Reaction engineering is a branch of chemical engineering that focuses on the design and optimization of chemical reactors. It involves understanding the chemical reactions that occur within these reactors and how to control conditions such as temperature, pressure, and concentration to maximize product yield and efficiency. This field combines principles from thermodynamics, kinetics, and fluid dynamics to develop models that predict reactor behavior. Engineers use these models to scale up reactions from laboratory settings to industrial applications, ensuring that processes are safe, economical, and environmentally friendly.