化工单元操作是化学工程（也叫化工原理）的主要研究领域，是在化学工业生产中具有共同的物理变化特点的基本操作，是由各种化工生产操作概括得来的，基本包括五个方面：

化工单元操作是应用于各种化工生产中，在20世纪初，由美国麻省理工学院的科学家总结成一门独立的学科，和化工单元过程一起，组成学习化学工业生产的基础知识，这些单元的原理和计算方法，可以应用到各种化工门类的设计和生产过程中。

In chemical engineering and related fields, a unit operation is a basic step in a process. Unit operations involve a physical change or chemical transformation such as separation, crystallization, evaporation, filtration, polymerization, isomerization, and other reactions. For example, in milk processing, homogenization, pasteurization, chilling, and packaging are each unit operations which are connected to create the overall process. A process may require many unit operations to obtain the desired product from the starting materials, or feedstocks.