ChE-PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

What is
Chemical Engineering?
Since its birth in the last century, the fundamel7;tal paradigm of
chemical engineering has gone through a series of dramatic changes,
and more are on the way.

hemical engineering has impacted on society in

many ways: it is difiicult to visualize the world without the large volume production of antibiotics. fertilizers, agricultural chemicals, special polymers for
biomedical devices, high-strength polymer composites, and
synthetic fibers and fabrics . All of these require that specially designed chemicals and materials be produced economically with minimal adverse impact on the environment.
Developing this ability and implementing it on a practical
scale are what chemical engineering is all about.
Chemical engineering. however, is more than a group of
products or a pile of economic statistics. As an intellectual
discipline it has its characteristic set of problems and systematic methods for obtaining their solutions; that is. its
paradigm. Since the birth of chemical engineering in the
last century, its fundamental paradigm has gone through a
series of dramatic changes, and more are on the way.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology started a
chemical engineering program in 1888 as an option in its
Chemistry Dept. The curriculum largely described industrial operations and was organized by specific products.
The detailed knowledge for one product often seemed
quite different from that of another however, and the need
for a paradigm soon became apparent.
The first paradigm, for solving the problems of economically producing commodity products on a large scale, was
based on a unifying concept of "unit operations"-proposed
by Arthur D. Little in 1915. The tools of chemical engi- .
nee ring analysis during this period were supplemented by 1
studies on materials and energy balances of processes (j,rid
by fundamental thermodynamic studies on multicomponent
systems.

The material has been adapted from The National Research Council's
report, "Frontiers of Chemical Engineering." and is published with the
permission of The National Academy Press. The complete report can be
ordered from The National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Avenue.
N.W. . Washington. DC 20418. If ordered by an AIChE membe~ before
February 1, the cost is $15.00. The report can be charged to American
Express, Visa. and Master Card.

January 1988

The "high noon" of American dominance in chemical

manufacturing after World War II saw the gradual exhaustion of research problems in conventional unit operations.
This led to the rise of a second paradigm for chemical engineering, pioneered by the Engineering Science movement. Chemical engineers began to reexamine some unit
operations from a more fundamental point of view, using
principles of contemporary science to develop quantitative,
mechanistic models. Mathematical models of processes and
reactors were developed and applied with considerable success, particularly in the capital-intensive oil refining and
commodity petrochemical industries.
Parallel to the development of the Engineering Science
movement was the evolution of the core chemical engineering curriculum in its present form . The core curriculum is
responsible for the confidence with which chemical engineers integrate knowledge from many disciplines for the
solution of complex problems. The curriculum provides a
background in some of the basic sciences including:
mathematics (calculus, differential equations, and, increasingly, linear algebra)
physics (atomic and molecular physics. electricity and
magnetism, and mechanics)
chemistry (inorganic, organic, and physical)
This background is essential for a rigorous study of topics
central to chemical engineering:
multicomponent thermodynamics and kinetics
transport phenomena
reaction engineering
process design and control
plant design and systems engineering for process
safety, environmental protection, and economic operation
This training has allowed chemical engineers to expand
the boundaries of the discipline into interdisciplinary areas
such as catalysis, colloid science, combustion, electrochemical engineering, and polymer technology .

A new paradigm
Over the next few years, technological challenges and
economic forces should shape a new chemical engineering
19

Enduring and emerging challenges In the

new paradigm for chemlca~ engineering.
Enduring Challenges

Emerging Challenges

Manufacture of homogeneous
materials from small
molecules

Manufacture of composite and

structured materials from
large molecules

Manufacture of inexpensive
commodity materials

Manufacture of expensive,
high-performance, specialty
materials

Products with long life cycles

Competing in national markets
Competition based on price
and availability

Products with short life cycles

Competing in global markets
Competition based on quality
and product performance

DeSigning processes

Designing products with

special performance
characteristics

Large-volume processes
Continuous processing
Building industrial plants
dedicated to a single product
or process

Small-scale processes
Batch processing
Building flexible
manufacturing plants

Capital-intensive facilities

Facilities for which the cost of

research and design is a larger
fraction of total cost

Intradisciplinary research
Simple models and
approximate solutions

MultidiSciplinary research
Large computers, better
approximations, and more
complete solutions

A few simple analytical

instruments

Many sophisticated analytical

instruments

Careers built around a single

product line or process
Research and education at the
mesoscale (equipment level)

