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ENGINEERING PAGE
Engineers turn ideas into reality. From tall buildings to micro-processors, engineering is at display. Engineers have flown the gathering winds with air crafts; beat the storming oceans with their ships; put people in close contact with each other by telephone, fax, and the internet; developed new and improved ways of agriculture production; protected human race from diseases by developing life saving drugs and instruments; and produced new and stronger materials. Every time we ride a car, fly in an airplane, go cruising in a ship, write on a paper, study in the light of electric bulbs or lamps, watch TV, play cassette or CD players, capture a scene in a camera, talk on telephone, use computers, use artificial limbs or other medical instruments, drink beverages, wash our hands with a soap, or use drugs to fight diseases, we can thank engineers for inventing, designing, and developing these products.
Engineering is a profession that contributes to making life better for large numbers of people. Engineers solve practical problems with science and technology. Part scientist, part technician, part inventors, engineers design and produce things. They use their knowledge of math, science, and technology to solve problems and create new systems and machinery. They plan and design projects from concept to completion. Engineering is the profession that puts scientific knowledge to practical use. The word engineering comes from the Latin word ' Ingeniare ', which means to design or to create. Engineers use principles of science to design structures, machines, vessels, devices, and products of all kind. They look for better ways to use existing resources and often develop new materials. Engineers have had a direct role in the creation of most of the modern technology; tools, materials, techniques, and power sources that make our live easier. Our complex industrial world depends on a large number of machines, devices, and systems to provide food, water, shelter, communication, transportation, protection, and energy. Engineers not only design and develop these systems but they also keep them working.
Engineering is a very old profession and is known to man for a very long time. The history of engineering is perhaps as old as the beginning of the human life on earth. Ever since his creation, man has devised mechanisms and tools to make his life better and comfortable. The Egyptian pyramid, Roman water ways, Greek parthenon, cities of Gandhara and Moinjo-daro all were the work of engineering. Through the centuries the engineers have invented tools, constructed buildings, processed new substances, bridged rivers, and tunneled through rocks. They have harnessed the energy of humans, wind, water, steam, and even sun to produce electricity, heat, and mechanical energy. The oldest mechanism, developed by man, which is still in use is the dalu - a water raising instrument known to have been in use in the Sumerian civilization which originated in year 3500 B.C in lower Iraq. The development of devices like these gives proof of the presence of the engineering in ancient times. Of course, in those times there was no formal engineering profession and the devices and machines were built by experiments and experience but all these efforts and accomplishments paved the way to the establishment of a separate engineering profession. Before the seventeenth century there were no schools for formal engineering education. The earliest engineers built structures, machines, devices, and tools by trial and error. With the development of science and technology, the need of engineers in every field of life became undeniable. This called for formal education of engineers in different fields. Many efforts were made for this purpose and ultimately the first engineering school was opened in Paris in 1794. The first engineering school in the United States, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was opened in 1824 in Troy, New York. After the establishment of these institutions engineering schools were started throughout the world. Today hundreds of schools throughout the world are educating engineers. These institutions prepare engineers to work in a certain branch or field of engineering and standards of quality and performance guide them on the job.
