Graduate research and course work may be pursued in several major areas of Chemical Engineering which are listed below. In addition to work in these fields, research is also being conducted on a wide variety of other topics; complete information on current research activities in the Department may be obtained from the Department Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. Process Systems Engineering
Simulation, process control theory, applications of theory to actual chemical systems, computer control, process analysis and dynamics, operations research, optimal design, control of chemical plants; applied statistics including design of experiments and model discrimination.
Chemical Kinetics, Catalysis and Reactor Design, Energy Conversion
Investigation of reaction rates in inorganic and organic systems. Selectivity studies in catalysis, homogeneous catalysis, heat and mass transfer in heterogeneous systems; chemical reaction engineering.
Polymer Science and Engineering
Diffusion through modified membranes, radiation graft polymerization, emulsion polymerization, stress relationship in elastomers, physical properties of polymers, kinetics and thermodynamics of polymerization reactions, chemical modification of polymers by catalytic means, etc.
Electrochemical Engineering
Dynamics of electrode reactions, experimentation and modelling of electrochemical processes, development of novel electroytic techniques, development of electrochemically based sensors, design and testing of fuel cells.
Biochemical Engineering and Industrial Biotechnology
Mass transfer, heat transfer, fluid flow (including rheology) and cell-growth and enzyme kinetics in biological processes of industrial interest. Chemical engineering design of fermentation, food processing and waste treatment and biomass energy facilities. Immobilized enzyme technology. Tissue engineering, protein and cellular dynamics and 3-D imaging of cellular processes.
Environmental Engineering and Pollution Control
Chemical engineering principles applied to air, water and solid waste pollution control by non-biological methods.
Flow in Porous Media - Enhanced Oil Recovery
Studies include immiscible and miscible displacement, fingering, dispersion, mobilization of trapped oil, film drainage, gravity drainage, inert gas injection, wettability effects, phase immobilization, micromodel studies, network modelling, serial tomography, pore structure reconstruction, pore topology and geometry, computerized 3-D tomography (CAT-Scanner).
Interfacial Engineering
Adsorption kinetics and thermodynamic behaviour of surfactants and biopolymers at fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfaces. Development of novel methodologies emerging from nanotechnology for measuring surface tension, contact angle, film tension and line tension. Self-assembly of proteins and oligopeptides and applications.
Rheology
Rheology of dispersions (emulsions, suspensions, emulsions with added solids. Flow in dispersions in pipelines and other process equipment. Stability and demulsification of emulsions.
Membrane Separation
Synthetic membranes and membrane processes. Membrane-based reactors and contactors.