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 series of dramatic changes and more are on the way. C hemical engineering has impacted on society in many ways : it is difiicult to visualiz e the world with out the large volume production of antibiotics. fer tilizers, agricultural chemicals, special polymers for biomedical devices, high-strength polymer composites, and synthetic fibers and fabrics . All of these require that spe cially designed chemicals and materials be produced eco nomically 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 . s an intellectual discipline it has its characteristic set of problems and sys- tematic 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 opti on in its Chemistry Dept. he curriculum largely described indus trial operations and was organized by specific products. The detailed knowledge for one product often seemed quite different from that of another however , and th e need for a paradigm soon became apparent. The first paradigm , for solving the problems of econo mi- cally 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 durin g 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 Nati onal Academy Press , 2101 Constitution Av e nu e. N.W. . Washington. DC 20418. f ordered by an AIChE m e m e ~ before February 1, the cost is $15 .00 The report can be charged to American Express, Visa. and Master Card. January 988 The hig h noon of American dominance in chemical manufacturing a ft er World War II saw the gradual exhaus tion of research problems in conventional unit operations . This led to the rise of a second paradigm for chemical en gineering , pioneered by the Engineering Science move me nt. Chemical engineers began to reexamine some unit operati ons 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 suc cess , 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 engineer ing curriculum in its present form. The core curriculum is responsible for the confidence with which chemical engi neers integrate knowledge from many disciplines for the soluti on of complex problems. The curriculum provides a background in some of the basic sciences including: • mathematics (calculus, differential equations, an d, in- creasingly , linear algebra) • physics (atomic and molecular physics. electricity and magnetism, and mechanics) • chemistry (inorg anic , 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 oper ation This training has allowed chemical engineers to expand the boundaries of the discipline into interdisciplinary areas such as catalysis, colloid science, combustion, electrochem ical engineering, and polymer technology. A new paradigm Over the next few years, technological challenges and economic forces should shape a new chemical engineering 9