Manufacturing industries that employ chemical engineers include petroleum refining, plastics, paint,

batteries, agricultural chemicals (fertilizers, pest control and weed control), explosives, textiles, food
processing, consumer products (cleaning, personal care, lawn care) and pharmaceuticals as well as
chemical manufacturers that supply products to countless other industries.

Plant construction is coordinated by project engineers and project managers, depending on the size of
the investment. A chemical engineer may do the job of project engineer full-time or part of the time,
which requires additional training and job skills or act as a consultant to the project group. In the USA
the education of chemical engineering graduates from the Baccalaureate programs accredited by ABET
do not usually stress project engineering education, which can be obtained by specialized training, as
electives, or from graduate programs. Project engineering jobs are some of the largest employers for
chemical engineers.

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 (e.g.,
polymerizations, esterifications, and nitrations), having common characteristics. This classification into
unit processes brought rationalization to the study of process engineering.

Many chemical engineers belong to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), a professional
organization established in 1908 that has more than 45,000 members in over 100 countries.

Plant construction is coordinated by project engineers and project managers, depending on the size of
the investment. A chemical engineer may do the job of project engineer full-time or part of the time,
which requires additional training and job skills or act as a consultant to the project group.