ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how scientists and engineers design molecules and actually predict the performance of these molecules without ever making the molecule. It describes how engineers can simulate an entire chemical plant and actually test different operating strategies using the computer. A core application for computers in chemical engineering is process simulation. The chapter discusses a non-technical area, that is, how computers can help engineers make Business Decisions in chemical companies, especially decisions that involve uncertainty. Business decisions always involve a great deal of uncertainty. Chemical engineers can reliably scale-up, that is, take the data from a small-scale device and predict the behavior in a larger-scale device, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Chemical engineers also apply CFD to reduce experimental testing of trial devices or trial operations. Computation chemistry is a rapidly growing field and has evolved to the stage where chemical process engineers who know nothing about computational chemistry calculations can apply its results.
