The hierarchical structure of chemical engineering

Around the turn of the present century, scholars began to recognize chemical engineering as a complex system, and have been searching for a convenient point of entry for refreshing its knowledge base. From our study of the dynamic structures of dispersed particles in fluidization and the resulting multi-scale method, we have been attempting to extend our findings to structures prevailing in other multiphase systems as well as in the burgeoning industries producing functional materials. Chemical engineering itself is hierarchically structured. Besides structures based on space and time, such hierarchy could be built from ChE history scaled according to science content, or from ChE operation according to the expenditure of manpower and capital investment.