Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

As has been done since we awarded the nation’s first degree in chemical engineering in 1889, the undergraduate program in chemical engineering undertakes to prepare individuals for careers in the chemical process industries. These include all industries in which chemical and energy changes are an important part of the manufacturing process, such as the petroleum, rubber, plastics, synthetic fiber, pulp and paper, fermentation, soap and detergents, glass, ceramic, photographic and organic and inorganic chemical industries. In view of the dynamic nature of this technology, the course of study stresses fundamental principles rather than technical details. It prepares the student either for advanced study at the graduate level or for immediate entrance into industry. Opportunities in the process industries are found in a variety of activities, including design, development, management, production, research, technical marketing, technical service, or engineering.

Mission: The mission of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is to provide an excellent chemical engineering education through a combination of theory and practice that prepares students for productive professional careers including postgraduate studies.

Program Educational Objectives
Program Educational Objectives are broad statements that describe what graduates are expected to attain within a few years of graduation.

• Our graduates will attain a promotion and/or responsibilities beyond their entry-level position, or progress toward the completion of an advanced degree.
• Our graduates will continue to develop professionally.
• Our graduates will collaborate professionally within or outside of their organizations at a regional, national and/or international level.

Student Outcomes
Student Outcomes are statements that describe what students are expected to have by the time of graduation.

1. An ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
2. An ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
3. An ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
4. An ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
5. An ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
6. An ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
7. An ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies
   
   

Curriculum

The curriculum covers a breadth of fundamental principles so that the chemical engineering graduates have a working knowledge of advanced chemistry, material and energy balances applied to chemical processes; thermodynamics; heat, mass, and momentum transfer; chemical reaction engineering; separation operations, process design and control. The program provides students with appropriate modern experimental and computing techniques in unit operation laboratory and requires them to work in teams and submit written and oral reports on their laboratory projects. A capstone experience in senior year gives students an opportunity to integrate their knowledge. Also included is the study of health, safety, environmental and ethical issues in the chemical engineering profession.

Graduate work leading to the degrees of Master of Science in chemical engineering or Master of Chemical Engineering provides a more thorough understanding of the discipline and enhances a student's ability to handle complex problems. A thesis is required for the Master of Science degree, but not for the Master of Chemical Engineering degree. Most recent graduate students have chosen research topics in biotechnology, polymers, or automatic control, but other specialties also are possible.

The chemical engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org, under the commission’s General Criteria and Program Criteria for Chemical, Biochemical, Biomolecular, and Similarly Named Engineering Programs.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Depending on the students’ schedules, elective courses may be taken in terms other than the ones designated.

Electives
Chemical Engineering students must complete 28 credits of electives in humanities and social sciences in addition to HUM H190 and ENGL H290. They are also required to take 24 credits of electives (8 credits of CHE electives, and 16 credits of free electives) in addition to the humanities and social sciences mentioned above. The courses listed below qualify as a CHE elective. In very specific circumstances, independent projects or other courses may qualify as a CHE elective if approved by the department.

CHE 310 Numerical Methods for Chemical Engineers
CHE 405 Introduction to MEMS: Fabrication and Applications 
CHE 419 Advanced MEMS: Modeling and Packaging
CHE 430 Petrochemical Processes
CHE 441 Polymer Engineering
CHE 460 Particle Technology
CHE 461 Unit Operations in Environmental Engineering
CHE 462 Membrane Separations
CHE 465 Energy and the Environment
CHE 470 Safety, Health, and Loss Prevention
CHE 502 Transport Phenomena
CHE 504 Advanced Reactor Design
CHE 513 Advanced Thermodynamics
CHE 515 Nanomaterials Science and Engineering
CHE 525 Process Analytics
CHE 530 Petrochemical Processes
CHE 540 Advanced Process Control
CHE 545 Introduction to Biochemical Engineering
CHE 546 Bioseparations
CHE 562 Advanced Wastewater Treatment
CHE 563 Advanced Water Treatment

Students are encouraged to use their electives to focus their studies in a particular subject area.

The chemical engineering profession is rapidly changing and knowledge of specialty areas has become essential in the real world. Technical elective courses are intended to provide an opportunity to introduce students to a specialty area in science and engineering and help them to expand their knowledge and expertise in new areas of chemical engineering. Although it is recommended that a minimum of eight credit hours be focused in one subject area, students are encouraged to focus most or all of the 24 credit hours of electives in a particular subject area. In many cases students can use their electives to take a package of courses toward an area minor such as biochemical engineering, chemistry, environmental engineering, modern languages, materials science and engineering, sustainability, toward a certificate in semiconductor materials and devices, or toward an area of concentration (see below).

Undergraduate students have the opportunity to work on a research project under the guidance of one of the departmental faculty members. Students who are interested in learning about research should talk to members of the faculty to define a project of mutual interest and then enroll in CHE499, Directed Research. Credit hours of CHE499 can count toward an approved elective.

