Chairperson’s Message

Mission

The mission of our program is to empower students with excellent principles, technical ‎skills and ethical behavior that allow them to assume leadership positions in the chemical industry and its related fields. The rapidly changing nature of nowadays technologies and societal needs ‎motivates us to foster an environment of advanced pursuit of knowledge that leads students ‎to developing creative and sustainable solutions to problems facing the demanding chemical industry ‎nationally and internationally.

Undergraduate Programs

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
The BE in Chemical Engineering Program augments the BS Program through imparting to students in-depth knowledge in specific areas, thus adding to their practical and general skills. Students are exposed to applied-learning experiences in synergy, which meet the requirements for registration in the Lebanese Order of Engineers. Our BE program consists of 146 credits.


Program Educational Objectives
PEO.1 Demonstrate variety of skills leading to proficiency in various industry sectors such ‎as chemical, petroleum and environmental, by applying critical thinking to identify problems and provide sustainable engineering solutions.

‎PEO.2 Foster their professional growth by pursuing an advanced degree in chemical engineering disciplines and/or gaining lifelong learning expertise in advanced technologies.

PEO.3 Engage in professional service by applying their engineering skills and practices to ‎benefit society and promote sustainable development and environmental protection ‎for future generations.

PEO.4 Uphold the highest standards of safety, and ethics while recognizing the impact of chemical engineering on the public and the environment, as well as the role of chemical engineers in addressing economic, social and global challenges.

‎PEO.5 Promote excellency in communication skills, cross-disciplinary teamwork and leadership abilities.


Student Outcomes

1. an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.


2. an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.


3. an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.


4. an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.


5. an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.


6. an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.


7. an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Graduate Programs

Graduates may apply to pursue advanced study leading to a Master of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering provided he/she has obtained the required averages in the undergraduate programs of study, either immediately following the BS degree or after completing the BE degree. The Faculty Admissions Committee makes the final decision about student entry into the Master of Science Program. Entry to the Chemical Engineering graduate program requires an average of at least 80.

The graduate program at the department of Chemical Engineering offers the following tracks:

Petroleum Engineering

Petroleum engineers are engaged in different aspects of oil exploration and development, from identifying and characterizing the reservoir through drilling and completion to production. Petroleum engineers also discover new ways to extract oil and gas from older wells. We offer courses that cover both upstream and downstream operations and will prepare graduates for careers in petroleum and energy-resource fields. Our Petroleum and Drilling Engineering labs feature state of the art units that enable students to determine different properties of oil and even to perform a full drilling simulation!

Industrial Processes Engineering

Industrial Processes Engineering integrates in-depth knowledge of core areas of process engineering, such as polymerization, separations, transport, and reaction processes. Courses in this track prepare graduates to play a vital role in designing and developing new materials, optimizing existing processes, and elaborating sustainable energy systems. This is a genuinely remarkable track that will enable students to work in a wide range of industries.

Food Processing

Food Processing equips students with a solid understanding of food process engineering, and transferable skills in massive demand in the market. Food process engineers are engaged in the development of food processes and products. Food Processing courses give students the theoretical and practical knowledge required in the food industry, which, combined with suitable industrial training and experience, can help launch graduates on the path towards becoming leading engineers in the food industry.


Program Educational Objectives
PEO.1 Demonstrate variety of skills leading to proficiency in various industry sectors such ‎as chemical, petroleum, environmental and others. These skills are:

a.‎ Technical foundations by using critical thinking to identify problems and provide ‎adequate and sustainable engineering solutions.

b.‎ Effective communication to articulate scientific ideas and proposals.

PEO.2 Involve in professional service by putting their engineering skills and practices to ‎benefit society and promote sustainable development and environmental protection ‎for future generations.

‎ PEO.3 Provide students with in-depth professional training in a wide range of specialty areas relevant to chemical and petroleum engineering.

PEO.4 Solve problems by defining a problem clearly, analyzing data, and drawing appropriate conclusions.

PEO.5 Search and use peer-reviewed scientific publications effectively and evaluate papers critically.

PEO.6 Seed in chemical engineering students a strong sense of professionalism and community awareness so they can conduct themselves in the utmost ethical principles and be aware of chemical engineering impact on society and environment, and the role of chemical engineers in contemporary social and global issues.

PEO.7 Foster excellency in communication skills (oral and written), teamwork and leadership abilities.


