English Language II

Chemical Engineering
I
Chemical engineering is all about changing raw materials into useful products you use every day in a
safe and cost-effective way. For example: petrol, plastics and synthetic fibres such as polyester and
nylon, all come from oil.
Chemical engineers understand how to alter the chemical, biochemical or physical state of a
substance, to create everything from face creams to fuels.

​ ttps://www.icheme.org/education/whynotchemeng/
Taken from h

II
Chemical engineering​, the development of processes and the design and operation of plants in
which materials undergo changes in their physical or chemical state. Applied throughout the process
industries, it is founded on the principles of chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

The laws of physical chemistry and physics govern the practicability and efficiency of chemical
engineering operations. Energy changes, deriving from thermodynamic considerations, are
particularly important. Mathematics is a basic tool in optimization and modeling. Optimization
means arranging materials, facilities, and energy to yield as productive and economical an operation
as possible. Modeling is the construction of theoretical mathematical prototypes of complex process
systems, commonly with the aid of computers.

History

Chemical engineering is as old as the process industries. Its heritage dates from the fermentation
and evaporation processes operated by early civilizations. Modern chemical engineering emerged
with the development of large-scale, chemical-manufacturing operations in the second half of the
19th century. Throughout its development as an independent discipline, chemical engineering has
been directed toward solving problems of designing and operating large plants for continuous
production.

A landmark in the development of chemical engineering was the publication in 1901 of the first
textbook on the subject, by George E. Davis, a British chemical consultant. This concentrated on the
design of plant items for specific operations. The notion of a processing plant encompassing a
number of operations, such as mixing, evaporation, and filtration, and of these operations being
essentially similar, whatever the product, led to the concept of unit operations. This was first
enunciated by the American chemical engineer Arthur D. Little in 1915 and formed the basis for a
classification of chemical engineering that dominated the subject for the next 40 years. The number
of unit operations—the building blocks of a chemical plant—is not large. The complexity arises from
the variety of conditions under which the unit operations are conducted.

In the same way that a complex plant can be divided into basic unit operations, so chemical
reactions involved in the process industries can be classified into certain groups, or unit processes
 ​ olymerizations, esterifications, and nitrations), having common characteristics. This
(​e.g., p
classification into unit processes brought rationalization to the study of process engineering. The
unit approach suffered from the disadvantage inherent in such classifications: a restricted outlook
based on existing practice. Since World War II, closer examination of the fundamental phenomena
involved in the various unit operations has shown these to depend on the basic laws of mass
transfer, heat transfer, and fluid flow. This has given unity to the diverse unit operations and has led
to the development of chemical engineering science in its own right; as a result, many applications
have been found in fields outside the traditional chemical industry. Study of the fundamental
phenomena upon which chemical engineering is based has necessitated their description in
mathematical form and has led to more sophisticated mathematical techniques. The advent of
digital computers has allowed laborious design calculations to be performed rapidly, opening the
way to accurate optimization of industrial processes. Variations due to different parameters, such as
energy source used, plant layout, and environmental factors, can be predicted accurately and
quickly so that the best combination can be chosen.

Chemical Engineering Functions

Chemical engineers are employed in the design and development of both processes and plant items.
In each case, data and predictions often have to be obtained or confirmed with pilot experiments.
Plant operation and control is increasingly the sphere of the chemical engineer rather than the
chemist. Chemical engineering provides an ideal background for the economic evaluation of new
projects and, in the plant construction sector, for marketing.

Branches of Chemical Engineering

The fundamental principles of chemical engineering underlie the operation of processes extending
well beyond the boundaries of the chemical industry, and chemical engineers are employed in a
range of operations outside traditional areas. Plastics, polymers, and synthetic fibres involve
chemical reaction engineering problems in their manufacture, with fluid flow and heat transfer
considerations dominating their fabrication. The dyeing of a fibre is a mass-transfer problem. Pulp
and paper manufacture involve considerations of fluid flow and heat transfer. While the scale and
materials are different, these again are found in modern continuous production of foodstuffs. The
pharmaceuticals industry presents chemical engineering problems, the solutions of which have
been essential to the availability of modern drugs. The nuclear industry makes similar demands on
the chemical engineer, particularly for fuel manufacture and reprocessing. Chemical engineers are
involved in many sectors of the metals processing industry, which extends from steel manufacture
to separation of rare metals. Further applications of chemical engineering are found in the fuel
industries. In the second half of the 20th century, considerable numbers of chemical engineers have
been involved in space exploration, from the design of fuel cells to the manufacture of propellants.
Looking to the future, it is probable that chemical engineering will provide the solution to at least
two of the world’s major problems: supply of adequate fresh water in all regions through
desalination of seawater and environmental control through prevention of pollution.
Carl Hanson
​ ttps://www.britannica.com/technology/chemical-engineering
Taken from h
III
Chemical engineers change raw materials into valuable products on an industrial scale.
Chemical engineers are concerned with PROCESSES and PRODUCTS.

