Chemical Engineering as a Profession

Abstract

THERE is a very marked expansion at the present moment/of those industries which are mainly con-cerned with some chemical process for their development. There is so great a demand for chemical engineers that the Institution of Chemical Engineers, in conjunction with the Institute of Petroleum, the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers and the British Chemical Plant Manufacturers Association, addressed a memorandum to the Government, directing attention to this remarkable development, and at the same time emphasized the very great shortage of trained chemical engineers in Great Britain compared, for example, with that existing in the United States. The number of students each year studying for a degree in chemical engineering is at present about forty in Britain, compared with three thousand in the United States. To meet the situation, the Government is proposing to establish courses in chemical engineering for those who already have a chemistry, physics or engineering degree, as a short-term policy in order to train chemical engineers to meet this demand, which at the present moment is more active on the plant-manufacturing side, owing to the fact that many proposed improvements and developments have had to be postponed until after the War. While, therefore, at the moment there is a special demand for men to design and erect this equipment, there are also big requirements for chemical engineers in the industries using plant. The fourth year of the degree course recommended by the Institution of Chemical Engineers roughly corresponds to the post-graduate courses now being organised. The exact training which the students receive will depend, of course, to some extent on their previous knowledge, and will be designed to enable them to approach the chemical engineering course proper with sufficient background in the general principles of chemistry and mechanical and electrical engineering.