Definition of Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineering is one of the broadest fields of engineering. This breadth stems from the fact that the discipline is founded on mathematics and on all the basic sciences, namely, chemistry, physics, as well as biology, making it a truely interdisciplinary field of study.
In comparison, the other major engineering disciplines are founded mainly on math and physics. Thus, there are two alternate definitions of chemical engineering:
- Disciplinary Definition
- Chemical Engineering is the profession in which knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, gained by study, experience, and practice, is applied with judgment to develop economic and safe ways of using materials to benefit mankind.
- Occupational Definition
- Chemical Engineering is a broad discipline dealing with processes (industrial and natural) involving the transformation (chemical, biological, or physical) of matter or energy into forms useful for mankind, economically and without compromising environment, safety, or finite resources.
The chemical supply chain. (View larger (72kb)) Courtesy of Professor Wolfgang Marquardt.
Domain of Chemical Engineering
The molcular basis of the chemical and physical transformation of matter that Chemical Engineers are concerned with, coupled with the global principles underlying the discipline (conservation of mass, energy, and momentum, the notion of unit operations, and reaction kinetics) allows them to work from the nano-scale (design of catalysts, or molecular design of drugs) to the meso-scale (petroleum refinery) to the global-scale (air pollution modeling and control). This is unique to Chemical Engineering and is depicted in the figure below (NRC Report, credited to Professor Wolfgang Marquardt):
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