overview

Emphasis area at bachelor of science level in biochemical engineering

Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering which deals with changing the composition, energy content and state of aggregation of materials. As a chemical engineering student, you will consider the fundamental properties and nature of matter (chemistry), the forces that act on matter (physics) and the precise expressions of the relationships between them (mathematics). Extensive use is made of computers in the application of these sciences to engineering problems.

As a chemical engineer, you may study ways in which pure water can be obtained from the sea; design processes to produce fertilizers, rubber, fibers, and fuels; or team up with other engineers and scientists to develop specialized polymeric materials for use in artificial arms, legs and other human organs. You may be instrumental in finding supplemental food sources for man, such as protein from petroleum, wood, or the sea. You might help develop new processes for the application of biochemistry, energy conservation, or environmental control, such as reducing undesirable substances in the air. Or, you might have a hand in the creation of strong lightweight materials to be used in aircraft construction. Your opportunities will be unlimited.

At Missouri S&T, you will have laboratories available which offer training in qualitative and quantitative analysis, basic organic and physical chemistry, physics, unit operations, biochemical engineering, design and automatic process control.

Your studies will give you a broad technical basis with an emphasis on material balances, energy balances, separation processes, rate processes, unit operations, process economics, safety, and design.

Among its facilities, the department features digital data acquisition and control equipment for research and instruction which allows simultaneous utilization of the system by several people. A full complement of hardware exists for input and output of signals to and from process equipment and instrumentation. The campus computer network makes available a wide variety of professional software. Also included is equipment to measure thermodynamic and physical properties, study biochemical engineering processes, polymers, surface phenomena, fluid mechanics, membranes, chemical kinetics and diffusion.