Chair    Jonathan S. Dordick
Associate Chair   Michael M. Abbott
Director, Industrial Liaison Program   E. Bruce Nauman
Department Home Page   http://www.eng.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/

The chemical conversion of resources into new, more useful forms has been the traditional concern of chemical engineers. In recent years there has developed a critical concern with the depletion of resources, leading to increased efforts to conserve, recycle, and find alternatives. Concurrently with high-technology advances in biochemical and semiconductor processing, these developments pose challenges that fall on the chemical engineering profession.

A major educational objective in The Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical Engineering is to prepare students to enter engineering practice dealing with chemical as well as physical processes in meeting the challenges of the future. The chemical engineering curriculum, which builds on chemistry, mathematics, and other basic sciences, and engineering science, culminates in professional applications in which theory is tempered by engineering art and economic principles. It equally well prepares graduates for professional practice or for advanced study.

Opportunities for creative and satisfying practice in chemical engineering can be found in the conception, design, control, or management of processes involving chemical change. These processes range from the more conventional conversion of crude oil into petrochemicals and plastics, to the microbiological transformation of hardwood chips into specialty alcohols, or to the creation of semiconductor devices from silicon wafers. Diverse career choices exist not only in the chemical industry but in virtually all processing industries, including agricultural, biochemical, chemical, food, nuclear, semiconductor processing, and environmental operations. By avoiding specialization and emphasizing basic principles, the program prepares its graduates for positions spanning the spectrum of activities from research and development, to process and project engineering, to production, or to technical marketing.

Areas of Advanced Study and Research

The focus of our research activities is reflected in the following descriptions of research areas and programs. Programs of study for graduate students are planned in the framework of the faculty’s conviction that a graduate should achieve a mastery of fundamentals in the context of current technology. This provides an appropriate background for response to the diverse opportunities for beginning a professional career and for continuing a successful practice.

Fluid Mechanics   Projects in this area involve the mechanics of fluidized beds, spouted beds, and bubbles, low Reynolds number hydrodynamics, kinetic theory, two-phase flow, and surfactant behavior in organic-aqueous systems.

Heat Transfer   Topics of interest include free convection stability, forced convection, particularly in laminar flow systems, fluid-to-particle heat transfer in fluidized and spouted beds, and boiling. Studies also are being done on heat and mass transfer at interfaces.

Mass Transport   Research is in progress on simultaneous heat and mass transfer in porous media; the effects of interfacial phenomena on mass transfer; diffusion and mixing in laminar flow systems; transient dispersion processes in capillaries, porous media and open channels; and crystal growth phenomena.

Thermodynamics   Activities include molecular simulation; the analysis and correlation of phaseequilibrium data; the development and evaluation of fluid-phase equations of state; and the study of topics in solution thermodynamics.

Air Resources   Research activities include field and modeling investigations directed toward the understanding of the acid rain phenomenon, fundamental studies of the experimental and theoretical absorption with chemical reaction of trace gases into moving drops, and improved understanding of liquid phase reaction mechanisms. The development of improved incineration of hazardous wastes requires basic understanding of the time-temperature history of combustion gases. Experimental investigations into the combustion of simulated chlorinated wastes are in progress.

Interfacial Phenomena   Problems being investigated include interfacial resistance to mass transfer and the interaction between surface forces and interfacial convection. Work in the interfacial area is concerned with heat, mass, and momentum transfer in multicomponent, ultra-thin, liquid films. Research includes studies on condensation and evaporation in the contact line region, distillation from ultrathin films, lubrication, surface-tension-driven instabilities in atomically clean liquid metals, pattern formation in dendritic growth, protein-solid interaction, and the design of bio-compatible surfaces.

Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering   Research projects in biochemical engineering emphasize biocatalysis, bioseparations, and metabolic engineering. Fundamental and applied aspects of enzyme technology, membrane sorption and separation, displacement chromatography, and salt-induced precipitation are important areas of focus. New designs involving aqueous and nonaqueous enzyme technology are being developed, as are new types of membrane-entrappedenzyme and animal-cell-suspension reactors, which are being built, tested, and analyzed. Metabolic engineering processes are being used to develop high-rate bacterial fermentations and overproducing hybridoma cultures for producing chemical intermediates and monoclonal antibodies, respectively. Control theory of biological processes and an optical biosensor for metal detection are also being pursued. Projects in biomedical engineering involve the design of polymeric inhibitors of bacterial toxins and viruses, and the use of microfabrication tools to modulate the interaction of mammalian cells with their environment for applications in tissue engineering.

