| A Century of Contributions |
While chemical engineering was first conceptualized in
England over a Century ago, its primary evolution, both educationally
and industrially, has occurred in the United States. After an early
struggle for survival, the profession emerged from under its
industrial chemistry heritage with the help of the unit operations
concept.
However, the metamorphosis of chemical engineering did not stop there.
The addition of material and energy balances, thermodynamics, and
chemical kinetics brought the profession closer to something a modern
chemical engineer would recognize. With stress on mathematical competence,
as necessitated by chemical reactor modeling and a more detailed
examination of transport phenomena, chemical engineering continues to
broaden in scope. A further requirement in computer literacy, as
necessary for process control, allows today's chemical engineer to be
much more efficient with their time.
Along the way, this changing educational emphasis has helped the
chemical engineer keep up with the changing industrial needs and continue
to make significant contributes to society . Today their broad background
has opened doors to many interdisciplinary areas such as catalysis,
colloid science, combustion, electrochemical engineering,
polymer technology, food processing, and biotechnology. The
future of chemical engineering seems to lie with these continuing
trends towards greater diversity.
The Story: Chemical Engineering Evolution
World War I
Outbreak of Hostilities
On June 28, 1914, crowds of people lined the streets of Sarajevo,
the capital of Bosnia (then a province of Austria-Hungary), in hopes of
seeing the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sofia. A
young student, Gavrilo Princip, leapt from the crowd and assassinated
the Archduke and his wife. Suspecting the plot originated in
Serbia, Austria-Hungary (including Bosnia) declared war on
the small country. By the end of 1914, Europe was swept into the
horrendous conflict that would become World War I (maybe we should be
more concerned with the ongoing hostilities between the Bosnians and Serbians!)
The American Situation
Prior to the war, Germany had reigned supreme in organic
chemistry and chemical technology. It was said in 1905 that
America lagged fifty years behind the Germans in organic chemical processing
(H7). Even America's chemistry and chemical engineering professors had
been primarily trained in German Universities, and a working knowledge of
the German language was essential to keep up with the latest chemical
advances. All in all, America's chemical industry was too narrow,
concentrating in only a few high volume chemical products, such as
sulfuric acid.
America's Opportunity
As war raged in Europe, the America found itself isolated from
Germany. British blockades prevented valuable dyes and drugs,
produced only in Germany, from reaching American shores. Suddenly the
American chemical industry was given the opportunity to enter these
markets without foreign competition.
The Problem
However, chemical engineers were not entirely ready for this
turn of events. Their education had consisted primarily of instruction in
engineering practice and industrial chemistry. This memorization
of existing chemical processes was fine for supervising established chemical
plants, but left them at a great disadvantage when faced with tackling
entirely new problems.
Faced with this challenge, how could the technological know-how concerning
one set of chemicals be transferred to a new set? The answer came in 1915, when
Arthur Little introduced the "unit operations" concept. With it,
chemical engineers where trained about chemical processes in a more
abstract manner. Their expertise became independent of the
actual chemicals involved, allowing the rapid establishment of new
industries. In short, education had responded to the needs of industry.
The Industry of War
In 1917, after loosing several ships and many lives, the United
States declared war on Germany and her Allies. One of the first actions
of the U.S. Government was to ensure our chemists and chemical engineers
did not die in the trenches as had happened to our European counterparts.
Instead, they were enlisted to create the materials necessary to wage
war. Suddenly, united by a common foe, America's chemical industries
began cooperating instead of competing. This cooperation would build the
ammonia plants that produced the explosives (and fertilizers)
that helped win the war (see
NITROGEN: FOOD OR FLAMES).
World War II
Hostilities Re-Ignite
On September 18, 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria. Eight years later, on
September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and war again raged on the
European continent. With Japan's infamous bombing of Pearl Harbor, on
December 7, 1941, America was once again thrust into a World War.
Synthetic Rubber
The importance of rubber in warfare was demonstrated by the Germans
in World War I. The Germans had been cut off from their foreign
rubber supply by the British blockade. Without rubber their trucks
ran out of tires while their troops had to go without walking
boots. In an effort to salvage the situation, Germany began experimenting
with synthetic rubber. However, they never found a formula that
worked well enough and could be produced in large enough quantities.
Similarly, in the opening days of World War II, Japan rapidly
captured rubber producing lands in the Far East, depriving
America of 90% of its natural rubber sources. Suddenly America found
itself in the same undesirable position that had confronted Germany forty years
before.
However, with the help of their new educational emphasis on the underlying
principles of chemistry and engineering as opposed to the gross memorization of
existing industrial chemical reactions, American chemical engineers were in a
position to make great contributions to the synthetic rubber effort. The unit
operations concept, combined with mass and energy balances and
thermodynamics (which had been stressed in the 30's), allowed the rapid
design, construction, and operation of synthetic rubber plants.
Chemical Engineers now had the training to build industries from the ground up.
With funds from the government, the chemical industry was able to increase
synthetic rubber production over a hundred fold. This synthetic
rubber found uses in tires, gaskets, hoses, and boots; all of which contributed
to the war effort.