Most of the specialized fields of engineering developed since about 1750. Before that time, engineering dealt mostly with the construction of buildings, roads, bridges, canals, or weapons. As people gained more knowledge of science and technology during the 18th century, engineers began to specialize in certain kinds of work. Today, new fields of engineering are continually emerging as a result of scientific and technological breakthroughs. At the same time, the boundaries between the various fields are becoming less and less distinguishable. Numerous areas of engineering overlap, and engineers from different specialties often work closely together on projects. There are many types of engineering. Chemical Engineering, Electrical engineering, Civil engineering, Mechanical engineering, and Agricultural engineering are some of the major types of engineering. Mechanical engineering is concerned with the mechanical aspects of our world. Mechanical engineers design and develop machines, engines, and transportation equipment. They devise and manufacture industrial machines, vehicles, elevators, escalators, household machines, boilers, turbines, air conditioners, and large earth moving machinery. They find out ways and means to make manufacturing processes operate smoothly and safely, and develop new and improved assembling techniques. Civil engineering deals with the design and development of structures and transportation systems. Civil engineers design and improve irrigation systems, water treatment systems, water drainage systems, and transportation systems such as road, rail, and air traffic. They build, design, and maintain buildings, bridges, roads, airports, harbors, towers, and dams. Agricultural engineering deals with the development of agriculture production methods and protection techniques. Agricultural engineers develop food processing techniques and work out ways to enhance the agriculture production. They find out methods and chemicals to protect crops from insects, weeds, and diseases. Electrical engineering is related with the design of systems and equipments to generate and deliver electricity. Electrical engineers design and maintain power plants, electronic circuits, satellites, TV's, VCR's, robots, computers, stereo systems, refrigerators, and telecommunication networks. Chemical engineering deals with the large-scale processing of chemical products for industrial as well as consumer uses. Chemical engineers are concerned with the chemical processes that change raw materials into useful products. They use their knowledge and imagination to invent useful combinations of chemical substances, and to synthesize new and stronger materials. They design and operate chemical plants used for the large scale production of chemicals. They devise systems to control pollution and help abate the harmful chemicals in the environment. They also join forces with the physicians to develop drugs to combat diseases.
Chemical engineers work in such industries as the manufacturing of fertilizers, petroleum products, plastics, rubber, cosmetics, food products, soaps, and drugs. Within these broad categories of engineering there are many specialties. The specialists include aeronautical engineers, who work on air and space crafts. Automobile engineers or automotive engineers, who work on vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses, and vans. Petroleum engineers, who are concerned with the drilling, exploring, and purification of petroleum products. Biotechnology engineers, who use micro-organisms such as bacteria and genes to develop products and treat illnesses. Architectural engineers develop ways to make buildings tall, strong, functional, energy efficient, and resistant to natural forces such as earthquakes and storms. Environmental engineers work on new production methods that pollute the environment as little as possible, and develop ways to clean up the messes that outdated manufacturing and transporting systems leave behind. Fire protection engineers, who develop methods to fight fires more successfully. Instrumentation engineers, who design instruments for measuring process conditions, and also develop their control systems.
Chemical engineering deals with the efficient and economic control of chemical processes, design of chemical reactors and process plants, development of sustainable products, and control and treatment of wastes and pollutants. The function of a chemical engineer is to apply chemistry of a process through the use of coordinated scientific, mathematical, and engineering principles. Chemical engineers must understand the basics of chemistry in addition to certain mechanical aspects of the equipment, they are dealing with, so that they are able to work with complicated high pressure and high temperature vessels and reactors. In fact the combination of chemistry and mechanical engineering leads to chemical engineering. Chemical engineers must know how to handle and transport large quantities of chemicals. They have to understand such problems as heat transfer from one substance to another, absorption of gases, and drying of materials. They have to control chemical processing plants where processes like evaporation, distillation, filtration, mixing, crushing, crystallization, and adsorption are taking place. In addition to these a chemical engineer must know how to design a chemical plant. The design of individual units and equipment involved in a chemical plant, is no doubt the best attribute of chemical engineering. For this purpose chemical engineers have to rely heavily on the principles of chemistry, physics, and mathematics.
Chemical engineers use their knowledge and skill to develop useful chemical substances and new materials. They design equipment for producing various substances in an efficient and economical way. They devise systems to control pollution, invent new materials for plant growth, develop new pesticides, and create new stronger materials. They also join forces with physicians to develop drugs to fight diseases. The number of products being produced by chemical engineering are numerous. Paints, solvents, varnishes, dyes, pigments, fertilizers, insecticides, plant-nutrients, preservatives, artificial flavours, fragrances, perfumes, soaps, detergents, tooth pastes, creams, medicines, fuels, rubber, plastics, adhesives, paper, fiber, and various acids and bases, are just some of these products. In fact the importance of chemical engineering in our daily life can hardly be over-emphasized. There is hardly any field or profession which is not dependent on chemical engineering. If farmers are responsible for providing us food and different crops, they cannot do so without using fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, and plant nutrients. Without the food processing techniques and preservatives their production will decay in no time. It is the chemical engineers who provide them with all these products and techniques. If the doctors save human lives they can only do so with the drugs and medicines made by chemical engineers. If soldiers protect nations from enemies, they are capable of doing so only with the weapons and explosives provided by chemical engineers. If the astronauts have conquered space, they reached these distances with the propellants developed by chemical engineers. If the entertainment industry brings audio and visual programmes to world-wide audience, it relies heavily on chemical engineers to provide them recording tapes, CD's, records, special effects, and other aids. If the computers are revolutionizing the whole world, making office work, calculations, and communications simpler and easier, their lithographic support such as microprocessors and silicon chips are developed by none other than the chemical engineers.