Separation Processes   The fundamentals of separating species especially in dilute solutions is the focus of ongoing experimental and theoretical research. Projects include the understanding of separation by membranes and the development of new membranes, adsorption and chromatographic separations for preparing laboratory quantities of unusual chemicals, and protein precipitation processes. Recycling of microelectronic etching solutions using membrane separation processes is a major research program.

Molecular Simulations   Monte-Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations are being used in combination with statistical mechanical theories to understand thermodynamics, structure, and kinetics of bimolecules in aqueous solutions. Special emphasis is placed on understanding and relating water structure near different solutes and in different environments to resulting interactions (e.g., hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions). Molecular simulation techniques are also being applied to polymeric systems to understand penetrant solubility and diffusivity in polymers.

Polymers   A large polymer research program focuses on polymer reaction engineering including devolatilization and heat transfer. Current work emphasizes bulk polymerizations in tubular reactors and segregation phenomena in stirred tank reactors. Under study are ways of enhancing heat transfer to fluids in laminar flow and the application of polymer devolatilization technology to unconventional substances. The recovery of commingled scrap plastics by selective dissolution is a major activity. Other active areas include structure-property relationships, rheology, extrusion, and a large interdisciplinary program on biocatalysis in polymer synthesis and modification.

High-Temperature Kinetics   The development of more efficient, less polluting, combustion systems, requires accurate chemical kinetic input data on individual reactions over large temperature ranges. We are pioneering the development of experimental techniques for obtaining such data. This work includes design, construction, experimentation, and the generation of data for use by reaction system modelers. Both fast-flow thermal and pseudostatic photochemical systems are used. Various light sources, such as lasers, combined with electro-optical detection techniques are employed to determine the time history of reactants. Larger reactants and products are observed mass spectrometrically. Microcomputers are used for experimental control and data handling. In some work the light-emitting and electrical-charge generation aspects of some of the reactions are also investigated. In addition to combustion, this work is important to technological fields, such as semiconductor processing, metals refining, and optical fiber and carbon black manufacturing, as well as models of the atmosphere. A better understanding of the temperature dependence of reaction rate coefficients is a significant result of this work.

Advanced Materials   Research interests are centered around developing and understanding the phenomena involved in producing advanced materials for the optical, electronic, and allied industries. Thermodynamic, transport, and chemical processes governing the formation and subsequent behavior of these materials are under active investigation. Research areas include modeling and optimizing CVD-reactor-system designs for producing high-efficiency, epitaxial layers economically in an environmentally sound manner; developing nonlinear and electro-optic, inorganic and organic materials for switching and memory applications; understanding phenomena involved in the production and use of micro-lens arrays, wave-guide lasers, and the like; and determining the composition, property, and structure relationships of crystalline and glassy materials.

Process Control and Design   A major focus of this research is the development of realistic, robust control strategies for multivariable chemical processes having parameter and processing uncertainties. Such strategies are created to exploit the dynamic properties inherent in the systems. Integration of the modeling, design, and control of semiconductor manufacturing processes is of particular interest.

Interdepartmental Research   Several research areas involve participation and cooperation with other departments. Such areas include polymer studies with the Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry departments, fermentation and other biochemical research with the Biology Department, studies in fluid mechanics with the Mathematics Department, polymer membrane fabrication with the Chemistry Department, and research on lubrication and other interfacial phenomena with the Mechanical Engineering Department. Research into state-of-theart design and optimization of CVD reactors for semiconductor production is conducted jointly with the Center for Integrated Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing. Additional information on research in these areas is found in the catalog sections for those departments.

