Chemical engineering

Pro and cons

What is chemical
engineering today?

Consist in converting raw

materials or chemicals into more
useful or valuable forms.
Very large field of activities.

Different industries

Biotechnology
Biochemistry
Chemical weapons
Food engineering
Oil refinery
Pharmaceutical industry
Textil engineering
Plastic engineering
Paper engineering
Nanotechnology

Pro and cons

Unhealthy
Polluting
Non ethical (biogenetics)
Essential to our society
Medecine
Generate huge benefits and create jobs

Unhealthy :
Examples
Lots of scandals in the last decades
Asbestos fiber (very toxic caused many
cancer)
Bisphenol A in feeding bottle ( suspected
to be responsible of neurological
difficulties)
Mediator or PIP breast implant

Polluting :
Examples
Many oil slick (Gulf of Mexico)
Emission of greenhouse gases
responsible of global warming
Pollution of rivers, sea with
chemical products.
Waste management

Non ethical problems

Biotechnology, Biomedicals,
bioinformatics.
Where are the research limits in those
fields ?
Medicine (problems of ethics in
genetics, cloning)
Agriculture (GMO, Monsanto)

Medicine
Many drugs come from chemical engineering.
Save life and to cure and eradicate many
disease (vaccination).
Global impact of medical drugs is positive.
Bad effects

Generate benefits and

create jobs
Millions of jobs in the world
Powerful industries (Pfizer, Exxon,)
Generate huge benefits
Opportunity of new jobs in waste
management

Essential to our society

Medical, textil industry, plastic
All our objects are made using
chemical products.
Essential, non replaceable
Chemical addict

Conclusion
To Continue progressing
No reduction of chemical engineering in
our way of life
Reduce impact of chemical engineering
on earth.