MEng Chemical Engineering with Industrial Experience

Chemical engineering is concerned with designing and managing processes to carry out molecular transformations at large scale, in order to provide the products and materials we all need. Chemical engineers take raw materials and turn them into useful products via chemical or biological reactions.

As part of the four year MEng Chemical Engineering with Industrial Experience degree you'll study a range of core material incorporating the fundamentals of chemical engineering during years 1 and 2 and undertake an integrated work placement during year three. The technical aspects of chemical engineering revolve around managing the behaviour of materials and chemical reactions. This means predicting and manipulating compositions, flows, temperatures and pressures of solids, liquids and gases. You'll discover how to understand and describe chemical, physical and biological processes using mathematical equations, as well as learning about and getting hands-on experience of using the equipment and techniques applied in industry for large-scale manufacturing.

During your third year you'll go into industry for a yearlong placement during which you'll gain invaluable experience working as a chemical engineer. The industrial placement is assessed through a dissertation, logbook and poster presentation with support provided throughout from an industrial and an academic supervisor. Two modules, Catalytic Reaction Engineering Advanced Engineering Separations, are studied by distance learning during the placement year. Previous industrial experience placements have been with companies including:

AkzoNobel
AstraZeneca
AxxionRecycling
Bosch
British Sugar
British Petroleum
Cargill
Chevron Texaco
EDF Energy
Exxon Mobil
GlaxoSmithKline
JaguarLandRover
Kraft Foods
Procter and Gamble
Rolls Royce
Syngenta
Tata Steel
Total
Unilever
The Design Project is a key component and is taught in the fourth year of the course. Working in teams, students undertake an open ended project to design a complete production process. Sustainability is embedded within the design project, with examples including the sustainable production of chemicals such as propylene oxide and ethylene glycol and succinic acid production from waste.

Our student design project groups have won the IChemE's Macnab-Lacey Prize three times since its introduction in 2011. The prize is awarded to the student design project which best demonstrates how engineering can contribute to a more sustainable world.

All of our degree programmes are fully accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), the global professional body for chemical engineers.