Last Updated on 9 months by Anoob P T
Wondering if Chemical engineering scope is good enough for the future?
Chemical Engineering is a broad discipline which involves transforming one thing to another.
It deals with different areas like chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, and economics to use, produce, design, transport and transform energy and materials. It can be also called “universal engineering” because it can be used in every scenario from manufacturing to transportation.
It is mainly an all-embracing subject that looks into manufacturing as well as improving what currently exists, preservation and sustainable use of resources, protecting environment, health and safety of individuals.
Chemistry in itself is an important discipline that consists of everything associated with world and human life. Chemical engineering uses the chemicals in corporation with technology to develop and design chemical manufacturing processes and solve problems that involve the production or use of chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and many other products.
It also overlaps with many other engineering branches like control engineering, chemical reaction engineering, nuclear engineering, and biological engineering.
As a chemical engineer your responsibilities and work will be to conduct research to develop an improved manufacturing process, provide safety and security measures for people working with hazardous chemicals, work on making products like food, and drinks, help in sustainable use and protection of world’s resources, and to protect the environment by improving health and safety standards.
Depending upon the sectors they fall into, chemical engineers design and invent new processes and products, construct instrument and facilities as well as plan and operate facilities. They aim to make processes cost effective, eco-friendly and efficient.
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Scope of Chemical Engineering
Being a vast discipline branching out to various chemical and industrial processes, Chemical Engineers are in high demand both in India and all over the world.
With industrialization and development emerging rapidly, there is an increase in the need of people who can take care of the manufacturing processes to transportation and environmental preservation.
Chemical Engineers in deed can be said as all-rounders, who can work accordingly in order to manage every aspect that deals with the working of both small scale and large scale industries.
Even though a comparatively newer branch of engineering, chemical engineering gives exposure to its students in nearly all the diverse sectors like textile, plastics, food, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, and more.
Both government and private organizations hire chemical engineers. With many of these manufacturing and service sectors hiring chemical engineers, there opens huge scope for the degree in terms of recruitment and chemical engineering is becoming one of the brightest career options for graduates for its job opportunities within the country and across the globe.
Best Chemical Engineering Colleges in India
You can do a Diploma or a B.tech in Chemical engineering.
The Diploma program is for 3 years whereas the Bachelor’s program is for 4 years. After the graduation course, you can also join for the Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, which is for 2 years.
There are also some institutions offering integrated courses for 5 years which consists of Bachelor’s and Master’s degree.
After completing your higher secondary education, you can join for chemical engineering courses through various entrance examinations. Some of these exams are JEE, AIEEE, BISAT and some universities also conduct separate examinations for admissions.
Here are a few universities and colleges which stand top among the institutions in India that offers chemical engineering courses:
Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai
URL: https://www.ictmumbai.edu.in/
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Gandhinagar
National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut
R. V. College of Engineering (RVCE), Bangalore
URL: https://rvce.edu.in/
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur
Jadavpur University, Kolkata
URL: http://www.jaduniv.edu.in/
BITS Pilani- Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad
URL: https://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology Surat
Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai
National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli
Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad Prayagraj
Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar
Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala
Chemical Engineering Fees
There are both public and private universities which offer different courses in Chemical engineering.
The fees hence differs in each of these institutions and also depend on the type of course you are joining; B.tch, M.tech or Diploma. In the case of Diploma courses, the fee is relatively low when compared to Bachelor’s degree.
These diploma courses have fees from Rs.10000 to Rs.25000 per year. For government colleges and universities, the fees may range from Rs.30,000 to Rs.1 lakh per year. In technological universities like NITs and IITs, the fees range from Rs.5 lakhs to 10 lakhs. In private universities, the fees can go from Rs.15 lakhs to Rs.30 lakhs.
What to do After Chemical Engineering?
After completing diploma or graduation in chemical engineering, you will get a lot of job opportunities in government and private sectors.
After graduation, chemical engineers get knowledge of mathematics and chemistry. They also develop the capability for analysing and optimizing complex systems, to work over a wide range of scales, from molecular to worldwide and to understand the importance of safety and sustainability.
These skill sets allow chemical engineers to solve problems in almost any technical, business, or management career.
Chemical engineers are employed in areas such as chemicals, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food, energy, environment, consumer products, electronics, nanotechnology, advanced materials, and finance.
As a chemical engineer, you can work in offices, industries, laboratories and plants. You will also get jobs in research, design, development, manufacturing, optimization, teaching, and consulting.
Companies that Hire Chemical Engineering Graduates
Mostly, chemical engineers are hired by companies that produce energy from renewable and non-renewable sources.
These are mainly the oil and natural gas companies like Reliance Industries Limited, Nayara Energy (Essar oil), HPCL-Mittal Energy Limted (HMEL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL). Some fertilizer production companies like Chambal fertilizers Limited and National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) also choose chemical engineers.
You can also get picked by cement or processing companies like BASF, ACC, Dalmia, Sree cements, Aditya Birla Group, Ambuja, TATA Chemicals, and DuPont. In India, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BRBA) hires chemical engineering graduates for research purposes.
Another wide range of jobs are available in the food and beverages industry with companies like ITC, HUL, Reckitt Benckiser, Honeywell etc. Not only these you could also get into many beer or alcohol manufacturing companies as a management trainee and water purifier/filter manufacturing companies.
Do you have any questions regarding chemical engineering scope? Let us know in the comments section!