Facilities   The department maintains extensive research and instructional laboratories, which house a myriad of special and unique pieces of apparatus developed for specific studies as well as extensive analytical and optical instrumentation, minicomputers, and microcomputers. Major instrumentation such as a GC/mass spectrometer, an X-ray fluorescence analyzer, an ion chromatograph, an HPLC system and a laser zee particle characterization system, make our laboratories one of the most comprehensively equipped university centers for research in the areas described above. The Howard Isermann Biochemical Engineering Laboratory was established in the department as a new facility for conducting biochemical engineering research exclusively. The department research programs also use a number of major university facilities including the electron optics laboratory, and the polymer laboratories in the Materials Research Center.

Faculty

Professors

Abbott, M.M.   Ph.D. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute); thermodynamics.
Altwicker, E.R.   Ph.D. (Ohio State University); air pollution control, atmospheric chemistry.
Belfort, G.   Ph.D. (University of California, Irvine); membrane sorption and separations engineering, biocatalysis, biosensors, magnetic resonance flow imaging.
Bequette, B.W.   Ph.D. (University of Texas, Austin); chemical process modeling, control, and optimization; electronic materials processing.
Bizios, R.   Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); cellular bioengineering, cell/biomaterial interactions, biomaterials.
Bungay, H.R., III   P.E., Ph.D. (Syracuse University); water resources, biochemical engineering; (emeritus).
Cale, T.S.   Ph.D. (University of Houston); microelectronic materials processing and simulation.
Chung, C.I.   Ph.D. (Rutgers University); polymer processing, polymer melt rheology, relaxation behavior in polymer solids; (emeritus).
Cramer, S.M.   Ph.D. (Yale University); biochemical engineering, chromatographic separations.
Dordick, J.S.   Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); biochemical engineering, enzyme technology, polymer chemistry, bioseparations.
Glicksman, M.E.   Ph.D. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute); transport phenomena of crystal growth.
Lahey, R.T., Jr.   Ph.D. (Stanford University); two-phase flow and boiling heat transfer.
Littman, H.   Ph.D. (Yale University); fluidization, fluid-particle systems.
Nauman, E.B.   Ph.D. (University of Leeds, England); reaction engineering, dispersion theory, laminar heat transfer.
Van Ness, H.C.   P.E., D.Eng. (Yale University); thermodynamics; (emeritus).

Associate Professors

Muckenfuss, C.   Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin); kinetic theory, transport phenomena; (emeritus).
Plawsky, J.L.   Sc.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); optical, nonlinear and electrooptic, crystalline, and glassy materials.

Assistant Professors

Garde, Shekhar S.   Ph.D. (University of Delaware); molecular simulation.
Kane, R.S.   Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); biomedical engineering, polymers, surfaces, nanomaterials.

Distinguished Research Professors

Fontijn, A.   D.Sc. (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands); combustion, high temperature kinetics, gas phase reactions, atmospheric chemistry.
Gill, W.N.   P.E., Ph.D. (Syracuse University); transient dispersion processes, reverse osmosis systems, crystal growth phenomena, surface-tension-driven flow.
Wayner, P.C., Jr.   Ph.D. (Northwestern University); heat transfer, interfacial phenomena.

Adjunct Faculty

Belfort, M.   Ph.D. (University of California, Irvine); molecular biology.
Bradley, W.D.   B.S.Ch.E. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute); process design.
Holland, J.A.   M.D. (State University of New York Health Science Center, Brooklyn); tissue engineering, cell biology.
Ward, W.J.   Ph.D. (University of Illinois); membrane transport.

Undergraduate Program

The baccalaureate program in chemical engineering comprises a minimum of 37 courses, which include three completely free electives and three area electives: one in advanced chemistry, one in advanced chemical engineering, and one in a non-chemical engineering area. On completion of three years of the baccalaureate program, the student may continue to the fourth year or be admitted to the professional program leading to the Master of Engineering degree, which requires ten additional courses beyond the baccalaureate requirements. The Ph.D. degree, described below, may follow. While individual variations may be made in the course sequence in consultation with a faculty adviser, all listed courses and elective credits in the curricula must be satisfactorily completed to qualify for the specified degrees.

1. These required courses may be taken in either order.
2. May be replaced by ENGR-1310 Intro. to Eng. Electronics or ENGR-1330 Intro. to Biomedical Eng.
3. Includes Professional Development I.
4. This course will be fulfilled from a published list at the start of each semester. It may be taken either semester in Year 3.
5. May be taken either semester in Year 4.

