THE IMPORTANCE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS TO THE SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION
It would take too long to discuss all the numerous contributions of chemical engineers to societal development. Chemical engineers work in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, design and construction, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, food processing, specialty chemicals, polymers, biotechnology, and environmental health and safety industries, among others. Within these industries, chemical engineers rely on their knowledge of mathematics and science, particularly chemistry, to overcome technical problems safely and economically. And of course, the draw upon and apply their engineering knowledge to solve any technical challenges that occur. It therefore follows that chemical engineers are one of the pillars of Nigerian society.

WHAT IS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING?
Chemical engineering is the field of engineering which deals with the application of the principles of science and engineering to design, construct and manufacture processes for large scale conversion of raw materials into valuable products. The basic sciences involve material and energy balances, transport phenomena, thermodynamics, unit operations, separation processes and process control.
The impact of chemical engineering is evident in all endeavours. Whether in the fuels used in driving cars ,the cement used in constructing roads and houses, the fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture or in medicine, cosmetics and water treatment .All these are products of chemical engineering. The importance of chemical engineering in national development can therefore never be emphasized.

ROLES OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Chemical engineers have always been at the forefront of environmental protection. With a unique perspective that straddles both science and engineering, they work in teams with other professionals.
By designing complex solutions to our vexing environmental challenges, chemical engineers are striving to save the world we live in .one success is the conversion of the sculpture oxides in power plant gases into gypsum for use in wallboard. The removal of trace contaminants from drinking water by reverse osmosis is yet another.

CARS AND THE ENVIRONMENT;
We can breathe in more easily due to the efforts of chemical engineers. By designing more efficient engines that produce fewer hazardous pollutants, they have helped reduce the environmental impact of gasoline and fuel powered cars, buses, and trucks.

GREEN MANUFACTURING
Smokestacks, which were once the stereotypical image if factories and power plants, no longer belch black smoke into the air. Due to innovations by chemical engineers, industrial facilities now capture and neutralize air pollutants before they can be discharged into the environment.

CLEAN WATER

Clean water, which is essential to human health, is also necessary for numerous manufacturing processes. Many innovative methods of treating raw water to make it suitable for drinking or for use in manufacturing have been developed by chemical engineers. They also work on water treatment to enhance safety and enable reuse.

RECYCLE AND REUSE
One person’s waste can become another person’s treasure. Recycling post-consumer paper, metal, and plastic reduces the environmental impact of acquiring more raw materials. Chemical engineers help make recycling possible. In manufacturing, reusing, industrial waste also offsets raw material and energy requirements.

ROLE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS IN FOOD PRODUCTION.

The chemical engineer is saddled with the responsibility of improving the conversion of raw food stuffs into safe consumer products of the highest possible quality. Chemical routinely develop advanced materials and techniques used for, among other thing chemical and heat sterilization, advanced packaging, monitoring and control, which are essential to the highly automated facilities for the high output production of safe food products.
Also Chemical engineering unit operations and methodologies, developed for other industrial purposes, are used by the food industry including milling, drying and extrusion,refrigeration,heat and mass transfer, membrane based separation,concentration,centrifugation,fluid flow and bending, powder and bulk solids mixing ,pneumatic conveying and process modelling,monitoring and control. The food related applications of chemical engineering technology involves interdisciplinary teamwork, which in addition to the expertise of chemical engineers ,draws on that of food technologists,microbiologists,chemists,mechanical engineers and biochemists, geneticists and others.

ADVANCED FOOD PROCESSING TECHNIQUE
Techniques to improve the flavor,texture,nutritional value,safety,appearance and overall aesthetic appeal of various foods involving cooking over fire, smoking, steaming ,baking, fermenting, sundering, or preserving with salt or spices---were already being practiced before history.
Today, imaginative and effective engineered approaches-many drawn DIRECTLY from the chemical engineers toolbox-routinely add nutrients improve aesthetic appeal, enable longer distance transport, extend shelf life and remove microorganisms that contribute to spoilage and are responsible for food borne illnesses. Modern food processing can also improve the quality of life for people with food allergies (by removing the proteins and other substances that create allergic reactions in certain people) and for diabetes (by reducing sugar content and providing sugar free alternatives)
Consistent, predictable food quality is of paramount importance. For instance coffee beans can be roasted to ensure uniform batch to batch consistency in color, flavor and aroma. The key steps to achieve such consistency could not have come into being without the direct contribution of chemical engineers.

