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.
Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering
Drug and gene delivery, metabolic analysis, cell biology, microbial biotechnology, bioprocess development for manufacturing, live cell-time course imaging, separation and purification of enzymes, use of enzymes in non-conventional media, reactor design for biotransformations in non-conventional media, enzyme immobilization, food processing and waste reutilization; membrane filtration processes.
Interfacial Phenomena, Colloids and Porous Media
Pore structure characterization; enhanced oil recovery; modelling two-phase flow in porous media; contaminant transport in porous media, colloid and surface science, interfacial engineering, transport and capillary phenomena in porous materials, characterization of the porous microstructure, rheology of dispersions (emulsions, suspensions, emulsions with added solids), flow of dispersions in pipelines and other process equipment; stability and demulsification of oil/water emulsions, adhesion, surface forces and contact dynamics.
Green Reaction Engineering
Air pollution control from combustion sources with emphasis on control of NOx and SOx emissions; greenhouse gas abatement, heterogeneous catalysts and reaction engineering to engine exhaust cleanup, hydrogen production, environmental pollution, fuel cells and associated materials; reliability modeling; 'green energy'; hydrogen energy systems; environmental management, catalytic distillation, catalyst development, electrochemistry of metallurgical and aqueous systems.
Nanotechnology
Nanoparticle and nanostructured thin film synthesis, development of high-throughput nanomaterial systems, fundamental aerosol charging, development of polymer nanocomposites, Nano-structured systems from templating process, magnetic nanoparticles for novel separation processes, biomimetic micro/nano-technology.
Process Systems Engineering
Computer process control; robust control, modelling and control of nonlinear processes, applied statistics and mathematical modelling in chemical engineering, planning and scheduling of process operations; supply chain management, product and process design, robust optimization, soft sensors.
Polymer Science and Engineering
Free radical polymerization kinetics to produce tailor made polymers; chemical modification of polymers, polymerization kinetics, mathematical modelling and computer simulation of polymer reactors, on-line sensor development for polymer and latex characterization, emulsion and suspension polymerization, development of polymer nanocomposites. Mathematical modeling of polymerization mechanisms, metallocene and Ziegler-Natta catalyzed polymerizations, polymer characterization, mathematical modelling of polymerization, polymer processing and rheology, chemical modification of polymers by reactive extrusion, mathematical modelling and computer simulation of polymer processing operations.
Separation processes
Separation technologies, hollow fibers, synthetic membranes and membrane processes, membrane-based contactors and reactors, adsorption separation, membrane filtration processes; polymeric membrane barrier properties, catalytic distillation, catalyst development for hydrocarbon processing, stability and demulsification of oil/water emulsions, column flotation, industrial wastewater treatment, magnetic nanoparticles for novel separation processes.