What is chemical engineering, why would you study it, and where is the best place to study, intern or work abroad?

What is chemical engineering?

• Chemical engineering is the discipline concerned with designing and improving processes that transform raw materials into useful products.
• It combines chemistry with physics, mathematics, biology, materials science, and engineering to understand physical and chemical transformations at different scales.
• The field provides a way of understanding how materials, energy, equipment, and processes interact within industrial and technological systems.

What are the main reasons for being active in the field of chemical engineering?

• Chemical engineering connects scientific principles with practical questions about how materials can be transformed efficiently, safely, and consistently.
• The discipline contributes to environmental questions through water treatment, waste reduction, resource recovery, cleaner production, and more efficient use of materials and energy.
• Industrial processes provide practical settings for applying knowledge of reactions, thermodynamics, transport phenomena, separation, process control, and materials.
• The field affects many parts of society because chemical processes contribute to products such as medicines, fuels, food, polymers, coatings, and purified water.
• Chemical engineering has an international character because manufacturing, energy systems, research, supply chains, environmental standards, and process technologies operate across national borders.

What skills do you need to participate in chemical engineering?

• To analyse: chemical engineering involves interpreting process data, material flows, energy balances, reaction behaviour, and operating conditions to understand how systems perform.
• To plan: process design, laboratory work, production activities, and engineering projects require structured preparation and coordination of interconnected technical steps.
• To collaborate: chemical engineering commonly brings together specialists in chemistry, mechanical engineering, biotechnology, materials science, environmental science, operations, and safety.
• To be result oriented: engineering activities frequently involve defined performance requirements concerning output, quality, efficiency, stability, safety, or environmental impact.
• To be aware of your surroundings: laboratories and industrial environments require attention to equipment, materials, process conditions, safety procedures, and possible changes in operating behaviour.

What motivates people to study or work in chemical engineering?

• Be and feel meaningful with a sense of purpose: chemical engineering can appeal to people interested in applying scientific knowledge to practical questions involving resources, production, health, energy, and environmental management.
• Be and feel involved: the field connects technical decisions with functioning laboratories, production facilities, products, environmental systems, and industrial processes.
• Be and feel experienced: laboratory experiments, process calculations, simulations, design projects, and industrial settings allow theoretical understanding to develop alongside practical experience.
• Be and feel self-aware: engineering decisions encourage reflection on accuracy, assumptions, limitations, safety responsibilities, and the consequences of technical choices.
• Be and feel connected: chemical engineering often involves cooperation between scientific disciplines, technical teams, production environments, suppliers, researchers, and organizations across different countries.

What are the best countries and locations to study, intern or work in chemical engineering?

• Countries with established chemical, process, manufacturing, and materials industries: Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland.
• Countries where chemical engineering is strongly connected with large-scale manufacturing, process research, materials, pharmaceuticals, and technology development: United States, Canada, United Kingdom.
• Countries with major technology, electronics, advanced materials, petrochemical, and industrial processing activities: Japan, South Korea, Singapore.
• Countries where chemical and process engineering are closely associated with energy processing, petrochemicals, desalination, and large industrial systems: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar.
• Countries where process engineering intersects with sustainability, energy efficiency, environmental technology, resource management, and cleaner production: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Australia.

Where can you find work experience and vacancies for jobs, internships, and voluntary work in chemical engineering abroad?

• Research organizations and scientific work abroad: suitable for laboratory assistance, experimental research, process development, materials research, data analysis, and scientific project support.
• Technical organizations and working in IT: suitable for technical projects involving process systems, engineering calculations, modelling, automation, instrumentation, and technology development.
• Environmental organizations and sustainability abroad: suitable for activities involving water treatment, waste reduction, recycling, resource recovery, pollution prevention, and cleaner production.
• Companies and business services abroad: suitable for industrial placements involving production, quality, process improvement, manufacturing support, technical analysis, and project coordination.

What are things to consider when studying or working abroad in chemical engineering?

• International chemical engineering experiences can include study, research, laboratory placements, industrial internships, technical projects, and volunteering: activities around and abroad
• Preparation may involve documentation, accommodation, laboratory or workplace requirements, local safety procedures, transportation, and practical arrangements: preparation for successful travel and stay abroad
• Insurance, healthcare arrangements, personal safety, and appropriate coverage for laboratory or industrial environments should be considered before departure: insuring and taking care abroad

Further depth: what is chemical engineering as a discipline?

What are the main features of chemical engineering?

Chemical engineering examines how scientific principles can be translated into controlled processes that transform materials while accounting for scale, energy use, safety, product quality, and operating conditions.

