Chemical Engineering

Students apply knowledge of core chemical engineering to the design and evaluation of solutions for industrially relevant problems in an authentic context.  The course enables students to confidently undertake open-ended research in later courses. Students also explore business ethics on 3 levels (the Corporate, the social, and the theoretical) in order to develop an understanding of the moral structure of competing obligations and responsibilities inherent in various situations and issues.

In this course, students develop the skills required to identify hazards, to estimate the magnitude of the consequences (typically fires, explosions and toxic releases) and the probability of such an event occurring. Additionally, a fundamental approach for the systematic assessment and reduction of risk is established. Such an approach is essential to minimize harm, the resulting loss of money and reputation, and to meet national regulatory requirements.

This course will provide a quantitative understanding of the hydrologic cycle, will identify the properties of water as a natural resource, will describe the aspects of the integrated water resource management, as well as the engineering related to water purification processes. The module will recognise socio-economic factors that impact effective water solutions, including urban infrastructure projects and managed urban infrastructure. Models for water transport in the subsurface (hydrogeology) will also be discussed, specifically in relation to the resources sector with focus on the pressure on groundwater quality and quantity, relating to appropriate measures to preserve or improve the quality of water. This will cover aspects of water management to combat water shortage in the energy and mining sectors. Management of wastewater and produced water in the oil and gas sector, involving injection to the reservoir and suitable reclamation treatments will also be considered. Of particular importance for the mining sector, effective tailing management, will be discussed.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.

This course examines introductory level scientific and engineering design concepts including sustainable development, and product and processing line management with an emphasis on sustainable manufacturing as the core theme throughout the course. A technical lecture series will demonstrate the integration of all aspects of food science and technology, and their underpinning by the basic sciences, through examination of a hypothetical company producing a selected food product.  

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course introduces students to advanced numerical methods for the solution and optimization of both linear and nonlinear systems, so that they are able to apply them in real chemical engineering problems. Students learn about optimization theory and how to formulate optimization models for linear and nonlinear problems, select an appropriate solution method, and compute a numerical solution. The numerical software tool for this course is GAMS.

The material world is surrounded by a large number of chemical products manufactured with various types of materials including organic, inorganic and their composite materials. Even in the human body, biological materials are constantly being produced with the help of specialized enzymes and biochemical reactions. This coures provides chemistry-oriented topics concerned with the development of functional materials in various areas of engineering.

This course covers basic aspects of chemical production, with special emphasis on environmentally friendly methodologies for the synthesis of fine chemicals and advanced materials.

 

This course teaches students to consider the challenges posed by climate change, and the technologies and systems that are required to mitigate it. Students are introduced to key mitigation technologies and given the skills to perform basic economic analysis of the options. Lectures cover technoeconomic assessment and emissions estimation methods, possible future technology developments, and approaches to systems thinking, as well as the policy background on climate change.