The Work of the Chemical Engineer Like other professional persons the chemical engineer may (a) be employed by private industry, (b) be employed by the Government, (c) be engaged in teaching at a college or university, or (d) be self-employed. In order to understand what the chemical engineer in industry does, consider the steps that are taken as a new chemical moves from the research stage into large-scale production. The basis research on chemicals is done chiefly by chemists, but the chemical engineer must closely follow the work so he will know what to do later. A chemical engineer will work with the research group, in some cases, to make an economic evaluation of a proposed product, e.g., if the product is made, will there be a market, what price can be expected, and how much can be sold? If the economic study shows promise, the work is then taken over by the chemical engineer in a pilot plant in which small (or pilot-size) equipment replaces the beakers and test tubes of the chemist. The pilot plant is sometimes called the development section, since its job is to develop the product and provide data for the design group, who in turn, plan the production plant. The production plant is operated by the production group who produce the product for the market. Since no process is perfect, most plants have a technical service group whose job it is to improve the existing process. Their work is not to be confused with the maintenance group who are concerned with keeping the plant running. The scale engineer is a technically educated man who is concerned with selling the product. This is a most important job, requiring ability far beyond that of the ordinary salesman. In the practice the chemical engineer will come in contact with other professional engineers and scientists. Working in close contact with the chemical engineer one will find the chemist who is a partner on the chemist-chemical engineer team which is so vital to the industry. It is unfortunate that the distinction between chemist and chemical engineer is not clear in the mind of the general public, since a chemical engineer is no more a chemist than a mechanical or electrical engineer is a physicist. The electrical and mechanical engineer use physics as their basic science just as the chemical engineer uses chemistry and, of course, physics. As a part of the team, the chemist supplies basic chemical information to the chemical engineer who ultimately utilizes such information to produce the product on a large scale.