Publisher's Synopsis
A chemical process is a method of changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by an outside force, and involves a chemical reaction of some sort. In an engineering sense, a chemical process is a method intended to be used in manufacturing or on an industrial scale to change the composition of chemical(s) or material(s), usually using technology similar or related to that used in chemical plants or the chemical industry. Often, one or more chemical reactions are involved, but other ways of changing chemical (or material) composition may be used, such as mixing or separation processes. The process steps may be sequential in time or sequential in space along a stream of flowing or moving material. In addition to chemical plants for producing chemicals, chemical processes with similar technology and equipment are also used in oil refining and other refineries, natural gas processing, polymer and pharmaceutical manufacturing, food processing, and water and wastewater treatment.
