学科／専攻紹介 ABOUT CHEMSYS
Industrial Applications
History of chemical engineering advances
Chemical system engineering is an academic field that is conscious of discovering technical problems in contemporary society and providing solutions. The era of chemistry was established in the wake of the Industrial Revolution that uses coal as a heat source in steam engines. These systems have evolved since then, with the expansion of thermodynamics. When we look back on the history of chemical engineering, it is clear that the field has long been involved in the pollution problem. Our department has been pursuing these issues in response to societal demands while sometimes being opposed by industry. In modern times, improving the environment is an urgent issue, and it is necessary to find solutions systematically in cooperation with stakeholders. To pursue feasible solutions based on economic efficiency, numerical analysis of chemical substances is extremely important. In other words, chemical system engineering pursues methodology to quantify chemical technology. Naturally, companies are closely involved in technical evaluation, including whether projects can be profitable or whether future prospects can be expected.By the way, what is a chemical system?
“Chemical system” is a generic term for all open systems involving changes in chemical substances. In a large scale, it is related to global CO2 emissions, energy fluctuations, and their balance. In a small scale, chemical systems range from small to dynamic homeostasis of proteins and neural information in vivo. In other words, a chemical system encompasses many diverse systems. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the knowledge gained by graduates in our department is applicable to all manufacturing industries. In order for this chemical system to demonstrate its function with maximum efficiency, we need to quantitatively analyze system bottlenecks, material exploration, system structural design, and functional design. These approaches are the essence of chemical system engineering. From the viewpoint of industrial applications, part of our academic discipline involves learning from the patterns formed by living organisms and nature, which sometimes seem completely irrelevant, to reconstruct a chemical system. In order to pursue chemical system engineering, you also need to acquire basic academic discipline. Knowledge of chemistry, applied mathematics, physics, and biology are necessary to solve problems, and it is sometimes necessary to step into other engineering systems, such as mechanical engineering and electronic engineering. From that point of view, our program strongly encourages multidisciplinary studies and exchanges, which makes the work produced by our department valuable in industrial applications.