Carve a niche with chemical engineering
Tarak Mondal & Swati.A. Patil
Chemical engineering is a discipline that influences several areas of technology. It is related to the technology of chemical and process industries. In broad terms, chemical engineers conceive and design processes to produce, transform and transport materials — beginning with experimentation in the laboratory followed by implementation of the technology in full-scale production.
A multi-disciplinary field
Chemical engineering is both an art and a science. Chemical engineers apply the principles of chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics to solve problems that involve the production or use of chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and many other products. They design processes and equipment for large-scale manufacturing, plan and test production methods and by products treatment, and direct facility operations. The subject matter of chemical engineering can be organised based on two facts:
(1) Individual processes comprising series of steps, called operations, each of which, in turn, appears in process after process;
(2) Individual operations having common techniques based on the same scientific principles. The unit operations are primarily physical in character.
Getting in
To carve a career in this field one must have a four-year bachelor’s degree to begin with. Students can also enrol for five-year programmes that lead to a bachelor’s as well as a master’s degree. Some colleges and universities offer internships and cooperative programmes in partnership with industry. In these programmes, the students gain practical experience during their college years only.
Course curriculum
The department of chemical engineering in any reputed institute will have faculty members in all the major sub areas of the subject such as fluid mechanics, transport phenomena, heat and mass transfer, separation processes, thermodynamics, process control and design, and chemical reaction engineering, reactor design.
In addition to the conventional core courses, it offers advanced courses such as computational fluid dynamics, engineering application of rheology, heterogeneous catalysis and chemical reactor design, petrochemical engineering, polymer technology etc.
Undergraduate and postgraduate students can choose from a wide range of courses and research projects. The course curriculum is designed in such a way, that it can always align with the changing scenario, requirements and technological advancements all over the world.
The department is always actively engaged in cutting-edge research in emerging areas of modern chemical engineering, drawing upon theoretical, computational and experimental methodologies that include complex fluid mechanics, transport phenomena, thermodynamics, scientific computing, dynamics of granular materials, catalysis, reaction kinetics and modelling, biomass conversion processes, renewable energy, and biophysics etc.
Students at the postgraduate level are trained to assume independent responsibility through emphasis on self-study component in courses and teaching assistantship duties to mentor UG/PG students as well as to get acquainted with the latest developments.
Where to work
Chemical engineers today are engaged in highly diverse activities ranging from regenerative medicine and food processing to searching for solutions to the global energy problem. They use chemistry and understand chemical reactions. Besides this they also use maths and carry out mathematical calculations; use physics, computer simulations to visualise chemical processes and establish whether a process can run economically and efficiently. But they are not just chemists, physicists, mathematicians, computer programmers or economists. They design processes and equipment for large-scale safe and sustainable manufacturing, plan and test methods of manufacturing products and treating by products, and supervising production.
They can work in the different sectors such as chemicals, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, environment, consumer products, food processing, specialty chemicals, microelectronics, electronics, nanotechnology, advanced materials, finance, academics and many others.
Chemical engineers have a good scope of working in five maharatna companies like IOCL, ONGC, COAL INDIA, GAIL, SAIL out of seven (rest 2 are NTPC and BHEL).
They can also get job opportunities in design companies like EIL, LINDE, L&T, etc. They also have good prospects to work with HUL, BPCL, HPCL, Vizak Steel, NFL, Iffco, Kribhco, Asian Paint, HPL, petrochemical industries, and many more.
— The writers are Assistant Professors, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT, Ropar
Institute Watch
- University Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Panjab University, Chandigarh
- Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi)
- Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
- Delhi Technological University, Delhi
- National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
- University School of Chemical Technology, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi
- Thapar University, Patiala
- Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT RPR)
- Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar
- National Institute of Technology, Jammu
- Galgotias University, Greater Noida