Processes: ∙ ​Foodstuffs - ice cream, chocolate, beer​ ∙​

Pharmaceuticals - paracetamol, penicillin
Process Design:
∙ ​Making chemicals and pharmaceuticals ​∙
Processing polymers and foodstuffs​ ​∙
Energy generation ∙ ​Inventing a new process
∙ ​Wastewater treatment ∙ ​Designing the equipment for a process​ ​∙
∙ ​Environmental clean-up Operating a process
∙ ​Improving a process
Products:

Product Design:
∙ ​Chemicals - petrol, ammonia, methanol ​∙
Polymers - polythene, PVC, synthetic
fibres ∙ ​Choosing a product for an application ​∙
∙ ​Consumer products - shampoo, washing Designing the product
powder ∙ ​Improving the product

Chemical engineers know how transformations occur at different length scales.

Transformations:
∙ ​Molecular level - how molecules behave
and react
∙ ​Chemical reactions ∙ ​Process level - how transformations can
∙ ​Changes in physical state (e.g. melting, be performed
boiling) ∙ ​Plant level - how processes can be put
∙ ​Mixing and separating together
∙ ​Biosynthesis ∙ ​Global level - logistics, management, the
Length scales: environment

Chemical engineers know about mature and new technologies.

New technology:
Mature technology:
∙ ​Membrane separators and reactors ​∙
∙ ​Stirred tanks Supercritical fluids
∙ ​Distillation columns​ ​∙ ​Heat exchangers ∙ ​Biotechnology
∙F
​ ilters ​∙ G
​ enetic manipulation of organisms ​Chemical engineers have
knowledge of many subjects.

∙ ​Pure science ∙ ​Management

∙ ​Engineering ∙ ​Entrepreneurship
∙ ​Information technology​ ​∙ ​Economics ∙ ​Safety, health and the environment

Chemical engineers are vital in the process industries.

​ ttps://www.ceb.cam.ac.uk/undergraduates/prospective-students/what-is-chemical-engineering
Taken from h

