  We use the benefits and components of classical computers every day. However,
there are many types of problems which, as they grow in size, their
computational complexity grows larger than classical computers will ever be
able to solve. Quantum computing (QC) is a computation model that uses quantum
physical properties to solve such problems. QC is at the early stage of
large-scale adoption in various industry domains to take advantage of the
algorithmic speed-ups it has to offer. It can be applied in a variety of areas,
such as computer science, mathematics, chemical and biochemical engineering,
and the financial industry. The main goal of this paper is to give an overview
to chemical and biochemical researchers and engineers who may not be familiar
with quantum computation. Thus, the paper begins by explaining the fundamental
concepts of QC. The second contribution this publication tries to tackle is the
fact that the chemical engineering literature still lacks a comprehensive
review of the recent advances of QC. Therefore, this article reviews and
summarizes the state of the art to gain insight into how quantum computation
can benefit and optimize chemical engineering issues. A bibliography analysis
covers the comprehensive literature in QC and analyzes quantum computing
research in chemical engineering on various publication topics, using Clarivate
analytics covering the years 1990 to 2020. After the bibliographic analysis,
relevant applications of QC in chemical and biochemical engineering are
highlighted and a conclusion offers an outlook of future directions within the
field.
