WHAT IS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

WHAT IS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING?

This 1990 Annual Meeting of the AIChE is the largest ever meeting of chemical
engineers -- a field now so diverse that it divides into 21 parallel lines of interest,
spread over five days.

There are 314 sessions, during which more than 2000 chemical engineers will
present their latest contributions -- each convinced that they are adding to the core of chemical engineering knowledge -- or perhaps, since the Amundson Report, they
would prefer to think of themselves as working at the frontiers, pioneers in expanding the horizons of chemical engineering.

But what is this "chemical engineering" that generates so much enthusiasm ?
What is it that all these people feel they share as a common profession ?
I don't know if the AIChE has a formal definition, but the I Chem E in its early
days gave great thought to the problem, and produced the following definition :

"Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with processes in which materials undergo a required change in composition, energy content or physical state, with the means of processing, with the resulting products and with
their application to useful ends.

This nails the flag of chemical engineering to the mast of engineering,defined in
turn by the Engineering Council, London, as follows :
"An engineer is one who acquires and uses scientific, technical
and other pertinent knowledge and skills to create, operate and
maintain efficient systems, structures, machines, plant, processes
and devices of practical and economic value."