ChemE-as-Code - An open-source platform for agentic AI in chemical engineering

ChemE-as-Code is an open-source environment in which AI agents built on large language models can carry out chemical engineering work and engineers can check it. A plant is kept as linked, machine-readable engineering files in Git; calculation tools from catalysis through process simulation to plant layout, HAZOP and life cycle assessment run outside the language model, each value records where it came from, and automated checks report inconsistencies and out-of-date results by file and line.

The paper

Artur M. Schweidtmann. ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic AI in Chemical Engineering. Preprint, submitted to AIChE Journal, November 2026.

Download the preprint (PDF, 9 MB)

In an illustrative ammonia case, agents developed a written task into a preliminary basic-engineering package (simulation files, P&IDs, layout, HAZOP, datasheets, relief) for USD 224 of API cost in the design sessions. Planted faults and engineering changes show that the checks find what their rules cover and miss the rest, so they guide human review rather than replace it. No independent engineer has reviewed the design.

What it includes

• cheme toolkit: validates, formats, renders and compares DEXPI P&IDs and engineering YAML files, with calculation tools and skills that tell a general-purpose agent how to use them. It includes the Viewer, which shows a plant repository in the browser: P&IDs, stream tables, the 3D layout, checks and every revision. It is built on our open-source Python library pyDEXPI.
• Project template: a starting point for new plant repositories.
• Process library and Process Atlas: about 50 chemical processes kept as code, including the ammonia case study, with open life cycle inventories for Brightway, openLCA and other tools. All designs are AI-generated research output, not engineering advice.

More on the project: cheme-as-code.org. The code is in the ChemE-as-Code organization on GitHub.

Open source

The toolkit and the code of the process library are free software under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later; the small installer for the life cycle inventories is under the MIT license. The process data and designs are under CC BY 4.0 unless a process states otherwise. The project template carries no license, so the content of each plant repository remains its owner's to license.

Citation

If you use ChemE-as-Code in your work, please cite the paper:

@misc{Schweidtmann2026ChemEasCode,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title  = {{ChemE-as-Code}: An Open-Source Platform for Agentic {AI} in Chemical Engineering},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {Preprint, submitted to AIChE Journal},
}