ROLES OF THE CHEMICAL ENGINEER IN AGRICULTURE
Chemical engineers have applied their expertise to chemically synthesize fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that promote crop growth and protection from weeds, insects and other pests.Today, the use of these products is more important than ever to meet the needs of an ever expanding population.

FERTILIZERS;
fertilizers stem from the scientific and engineering skills of chemical engineers. With the harber Bosch process ammonia can be synthesized at lower temperatures and pressures which saves by reducing the amount of energy required for the process. It allows the use of less costly materials and engineering designs for reactors.
PESTICIDES AND HERBICIDES: Chemists and chemical engineers have also been instrumental in the discovery synthesis and commercial scale manufacture of numerous chemical compounds that function as pesticides and herbicides.
Various pesticides and herbicides work in different ways. For example, chemical engineers have discovered that when glyphosate is applied to a crop, it inhibits a specific growth enzyme called the EPSP synthase. Glyphosate is rapidly metabolized by weeds, and unlike many other earlier herbicides, it binds tightly to the soil so that it does not accumulate in runoffs to contaminate surface waters or underground aquifers.

ROLES OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING IN PETROLEUM INDUSTRY

Thermodynamics and heat transfer, in order to recover oil from a reservoir. Chemical engineers in the upstream sector are found on the facility side, managing projects related to tanks, pumps, pipelines and separators. As we go back in and try to capture the residual oil, chemical engineering concepts will be critical in designing processes to recover these resources
As we attempt to tackle the current global energy challenges oil and gas will continue to be a key factor in the equation .While the focus of many chemical engineering graduates is in alternative energy solutions, there are still plenty of opportunities for a chemical engineer to make an impact in the world of oil and gas.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
Technological advancement is a major priority off every country hoping to achieve sustainable development. Assessing, maintaining and enhancing our technological base has become high priority for our federal government. This is because increasing attention is being given to technology as a cornerstone of the nation’s economic competitiveness, human welfare and security

CHEMICAL RESEARCH AND THE CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES
What are the technologies that have been identified as critical to the nation? The National Critical Technologies Panel (NCTP) grouped these into, manufacturing, information and communications, biotechnology and life sciences aeronautics and surface transportation, and energy and the environment. An examination of the specific technologies within these categories suggests that chemical engineering research is essential most of them. The board on chemical sciences and technology convened the committee on critical Technologies to examine the impact of chemical engineering research on the critical technologies and discussed in this report strongly overlap those of the NCTP.In both cases, military technologies were deemed cross cutting and thus no separate category was established for them. However, because chemical engineering research has a strong impact on military technologies, several examples have been incorporated into this report.

ROLES OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS IN MEDICINE

The chemical engineering community has has developed the use so biocompatible materials; a clever development that has provided great advances in every aspect of modern medicine. They have helped improve life as a whole, they have improved the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases ,and they have developed drugs that are capable of reducing the pain of many people. They not only have to come up with devices that will successfully fulfill each patient’s needs, but they have to make sure that the materials used to do so are nontoxic to their bodies, that the bodies will accept it, and that they will be damage resistant and long lasting. With the many biocompatible materials that chemical engineering has developed, they have given medicine an opportunity to give patients a second chance in life. Some of the tasks and devices that can be performed with the use of these materials include:

1. Use of vascular grafts in order to repair and reinforce damaged arteries and veins.
2. Creation of cardiovascular implant devices
3. Creation of artificial knees, hips, arms and even entire legs
   Lastly chemical engineers have contributed to the medical field, by developing new drugs and delivering new vaccines.

CONCLUSION
The realization of these discussed roles is expected to lead to revival and growth in Nigeria’s chemical petroleum industries, as well as in the refining, gas and petrochemicals sectors. Chemical engineers will naturally be expected to drive most of the projects and processes, thereby improving chemical engineering practice in the country. This should lead to the creation of job opportunities for many young chemical engineers, as well as enhanced career prospects for more experienced ones.
Lastly, if the roles of chemical engineers in Nigeria are to be sustained and possibly improved upon, our government must make swift and sincere efforts to revamp our rapidly decaying educational system both at the secondary and tertiary levels.

REFERENCES
Ogedegbe.A “The Nigerian Society of Chemical engineers: Challenges and opportunities facing chemical engineers in Nigeria” Presented at the ALCHE annual meeting .At Philadelphia. (2008).
Faluyi A.O; The engineering family relative role and responsibility, processing, first engineering assembly, COREN, Lagos. (1993)
Erinne N.I, towards an engineering strategy for national economic development, proceedings of the 36th annual conference of NSCHE, Enugu; Nov (2007).