A career path for individuals who like to utilise their creativity to transform chemicals and energy into world-changing products and services.
What Chemical Engineers Do
Chemical Engineering professionals research and design the production and transformation of chemicals and energy.
Chemical Engineer Professionals are concerned with designing and developing processes that allow them to turn raw materials into products and innovations. These include things such as fuels, fertilisers, processed foods, polymers and pharmaceuticals.
Chemical Engineers also work to create and maintain systems and equipment involved in a range of sectors and services, including water cleaning, generating energy, computers and technology and treating diseases.
They work in a range of environments, from pharmaceuticals and healthcare, to biotechnology and microelectronics. The types of roles Chemical Engineers carry out differ from place to place, but might include developing products, designing workspaces, risk analysis and simulation.
Relevant Jobs
Analytical Chemists experiment with substances to tease out their specific chemical components. They work to analyse samples in order to discover their structural makeup, as well as any chemical reactions they might undergo in different conditions.
Much of their work is done in research teams in laboratories or offices, working for large pharmaceutical or materials companies, in academic research, or for a range of different organisations that require their services.
Biochemical Engineers design and develop products and services that solve real-world problems related to materials, systems and processes that interact with living organisms (e.g. plants, humans, animals and microorganisms), or biological materials.
They utilise their multidisciplinary knowledge of biology, chemistry and engineering to gain insight into the best possible solutions for such problems.
Chemical technicians use special instruments and techniques to help chemists and chemical engineers research, develop, produce, and test chemical products and processes.
Technicians typically work in laboratories, where they conduct experiments, or in manufacturing facilities, such as chemical or pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, where they monitor production processes. Most technicians work full time.
Energy Engineers are concerned with extraction, production, conversion, transmission and distribution of energy and energy sources.
They typically work to research, design and develop processes, equipment, and infrastructures such as turbines, solar panels, wind farms and nuclear reactors. Much of their time goes into researching and coming up with improvements on existing energy technologies, or designing newer, more efficient solutions.
Energy Engineers may also work to manage efficient energy usage in existing building and manufacturing processes.
Nuclear Engineers in a Chemical context are concerned with the processes involved in producing energy from nuclear sources, as well as ensuring the energy can be used.
Nuclear Engineers typically perform roles such as isotope separation (obtaining the raw material), fuel chemistry and reprocessing, refining of uranium ores, manufacture of nuclear fuel, waste management and developing new reactor types.
Many find industrial and medical uses for radioactive materials—for example, in equipment used in medical diagnosis and treatment.
Petroleum Engineers are concerned with devising methods to improve oil and gas extraction and production and determining the need for new or modified tool designs. They also oversee drilling and offer technical advice as part of their role.
Product/Process Development Scientists are concerned with researching and developing new production processes. They also make modifications to existing manufacturing systems, in order to improve production efficiency and profitability.