Chemical Engineering
What is Chemical Engineering?
If you want to turn raw materials into something useful, if you want to create or improve consumer products, and if you want to protect our environment, then you can't do it without chemical engineering. Using chemistry, engineering, maths, biology and physics, chemical engineers solve the problems that stand in the way of improving nearly everything we use.
Chemical engineers work in the pharmaceutical and food industries, computer and electronic industries, metal and mineral industries, and throughout manufacturing. Chemical engineers are also essential in the developing fields of environmental control, resource utilisation, waste management, recycling, new materials development, biotechnology and semi-conductor production. Graduates from Chemical Engineering are equipped with skills that are highly sought after by employers.
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Career Opportunities
Professional chemical engineers have a fundamental role in the process industries which turn raw materials into consumer products. They help design manufacturing processes and ensure their sustainability by making the best use of energy and materials.
New products and wider consumer needs require today's chemical engineers to expand their horizons. They now work in the pharmaceutical and food industries, computer and electronic industries, metal and mineral industries, and throughout manufacturing.
Chemical engineers are also essential in the developing fields of environmental control, resource utilisation, waste management, recycling, developing new materials, biotechnology and semi-conductor production.
Graduates from Chemical Engineering are equipped with skills that are highly sought after by employers. This has resulted in an employment rate of almost 100% for our graduates, with a commencing salary of approximately $40,000.
Postgraduate Information
Chemical Engineering operates a research program with over 30 postgraduate students working on both fundamental and applied problems, with an annual competitive grant income of over 2.5 million dollars annually. Research is mainly centred around the activities of the Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development, the Special Research Centre for Multiphase Processes and Industrial Safety and Environment Protection Group.
Main research areas include:
- Catalysis and catalytic reaction engineering
- Coal and combustion engineering
- Environmental engineering
- Fire physics and chemistry
- Fluid mechanics and rheology
- Food processing
- Industrial process safety
- Interfacial phenomena of multiphase systems
- Iron and steelmaking and casting operations
- Life cycle analysis and sustainability
- Mineral processing
- Potable and wastewater treatment
- Mixing and agitation
Find out more about postgraduate opportunities in Chemical Engineering
Research
Particle Technology and Interface Science
The research activities in Particle Technology and Interface Science are concerned with the fundamental understanding and subsequent exploitation of physical systems composed of bubbles, particles, droplets and foams. The key areas of interest include bubble hydrodynamics, flotation, mass transfer to bubbles and droplets, interface science, and thin film drainage and stability of flowing foams. Applied research focuses on mineral processing, industrial emulsions, nanotechnology and advanced ceramics.
Find out more about Particle Technology and Interface Science research
Energy Technology
Key activities include:
- Conducting basic fundamental and applied research on thermal conversion of solid fuels (coal, biomass, RDF, etc) for energy generation
- Demonstrating the applications of its work
- Investigating the environmental impact of energy-related activities
Find out more about Energy Technology research
Process Safety and Environment Protection
The key research activities of this group are concerned with the fundamental understanding of flame ignition, fire development, its spread and extinction. The research activities of the group also include the application and exploitation of this fundamental knowledge toward fire prevention and fire control. The main areas of study are:
- Kinetics of chemical reactions in combustion systems: reaction mechanisms and rates, formation of toxic by-products in fires; smoke generation; removal of combustion-propagating radicals from flames, chain initiation and break-up; flame ignition.
- Extinction of flames and mitigation of fires: interaction between fires and water mist; behaviour of foams, gels and powders in fires; gaseous suppressants, their global-warming and ozone-depletion properties; flame quenching; flammability limits; burning velocities and combustion waves.
- Mass and heat transfer in fires; emission of thermal radiation and its mitigation; thermodynamic and transportproperties of flame radicals; heat release and cone calorimetry; thermal decomposition and stability of materials.
- Fluid mechanics in fires; mixing and buoyancy; turbulence; fire spread; movement of smoke and toxic chemicals; large scale natural and industrial fires; pre and post-flashover fires
Find out more about Process Safety and Environment Protection research
Other Areas
- Mathematical Modelling Of Oestrogen Effects On Nervous Parasympathetic Control Of The Coronary Circulation
- Mathematical Modelling Of Oestrogen Effects On Vagal Control Of The Coronary Circulation
- Application of Micro Particle Image Velocimetry (Micro-PIV)to Study Thrombus Formation in the Back Gap Region of Centrifugal Blood Pumps
- Fluid Dynamic Characteristics Of An Artificial Lung Device
