What is Chemical Engineering?

Zach Star

26 Apr 201714:17

EducationalLearning

32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRChemical Engineering is an engineering discipline focused on designing processes for material transformation. Chemical engineers apply their knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, and math to create new drugs, reduce pollution, manufacture microchips, and develop industrial chemicals. They specialize in scaling up lab processes to industrial levels, designing reactors and equipment for large-scale production. The field offers diverse career paths, from biotechnology and environmental engineering to petroleum refining and alternative energy. Chemical engineers require a strong foundation in chemistry but also study engineering principles, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and more, to safely and efficiently produce materials on a large scale.

Takeaways

🌟 Chemical Engineering is an engineering discipline focused on designing processes for material transformation and transport.
🧬 It involves knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, and math to create new products and minimize environmental impact.
💊 Chemical engineers can work in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, designing facilities for drug production using enzymes and microorganisms.
🌱 They can also contribute to environmental engineering, developing solutions to reduce pollution in air, water, and soil, such as catalytic converters.
🔌 The semiconductor and electronics industry employs chemical engineers to manufacture microchips and computer parts, despite the field's name suggesting a focus on electrical or computer engineering.
🧴 Chemical engineers work on industrial chemicals like detergents, soaps, and cosmetics, and in food production for companies like Nestle, Kraft, and Budweiser.
🛢️ In petroleum engineering, chemical engineers design equipment for refining crude oil into useful products like gasoline and diesel, working at oil refineries or for companies like Shell and Exxon.
🔋 They may also work on alternative energy, such as solar cells and fuel cells, which involve chemical processes in their design and function.
📈 Chemical engineers focus on scale-up, taking small-scale reactions and designing processes for large-scale production, which is a key difference from chemists.
🔍 Chemical engineering curriculum includes significant math, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and classes specific to the field like thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.
🎓 A bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering can lead to a median starting salary of $67,000 per year, with a broad range of career opportunities in various industries.

Q & A

What is Chemical Engineering defined as?
-Chemical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves designing processes to transport, transform, and produce materials. Chemical engineers utilize their knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, and math to design these processes.
What are some career paths for chemical engineers in the pharmaceutical industry?
-Chemical engineers can work in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, designing facilities that use enzymes and microorganisms to create new drugs. Companies like Pfizer and Merck are examples of places where chemical engineers can apply their expertise.
How do chemical engineers contribute to environmental engineering?
-In environmental engineering, chemical engineers work on applications to reduce the volume of pollutants entering air, waterways, and soil. They design systems like catalytic converters on cars to minimize the release of harmful substances.
What role do chemical engineers play in the semiconductor and electronics industry?
-Chemical engineers are crucial in the semiconductor and electronics industry, especially in the manufacturing of microchips and other computer parts. Companies like IBM and Intel hire chemical engineers to handle the chemical processes involved in creating silicon crystals and pressing transistor architecture onto the material.
How does a chemical engineer's work in food production differ from that of a chemist?
-While chemists focus on understanding chemical reactions on a smaller scale, chemical engineers are concerned with scaling up these reactions for large-scale production. They design and optimize processes, equipment, and reactors to manufacture food products safely and efficiently.
What is the main difference between chemical engineers and chemists in terms of their work?
-The main difference lies in the scale of their work. Chemists typically work on smaller-scale chemical reactions, focusing on the reactions themselves. Chemical engineers, on the other hand, scale up these reactions to produce large quantities, applying engineering principles to design and manage the processes and equipment involved.
What chemistry-related courses do chemical engineers take?
-Chemical engineers take general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry, similar to chemistry majors. These courses provide a foundation for understanding chemical reactions and concepts, which are essential for their engineering work.
How does kinetics, a chemistry concept, apply to the real-world work of chemical engineers?
-Kinetics, which involves understanding the rate of chemical reactions, is crucial for chemical engineers when designing large-scale reactors. It helps them determine how fast a reaction should occur to prevent issues like the reactor overheating or the reaction proceeding too quickly.
What additional engineering topics do chemical engineers study?
-Chemical engineers study topics such as thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat flow, which are essential for understanding how to design and manage the equipment and processes for chemical reactions on a large scale.
What is the typical starting salary for chemical engineers in the United States?
-The median starting salary for chemical engineers in the United States is around $67,000 per year, which is significantly higher than what a bachelor's degree holder in chemistry or biochemistry might expect.
What advice would you give to someone considering Chemical Engineering as a major?
-If you enjoy chemistry but also want to learn the engineering principles to produce materials safely and efficiently on a large scale, Chemical Engineering may be the right choice. A bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering can qualify you for a wide range of entry-level positions, unlike some other scientific fields where higher degrees may be required for advanced work.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Introduction to Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering is an engineering discipline focused on designing processes for material transformation. Chemical engineers have a strong foundation in physics, chemistry, biology, and math, which they use to design various processes. They have a wide range of career opportunities, including biotechnology in the pharmaceutical industry, environmental engineering, semiconductors and electronics, industrial chemicals, food production, and petroleum engineering. The video emphasizes the versatility of chemical engineers and their role in transforming raw materials into useful products.

05:00

🔍 The Role of Chemical Engineers in Different Fields

Chemical engineers play a crucial role in many industries. In biotechnology, they design facilities for drug creation using enzymes and microorganisms. In environmental engineering, they work to reduce pollution through inventions like catalytic converters. In the electronics industry, they are involved in the manufacturing of microchips and computer parts. Chemical engineers also contribute to the production of everyday items like detergents, soaps, and cosmetics, as well as food and beverages. They are responsible for scaling up processes from lab to industrial levels, focusing on chemical process design, equipment design, and safety components.

