The field of chemical engineering has existed since World War I, yet many may have trouble describing what a
Chemical Engineer actually does. Chemical Engineering
has allowed Americans to enjoy a higher quality of life
through the benefits of the products these engineers
produce. In fact, industrial processes used by Chemical
Engineers are so widespread that we find them in our
everyday activities. For example, the distillation process
that is employed in the recovery of uranium is the same as
that used in making coffee. Through the examination of a
typical day in the kitchen, this paper will provide everyday
examples of the less widely known industrial applications,
including solid-liquid extraction, gas absorption,
adsorption, and distillation.
Chemical Engineering is Vital to How We Live
Consider your food intake on a typical day. You may not
realize that chemical engineering processes similar to
those used in an oil refinery (pictured in Figure 1) are
behind many common food items. You may wake up and
make yourself a cup of coffee to start off the day. Then
to make sure that your stomach will not start groaning, you have a bowl of cereal - let's face it, who has time to make anything more elaborate in the morning? Later, when you arrive at a friend's house for a barbecue, you realize that he has not started the fire yet. To stop your complaining, he offers you a soda. Later on, you return home to get ready for your date, for whom you have promised to make a romantic dinner. In your best attempt, you prepare chicken Marsala, chicken filets sautéed in wine sauce, and serve it over bow-tie pasta. Surprisingly, every one of these meals relies on various chemical engineering processes.
What is Chemical Engineering?
To many, chemical engineering is a vague subject at
best. Most Americans might only be able to describe
chemical engineering as the science of making chemicals.
But what is a chemical? Surely, petroleum and pharmaceutical compounds are chemicals, but can this
category be expanded to include cooking? Webster's
Dictionary defines a chemical as "a substance obtained by
a chemical process." A process in this sense is any
chemical mechanism that is implemented to transform raw
materials into desired products (Felder, 2000). The two
principal chemical mechanisms include, converting the
individual molecules contained in the sample or changing
the concentration of these compounds in the sample.
Food is a chemical in this sense, since one makes the final
product by combining and changing various raw materials.
Cooking is a form of engineering because it involves the
use of materials for the benefit of mankind (Gunn, 2000).
Breakfast of Champions: A Cup of Joe
When you roll out of bed and start the coffee maker, you
might be too busy trying to keep yourself awake to worry
about the science that is about to transpire. Nevertheless,
coffee making is a prime example of one fundamental
chemical separation process: solid-liquid extraction,
which is also known as "leaching" or "washing." Water is
the liquid used to extract coffee particles from the mixture
of solids contained in the coffee grounds. When you roll out of bed and start the coffee maker, you
might be too busy trying to keep yourself awake to worry
about the science that is about to transpire. Consider what
happens when you reuse coffee grounds several times:
with each brewing, your coffee becomes more dilute due
to the decreasing concentration of coffee particles left in
the solid mixture.
Surely, petroleum and pharmaceutical compounds are chemicals, but can this
category be expanded to include cooking? Webster's
Dictionary defines a chemical as "a substance obtained by
a chemical process." A process in this sense is any
chemical mechanism that is implemented to transform raw
materials into desired products (Felder, 2000). The two
principal chemical mechanisms include, converting the
individual molecules contained in the sample or changing
the concentration of these compounds in the sample.
Food is a chemical in this sense, since one makes the final
product by combining and changing various raw materials.
Cooking is a form of engineering because it involves the
use of materials for the benefit of mankind (Gunn, 2000).
When you roll out of bed and start the coffee maker, you
might be too busy trying to keep yourself awake to worry
about the science that is about to transpire. Nevertheless,
coffee making is a prime example of one fundamental
chemical separation process: solid-liquid extraction,
which is also known as "leaching" or "washing." Water is
the liquid used to extract coffee particles from the mixture
of solids contained in the coffee grounds. When you roll out of bed and start the coffee maker, you
might be too busy trying to keep yourself awake to worry
about the science that is about to transpire. Consider what
happens when you reuse coffee grounds several times:
with each brewing, your coffee becomes more dilute due
to the decreasing concentration of coffee particles left in
the solid mixture. 
