Chemical Engineering

Chemical Process Principles is a foundational subject in chemical engineering that applies the fundamental laws of conservation of mass and energy to the analysis of industrial processes. Students learn to perform rigorous material and energy balance calculations on individual unit operations—such as reactors, separators, and heat exchangers—as well as on entire process flowsheets. This involves applying principles of stoichiometry, thermodynamics, and fluid properties to quantify process streams, determine raw material requirements, calculate product yields, and assess energy consumption, providing the essential quantitative toolkit for the design, evaluation, and optimization of chemical manufacturing systems.

Chemical Reaction Engineering is a fundamental discipline that applies the principles of chemical kinetics and transport phenomena to the design and operation of chemical reactors. It focuses on the quantitative study of the rates at which chemical reactions occur and how factors like temperature, pressure, and catalyst activity influence them. By integrating this knowledge with an understanding of heat and mass transfer, engineers in this field design and optimize industrial-scale reactors to safely, efficiently, and economically convert raw materials into valuable products, effectively bridging the gap between laboratory chemistry and commercial production.

Thermodynamics and Transport Phenomena are the foundational pillars of chemical engineering, providing the essential principles for analyzing and designing chemical processes. Thermodynamics deals with energy, equilibrium, and the feasibility of processes, determining whether a reaction will occur or how phases will separate under given conditions. Complementing this, transport phenomena—comprising fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and mass transfer—quantifies the *rate* at which momentum, energy, and chemical species move through a system. Together, these disciplines allow engineers to predict not only the final outcome of a process (the "what" and "how much" from thermodynamics) but also the speed at which it occurs and the equipment size required (the "how fast" from transport phenomena).

Process Control and Optimization is a core discipline within chemical engineering that deals with the architecture and algorithms for managing industrial processes to ensure they operate safely, efficiently, and economically. It involves designing and implementing systems that use feedback from sensors to automatically adjust variables like temperature, pressure, and flow rates, thereby maintaining stable operation and consistent product quality in the face of disturbances. Beyond simply maintaining stability, this field also employs mathematical techniques to systematically determine the optimal operating conditions that maximize desired outcomes, such as production yield and profitability, while minimizing costs, energy consumption, and environmental impact.

Polymer Science and Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the synthesis, structure, and properties of polymers—large macromolecules that constitute materials like plastics, rubbers, fibers, and adhesives. It merges principles from chemistry and physics to understand the fundamental relationships between a polymer's molecular architecture and its macroscopic behavior, such as strength, elasticity, and thermal stability. As a sub-discipline of chemical engineering, it applies this scientific knowledge to design, process, and manufacture polymer-based materials into a vast range of useful products, focusing on reactor design for polymerization, process control for manufacturing, and the development of novel materials for advanced applications.

Separation processes are a cornerstone of chemical engineering that involve methods to transform a mixture of substances into two or more distinct and purer product streams. These processes work by exploiting differences in the physical or chemical properties of the mixture's components, such as boiling point, particle size, solubility, or density. Essential industrial techniques like distillation, filtration, absorption, and chromatography are employed as unit operations to purify raw materials, isolate desired products, and remove contaminants, making them fundamental to virtually all chemical and manufacturing industries.

Corrosion Science and Engineering is the specialized field dedicated to understanding, predicting, and managing the natural degradation of materials through chemical and electrochemical reactions with their environment. It integrates principles of chemistry, metallurgy, and materials science to uncover the fundamental mechanisms of corrosion, which is then applied to engineer practical solutions—such as selecting resistant alloys, designing protective coatings, and implementing electrochemical control systems. The ultimate goal is to ensure the safety, reliability, and economic viability of critical structures and components, ranging from industrial pipelines and bridges to biomedical implants and microelectronics.