Chemical engineering is a very diverse field of engineering. Current research areas in this field are plenty. Here are some of the major areas where currently work is being undertaken:-
Materials: Developing and tuning the properties of materials for particular uses like catalysis, strength, durability, conductivity and biocompatibility. Nanomaterials form a major part of it.
Microfluidics and Nanofluidics: Understanding flows at the micro, and nano levels in small channels enable us to develop portable instruments which can check for various diseases using body fluids, can be used for catalysis and making chemical sensors for a water purity test, gas leakage detection etc.
Regenerative medicine and Nanomedicine: Developing novel methods of drug delivery, growing organs and tissues out of stem cells, cancer and tumour detection, bio-imaging.
Bio-inspired material development: Application of biological rules and principles for a material design like gecko-inspired adhesive, mosquito inspired needle. You can find many such examples from nature.
Fuel cells and electrochemical Engg.: Fuel cells have zero-emissions and are quite efficient. Research is being done to find better catalysts, make cells lighter and more cost-effective.
Computational Fluid Dynamics: It is a very extensive field and is quite in use for getting accurate results for many real-world processes. It is now employed at the preliminary stage to judge the feasibility of a process.
Rheology: Most fluids we encounter in our daily lives are non-newtonian, e.g. toothpaste, hair-gels, gelatin, paints, adhesives. Study of their flows and their stability has a lot of industrial importance.
Control system design and plantwide control: Though this area are quite inundated, but it forms the core part of chemical engineering. With the advent of machine learning and AI, more can be explored in this area to make control decisions more reliable, safe and economical in operating complex chemical plants.
Few other important areas of the chemical engineering applications arealso as follows:
Nanotechnology
Polymers
Oil and Gas
Industrial Waste Management
Renewable Energy
Optimization Techniques in Processes
Products and Quality control
Processes operation and equipment design
The organisation of condensed matter
Separation processes
Predictive models
Fuel Cells
Biomass
Dear Mohammed Jaafar Ali Alatabe thanks for your intrest. Please provide your opinion regarding it. Thanks
Dear Mohd Khairul Nizam
thanks for your intrest in it. Please provide your opiniom regarding it. Thanks
I think those area relating to health & materi are the hot area now
Dear Olusegun Abayomi Olalere thanks for your answer. Indeed materials and health applications are important areas of chemical engineering.
I think that Material science, nano & advance materials, fuel cell, battery, process control, water treatment and EOR are the hot topics nowadays.
This is, without doubt, a very interesting conversation!!. I would say that new drug delivery systems based on emulsions coming from modified dextrane are getting more importance each time in cancer treatments .
On the other hand, Bio-based coating and adhesive technologies are being implemented by several companies such as DSM, Evonik or Arkema. These materials will be the future of a new circular economy in which functional molecules coming from renewable sources will be the final performance key.
Dear Adrián Badia thanks for your intrest in the discussion and your detailed answer.
Materials for energy production, storage and utilization is a growing area. In particular, materials for solar, battery and hydrogen storage are gaining a lot interest. Hope this helps.
BBN
Dear Bemgba B. Nyakuma thanks for your answer, indeed the area of energy and materials are the keys for sustainable future.
In my opinion areas related to fuel cells and other energy /current generating devices are top most. In addition responsive and other advanced materials also are very promising.
Dear Reena Singhal appreciate your response, indeed the mentioned areas are the current keys research areas and would define the future as well.
Hi
human based studies are the most advanced stuffs as of now i feel.
moreover in engineering, water management, climate change, pollution control, automobile sectors like BS and Euro norms. everywhere
Dear V R Arun Prakash appreciates your response in the discussion.
Dear Mohd Khairul Nizam
appreciates your response and I agree with your mentioned focus research areas in chemical engineering, especially for water security issue.
Synthetic fuels have been a focus for about 40-50 years now, Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) for a little longer than that. But researchers love them. "Green" technology/recycling have also been studied quite thoroughly over the past 30 years.
Biochemical Engineering and environmental engineering are getting quite a bit of attention and carbon capture and storage is also a field that has some growth potential.
Fuel cell and battery (or other) storage are also areas that tend to get a lot of interest from researchers.
Polymerization reactions (like F-T) are fun to study because of the interesting mathematics. As a result they also probably account for more than their fair share of research projects.
Dear Rick Manner appreciates your response on the topic and I agree that Biochemical or environmental engineering are the major branches of future research in chemical engineering.
I would like to thank all of you who dedicate part of your free time to my question. Your answers stimulate my thinking on the subject. I am also glad to get information from people from various countries of the world.
In my opinion areas related to fuel cells and battery (or other) storage are also areas.
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