How and why did chemical engineering develop?

Answer 1

Chemical engineering evolved from a mixture of craft, mysticism, wrong theories, and empirical guesses. The crafts of soap-making and distillation entered Northern Europe from the Mediterranean in the 12th-14th centuries. But improvements were very slow until the Scientific Revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. Only then were mystical interpretations replaced by scientific theories: though the early theories were often wrong, they nevertheless played a leading role in stimulating thought. Included here are details of the chemical process engineering developed between 1740 and 1913, in particular alkali production, coal carbonization, sulfuric acid manufacture, agricultural fertilizers, and distillation. The origin of the unit operations approach also is discussed.