Solving Real World Problems with Chemical Engineering
WHAT IS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING If you take a close look at the world around you you will see the work of chemical engineers plastic bottles disposable diapers gasoline clothes makeup bubble gum Chemical engineers develop products that are used every day from the fuel in your car to the plastic container that holds your lunch Some people call chemical engineers magicians because they Chemical engineers create materials such as plastics They also improve existing products For example some newer plastics break down faster in landfills 4
can change substances For example to make car tires stronger chemical engineers have created new forms of rubber Rubber comes from trees but chemical engineers can improve it to make it perform better These engineers use science to solve real-world problems They make products such as laundry detergent and automobiles safer for the environment and easier to use Chemical engineers need to be experts in chemistry biology mathematics and physics Chemical engineers often work with atoms and molecules Molecules are atoms bonded together Atoms and molecules are very small People can see them only with powerful microscopes What is the smallest thing you have ever seen Think About It Salt is an example of a widely used natural chemical compound 5
Whenever you blow a bubble with chewing gum you are seeing the work of a chemical engineer Chewing gum goes back to the days of ancient civilizations People chewed on thick sweet tree sap to freshen their breath and to clean their teeth In the Americas the Aztec and Mayan civilizations chewed white gummy sap from the bark of an evergreen tree called the sapodilla That sap is called chicle Chicle gum was introduced into the United States in the 1800s In 1880 sugar flavoring was added and chewing gum became very popular Gum Scientists have developed synthetic gum bases that keep a sweet flavor and are chewy stretchy and elastic HOW TO BLOW A BETTER BUBBLE 6
companies soon learned that they would never have enough chicle to make the amount of gum people wanted Chemical engineers came to the rescue They determined that they could use polyethylene instead of chicle Polyethylene is the most widely used plastic in the world It has elastic properties which allows bubble gum to stretch when blowing bubbles Plastic bags are typically made from polymers Polyethylene is a polymer A polymer is a long chain of smaller molecules hooked together almost like a long string of pearls The smaller molecules are called monomers Monomers can combine chemically to other molecules to form a polymer Polyethylene is an artifical polymer but polymers exist in nature as well The most common natural polymer is cellulose a natural material found in trees and plants 7
