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Chemical Engineering

BE in the field of Chemical Engineering - 4 years, Clayton campus and Malaysia campus

Double degrees (Clayton) with: Arts, Biomedical Science, Commerce, Law, Pharmaceutical Science, Science

What is chemical engineering?

What do computer chips, toothpaste, paracetamol, photographic film, mobile phones, paint, plastic, petrol, paper, instant coffee and clean power have in common? Like many everyday things we take for granted, they all involve chemical engineering at some stage of their manufacture.

Chemical engineering involves the economic and safe design, operation and management of processes in which raw materials are converted to useful and valuable products by chemical and physical means and with minimal environmental impact.

Chemical engineering has its basis in chemistry, physics and mathematics – its operations are developed from knowledge provided by these sciences and by other branches of engineering, applied sciences, biological sciences and economics.

What do chemical engineers do?

Industry Chemical engineering responsibilities
Biotechnology Developing processes for using renewable raw materials (for example, plants) for the manufacture of fuels, medicines, plastics, chemicals and so on
Chemical Making fertilisers, detergents and cosmetics
Energy Developing new highly efficient and environmentally friendly processes for the generation of electric power from fossil fuels
Environmental Solving air and water pollution problems, and developing new processes with high efficiency and minimal impact on the environment
Food Making beer from malted barley, hops and water, and producing cheese, yoghurt and dried milk from milk
Minerals Processing bauxite ore to produce aluminium, used wherever we need a lightweight strong material or a good conductor of heat and electricity.
Oil Refining crude oil to produce petrol, other fuels, oils and feedstocks for the petrochemical industry
Paper Recovering and recycling chemicals used in breaking down wood into wood pulp for the manufacture of paper
Petrochemical Processing crude oil into plastics such as polythene, polystyrene, polypropylene
Pharmaceutical Making the medicines required by an expanding population worldwide
 
Course overview

Chemical engineers work in a range of jobs:

  • A process engineer works on an existing process, maintains production, solves problems and works on ways of increasing production rates
  • A design engineer designs processes and equipment, either copies of an existing process but with a different production rate or an entirely new process
  • A research engineer invents new products and processes, and improves efficiency, safety and environmental performance of existing processes.

Careers in chemical engineering

As populations rise and resources and energy reserves fall, the demand for chemical engineering increases.

Chemical engineers:

  • Contribute to the development and manufacture of ‘smart’ products – that is, tailor-made products made sustainably using the most advanced science and technology
  • Take part in the growing advanced biomanufacturing industry that underpins developments in biotechnology, food processing and pharmaceuticals
  • Drive the development of environmentally clean technologies for product manufacturing and power generation
  • Develop processes for manufacturing existing and new products from renewable raw material sources.

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