History of chemical engineering

Part of a series on
Chemical engineering
Outline History Index
Fundamentals
Industry Engineer Process Unit operations Kinetics Transport phenomena
Unit processes
Chemical plant Chemical reactor Separation processes
Aspects
Heat transfer Mass transfer Fluid dynamics Process design Process control Chemical thermodynamics Reaction engineering
Glossaries
Glossary of chemistry Glossary of engineering A–L M–Z
Category
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Chemical engineering is a discipline that was developed out of those practicing "industrial chemistry" in the late 19th century. Before the Industrial Revolution (18th century), industrial chemicals and other consumer products such as soap were mainly produced through batch processing. Batch processing is labour-intensive and individuals mix predetermined amounts of ingredients in a vessel, heat, cool or pressurize the mixture for a predetermined length of time. The product may then be isolated, purified and tested to achieve a saleable product. Batch processes are still performed today on higher value products, such as pharmaceutical intermediates, specialty and formulated products such as perfumes and paints, or in food manufacture such as pure maple syrups, where a profit can still be made despite batch methods being slower and inefficient in terms of labour and equipment usage. Due to the application of Chemical Engineering techniques during manufacturing process development, larger volume chemicals are now produced through continuous "assembly line" chemical processes. The Industrial Revolution was when a shift from batch to more continuous processing began to occur. Today commodity chemicals and petrochemicals are predominantly made using continuous manufacturing processes whereas speciality chemicals, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals are made using batch processes.