The Division of Chemical Engineering at School of Engineering, CUSAT will be known for leadership in research and education that focuses on improving the quality of life through the application of chemical engineering principles.
The mission of the Division of Chemical Engineering is to prepare students for professional practice, research, and lifelong learning, and to advance the scientific and technological basis for engineering practice.
Chemical engineering is a branch of engineering that applies physical sciences and life sciences together with mathematics and economics to produce, transform, transport, and properly use chemicals, materials and energy. It essentially deals with the engineering of chemicals, energy and the processes that create and/or convert them. Modern chemical engineers are concerned with processes that convert raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms. They are also concerned with pioneering valuable materials and related techniques – which are often essential to related fields such as nanotechnology, fuel cells and bioengineering.
Chemical engineering emerged upon the development of unit operations, a fundamental concept of the discipline chemical engineering. By the 1940s, it became clear that unit operations alone was insufficient in developing chemical reactors. While the predominance of unit operations in chemical engineering courses in Britain and the United States continued until the 1960s, transport phenomena started to experience greater focus. Along with other novel concepts, such process systems engineering (PSE), a "second paradigm" was defined. Transport phenomena gave an analytical approach to chemical engineering while PSE focused on its synthetic elements, such as control system and process design. The environmental impacts of chemical process industries and chemical products prompted chemical engineers to focus more attention on environment protection and industrial safety during the 1970s and 80s. Today, the field of chemical engineering is a diverse one, covering areas from biotechnology and nanotechnology to mineral processing.
The Division of Chemical Engineering of School of Engineering offers an M.Tech (Part time) Programme in Chemical Engineering with Process Engineering specialisation and PhD programme. The M.Tech programme, introduced in the year 1979, is mainly intended for working professionals. More than 200 industry professionals have obtained M.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering during the last 35 years.
The research areas of the Division include Transfer operations, Environmental Engineering, Process Safety, Electrochemical Engineering and Nanotechnology.