Engineering, in general, is a business which deals with the design, construction, and operation of the systems and equipment for both industrial and public use. Chemical engineering, in particular, is devoted to the development of systems and equipment for the manufacture of products such as acids, dyes, drugs, plastics, and synthetics for the chemical industry. Chemical engineers are responsible for designing practical applications for basic chemical research in order to transform raw materials into useful products. They must use not only chemistry, but also mathematics, physics, and engineering in order to solve problems. Chemical engineering utilizes many aspects of chemistry, including energy transfer, thermodynamics, mass, momentum, and chemical kinetics.

Because the field of chemical engineering utilizes many different aspects of chemistry, there are numerous applications in which a member of the profession may specialize. A chemical engineer may specialize in pharmaceutical chemistry, petrochemicals, food additives, ceramics...