• Process design: The discipline develops systems in which chemical reactions, mixing, heating, cooling, separation, and other operations are combined to achieve controlled material transformations.
• Scale-up: Chemical engineers examine how processes demonstrated in laboratories can be transferred to larger systems while maintaining appropriate performance, safety, efficiency, and product characteristics.
• Quantitative analysis: Mass balances, energy balances, mathematical models, and process data are used to describe how materials and energy move and change within engineering systems.
• Process safety: Engineering analysis considers hazardous materials, temperature, pressure, reactions, equipment behaviour, and control measures to reduce the probability and consequences of unwanted events.

What are important sub-areas of chemical engineering?

The discipline contains several interconnected areas that examine different stages of material transformation, from chemical reactions and separation to biological processing, material production, and environmental applications.

• Process engineering: This area focuses on designing, operating, evaluating, and improving systems that convert raw materials into products through coordinated physical and chemical operations.
• Reaction engineering: This area examines reaction rates, reactor design, catalysts, temperature, pressure, and composition to understand and control chemical transformations within processing equipment.
• Separation processes: Distillation, filtration, extraction, absorption, membranes, and crystallization are studied as methods for separating mixtures and recovering specific substances or purified products.
• Biochemical engineering: Biological organisms, cells, enzymes, and fermentation processes are combined with engineering principles in applications involving biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and biological production systems.

What are key concepts in chemical engineering?

Chemical engineering relies on several quantitative concepts for describing processes, predicting behaviour, selecting operating conditions, and evaluating how matter and energy move through interconnected systems.

• Mass balance: Material entering, leaving, reacting, or accumulating within a process is accounted for systematically, allowing engineers to describe flows and compositions throughout a system.
• Energy balance: Heat, work, and other energy transfers are tracked to understand temperature changes, heating and cooling requirements, and overall energy behaviour within processes.
• Thermodynamics: Energy, equilibrium, pressure, temperature, and phase behaviour are analysed to determine how materials behave and which physical or chemical transformations are possible under specified conditions.
• Transport phenomena: Momentum, heat, and mass transfer describe how fluids move, temperatures change, and chemical species migrate within equipment, materials, and process environments.

Who are influential figures in chemical engineering?

The development of chemical engineering was shaped by researchers and educators who helped establish process thinking, unit operations, mathematical modelling, reactor analysis, and systematic engineering reference knowledge.

• George E. Davis: His work helped establish chemical engineering as a distinct discipline by organizing knowledge about industrial chemical processes into a systematic engineering framework.
• Arthur D. Little: He helped develop the concept of unit operations, grouping recurring physical processing steps across industries rather than organizing engineering solely around individual chemicals.
• Warren K. Lewis: His contributions to engineering education and process analysis supported the development of unit operations and more systematic approaches to chemical engineering problems.
• Robert H. Perry: His association with Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook contributed to a major reference tradition covering calculations, equipment, properties, processes, and engineering practice.
• Neal R. Amundson: His work strengthened mathematical modelling and reactor engineering, contributing to the development of chemical engineering as a strongly quantitative and analytical discipline.

Why is chemical engineering important?

Chemical engineering provides methods for translating scientific understanding into controlled production systems, connecting laboratory knowledge with manufacturing, material processing, environmental management, energy use, and product development.

• Industrial production: Chemical engineering principles support the manufacture of chemicals, medicines, fuels, food products, polymers, coatings, materials, and other products that depend on controlled processing.
• Process efficiency: Engineering analysis can identify how material use, energy consumption, equipment operation, and process conditions affect productivity, waste generation, stability, and product quality.
• Safety management: Understanding reactions, pressure, temperature, hazardous substances, and process behaviour supports systematic identification and reduction of risks within laboratories and industrial facilities.
• Environmental management: Chemical processes can be designed or modified to reduce emissions, treat wastewater, recover materials, limit waste, and use energy and raw materials more efficiently.
• Technology development: Chemical engineering provides methods for moving chemical, biological, and materials discoveries from experimental settings toward larger and more controlled production processes.

How is chemical engineering applied in practice?

Chemical engineering principles are applied wherever materials must be transformed, separated, purified, manufactured, or treated under controlled conditions while considering efficiency, safety, reliability, and product requirements.

• Chemical manufacturing: Engineers design and evaluate processes producing industrial chemicals, fertilizers, solvents, polymers, coatings, and other substances through combinations of reaction, separation, and material handling.
• Energy processing: Chemical engineering methods are applied in petroleum refining, gas processing, hydrogen production, biofuels, battery materials, and other systems involving energy-related material transformations.
• Pharmaceutical production: Reactor design, purification, separation, formulation, and controlled manufacturing processes are used in the production of medicines, biological products, and pharmaceutical ingredients.
• Food processing: Heating, cooling, drying, fermentation, mixing, separation, preservation, and fluid handling are engineered to support controlled and reproducible production of food and ingredients.
• Materials production: Process engineering contributes to manufacturing polymers, composites, ceramics, semiconductor materials, coatings, and other engineered materials whose performance depends on carefully controlled production conditions.