(155a) Three Phases of Chemical Reaction Engineering

Chemical Reaction Engineering has evolved in the last century, and can be divided into three phases. The first phase of Craft Mysteries is exemplified by textbooks of descriptive industrial chemistry. When the influence of Unit Operations began to be felt, a series of textbooks in chemical reaction engineering emerged in the second phase, based on science and written to be much more useful for process improvements and innovations, as well as for operations. Complex kinetics and reactor problems had to be simplified so that they can be solved by analytical and graphical methods. When computers became more powerful and available, much more complex and realistic aspects can be considered, which led to the third phase of computer-based textbooks. The dominance of commodity chemicals has given way to newer industries that typically has smaller volumes and shorter product life cycles, and the most valuable contributions of reaction engineers remain to be developed as a future challenge.