IV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRKyJRAxjpM
Tapescript
Our world is made up of matter.
And one way that we study matter is with chemistry.
How we use that knowledge leads us to chemical engineering.
Chemical engineering is one of the broadest of the engineering fields, focused not only on
chemicals– which make up everything – but also on developing and designing plants and processes
for manufacturing chemicals.
Now, let’s imagine we’ve come up with an amazing new product that we have to create through a
chemical process.
It could be some new kind of personal water purifier, or makeup that lasts as long as you want it to,
or a revolutionary clothing material.
Whatever it is, we’re going to have to go through some steps before we all get rich. Once we’ve
designed our product, we’ll need to create a facility where we can make it. And in order to know how
to do that, it would help if you understand a little about the history of chemical engineering.
[Theme Music]
To begin, let’s dispel a common assumption: that chemical engineering is simply chemistry applied
to engineering.
Sure, there’s a lot of chemistry involved, but the engineering side has a lot to do with answering
questions, like
“What can we do with these chemicals? How can we make them?
Where can we go from here, and What are the possibilities?”
Chemical engineering got its unofficial start back around the time of the American Revolutionary
War.
During the war, blockades were put up to stop trade between the American colonies and Europe.
France was especially affected by these blockades, because America is where it got its supply of
sodium carbonate, also known as soda ash.
At the time, soda ash was used for a whole bunch of things, from cooking, to manufacturing glass and
paper, to making soap.
Since France couldn’t get sodium carbonate from its normal trade routes,
the French Royal Academy offered up a prize in 1775 to anyone who could make sodium carbonate
from sodium chloride – which we know as common salt.
It took about 15 years, but a French chemist and physician named Nicolas Leblanc finally figured out
how to do it around 1789.
His methods, now known as the Leblanc Process, first heated sodium chloride with sulfuric acid to
produce sodium sulfate, which was called the salt cake.
The salt cake was then mixed with crushed limestone and coal, and fired.
This left the combination of sodium carbonate and calcium sulfide, also known as black ash. The
final step separated the sodium carbonate from the black ash by washing it with water, which was
then evaporated.
We call this extraction process lixiviation.
Leblanc’s process became the forerunner of modern chemical manufacturing, and paved the way for
future chemical engineers to come.
By 1791, he opened up a small factory in Saint Denis and began large-scale production of soda ash.
But his plant was soon taken over by revolutionaries during the French Revolution, who also
released his trade secrets.
While this process was revolutionary in its own right, it was pretty bad for the environment.
It produced a ton of waste that smelled rather putrid.
Since chemical processes can often have nasty byproducts,
governments can often pass pollution legislation, especially around big cities and bodies of water.
But none of this has stopped the chemical industry from growing.
In the late 19th century, British chemist George Davis worked as an inspector for the Alkali Act,
which was an early piece of environmental legislation in response to the Leblanc process. The act
required soda manufacturers to reduce the amount of hydrochloric acid gas that they released into
the atmosphere.
Around 1887, Davis gave a series of lectures at the Manchester School of Technology. His talks
formed the basis for his two-volume Handbook of Chemical Engineering, which was the first of its
kind.
There were already chemistry books written for specific industries, like acid production and
brewing. But what made Davis’ work unique was that it organized basic operations that are common
to many industries, like transporting liquids and gases or distillation.
In the US, his work helped stimulate new ways of thinking about chemical processes and sparked
the creation of chemical engineering degrees at universities around the country. Any chemical
engineers that we work with to help develop our product will likely have their education rooted in
Davis’ teachings.
Around the turn of the 20th century, cars were starting to become a regular part of modern life.
And soon chemical engineers were playing an important role in their use, by making gasoline.
Drills were already finding crude oil, but that’s not gasoline.
The oil needed to be refined.
So we needed refineries, which were basically giant chemical plants.
Chemical engineers improved the process of making gasoline by introducing methods like cracking,
where heavy hydrocarbon molecules are broken down into lighter molecules by heat and pressure.
They also implemented the process of polymerization,
where propylene and butylene are combined into molecules of two or three times their original
molecular weight.
With these improvements, gasoline became more economically viable, which made gas cheaper and
owning a car less expensive.
Now, large-scale chemical production like this requires a lot of planning.
So, as chemical plants develop, a big part of chemical engineering becomes what we’ll call “Unit
Operations”.
This was first introduced by the American Arthur D. Little in 1915, and it breaks down each part of a
chemical plant into individual units.
Do you need to get chemicals flowing from one side of the plant to the other?
Use pipes. That’s a unit.
And you’ll need pumps to drive the flow. That’s another unit.
Need to stimulate a reaction? Use a reactor.
Want to mix those chemicals together? Go for a mixer.
Need to separate them?
Try distillation columns or maybe reverse osmosis membranes.
All of these are units, and they highlight the key theories that chemical engineers need to understand
to keep a plant running.
It’s important to think of processes as a whole,
but it will be just as important to break down our chemical plant into unit operations when we get to
the manufacturing phase.
Once engineers realized – in part thanks to Little’s work –
that all of these unit operations were founded on basic principles, such as momentum transfer, mass
transfer, and thermodynamics,
they could then become more creative in how they manufactured chemicals.
They no longer had to use the same equipment for the same limited purposes.
Instead, they could devise new ways of using their tools and machines.
This allowed chemical engineering to grow into one of the broadest engineering fields.
As recently as the 1970’s, the field was much more narrow than it is now.
Back then, around 80% of graduating chemical engineers took jobs in the chemical process industry
and government.
By 2000, that 80% had dropped to about 50%.
One of the reasons for this was the emergence of biotechnology.
Heavily focused on research and development, biotechnology engineering applies technology to
biological systems and living organisms.
Once we know how and why biological processes work, we can find ways to change, adapt, and
control them, with the aim of making our lives better.
In a similar fashion, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies also played a big role in expanding
what chemical engineers do.
Every day, new drugs and medicines are made and improved upon.
Chemical engineers also work on how best to deliver these drugs into our bodies. Some might best
be injected, like insulin or an epipen, while others work well in a spray form, like an inhaler.
A lot of chemical engineering goes into many of the foods that we eat as well. We’ve had to figure out
such dark magic as getting corn syrup from corn and making artificial sweeteners.
We’ve found dairy substitutes and used plants to make vegan and vegetarian meats that taste like
they came from an animal – kind of.
This has all done wonders for people with food allergies and dietary restrictions. There’s also a
growing focus on the environment and sustainable energy within the field of chemical engineering.
We want to both preserve what we already have and find energy sources that won’t run out of
power. So one source that’s closely related to chemical engineering is biomass: renewable organic
material that comes from plants and animals.
This ranges from wood and leftover crops, to garbage and manure.
As of 2016, biomass fuels provide about 5% of the primary energy used in the United States.
And chemical engineers play a big part in figuring out what can be used as biomass and how to best
break it down to get energy from it.
All of these developments in chemical engineering are what will really give us the knowledge to
make our wonderful new product, whatever it is.
We can improve upon what’s already there, or make something truly revolutionary.
When you’re a creator, the possibilities are endless.
So today we learned a lot about the history of chemical engineering, starting with its origins in
sodium carbonate.
We then talked about George Davis, the father of chemical engineering, and his teachings. We moved
on to oil refineries and chemical factories, learning about the unit operations behind them. We
ended our lesson by talking about the newer and emerging fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals
and food, and finally renewable energy.

