2020-2021 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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 Return to: College of Engineering
Telephone: (302) 831-2543
Department website: http://www.che.udel.edu
Faculty Listing: http://www.che.udel.edu/directory/faculty.html
Overview
The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering offers graduate programs leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and the Master of Chemical Engineering (MCHE) in Chemical Engineering. The purpose of the Department’s graduate programs is to provide the guidance and opportunity for students to develop the quantitative skills of engineering and science, and the acumen to apply these skills for the welfare of modern society. Students in the program naturally have a broad range of interests and career objectives, and it is the philosophy of the Department to expose them to a variety of fundamental and applied research problems that will hone those engineering skills necessary in any career, whether in industry, academia, or government.
This involves a combination of graduate core courses in chemical engineering and applied mathematics, advanced science and engineering electives, and independent (thesis) research conducted with the guidance and mentorship of a chemical engineering faculty member. (A non-thesis option is also available for the MCHE degree).
Research
The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) Department is housed in Allan P. Colburn Laboratory, a memorial to one of the pioneers in chemical engineering who established the Department. The faculty and associated laboratories are also located in the Harker Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory, and the Ammon Pinizzoto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center. The CBE department houses the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, which is equipped with the modern tools of catalysis and surface science, and the Center for Research in Soft Matter & Polymers, whose personnel study a range of soft matter and polymer related problems. It is also the home for the Center for Biomanufacturing Science and Technology,that spans research in a number of departments that focuses on pure and applied science to advance manufacturing technologies for products such as biopharmaceuticals. Other laboratory facilities are for research in alternative energy, polymer engineering, rheology, process control, fluid mechanics, biochemical and biomedical engineering, materials science, photovoltaic systems, mass transfer, and separation processes. The Department’s growing emphasis on bioengineering is enhanced by the participation of a number of faculty and students in the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, as well as more broadly in the newly opened Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center. The Department also benefits from close contacts with industrial colleagues in the Delaware Valley-New Jersey heartland of the chemical process industries, and the ever growing biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industry locally and nationally. An extensive program of visiting scholars brings distinguished engineering scientists from around the world to the campus for periods ranging from a few days to a year.
Close contact, formal as well as informal, with colleagues in a wide range of industries is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the department. Such contact, with corporate leaders as well as practicing engineers and scientists, helps to provide students with an understanding of the milieu in which the engineer works. Lectures given by these visitors describe the unique opportunities that engineers have to contribute to the quality of life and also the restrictions that society, acting through industry and government, places on technology.
Extensive facilities for research and graduate study are available within the Department. There are laboratories specifically devoted to catalysis, electrocatalysis and reaction engineering house gas chromatographs interfaced with a computer-controlled mass spectrometer, infrared spectrophotometers for surface studies of working catalysts, electron spectrometers for analysis of catalyst surfaces, x-ray diffractometers, transmission, and scanning electron microscopes, a laser-Raman spectrometer, an x-ray spectrometer, gas chemisorption equipment, many catalytic flow microreactors, and hardware/software for computational studies. Many of these studies are carried out in the University’s pioneering Center for Catalytic Science and Technology, supported by governmental funds and grants from a group of industrial sponsors.
Laboratories specifically devoted to polymer engineering are equipped with multiple rheogoniometers and mechanical spectrometers, Instron test equipment, x-ray diffractometers, and equipment for spinning and extruding polymers. The polymer engineering group is involved in the research of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials and in interdisciplinary activity supported by several industrial organizations of the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Biochemical and biomedical engineering laboratories contain a range of equipment for cell culture and fermentation, and for protein purification, analysis, and characterization. The latter includes 2-D gel electrophoresis, high performance liquid chromatography, membrane ultrafiltration, atomic force microscopy, and capillary electrophoresis. Research in the biological area is also conducted in collaboration with colleagues in the life sciences, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, and laboratories in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
The process control and monitoring laboratories contain a number of real-time instrumented experiments for online model-based control and fault diagnosis. The specific experiments include emulsion polymerization, complex quadruple-tank level control, and other systems. All of these units are equipped with state-of-the-art control hardware and software systems.
The J.A. Gerster Memorial Thermodynamics Laboratories contain equipment for high-pressure and low-pressure vapor-liquid equilibrium, for high-temperature and multiphase equilibrium and other physical property measurements, and for separations processes. Molecular dynamics and quantum mechanical calculations and modeling of simple and complex fluids are performed on the Facility for Computational Chemistry’s parallel computer and at other computational resources at the University as well as at national centers. These and other facilities are part of the Center for Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics.
Laboratories focused on the study of colloids and interfaces contain a variety of spectrometers for quasi-elastic light scattering, fluorescence measurements, and small-angle x-ray scattering. State-of-the-art instruments are available for the measurement of electrophoretic mobilities of colloids, surface tensions, ion activities, and conductivities, as well as for the determination of liquid phase compositions. Small angle neutron scattering investigations are also performed at national facilities.
Several faculty and students are involved in chemical engineering research in photovoltaics in which information needed for the design of large-scale processing units is obtained from laboratory-scale experimentation, in collaboration with the Institute for Energy Conversion. Experimental and theoretical studies in photovoltaic unit operations are conducted in a cooperative activity between the department and the Institute of Energy Conversion.
One of the growing aspects of research within the Department is process modeling. Research efforts include computer control and modeling of biochemical reactors, development, and modeling of novel separations processes, modeling of transport in living systems, modeling and simulation of polymer processes, and elucidation and modeling of reaction pathways. To support the research in chemical engineering analysis, the Department has a number of specialized computer clusters, as well as heavy use of UD-central high-performance computing (HPC) facilities with cutting edge GPU/CPU clusters. The Department also makes extensive use of local and national computing facilities described elsewhere in this catalog.
Financial Aid
Please refer to Graduate Fellowships and Assistantships for more information.
Chemical Engineering (PhD, MCHE)
Requirements for Admission
The minimum requirements for admission to degree programs in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering are listed below:
- A baccalaureate degree in the field or in a closely allied field of science or mathematics.
- An undergraduate grade-point average in engineering, science, and mathematics courses of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- A minimum of three letters of strong support from former teachers or supervisors.
- A minimum combined score of 311 on the Graduate Record Examination Aptitude Test is required of all applicants to the Chemical Engineering PhD program.
- The Test of English as a Foreign Language is required for students whose first language is not English and who have not received a degree from a college or university in which English is the sole language of instruction. (Minimum score: 600 paper based TOEFL; 250 computer based TOEFL; 100 IBET TOEFL.)
- For chemical engineering applicants the scholastic index of 3.0 in the major field is computed from the previous undergraduate work and from graduate work done in mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering courses. In exceptional circumstances, it may be possible to obtain provisional admission if one or more of the above criteria has not been satisfied. Admission to the graduate program in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware is selective and competitive based on the number of well-qualified applicants and the limits of available faculty and facilities. Those who meet stated minimum academic requirements are not guaranteed admission. On the other hand, on rare occasions, those who fail to meet those requirements can be granted admission if they offer other exceptional strengths.
Undergraduate preparation consisting of a bachelor’s program in chemical engineering leads most directly into the graduate program. However, students and practicing industrialists with a background in chemistry will also profit from this graduate program, since chemical engineering provides for the application of their scientific skills to solutions of technological problems in industry and society. Graduates of other disciplines are also encouraged to apply; some remedial work may be required and is discussed on an individual basis. Apply using the central UD graduate application.
Dual degree and accelerated 4+1 degree programs
See details below.
ProgramsMaster’sDoctorateDual DegreeCertificate4+1
Return to: College of Engineering
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