化学工程Chemical engineering

化工把千差万别的生产过程分解为有限的“单元操作”（流体输送、传热、蒸馏、吸收、萃取、干燥、结晶等）和“单元过程”（各类化学反应）。“三传一反”——动量传递、热量传递、质量传递和化学反应工程——是学科的理论基础。设计时先做物料衡算和能量衡算，再根据动力学和热力学数据确定反应器类型与尺寸。

Chemical engineering breaks very different processes into a limited set of unit operations (fluid flow, heat transfer, distillation, absorption, extraction, drying, crystallisation) and unit processes (chemical reactions). Its theoretical base is the 'three transfers and one reaction': momentum, heat and mass transfer plus chemical reaction engineering. Design starts with material and energy balances, then uses kinetic and thermodynamic data to choose the reactor type and size.

1880 年代英国的乔治·戴维斯提出“化学工程”的概念，并在 1901 年出版第一本《化学工程手册》。1888 年麻省理工学院开设了世界上第一个化学工程专业。1915 年阿瑟·利特尔提出“单元操作”概念，使化工成为独立的系统学科。

In the 1880s George E. Davis in Britain set out the idea of chemical engineering and in 1901 published the first Handbook of Chemical Engineering. MIT started the world's first chemical engineering course in 1888. In 1915 Arthur D. Little introduced the concept of unit operations, which made chemical engineering a distinct, systematic discipline.

1960 年伯德、斯图尔特和莱特富特出版《传递现象》，把传热、传质和动量传递统一为数学框架。此后计算机模拟、过程系统工程和安全工程逐步成熟。当代化工关注过程强化、绿色化工、生物化工和碳中和技术，例如电化学合成和二氧化碳利用。

In 1960 Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot published Transport Phenomena, unifying heat, mass and momentum transfer in one mathematical framework. Computer simulation, process systems engineering and safety engineering matured afterwards. Today's chemical engineering focuses on process intensification, green processes, biochemical engineering and carbon-neutral technologies such as electrosynthesis and CO₂ utilisation.