Section outline

    • At the end of World War I in the 1910s, mass production of petrochemical products was required in the United States.
      Until then, production had relied on the experience of engineers in small and medium-sized plants, but production could not keep pace, so the U.S. government asked universities to establish a discipline for optimal plant design.
      A typical result was the establishment of crude oil purification technology. It took about 70 years until chemical engineering related to petrochemistry was established.

    • ・1910-1940 Birth of the concept of "unit operations" such as reactions, separations, and purifications
      ・1940s "Reaction Engineering," the core of the process, is born
      ・1960s "Transport phenomena theory" and "powder engineering" common to unit operations are born
      ・1970s Chemical engineering was established with the birth of "process systems engineering," which deals with the entire process