Some representations are well established in Chemical Engineering: the logic of unit operations, the logic linking reaction, transfer and transport phenomena or the logic of scales (from atoms to process and even to market). Today chemical and process engineers aim to open new opportunities for innovation, promote new ideas and create new representations. This notably involves exploring how to think differently and working on the earlier stages of design. Design Theory is particularly suited to deal with early innovation and to promote idea generation. In this study, the C-K innovative design method, which is well used in industrial companies, was applied to the Chemical Engineering field. With C-K method, innovation emerges through a co-expansion of the Concept-space and the Knowledge-space. This project aimed to both open new paths of innovation and identify C-K strategies that would allow reaching promising concepts for Chemical Engineering. The results are presented through several C-K trees. The most promising design paths for this C-K exploration are those leading to an interaction between different representations and reviewing the established logics of unit operations, scales and reaction-transfer-transport phenomena. An evaluation of the exploration quality is then presented and allows opening further lines of development. (C) 2015 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.