Industrial Chemistry

Industrial chemists connect science and production

Industrial chemistry is the link between the research and industrial-scale chemical engineering. Industrial chemists make use of their broad understanding of chemistry and environmental sustainability in areas like pharmaceutical companies, polymer manufacturing, petrochemical processing, food science, and manufacturing industries.

Ideas, design, testing – making a product as good as it can be

Industrial chemistry is part of the long chain in the design and manufacturing process. Industrial chemists deal with the ideas, the design, the testing, and prototyping of new industrial products. In order to design something entirely new to help solve the major problems of the world their essential skills are, in-depth knowledge and application of chemistry and creativity with chemicals.

Whereas a chemical engineer deals with the whole process of changing raw materials into a useful, marketable product, an industrial chemist would look specifically at the nitty gritty science stuff, scrutinising the chemical components and designing a ‘method’ for the product then work out the best way to make it. The industrial chemist precedes the chemical engineer in the process of bringing something to market.

Basically, if you want to know exactly where a product comes from, you should ask an industrial chemist.

Find out more about what industrial chemists do.