and complex problem solving. You need to be good at decision making, and mathematics. You also need to be good at speaking, writing, and be an active listener.
Some technical skills you must have are chemistry, technology, mathematics, physics, design, computers, biology, and safety skills.
You must be a good analytical thinker, be dependable, pay attention to detail, and be persistent. Projects often take years to complete, so you must persevere through any setbacks you may have.
Jobs of an engineer
- Conduct research to develop new and improved manufacturing processes
- Develop safety procedures for those working with potentially dangerous chemicals
- Develop processes to separate components of liquids and gases or to generate electrical currents using controlled chemical processes
- Design and plan the layout of equipment
- Do tests and monitor performance of processes throughout production
- Troubleshoot problems with manufacturing processes
- Evaluate equipment and processes to ensure compliance with safety and environmental regulations
- Estimate production costs for management
Jobs of an engineer continued
- Aerospace Engineer
- Biotechnology
- Chemical Plant
- Civil Engineer
- Computer Systems
- Electrical Engineering
- Environmental Engineer
- Food Industries
- Mechanical Engineer
- Mining Engineer
- Nuclear Engineer
- Oil and Natural Gas Industry
- Paper Manufacture
- Petrochemical Engineer
- Pharmaceuticals
- Plant Design
- Plastic and Polymer Manufacture
- Technical Sales
- Waste Treatment