Chemical engineering is converting low value product into valuable product for human comfort. It is about the study and practice of transforming substances at large scales for the tangible improvement of the human condition. Such transformations are executed to produce other useful substances or energy, and lie at the heart of vast segments of the chemical, petroleum, pharmaceutical and electronic industries. It differs from chemistry mainly in the focus on large scales of useful commercial production.
Chemical engineering is a branch of engineering that applies the natural (or experimental) sciences (e.g. chemistry and physics) and life sciences (e.g. biology, microbiology and biochemistry) together with mathematics and economics to produce, transform, transport, and properly use chemicals, materials and energy. It essentially deals with the engineering of chemicals, energy and the processes that create and/or convert them. Modern chemical engineers are concerned with processes that convert raw materials or (cheap) chemicals into more useful or valuable forms. They are also concerned with pioneering valuable materials and related techniques – which are often essential to related fields such as nanotechnology, fuel cells and bioengineering. The important difference between chemical engineers and other types of engineers is that they apply the knowledge of chemistry in addition to other engineering disciplines. Hence, Chemical engineers are sometimes called 'universal engineers' because their scientific and technical knowledge is so broad.
Based upon above discussion the scope of Chemicals engineers are in the areas like Chemicals and Intermediates, Cosmetics, Food, Pharmaceutical, Petroleum, Petrochemical, Paints, Coatings, Adhesives, Minerals, Materials, Ceramic, Biochemicals, Fertilizers, Biosynthesis, Biofuels, Nanomaterials, Biomedical materials, Energy, Nuclear, Polymers, etc. for development of product, process, design of process and process equipments, their optimization and economical production; along with effluent reduction, treatment and recovery and recycle of important chemicals considering techno-economical and ecological constraints. These are the some of the areas of focus for chemicals engineers along with newer challenges of energy, environment and sustainable development.