Chemical Engineering

Available as a specialisation in the BE and the integrated BE/ME

Chemical engineers take their high-level understanding of chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics and apply it to the production and management of functional products from raw materials. Chemical engineering is in fact the only specialisation that crosses all borders in science—a core grasp of chemistry is an obvious requirement but a depth of understanding in biology and physics is also necessary. Combining this scientific knowledge with engineering principles, chemical engineers look at problems more broadly and apply solutions more holistically to produce valuable products.

They consider environmental impact, economic benefit and efficiency when they develop materials like petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, foods and fuels, and processes like clean energy techniques.

Chemical engineers are valued for their ability to assess the economic viability of a project, and for their problem-solving skills and is concerned with the commercial-scale realisation of discoveries in biology, chemistry,biochemistry, microbiology and physics. The role of the chemical engineer is equally important when designing the production process.

UQ Chemical Engineering offers you the chance to become creative, adaptive scientific and technical leaders, able to solve problems in industry, government and academia.  

What are the applications?

Whereas once chemical engineers would have worked in manufacturing or process engineering, now their skills are also valued in areas like health and medical research, agriculture, alternative power generation, and environmental management.

Being such a broad specialisation, chemical engineering is well-placed to look at broad problems. Applications in the future will be aimed at problems of environmental waste, pollution and other man-made issues. 

What does the future hold?

The future is very exciting for chemical engineering graduates, with emerging opportunities to solve major global issues. The solutions to greenhouse gas emissions, environmental pollution and sustainable energy provision will come from chemical engineering.

The areas of bioengineering and nanotechnology are new fields which deal with materials at the molecular level, changing their behaviour and properties to suit a specific purpose. In this way, entirely new roles are developed for well-known materials, and new materials are formulated. More importantly, nanotechnology has allowed chemical engineers to improve existing processes, making them more efficient.

UQ’s School of Chemical Engineering works closely with the university’s centre of excellence in these fields, the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN).

UQ graduates are highly valued because of their training within such a research-based forum. 

The following areas are available to study with the Chemical Engineering major.

Food Engineering

In order to combat rising levels of health problems, next generation foods will need to contain less fat, sugar and salt, less additives and refined ingredients, and more phytonutrients.

Food engineering considers processing and materials design, with a particular emphasis on developing technology to allow the creation of next generation healthier food and beverages. It also covers a wide range of activities including food handling, processing, packaging and distribution of raw food and consumer products.
 
Prospective employers for food engineers include companies involved in food processing, food machinery, packaging, ingredient manufacturing, instrumentation, and control.
 

Employment Opportuntites

Traditionally, chemical engineers were employed in industries such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, petroleum and petrochemicals, minerals processing and metals, energy, food, plant design and construction and consultancies.

Over time, new areas of employment have emerged, like biochemical engineering and biotechnology, biomedical engineering, environmental protection, polymers, ceramics and composites, nanomaterials and nano-processing and product development.

Government authorities are common recruiters of UQ graduates, and there are also employment opportunities in the private sector, locally, nationally and internationally.

Recent graduates have found employment with companies like Anglo-Coal, Caltex, Progen, Nestle, Visy Paper, Goodman Fielder, BOC Gas, Gutteridge Haskey and Davey, Aquatech-Maxon and BHP Billiton. 

Visit our Careers in Chemical Engineering page for further information.


UQ Bonus Rank Scheme
 
The UQ Bonus Rank Scheme offers students who complete Year 12 in Australia a chance to improve their rank to gain entry to their preferred program.  For more information please click here.

Full program details and entry requirements

Credit for Previous Studies

Non-Award Enrolment
 
If you have the skills and background to enrol in individual courses, but you are not qualified to enter an award program, you may be eligible to enrol as a domestic non-award student on a fee-paying basis, for training purposes. This option is not available to international students.

The University's Enhanced Studies program allows students in selected high schools to enrol in first year level university courses, while completing their Year 12 studies.

Full list of BE courses 

Study information for Chemical Engineering students

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