Category: 2. History

As the industrialized world’s hunger for resources grew, the field of chemical engineering evolved to produce these resources more safely and more cheaply than ever before. Chemical engineers were needed to design and optimise the equipment and chemical processes required to produce these resources. Chemical engineers also had to figure out how to build plants…

Chemical engineering started to become a recognized profession when formal chemical engineering education was developed. There were courses in industrial chemistry and other areas of chemistry, but none which specifically tackled chemical engineering concepts. The world’s first four-year curriculum in chemical engineering was developed in 1888 by Lewis M. Norton, a chemistry professor at the…

The chemical engineering industry was born in 1878 when George E. Davis, an Englishman, visited numerous chemical works in his role as a chemical inspector. His visits allowed him to identify the idea of unit operations, a core concept in chemical engineering in which a chemical process can be further broken down into operations such…

Although the chemical engineering field owes its existence to Democritus, a Greek philosopher who proposed the concept of the atom around 440 BC, this event technically relates to chemistry. The proposal of an atom led to further developments in chemistry throughout the ages, eventually culminating in the advent of industrial chemistry. Industrial chemistry is where…

Chemical engineering is one of today’s broadest and most in-demand engineering disciplines. Chemical engineers work in a variety of industries, including energy, mining, chemical production, food production, and water treatment. Because of their diverse skillset and the industries in which they work, chemical engineers are highly sought-after. There is no set definition of what chemical…