<p>I'm specifically interested in the kind of machines/device/things CHemical engineers do, not the ChemE majors who go to management.</p>
<p>Do they create better semi-conductors? Superconductors?
Do they try to create more efficient fuel cells?
More efficient engines? fuels? biofuels?
Do they create process to synthesize drugs?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>My career history has been in biotechnology; applications which uses organisms to produce the product. I spent 10 years in the pharmaceutical industry and am now working in the biofuel industry.</p>
<p>Basically, the biochemical process is developed by someone else; a biochemist, microbiologist, drug discovery firm, etc. The job of the engineer is to make it work at a commercial scale. </p>
<p>Where a mechanical engineer is better suited to design an assembly line, where process are, well, mechanical, a chemical engineer is better suited to design an "assembly" line where the processes are more chemical/reactive in nature. Because of this, a chemical engineer's process medium is generally comprised of gas and fluid streams. This leads ChemEs to require a working knowledge of pumps, filtration systems/separation processes, heat exchangers, agitators/mixers, storage systems, piping, valves, etc... and, really, whatever other equipment is to be used in the process.</p>
<p>I have been actively involved in manufacturing over 14 biologic and pharmaceutical compounds, all have been injectables or fluids contained within an implantable medical device. I do know chemical engineers who work with powders and capsules. I am now designing and troubleshooting fuel ethanol facilities.</p>
<p>A Chemical Engineer can do a lot of things in a lot of industries, it's really whatever you get yourself into. An engineer in general is ask to design it if it doesn't exist, make sure it will work if we build it, fix it if it doesn't work, and improve it if it does. Traditionally, ChemEs are ask to do this in industries where critical process tend to be a liquid and can or are suppose to react.</p>
<p>If you're interested in those sorts of problems, you should also look into Materials Science & Engineering. We're pretty similar to ChemEs in the industrial world, but tend to work more with materials that are going from a liquid (or vapor) to a solid. during production. We also do fundamental research in the first three questions you asked about.</p>