VOCABULARY
1. Complete the text using the words below.
transform plant chemical utilization raw materials products safety

______________ engineering is a branch of ​engineering ​that uses principles ​of ​chemistry​, ​physics​,
mathematics​, ​biology​, and ​economics ​to efficiently use, produce, design, ​transport and ______________
energy and materials. The work of chemical engineers can range from the ​____________ of
nano-technology and nano-materials in the laboratory to large-scale industrial ​processes that
convert chemicals, _____________ , living cells, microorganisms, and energy into useful forms and
_____________.
Chemical engineers are involved in many aspects of _________ design and operation, including
_____________ and hazard assessments, ​process design ​and analysis, ​modeling​, ​control ​engineering​,
chemical reaction engineering​, ​nuclear engineering​, ​biological engineering​, construction
specification, and operating instructions.

2. Match the words to their definitions.

product the process of a liquid changing or being
changed into a gas

transformation the first design of something from which

other ​ ​forms are copied or developed

fabrication involving many people or things, especially

over ​ ​a wide area

unit operation a basic material that is used to make a product

large-scale a physical change to which material is

subjected especially in coordination with a
unit ​process (as filtration, distillation, or
 extraction)

evaporation an act, process, or methodology of making

something (such as a design, system, or
decision) as fully perfect, functional, or
effective as possible

fermentation giving the best possible profit or benefits in

comparison with the money that is spent

prototypes a complete change in somebody/something

optimization a series of things that are done in order to

achieve a particular result

process the process of making or producing goods,

equipment, etc. from various different
materials

raw material a type of solid, liquid or gas that has

particular ​ ​qualities

cost-effective the process of chemical change caused by the

action ​of yeast or ​bacteria, often changing
sugar​ ​to alcohol

substance any material that produces heat or power,

usually when it is burnt

fuel a thing produced during a natural, chemical

or ​ ​industrial process

3. Complete the table with the missing words.

Verb Noun

operation

transformation

produce

optimization

fabricate
 evaporate

operate

fermentation

process

utilization

use

chemistry

experiment

filter

4. Complete the following sentences using the words from the texts above.

1. Chemical engineers change _____________ into ________ on an industrial scale. 2.

Materials undergo changes in their _______________ or _____________________ state.

3. Chemical engineering emerged upon the development of ​_​____________________, ​a fundamental

concept of the discipline of chemical engineering.

4. Chemical reactions involved in the process industries can be classified into certain groups, or
​ olymerizations, ___________________, and nitrations), having common
_____________________________ (​e.g., p
characteristics.
5. Find the words in the Tapescript (IV) to match the following definitions. ​1.
_____________________________ = ​natural materials from living or recently dead plants, trees and animals,
used as fuel and in industrial production, especially in the generation of electricity​ ​2.
__________________________ = to put or use in the place of another
3. ____________________ = a substance consisting of large molecules (= groups of atoms) that are made
from combinations of small simple molecules
4. ____________________ = ​to make a substance pure by taking other substances out of it​ ​5.
______________________ = to make a liquid pure by heating it until it becomes a gas, then cooling it and
collecting the drops of liquid that form
6. ______________________ = to prepare (beer, ale, etc.) by steeping, boiling, and fermentation or by
infusion and fermentation
7. ____________________ = a substance that is produced during the process of making or destroying
something else
8. _____________________ = materials that are no longer needed and are thrown away