What is chemical engineering?

Chemistry and its subgroups in general (german)

Chemical engineering in particular

A question that every chemical or process engineer is certainly confronted with several times in his or her life: What does a chemical engineer actually do? In very rough terms: They take what chemists do on a small scale in the laboratory and transfer it on a large industrial production scale. Correspondingly, chemical engineers can work basically everywhere, from food production over pharmaceuticals and independent research institutes to the conventional chemical and refinery industry. Especially in the context of climate protection, the significance of this profession is growing as existing production plants have to be further enhanced in order to reduce their economical impact. 

General topics that are focused during studies:

  • Basics of mathematics
  • Chemistry
  • Thermodynamics
  • Fluid mechanics
  • Heat and mass transfer
  • Reaction engineering
  • Separation of mixtures

Extraction (german)

Distillation (german)