Student Outcomes

1. an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics.


2. an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.


3. an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences.


4. an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.


5. an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.


6. an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions.


7. an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

Facilities

The Petroleum lab includes pilot-plant scale equipment that represents unit operations found in industrial settings. This includes an ebulliometer and distillation (both plate and packed columns), gas liquid absorption, and liquid-liquid extraction. This facility is specifically designed to introduce students to larger scale industrial processes commonly encountered by chemical engineers.
At the same time, the petroleum lab offers the students a unique learning experience with its equipment for testing and studying the properties of petroleum products (diesel, fuel, gas oil, kerosene, gasoline, bitumen, crude oil, LPG etc…). In the future, this lab could also offer commercial testing services to companies and industries.



The Nanotechnology Laboratory is designed to serve graduate students. The following experiments can be performed:
Physisorption and Chemisorption using the ASAP 2020 (Micromeritics) for determination of: surface area, pore volume, pore size distribution and metallic dispersion.
Chemisorption using the AutoChem 2920 (Micromeritics) can determine percent of metal dispersion, active metal surface area, surface acidity, BET surface area. Some other experiments can be performed such as temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), desorption (TPD), oxidation (TPO). The exhaust gases can be analyzed by an on-line Mass spectrometer.
Gas pycnometer (Accupyc II 1340, Micromeritics) for the measurement of density of catalysts.
Microreactor (PID, Eng and Tech) for testing of the activity of catalysts in gas phase; the gases are analyzed on-line by a Micro-GC.



In the Corrosion Laboratory, labware and glassware for synthesis of catalysts (support synthesis, impregnation, calcination, etc) are available. For example oven, muffle furnace, large scale reactor, etc. This lab also serves to perform experiments for the production of biodiesel



The Food Technology Lab covers the following equipment:
A Pasteurization unit, enabling the study of the heat exchanges in pasteurization for different residence times in the pasteurization chamber, or the pasteurization of orange juice and milk.
A Food Filter Press, allowing the study of the cake filtration process, either with a mixture of water and yeast, or a mixture of orange juice pulp and water.
A Temperature controlled room for the storage of food products.

The Unit Operations Lab provides students a practical industrial experience on the following units:

• • A Polyvalent Reactor for separation, dilution, purification, and chemical synthesis.
• • An Evaporation-Crystallization unit for the study of crystallization processes.
• • A set of Continuous Reactors for studying reaction conversion and residence time distribution.

The Fluid Mechanics Lab includes the following advanced equipment:
A fluid dynamics unit for measuring the pressure drop across different flow configurations.
A centrifugal pumps unit for studying the efficiency of different types of pumps in single or in series/parallel modes.
A heat exchanger unit for studying conduction and convection heat transfer using single, shell-and-tube and plate heat exchangers for laminar and turbulent flow.



The Chemical Reactions Lab is a research facility highly equipped with the latest apparatuses among which:
X-ray Diffraction (XRD) allows the characterization of crystalline materials.
Effi Twin / Duo Reactor, connected to a four channel micro GC, operates on a micro-scale and is used for industrial catalyst and process design. It allows measuring the activity, selectivity, and stability of catalysts. Gas phase reactions can be studied in two independent reactors connected in series or in parallel.
Multi Bowl Spheronizer and Mini Screw Extruder are used for shaping of catalysts from powder to extrudates and spheres.



The transport phenomena lab provides students with a hands-on industrial experience on the following units:
A gas-solid fluidization and drying unit for studying the fluidization stages and the drying of alumina solid particles using hot air.
A reverse osmosis unit for measuring the osmotic pressure for municipal water and various saline solutions, as well as for studying the effect of the transmembrane pressure on the permeate quality and quantity.
A Pressurized Liquid Extraction system/Concentrator used for research purposes. It allows the extraction of organic compounds from solid matrices. The combined evaporator is used to concentrate the extracts obtained before analysis.



The Drilling Engineering Lab includes the most advanced drilling simulator that utilize a computer-based drilling operations management simulator to drill a well in a virtual environment.
It will provide virtual-on-the-job-training, by recreating the rigsite setup of the driller’s station, the drilling supervisor's station, and mud engineer's station.
During the class, the instructor will act in a mentor role, offering group skills training across a wide spectrum of drilling activities within the simulated operational scenario.