10:01

📚 Chemical Engineering Education and Curriculum

Chemical engineering students take a variety of courses, including calculus and general chemistry, which are also part of the chemistry curriculum. However, chemical engineering courses focus more on engineering topics such as thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat flow. These courses are essential for understanding how to design and maintain large-scale reactors and processes. Chemical engineers also learn about kinetics, which is a fundamental concept for understanding reaction rates and is applied in both chemistry and engineering contexts.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering is an engineering discipline that focuses on designing processes for the transport, transformation, and production of materials. It involves the application of knowledge from physics, chemistry, biology, and math. In the video, it is highlighted that chemical engineers can pursue a wide range of careers, from biotechnology and pharmaceuticals to environmental engineering and electronics, showcasing the versatility of the field.

💡Biotechnology

Biotechnology refers to the use of living organisms or scientific techniques to modify and harness biological processes for specific applications, often in the pharmaceutical industry. It involves the design of facilities that use enzymes and microorganisms to create new drugs. In the context of the video, chemical engineers in biotechnology contribute to the development of new medical treatments and health-related products.

💡Environmental Engineering

Environmental Engineering is a branch of engineering that focuses on creating solutions to protect and improve the environment. This includes efforts to reduce pollution and waste, as well as the development of sustainable processes. The video emphasizes the role of chemical engineers in designing systems that minimize the release of harmful substances into the air, water, and soil, such as catalytic converters for cars.

💡Semiconductors and Electronics

Semiconductors and Electronics pertain to the design, manufacture, and use of devices and materials that can control the flow of electrons. Chemical engineers play a significant role in this field by being involved in the manufacturing of microchips and other computer parts. This involves understanding and applying chemical processes to the production of silicon crystals, wafers, and the transistor architecture.

💡Scale-up

Scale-up in the context of chemical engineering refers to the process of increasing the production scale of a reaction or process from a laboratory setting to an industrial one. It involves the translation of small-scale experiments into large-scale production, which requires addressing challenges such as maintaining consistent reaction conditions and ensuring safety at a larger scale.

💡Chemical Process Design

Chemical Process Design is the planning and execution of methods and processes to transform raw materials into valuable products through chemical reactions. It is a core aspect of chemical engineering that involves designing the equipment and infrastructure needed for large-scale chemical reactions, such as reactors, piping, and control systems.

💡Kinetics

Kinetics is the branch of chemistry that deals with the rates of chemical reactions, understanding how fast or slow these reactions occur. It is crucial for chemical engineers as it helps in determining the speed at which a reaction takes place, which is essential for designing reactors and ensuring that the reaction proceeds at a controlled and efficient pace.

💡Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is the study of energy, its conversion between different forms, and the ability to do work. In chemical engineering, it is applied to understand how heat moves through systems and how it affects chemical processes. This knowledge is vital for designing equipment like cooling jackets for reactors to maintain proper temperatures for reactions.

💡Fluid Mechanics

Fluid Mechanics is the study of the behavior of fluids—both liquids and gases—and the forces on them. Chemical engineers use fluid mechanics to design systems for the transport of fluids and chemicals, ensuring that the pipes and equipment can handle the correct pressure and flow rates required for the processes.

💡Heat Flow

Heat Flow, also known as heat transfer, is the movement of thermal energy from one body or substance to another. Chemical engineers must understand heat flow to design systems that control temperature, such as the cooling jackets used in reactors to maintain the correct operating temperature and prevent overheating.

💡Control Systems

Control Systems are mechanisms that manage and regulate the operation of a process or device. In chemical engineering, they are essential for maintaining the proper functioning of reactors and production processes, ensuring that conditions like temperature and pressure remain within safe and efficient parameters.

Highlights

Chemical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves designing processes to transport, transform, and produce materials.

Chemical engineers have knowledge of physics, chemistry, biology, and math to design processes.

Chemical engineers can work in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, designing facilities that use enzymes and microorganisms to create new drugs.

Environmental engineering is a field where chemical engineers try to reduce the volume of pollutants entering air, waterways, and soil.

Chemical engineers are involved in the design and manufacturing of semiconductors and electronics, such as microchips and computer parts.

Chemical engineers work on industrial chemicals like detergents, soaps, and cosmetics, and food production like at Nestle or in the beverage industry.

Petroleum engineering is a field where chemical engineers design equipment to turn crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, and other products.

Alternative energy is another area where chemical engineers contribute, such as in the design of solar cells and fuel cells.

Chemical engineers focus on scale-up, taking small reactions and making them happen on a larger scale.

Chemical process design is a key role of chemical engineers, including designing processing plants and chemical reactors.

Manufacturing beer is an example of chemical engineering, where large reactors and proper temperature and pressure controls are essential.

Chemical engineers need to understand the chemical process occurring in reactors and apply engineering principles to design safely.

Chemical engineers take calculus and chemistry classes, but their focus is more on engineering principles and large-scale applications.

Chemical engineers learn thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat flow, which are important for designing and maintaining reactors and processes.

Chemical engineers can work in labs, simulate or model plant designs, and collaborate with other engineers to ensure efficiency and safety.

Chemical engineers enjoy the idea of taking chemistry experiments and figuring out how to produce materials on a large scale for consumers.

A bachelor's degree in chemical engineering can qualify one for a wide range of entry-level positions with a median starting salary of $67,000 per year in the US.

Chemical Engineering is a broad field with many opportunities, requiring knowledge of chemistry, physics, engineering, and more.

Transcripts

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Takeaways

Q & A