Chemical Engineering BEng

Content for this module will be confirmed later in 2022 - please keep checking back on this page.

This module provides a basic understanding of geology and includes topics such as:

• introduction to the main rock types and minerals
• rock forming processes
• the composition of the Earth
• geological structures
• natural hazards including volcanism and earthquakes
• geological map interpretation

This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the fundamental material and energy balances that underpin process engineering. You'll study material balances incuding:

• once-through and recycle systems
• flowsheets for continuous processes
• batch processes
• steady and unsteady state operation
• reacting and non-reacting systems
• energy balances
• combustion calculations
• heat balances in chemical and physical systems
• enthalpy/composition diagrams

You'll spend three hours in lectures and have regular practical workshops for this module.

This module is an introduction to chemical thermodynamics and its applications to chemical, vapour/liquid/liquid and solid/liquid equilibria, and correlation and prediction of data. You'll spend two hours in lectures and one hour in a practical session per week studying for this module.

You will learn techniques for solving selected classes of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) relevant to the analysis of engineering topics. This module also provides the basic calculus to help analyse engineering problems in two or three dimensions and special solutions of partial differential equations relevant to engineering applications. You will spend around three hours per week in lectures and workshops.

This module provides an introduction to the properties of engineering materials including topics such as:

• chemical bonding and structure
• mechanical properties
• elasticity
• viscoelasticity
• creep
• fatigue
• fracture

The module also provides elements of mechanical and structural design using engineering materials. You'll spend three hours in lectures per week studying for this module.

This module is the study of the flow of fluids through beds of particles.

You'll study areas including:

• simultaneous flow of gas and liquid through packed columns dynamics of a single particle
• terminal velocity
• solid/liquid separation processes
• solid/centrifugal separations particle size reduction
• drops and bubbles; conveying

You'll spend three hours in lectures and three hours in practical sessions per week.

The module is divided into two sections: numerical techniques for ordinary differential equations and probability theory and introductory statistical inference. The module aims to develop the foundations of probability theory and to apply large sample statistics within an engineering context. You’ll spend one hour in lectures and two hours in workshops per week.

This module builds on and applies the principles of particle mechanics, separation processes, interfacial chemistry and chemical and phase equilibria. You’ll utilise current technical chemical engineering knowledge to plan and operate a multi-step process in order to produce a series of products to a given specification.

Consideration is also given to appropriate safety and environmental guidelines. You’ll spend two hours in lectures and one hour in tutorials per week.

This module establishes the principles of mass transfer separation processes, with a focus on binary distillation, gas absorption/stripping and drying. Every week you’ll have a two-hour lecture and a one-hour tutorial. You’ll also have regular practical workshops.

This module will help you develop the knowledge and skills needed for the succesful management of waste. Increasingly, waste is viewed as a valuable resource that must be managed and utilised effectively to minimise environmental impact. The first part of the module introduces you to conventional waste management practices. You'll study the development of legislation and how directives from the European Union impact on our daily lives. 

Current waste treatment techniques and technologies will be studied:

• biological methods (composting, anaerobic digestion)
• thermal methods (energy from waste, gasification, pyrolysis)
• mechanical biological treatment and landfilling

Techniques and approaches for the recovery and recycling of waste products will also be a core component. You'll explore how successful waste/resource recovery schemes are increasing due to the application and adaptation of technology from other industries. You'll also analyse case studies on topical aspects such as materials recovery and reprocessing of specific waste streams. Teaching is delivered through three hours of lectures each week.

This module aims to provide an in depth knowledge of heat, mass and momentum transport that is necessary in assessing, analysing and developing chemical, biochemical and environmental processes.

Furthermore, this module fills the gap between first year transport phenomena and the fourth year CFD module while introducing the multi-physics aspect of the discipline. You’ll spend three hours in lectures and three hours in practicals each week studying for this module.

This module aims to introduce to students and build fundamental knowledge and skills in the utilisation of biological systems in bio-manufacturing and bioconversion. Students will learn basic biological science applied to the exploitation of living systems and their components. Fundamentals of bioprocess safety will be developed. You'll spend three hours in practical sessions each week studying for this module.

This is a group design project involving the preparation of heat and mass balances and flow sheets for a particular process scheme and the detailed design of certain important plant items. A study of the control, operational, safety, environmental and economic aspects will be included. You will also gain an appreciation of project and financial planning.

You’ll spend one hour in a tutorial and make use of self-study sessions each week studying for this module.

This module aims to provide you with a thorough understanding of how process, hygiene and material characteristics influence the total transformation design of chemical process plants via the reverse / forensic engineering based analysis of examplar plant designs. You'll learn how to:

• assess the physical-chemical basis for safe process design, including handling of extremely hazardous materials, appropriate safety and control measures and the effect that such considerations have upon influence of scale-up
• evaluate the basis for selection of construction material based on the characteristics of the materials being processed, conditions required to achieve the transformation, etc.
• critically evaluate physical-chemical basis for application of novel/alternative processes and plant designs (e.g. green chemistry/process intensification/process integration)
• explain the physical-chemical and practical factors which influence process economics, for example achievable yields, economies of scale of process, work-up and purification, sue stages
• demonstrate what influence whole system thinking, total life-cycle and critical analysis have upon the physical-chemical basis of process designs
• explain control choices with respect to the material, physical and chemical properties of the process relating them to product specifications and legislation requirements etc.
• evaluate interactive risk within a complex system
• understand the potential influence of that environmental impact and societal opinion has upon process design

Every week you'll have two hours of lectures and a one hour tutorial.

In this module you’ll look in detail at the process of mass transfer in multi-component separation equipment and multicomponent separation processes. You’ll learn principles of design for distillation and absorption columns and use computer applications. You’ll spend two hours in lectures and one hour in workshops per week studying for this module.

This module aims to provide you with a basis for understanding the dynamic behaviour of a process system and the options available for its safe single loop control. It aims to help you develop an appreciation of:

• the dynamic behaviour of processes
• effects of disturbances and single loop controllers
• the features and constraints on choice of conventional process control instruments and equipment
• a basis for process analysis and design using dynamic process models and dynamic simulation

You'll spend two hours in lectures and two hours in computing sessions every week.

In this module you'll be given a laboratory-based problem and you'll need to plan experiments to collect the data required to solve the problem. You'll work in groups but write individual reports covering process assessment, experimental procedure and the description and discussion of the experimental results.

By solving a laboratory-based problem, you should gain the confidence in making decisions in a technical/scientific environment and adopt a rational, efficient approach to problem solving. You'll also become more familiar with the operation of commonly-encountered chemical engineering equipment and improve your skills in collecting, analysing and interpreting experimental data.

This section is made up of eight topics, which are detailed below.  Each topic covers a fundamental principle in reactor design, also how students can combine those principles to derive/optimise the reactor design equations. The textbook Fogler, H. Scott "Elements of chemical reaction engineering", 4th ed., Prentice Hall, 2005 is closely followed. The main topics are:

• mole balances
• conversion and reactor sizing
• rate laws and stoichiometry
• collection and analysis of rate data
• isothermal reactor design
• multiple reactions
• steady-state non-isothermal reactor design
• catalysis and catalytic reactors