Multiple career changes

Research and education at the
microscale (molecular level)
and macroscale (systems level)

paradigm that will have a profound effect on the future of

the profession. A major force behind the evolution of this
paradigm is the explosion of new products and materials
that should come to market in the next two decades. These
products and materials from the biotechnology. electronics.
and high-performance materials industry are critically dependent on structure and design at the molecular level.
They require manufacturing processes that can precisely
control chemical composition and molecular structure.
The essence of chemical engineering has always been the
synthesis. design, testing. scaleup. operation. control. and
optimization of processes that change the physical state or
composition of materials. Traditionally. chemical engineers
have focused on a level of size and complexity that may be
termed the mesoscale. The mesoscale is typified by reactors and equipment for single processes (unit operations)
and the combination of unit ope rat ions in manufacturing
plants. Research on important mesoscale problems has
been increasingly supplemented by in-depth investigations
of phenomena on a microsca/e (at molecular dimensions)
and of extremely complex systems. the macrosca/e. Chemi-

cal engineers in the future will have to meet the challenge

of manufacturing sophisticated products on the scale of
grams and kilograms rather than kilotons, and develop
processes that demand hitherto unattainable levels of process control and chemical purity. They will also have to
find ways to improve the overall effectiveness of manufacturing systems to meet worldwide competition as well as,
most importantly, to assure that these systems do not endanger health, safety or the environment.
The new paradigm of chemical engineering will evolve
from this change of scale; its key thrw.1: will be the chemical engineering of microscale processing. Chemical engineers must have a thorough understanding of molecular
science (the microscalel in addition to the traditional areas
of mesoscale and macroscale processing.
In fact, future chemical engineers will have to integrate a
wider range of scales than any other branch of engineering
as they work to relate the macroscale of the environment
to the microscale of molecular reactions and transport, or
the macroscale performance of a composite aircraft to the
microscopic design and processing of its structural components. Some things. though, will not change. The underlying philosophy of how to train chemical engineers. emphasizing basic principles that are relatively immune to
changes in field of application - these must remain constant if future chemical engineers are to master the broad
spectrum of problems they will encounter.
~ Add: 1. b. altno., as paradigm case, a caSe or in.stan<:e.:
~fO~~'as representative 'or typicaL
'.
'19'2j C. DAY: .LEwIs- Transitional Poem' Il 25; I Would be paed- agogue-hear poplar,. lime And oak recite the seasons' paradigm. '"
':1955.1. L.. AIJS'I1N How to do Things with KmIs (1962) xi. 132 We
Were content to refer to 'statements' as the typical or paradigm
"case. 19M Listener 6 Aug. 20012 If one uses the word 'paradigm'
as Wittgensteirr hirnself used it, to denote a logical or conceptual
structure serving us as a form of thought within a given area of experience. 1966 A. F. PARKER'RHoDES in Automatic TransL of Lang.
,(NATO Summer School, Venice, 1962) 173 The concept of para- ,
' digm thus enables us to approach the problem of mathematizing the .'
of syntactic description with greatly enhanced resources. .~
1910 Eng. Stud. Ll. 18 Although Ohmann determines objective
criteria to state the similarity (and at the same time the dissimilarity), there still remains a whole paradigm of related structures out
of which the author has to choose the particular a1ternative(s) to
match't:hemarked term with. Ibid. 46 But. of course, for her Edwardianfamj}y life is a convenient paradigm of civilisation as a
wbole. 1973 C. SAGAN Cosmic Connection (1974) Xxiii. 155 There.
is a-generation of men and women for whom. .theMoon was the
~igm of the unattainable. 1913 Times Lit. Suppl2 Mar. 2381
4 The unfolding of. terror and duplicity which follows is easily seen
as a paradignlof the suppression of DubCek's liberalizing admini$. .
tratjoo.l97:f Nature 6 July 59/3 The use of induced epilepsy as an
'interfering technique' in the study of learning and memory paradigms.. 1975 Language LI. 1009 The publication of Chomsky'S
SgnJactiistrr/iCllJleS provided a new paradigm (or I.stics. 1976
T. ~ erit. & Ideology i. 19 In the drive for order, propor- '
lion and propriety. the demand (or socially cohesive categ0rie5 0(
Nature ahlReason. , .history once again seltcts criticism as Doth .
. paradigm and instnunent of such a project. 1916 Language Lll.
286 As Cor the periods in between the quantum leaps, Kuhn con.
tendJ that ~ period 0/ normal science in the ~01_ ~.
~jfic disdplioe correapondtto one and mIy 0IIt, ~ _.
cal. ~ or fJtl1tJf/JwL In a. ~ .~_ ........

process

.., ~oiIIniad tdentific ~ments.!lit _ itiiae- .

.cret~_~tOa ~, o/prfK
Adapted .m . ~4. S.lI!IlIelWedi to the Osro.d ~ '.

..,r
-

~8bn;b~.~~3.~.2S7~~"'~.""