Even though chemicals have been used by man for a long time but chemical engineering was recognized as separate field nearly a century ago. Certain types of papers were developed by Egyptians as early as 2000 B.C and glass is thought to be discovered as early as 5000 B.C. But like all other engineering disciplines chemical engineering finally got recognized as a major field of engineering in the 19th century. During this period of industrial revolution the need for engineers who could design chemical reactors and plants was greatly enhanced because of the increase in the use of chemicals in every day life. This was a time when the chemical industry was growing rapidly and it needed personnel expert in handling chemical plants and their design. Up till 1910, the chemical industry had too rely mainly on mechanical engineers and chemists. However, due to the newly emerging methods and techniques, chemical processing was becoming too complex, and it called for the training of engineers specialist in the field of chemical processing. The design of chemical reactors and other equipment involved in a chemical process plant was already too much to handle for chemists and mechanical engineers. Keeping all these factors in view, the start of new engineering discipline for chemicals was put under serious consideration. Finally, chemical engineering emerged as a separate discipline in 1910 when professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) realized that neither mechanical engineering nor chemistry offered sound approaches to the chemical plant design. So a new branch of engineering was started to prepare engineers specialists in the design, operation, and construction of chemical processing plants. Soon after, this field got world-wide recognition and many institutions throughout the world started teaching this subject. Today thousands of chemical engineers are working in different field around the globe and thousands of young men and women are being trained to become so. Processing and manufacturing of chemicals in industries involve many processes such as heat transfer, mass transfer, fluid flow, distillation, evaporation, absorption, drying, leaching, mixing, crystallization, adsorption, and humidification. The idea of treating these processes of the chemical industry as unit operations was also put forward by the professors of the MIT. They characterized the physical operations necessary for manufacturing chemicals as unit operations . Although originally largely descriptive, these unit operations have been the object of vigorous study and now can be used with sound mathematical procedures for plant design predictions. In about 1930, P. H. Groggins suggested a somewhat similar approach to classifying chemical operations as unit processes. Such processes include nitration, oxidation, hydrogenation, sulphonation, chlorination, and esterification. Development of a lab-scale process, developed by a chemist, into a large-scale industrial process is not an easy job and requires the knowledge of the chemicals as well as the mechanical aspects of the equipment required. For this purpose a chemical engineer has to be involved. The instrumentation and control required for a chemical plant are also designed and developed by chemical engineers. Engineers are noted for their cost consciousness and economics is a major subject of their field. A chemical engineer handles processes with main stress on economics, developing ways and means to cut down material and energy losses. Erection of a plant is also handled by chemical engineers. A chemical engineer not only designs every equipment of a chemical plant but also prepares its feasibility report, selects it location, prepares its layout, conducts its energy and material balances, selects its materials of construction, develops its operating procedures, conducts its trial-runs, and determines the total investment required. None of which, a chemist can perform.
Chemical engineering is a very vast field and there are many specialties within this field, such as Biotechnology engineering, in which living things such as bacteria or genes are used to make or change products and to treat illnesses. Plastic engineering, which concerns with the making of stronger, lighter materials and improving recycling of materials to make plastics. Ceramic engineering, which deals with the different methods of transforming sand and clay into useful products such as unbreakable glass, computer chips, and fire proof bricks. Environmental engineering, which is concerned with the development of methods to prevent air, water, soil, thermal and noise pollution. Environmental engineers develop equipment to measure pollution levels and design pollution control devices. They work to clean up unsafe dump sites and do research to determine new ways of disposing or recycling the wastes. Polymer engineering, which deals with the production of polymers especially polyesters and methods of improving their strength. Fuel engineering in which methods to develop more economical and efficient fuels are devised. Ways and means to process the fuel oils and gases are also studied in this field.
