A glimpse of Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering is a branch of engineering which utilises mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology to develop and execute chemical operations and processes to produce valuable materials from raw materials.
This discipline is first codified in 1901 with publication of the first chemical engineering handbook — aptly named Handbook of Chemical Engineering — by George E. Davis. This book is based on his twelve lectures for Manchester School of Technology (now part of University of Manchester, QS Ranking #27 in 2021). Curiously, Davis pursued a career in consultancy instead of teaching in universities.
Along the way, chemical engineering will encompass two main bodies of knowledge, i.e. unit operations comprising material handling, mechanical unit operations, mass transfer, and heat transfer; and unit process, also known as chemical reaction engineering.
The concept of “unit operation” was invented by William H. Walker and Arthur D. Little, two MIT alumni in the early 20th century. They would also be pioneers in transitioning the Department of Chemical Engineering from Chemistry alongside Lewis M. Norton, the originator of Chemical Engineering curriculum (previously dubbed Course X); Warren K. Lewis, the first head of Department of Chemical Engineering; and William H. McAdams, one of the co-authors of Principles of Chemical Engineering.
This concept would prove to be revolutionary in shaping Chemical Engineering as a separate discipline with added values of engineering, industrial practices, and design such that Chemical Engineering would grow as a distinctly large discipline with the Industrial Revolution-style of massive production. In other words, Chemical Engineering would improve upon Chemistry such that processes/reactions discovered can be scaled up: from laboratory scale to pilot plant to industrial plant.
As time and science march on, Chemical Engineering will encompass a large amount of main and supporting knowledge to ensure productivity and process efficiency on such large scale. Those supporting knowledge are process control, process equipments, process safety, utilities system, waste treatment, engineering economics, project management, etc with the foundation of math, physics, chemistry, and biology.
One of the ways to look at the knowledge types learned in chemical engineering is to observe the curriculum of chemical engineering studies from diploma to doctorate level. Because I graduated from Institut Teknologi Bandung, I can say what they do over there, like shown in these links.
For context, ITB employs the first-year system where Chemical Engineering sophomores are not actually Chemical Engineering students just yet — instead they are known as “Tahap Persiapan Bersama” (Joint Preparation) under the umbrella of their respective faculty, i.e. Faculty of Industrial Technology. The first year lesson is all about the basics such as Calculus I and II, Physics I and II, Chemistry I and II, Sports, Indonesian, English, etc. If you think this is really basic… well, some call this year “the fourth year of 3-years high school”. After that they enroll into their major of choice and learn Chemical Engineering-specific courses with unit operation and unit processes in the 4th to 6th semesters before tackling analysis and synthesis of chemical processes in the 7th to 8th semesters.
Now, as referenced before, the Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Program in ITB is divided in two submajors: Chemical Technology and Bioprocess Technology. Which one did I belong to? Take a guess. Most importantly, Bioprocess Technology encompasses biological courses (obviously) such as microbial metabolism and enzyme technology. Their lab is also specially prepared for bioprocess works, such as fermentation, sterilization kinetics, and enzymatic conversion.
Back to the larger topic: because chemical engineering is focused on converting raw material into usable and valuable goods and materials, and because chemical engineering stems from chemical reactions, this field is notably good at being relevant and general enough to be implemented in a lot of industries which would be discussed in the next segments.
Let’s talk about the materials produced in the industry. There are three main types of materials: 1) commodity chemicals which is profitable through bulk production, low margins, and high purity such as ammonia; 2) fine chemicals which deals with margins instead of production volume due to production complexities such as pharmaceutical goods; and 3) specialty chemicals which does not really need purity as much as they need performance such as paint.
With such variety in products and breadth of knowledge, chemical engineering graduates will also have a large variety of job opportunities, mainly in process engineering, process safety engineering, and project engineering. Those jobs are paid on average about IDR9 million/month according to ITB’s tracer study in 2020. On the other hand, US-based jobs will pay around US$108k/year on average and around US$66k/year for the lowest 10% according to the BLS (2019).
To conclude, chemical engineering is the utilisation of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology to convert raw material into valuable goods (commodity, fine, and specialty chemicals). Workforce in this field will be paid around IDR9 million/month in Indonesia or around US$66k/year in USA with opportunities for six-figure income.