Electives   The six elective courses in the B.S. program are subject to the following constraints: The chemistry elective must be in advanced chemistry or in an advanced chemistry-related subject. The chemical engineering elective must be in chemical engineering or in an approved, advanced chemical engineering subject. The engineering elective cannot be a chemical engineering course; it must be at least 2000-level; and it must contain four credits of engineering topics. The three free electives are completely unconstrained. Selection of the three constrained electives must be approved by the curriculum clearance officer, who maintains a list of appropriate courses.

Humanities or Social Sciences Electives   The humanities and social sciences electives are based on the Institute and School of Engineering requirements for these electives. It is recommended that the student elect sequences in appropriate departments in order to provide adequate breadth and depth in subject areas. Students desiring minors must consult the school or department in which these courses are offered for specific requirements.

Credit Hours   This curriculum totals 128 credits.

Professional Program   In addition to the requirements of the baccalaureate program given above, requirements for the Master of Engineering degree (described below) must be satisfied.

Graduate Programs

The department offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree and two degrees at the master’s level, the Master of Science and the Master of Engineering, each program being tailored to fulfill the varying educational needs of our graduate students.

The Ph.D. degree represents the highest level of academic preparation. With it, a student can expect to maintain technical competence and contributions throughout a professional career. It is usually the preferred degree for research and development in industry and government and for teaching.

The master’s degree represents an intermediate level of academic preparation. It is often the optimal degree for careers in engineering design. The Master of Science requires a thesis. It may be used for professional entry, but is also well suited to students who wish to measure their ability to get a Ph.D. without commitment of extra time beyond that required for an M.S. A special optional master’s program is available for this purpose. The Master of Engineering degree involves formal course work only, and does not require a thesis.

All graduate degree programs are arranged individually, and students are encouraged to use electives to do intensive studies in one or more subdisciplines or specialties. The Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science programs are particularly flexible. However, each student’s program must include the following courses:

In addition to the specific degree requirements given below, each graduate student must take an active role in the scholarly activities of the department including seminars and must participate in teaching.

Graduate Degree Requirements

Doctor of Philosophy   Ninety credits of graduate-level studies, including the dissertation, are required for a Ph.D. The emphasis is on advanced study in a specialty with major focus on the dissertation. A doctoral student must pass a comprehensive examination, prepare a dissertation proposal and the dissertation itself, and present and defend the dissertation.

Master of Science   Thirty credits of graduate-level studies, including six credits for the thesis, are normally required, although the thesis requirement may vary from three to nine hours at the discretion of the department. The 24 hours of approved course work must include at least fifteen credits of 6000-level courses. A formal thesis defense is not required.

Students who wish to follow the optional master’s program should plan to take the Ph.D. comprehensive examination during their second semester of full-time graduate studies. The examination may be taken a maximum of two times. If it is passed, the student may register for an additional three credits of CHME-6990 Master’s Thesis, and formal course work requirements for the master’s degree are reduced to 21 hours. The student also has the option of proceeding directly toward a Ph.D. without completing the master’s thesis. This option will normally reduce the time required for a Ph.D. by about six months. Students who elect to proceed in this manner will receive a Master of Science degree, with thesis requirements waived, after two years of satisfactory full-time study and acceptance of the dissertation proposal.

Master of Engineering   The degree is awarded on completion of 30 credits of course work. For a student with an accredited B.S. degree in chemical engineering, the program includes the following:

Of the electives, at least two must be chemical engineering courses, and at least two must be nonchemical engineering courses. A feature of the M.E. program in chemical engineering is the opportunity to concentrate in one of the subspecialties of chemical engineering. These areas include (but are not limited to): bioseparations, environmental engineering, materials engineering, and polymer engineering.

All graduate programs offer flexibility in course choices. Students are advised to plan programs that use course choices and electives to obtain in-depth studies in one or more subspecialties of their degree majors. Cross-disciplinary studies using courses offered by other departments or schools at Rensselaer are encouraged.

Courses   Courses in chemical engineering are described in this catalog under the department designation CHME.