Glossary
Chemical Engineer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential chemical engineer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key chemical engineer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in chemical engineer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- ABET
- Engineering program accreditor.
- CAD
- Computer-aided design.
- DCS
- Distributed control system.
- Distillation
- Separating by boiling point.
- FE exam
- Fundamentals of Engineering exam.
- HAZOP
- Hazard and operability study.
- Heat exchanger
- Transfers heat.
- Mass balance
- Accounting for material.
- P&ID
- Piping and instrumentation diagram.
- PE license
- Professional Engineer license.
- PSM
- Process safety management.
- Reactor
- Vessel for reactions.
- Scale-up
- Lab to plant.
- Specification
- Detailed requirements.
- Yield
- Product made versus possible.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Chemical Engineer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Chemical Engineer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.