When chemicals get together, they sometimes react to form new chemicals, like when food reacts with the chemicals in your stomach. Chemical changes can be used to produce all kinds of useful products. Chemical Engineers use their knowledge of chemistry to discover and manufacture better plastics, paints, fuels, fibers, medicines, fertilizers, semiconductors, paper, and all other kinds of chemicals, by carrying out chemical reactions and purifications. Chemical Engineers also play an important role in protecting the environment, inventing cleaner technologies, calculating environmental impacts, and studying the fate of chemicals in the environment. Many Chemical Engineers are involved in recycling materials.
Recycling helps the environment, and used materials get made into lots of neat products.
Some Chemical Engineers work in factories, while others work in laboratories. Still others work in universities, consulting firms, engineering firms, law offices, government agencies, and many other types of jobs.