High Octane Gasoline
As German tanks and bombers swept across Europe using Blitzkrieg
tactics, it became evident that World War II would be a highly mechanized
conflict. The Allies needed tanks, fighters, and bombers all supplied with
large quantities of high quality gasoline. In supplying
this fuel the American petroleum industry was stretched to its limit
However, the development of Catalytic Reforming in 1940 by the
Standard Oil Company (Indiana) gave the Allies an advantage. The
reforming process produced high-octane fuel from lower grades of
petroleum (it also made Toluene for TNT). Because of the
performance edge given by better fuel, Allied planes could successfully
compete against German & Japanese fighters.
The Atomic Bomb
In the early 1900's scientists were busy exploring the atom.
Einstein's mass-energy equivalence (E = m c2) showed that matter
contained tremendous energy. By 1939 many scientists had succeeded in
splitting atoms of uranium and some envisioned the possibility of a chain
reaction. In 1942, Fermi and his co-workers produced the first
man-made chain reaction under the University of Chicago. The success
proved that an atomic weapon was possible, and the Manhattan Project was
soon underway. However, despite these early successes, enormous technical
obstacles still lay ahead.
Only certain materials underwent fission rapidly enough to be
considered for an atomic bomb. Uranium 235, a very scarce from of uranium
(only 0.7% of uranium is 235), and plutonium, an element that did not
exist naturally, were two possible candidates. However, both elements were
exceeding rare (or nonexistent) and had only been produced on tiny
laboratory scales. For example, in 1942 only a milligram of Plutonium
(1/28,000th of an ounce) was in existence.
Late in 1942, General Leslie R. Groves approached Du Pont to ask if
they could build and operate a plutonium production plant. The company
accepted the challenge, but due to intense secrecy, not even its top-level
people new the whole story. During the next three years the "Hanford
Engineering Works" was designed, built, and operated by chemical engineers.
Equipment never before conceived of; had to be designed, built,
and tested using great haste. Remote processing and
control of the plutonium pile was a must. Even remote repair was put
into place to fix equipment that broke down after becoming radioactive. The
Hanford plant was big, complex, and dealt with the most
dangerous materials on the planet. It demonstrates what is often expected of
chemical engineers. Seemingly impossible problems must be
solved quickly, correctly, economically, and safely,
using knowledge of both chemistry and engineering.
Post-War Growth
During World War II, American chemical engineers where called upon to build
and operate many new facilities; some never having been before conceived (see
Atomic Bomb
above). After the war, Germany's massive chemical industry lay in ruins
while the Americans were still operating at full production. Never the
less, the United States Government still feared the German chemical
complex. They therefore dismantled Hitler's enormous I.G.Farben
and out of it three new companies where created; BASF, Bayer,
and Hoechst.
With foreign competition almost non-existent, the U.S. chemical industry
continued its meteoric rise; with petroleum continuing to be the
foundation of the industry. From fuels and plastics to
fine chemicals, petroleum was where the action was. Some have even argued
that World War I & II were fought exclusively for the control of petroleum
resources (see "The Prize" by Daniel Yergin). The success of the
petroleum industry has helped the chemical engineering profession greatly,
and is one of the reasons today's wages are so high (see
WAGES).
With America firmly leading the world in chemical technology, chemical
engineering education began to change. Suddenly, the best way to
discover the latest events in chemical technology was not to pick up a German
technical journal, but instead to make those discoveries yourself.
Chemical engineering was becoming more focused on
science than on engineering tradition.
Two universities did much to encourage these events. At the University of
Minnesota, Amundson and Aris began emphasizing the importance of
mathematical modeling (using dimensionless quantities) in reactor design.
And at the University of Wisconsin, Bird, Stewart, & Lightfoot
presented a unified mathematical description of mass, momentum, and
energy transfer in their now famous text, "Transport Phenomena."
These events were far removed from the early days of the
profession, when the possibility of eliminating most mathematical courses
was strongly considered.
Today's Multi-Discipline
For the last twenty years, large changes have occurred in the
American chemical industry. Most of the major engineering obstacles found
in petroleum processing have been overcome, and petroleum is
becoming a commodity industry. This means that employment
opportunities for engineers in the petroleum industry are becoming few
and far between.
Also, foreign competition has again picked up. Today the
three largest chemical companies in the world are BASF, Bayer,
and Hoechst (perhaps our government's fears where justified, see
Post War Growth
above; also it is important to point out that Japan does not
represent a major chemical threat, instead the competition comes from
Europe). While America's chemical industry can still compete, growth
has slowed immensely. In short, the unprecedented economic success
that followed World War II is coming to a close and economic
realities are catching up with us (at least in the chemical industry).
However, the strong scientific, mathematical, and technical
background found in chemical engineering education is allowing the
profession to enter new fields that often lay in the white space
between disciplines. The largest growth in employment is occurring in
up-and-coming fields that show tremendous potential. Biotechnology,
electronics, food processing. pharmaceuticals,
environmental clean-up, and biomedical implants all offer
possibilities for chemical engineers. The educational emphasis of the last
twenty years has helped to realize these opportunities. Once again, chemical
engineering education has responded to, and influenced, the industrial realities
of the profession.
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