# Chemical process > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Chemical_process > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Chemical_process.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_process > Source revision: 1340689316 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Change in matter of constant composition, usually involving other such matters}} {{needs more citations|date=February 2024}} {{Distinguish|Process chemistry}}{{Chemical engineering}} In a [scientific](/source/Process_(science)) sense, a '''chemical process''' is a method or means of changing one or more [chemical](/source/chemical)s or [chemical compound](/source/chemical_compound)s.{{Cite book |last=Solen |first=Kenneth A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stJgAAAACAAJ |title=Introduction to Chemical Process: Fundamentals & Design |date=2005 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Custom Publishing |isbn=978-0073407937 |location=Boston |page=3 |language=English}} Such a process can occur by itself or be caused by an outside force, and involves a [chemical reaction](/source/chemical_reaction) of some sort. In an "[engineering](/source/Process_(engineering))" sense, a chemical process is a method intended to be used in [manufacturing](/source/manufacturing) or on an industrial scale (see [Industrial process](/source/Industrial_process)) to change the composition of chemical(s) or material(s), usually using technology similar or related to that used in [chemical plant](/source/chemical_plant)s or the [chemical industry](/source/chemical_industry). Neither of these definitions are exact in the sense that one can always tell definitively what is a chemical process and what is not; they are practical definitions. There is also significant overlap in these two definition variations. Because of the inexactness of the definition, chemists and other scientists use the term "chemical process" only in a general sense or in the engineering sense. However, in the "process (engineering)" sense, the term "chemical process" is used extensively. The rest of the article will cover the engineering type of chemical processes. Although this type of chemical process may sometimes involve only one step, often multiple steps, referred to as [unit operation](/source/unit_operation)s, are involved. In a [plant](/source/Factory), each of the unit operations commonly occur in individual vessels or sections of the plant called '''units'''. Often, one or more [chemical reaction](/source/chemical_reaction)s are involved, but other ways of changing chemical (or material) composition may be used, such as [mixing](/source/Mixing_(process_engineering)) or [separation process](/source/separation_process)es. The process steps may be sequential in time or sequential in space along a stream of flowing or moving material; see [Chemical plant](/source/Chemical_plant). For a given amount of a feed (input) material or product (output) material, an expected amount of material can be determined at key steps in the process from empirical data and material balance calculations. These amounts can be scaled up or down to suit the desired capacity or operation of a particular chemical plant built for such a process. More than one chemical plant may use the same chemical process, each plant perhaps at differently scaled capacities. Chemical processes like [distillation](/source/distillation) and [crystallization](/source/crystallization) go back to [alchemy](/source/alchemy) in [Alexandria](/source/Alexandria), [Egypt](/source/Egypt). Such chemical processes can be illustrated generally as [block flow diagram](/source/Block_diagram)s, or in more detail as [process flow diagram](/source/process_flow_diagram)s. Block flow diagrams show the units as blocks and the streams flowing between them as connecting lines with arrowheads to show direction of flow. In addition to chemical plants for producing chemicals, chemical processes with similar technology and equipment are also used in [oil refining](/source/Oil_refinery) and other [refineries](/source/Refining), [natural gas processing](/source/natural_gas_processing), [polymer](/source/polymer) and [pharmaceutical](/source/pharmaceutical) manufacturing, [food processing](/source/food_processing), and [water](/source/water) and [wastewater treatment](/source/wastewater_treatment). ==Unit processing in chemical process== '''Unit processing''' is the basic processing in [chemical engineering](/source/chemical_engineering). Together with [unit operation](/source/unit_operation)s it forms the main principle of the varied chemical industries. Each genre of unit processing follows the same chemical law much as each genre of [unit operation](/source/unit_operation)s follows the same physical law. Chemical engineering unit processing consists of the following important processes: *[Fractionation](/source/Fractionation) *[Decontamination](/source/Decontamination) *[Distillation](/source/Distillation) *[Filtration](/source/Filtration) *[Oxidation](/source/Oxidation) *[Reduction](/source/Redox) *[Refining](/source/Refining) / [Refining (metallurgy)](/source/Refining_(metallurgy)) *[Hydrogenation](/source/Hydrogenation) *[Dehydrogenation](/source/Dehydrogenation) *[Hydrolysis](/source/Hydrolysis) *[Hydration](/source/Hydration_reaction) *[Dehydration](/source/Dehydration_reaction) *[Halogenation](/source/Halogenation) *[Nitrification](/source/Nitrification) *[Sulfonation](/source/Sulfonation) *[Amination](/source/Amination) *[Alkylation](/source/Alkylation) *[Dealkylation](/source/Dealkylation) *[Esterification](/source/Esterification) *[Polymerization](/source/Polymerization) *[Polycondensation](/source/Polycondensation) *[Purification](/source/List_of_purification_methods_in_chemistry) *[Catalysis](/source/Catalysis) ==Academic research institutes in process chemistry== * [http://www.iprd.leeds.ac.uk Institute of Process Research & Development], University of Leeds ==See also== *[Chemical plant](/source/Chemical_plant) *[Chemical reaction](/source/Chemical_reaction) *[Foam fractionation](/source/Foam_fractionation) *[Industrial process](/source/Industrial_process) *[Process (engineering)](/source/Process_(engineering)) *[Separation process](/source/Separation_process) == References == {{reflist}} {{Chemical engg}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Chemical Process}} Category:Chemical processes Category:Secondary sector Category:Industrial processes --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Chemical process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_process) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_process?action=history)). 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