The Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering offers facilities for advanced training and research leading to the Master of Engineering, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Chemical Engineering and in Materials Engineering. Degrees are granted in Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Process Control and Welding Engineering. Welding Engineering is not available at the doctoral level. The MEng degree is intended primarily for part-time students who are working in industry, but can also be taken by full-time students.
General fields for research in chemical engineering include fluid mechanics and rheology; reaction kinetics and catalysis; mass transfer and separation processes; heat transfer; thermodynamics, hydrocarbon P-V-T and phase equilibrium studies; polymer reactor engineering; computer process control; dynamic simulation; biotechnology, mathematical modelling and environmental engineering. Many research programs are oriented toward better utilization of natural resources in the province, e.g., upgrading of Athabasca bitumen and heavy oil feedstocks; processing of natural gas.
Active research areas in materials engineering include mineral processing; coal preparation; modelling and simulation; intelligent processing of materials and solidification processing; hydrometallurgy; pyrometallurgy; high temperature electrochemistry; corrosion; physical and mechanical metallurgy; process metallurgy; welding metallurgy; powder metallurgy; ancient materials; ceramic materials; and electronic materials. Active research areas in chemical process control include dynamic modeling, state and parameter estimation, model predictive control, fault monitoring and diagnosis and process optimization.
Many research projects are industrially applied, and supported by industry. In some cases research can be carried out at the supporting company. Details of current research projects are available from the Department office.