Minor in Chemical Engineering
The minor in chemical engineering is designed to introduce principles of chemical engineering to students majoring in other disciplines. Participation in this minor will help students to understand chemical engineering aspects of industrial processes and enter a graduate program in chemical engineering if they desire.

Students who complete the minor in chemical engineering during their sophomore and junior years open the possibility of taking some chemical engineering electives during their senior years.

The minor in chemical engineering has the following requirements:

CHE 201 Conservation Principles and Balances or equivalent
CHE 202 Basic Chemical Process Calculations
CHE 301 Fluid Mechanics or equivalent
CHE 303 Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics or equivalent
CHE 304 Multi-Component Thermodynamics
CHE 320 Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer
CHE 321 Applications of Heat and Mass Transfer or equivalent

Completion of a minimum of 12 credit hours of courses with prefix CHE at 300 level or above is required toward the minor. Students interested in the CHE minor should consult the CHE Department Head and receive approval for equivalent courses to be considered.

Minor in Biochemical Engineering
The biochemical engineering minor provides students the ability to apply CHE principles to design and model biochemical systems. Applications include bioprocess design (e.g. chemical and pharmaceutical production), drug delivery, pharmacokinetics, genetic engineering, and synthetic biology.

To successfully complete a minor in Biochemical Engineering, a student must complete the following:

Four required courses:

• BIO110 - Cell Structure and Function
• CHEM330 - Biochemistry
• CHE545 - Introduction to Biochemical Engineering
• CHE 546 - Bioseparations

Elective courses totaling at least 8 credit hours taken from the following list (no more than 4 credit hours of electives chosen for the biochemical engineering minor can be used towards fulfilling the requirements of another minor program):

• BIO210 - Mendelian and Molecular Genetics
• BIO220 - Microbiology
• BIO230 - Cell Biology
• BIO411 - Genetic Engineering
• BIO421 - Applied Microbiology
• CHEM331 - Biochemistry II
• CHEM430 - Advanced Biochemistry
• CHEM433 - Biochemistry Lab (recommended but not required for students who take CHEM430 - note that the CHEM433 course is only 1 credit)
• CHEM532 - Biochemical Pharmacology
• MA482/BE482 - Biostatistics*
• BMTH301 - Introduction to Biomathematics:Continuous Models*
• BMTH302 - Introduction to Biomathematics: Discrete Models*
• BMTH311 - Systems Biology*
• BMTH312 - Bioinformatics*

* Only 4 credits of electives towards the minor may come from credits listed or cross-listed as MA or BMTH.

Other appropriate courses, typically biology or chemistry courses at the 400- or 500-level, may be used to fulfill the minor’s elective requirements with prior approval of the chemical engineering department head.

AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

Although it is not a requirement, students may pursue a concentration in one or more of the following areas. Students who complete the requirements of a concentration may receive, upon request, a letter from the Department Head that attests to the fact that the requirements have been completed. With proper planning, a student should be able to complete the requirements for an area of concentration without overload.

Advanced Chemical Engineering Analysis

Students need to take CHE 502 (Transport Phenomena) and 3 additional courses from the list below. Other courses may be substituted only with prior approval by the Department Head. No more than two courses with a MA prefix may be applied towards the concentration.

• CHE 310 Numerical Methods or MA 332 Introduction to Computational Science
• CHE 499 Directed Research (4 credit hours)
• CHE 504 Advanced Reactor Design
• CHE 513 Advanced Thermodynamics
• MA 336 Boundary Value Problems
• MA 371 Linear Algebra I or MA 373 Applied Linear Algebra for Engineers
• MA 438 or MA 538 Advanced Engineering Mathematics

Energy Production and Utilization

Students need to take 4 courses from the list below. Other courses may be substituted only with approval of the Department Head.

• CHE 465 Energy and the Environment*
• CHE 430/530 Petrochemical Processes*
• ECE 204  AC Circuits**
• ECE 371 Sustainable Energy Systems***
• ME 407 Power Plants
• ME 408 Renewable Energy
• ME 411 Propulsion Systems
• ME 450 Combustion
• PH 265 Fundamentals of Nuclear Physics & Radiation

  * At least one of these courses is required in order to earn the concentration.
 ** PH113 is a prerequisite.
*** PH113 and ECE204 are prerequisites.

Industrial and Process Engineering

Students need to take CHE 470 (Safety, Health, and Loss Prevention), either CHE 540 (Advanced Process Control) or CHE 525 (Process Analytics), 2 courses from the Statistics and Modeling list below, and 1 course from the Engineering Management Electives list below. Other courses may be substituted only with approval of the Department Head.

     Statistics and Modeling

• EMGT 445 Quality Methods
• EMGT 446 Statistical Methods in Six Sigma
• MA 487 Design of Experiments
• MA 444 Deterministic Models in Operations Research

     Engineering Management Electives

• EMGT524 Production/Operations Management
• EMGT527 Project Management
• EMGT562 Risk Analysis and Management
• EMGT581 Multi-objective Optimization
• EMGT586 Supply Chain Management
• EMGT587 Systems Engineering
• EMGT588 Quality Management l
• EMGT589 Manufacturing Systems