I have applied for chemical engineering as my course in several universities. I am very interested in chemistry but I have heard that chemistry is very light in chemical engineering. Is that true? I mean, how light is "light"? Can someone give me a brief overview of the chemistry topics covered in the course?
Chemical Engineering is a degree. Actually chemical engineering students have to take quite a bit of chemistry. The field of chemical engineering deals on how to design chemical plants to produce chemicals. Thus, a chemical engineer has to understand chemistry in order to design a chemical plant that is capable of producing tons of chemicals. Chemistry in the large scale is quite different than chemistry in small scale, since reactions, when a product is formed and if the reaction releases heat, the more product that is formed, the more heat is going to be released. Thus, a chemical engineer has to understand the process chemically and design a plant capable of dissipating all that heat without causing a fire, an explosion, etc. I teach chemistry in a University and I get quite a bit of Chemical Engineers in my chemistry classes. In my opinion, a good chemical engineer is one that has taken quite a bit of chemistry, so he/she can talk to the chemists in a plant and understand how to scale up an important chemical process. So, if you are taking a chemical engineering course, the problems will be approached from the engineering point of view, but you would have taken several chemistry courses before that, so the chemistry is understood and applied to an engineering problem. Hope this helps.
#1 by William Q on February 2, 2010 - 7:00 pm
Chemical Engineering is a degree. Actually chemical engineering students have to take quite a bit of chemistry. The field of chemical engineering deals on how to design chemical plants to produce chemicals. Thus, a chemical engineer has to understand chemistry in order to design a chemical plant that is capable of producing tons of chemicals. Chemistry in the large scale is quite different than chemistry in small scale, since reactions, when a product is formed and if the reaction releases heat, the more product that is formed, the more heat is going to be released. Thus, a chemical engineer has to understand the process chemically and design a plant capable of dissipating all that heat without causing a fire, an explosion, etc. I teach chemistry in a University and I get quite a bit of Chemical Engineers in my chemistry classes. In my opinion, a good chemical engineer is one that has taken quite a bit of chemistry, so he/she can talk to the chemists in a plant and understand how to scale up an important chemical process. So, if you are taking a chemical engineering course, the problems will be approached from the engineering point of view, but you would have taken several chemistry courses before that, so the chemistry is understood and applied to an engineering problem. Hope this helps.
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