Chemical Engineering

Survey of Chemical Engineering College
Chemical Engineering College of Sichuan University is time-honored with profound academic accumulation. Converged from nine colleges and universities, the college was established by Mr. ZHANG Hongyuan, the precursor of Chinese higher education of chemical engineering, and other famous scholars and experts in 1952. It went through several stages of development, namely, Sichuan Chemical Engineering College, Department of Basic Chemical Engineering of Chengdu Engineering College, Department of Chemical Engineering of Chengdu University of Science and Technology, College of Chemical Science and Engineering of Chengdu University of Science and Technology, College of Chemical Engineering of Sichuan Union University and College of Chemical Engineering of Sichuan University, successively and respectively. Over fifty years, the college has made great contributions to chemical engineering and related disciplines of Sichuan University, and has become the bases of higher education and personnel training of chemical engineering arranged by the government in western China. And now the college is constituted by Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Process Equipment and Safety Engineering, National Chemistry Teaching Base of Engineering Fundamental Course, Department of Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Engineering, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Engineering Design and Engineering Experiment Center, and is one of the largest colleges in Sichuan University.

The background of running the college is profound, the gradation is distinct and the system is sound. The college has one national key discipline “Chemical Engineering”, specially-appointed professor post “Scholar of Yangtze River”, two doctor’s degree authorized units of first-class discipline “Chemical Engineering and Technology” and “Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics” and the mobile postdoctoral research center of Chemical Engineering and Technology, including several doctor’s degree authorized units of second-class discipline: “Chemical Engineering”, “Chemical Technology”, “Chemical Process Machinery”, “Applied Chemistry”, “Biochemical Engineering”, “Industrial Catalysis”, “Pharmaceutical Engineering”, “Chemical Safety Engineering and Technology” and “Chemical Metallurgy and Technology” while “Chemical Engineering”, “Chemical Technology”, “Chemical Process Machinery” and “Metallurgical Engineering” being the key disciplines of Sichuan Province. Engineering masters are enrolled in the fields of chemical engineering, power engineering, bioengineering, pharmaceutical engineering and safety engineering. There are six specialities for undergraduate students, namely, chemical engineering and technology, metallurgical engineering, bioengineering, pharmaceutical engineering, process equipment and control engineering and safety engineering, covering fields of chemical industry, biological engineering, process equipment, pharmacy and metallurgy.

Our college has national technology center “Engineering Technology Center of SCU-Wengfu Phosphorous Chemical Industry”, “Engineering Research Center of Phosphorous Resources Comprehensive Utilization and Clean Process” of Ministry of Education, “Research and Development Center of SCU-Kailin Phosphorous Chemical Industry” and four key laboratories of Sichuan Province, namely, “Laboratory of Filtration and Separation”, “Laboratory of Mass Transfer for Multiphase Flow and Chemical Reaction Engineering”, “Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Engineering and Technology” and “Laboratory of Phosphorous Chemistry and Engineering”, respectively. And there are more than 22,000 square meters for teaching and experiments.

Now there are 2893 students in the college, including 2370 undergraduate students and 564 postgraduate students (involving103 PhD students and 461 master students). And also there are 240 engineering master students.

Research Institutes and Centers
National Chemical Teaching Base (Center) of Engineering Fundamental Course: Approved by the primary State Education Commission in the first batch, the base was set up in March 1996, and originated from the department of applied chemistry. And now there are five teaching and research offices, one school-level experiment center and one institute. The base is in main charge of the teaching tasks of fundamental chemistry course and several optional courses for nearly 4000 undergraduate students of all engineering colleges in the university. There are two key courses at the provincial level and twelve teaching reform projects (involving five projects from the Ministry of Education).

Key Laboratory of Phosphorous Chemistry and Engineering of Sichuan Province: The lab mainly researches in the fields of engineering realization of phosphorous chemistry, comprehensive utilization of phosphorus resources and field synergy technology, new process development of phosphorous industry, novel phosphorous functional material, phosphorous-containing pharmaceutical intermediate and organophosphorus chemical. There are experimental places over 1,600 m2 and conventional equipments valued about 8 million RMB, such as X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope and Fourier infrared spectrometer。Five doctoral supervisors, fifteen professors and thirty-four associate professors are available in this lab.

Key Laboratory of Filtration and Separation of Sichuan Province: This lab focuses on theories and equipments for filtration and separation. It is dominant in solid-liquid separation, gas-solid separation, classification of solid particles, classification of ultrafine particles, membrane material and membrane separation technique, computer numerical simulation for two-phase flow, etc. Several achievements are in both domestic and international lead, and several science and technology awards at the national, provincial or ministerial levels are won also. Now there are seven professors, seven associate professors and eight lecturers and engineers available in the lab.

Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow Mass Transfer and Chemical Reaction Engineering of Sichuan Province: It is concentrated on the engineering problems about chemical reactions and separation processes, including catalysts and reaction kinetics, developments of novel reactors, multiphase flow mass transfer, new separation techniques and so forth. They have got superiorities in developments and applications of western natural gas, V, Ti and P-containing mineral resources and renewable resources since 2000.

Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Engineering and Technology of Sichuan Province: Established by Sichuan University and Sichuan Antibiotics Industry Research Institute together, this lab is interested in developing new medicine and new pharmaceutical techniques. It is dominant in the fields of chemical pharmacy, microorganism pharmacy, modern biological pharmacy, traditional Chinese medicine modernization and natural drugs. There are fourteen professors and researchers, seventeen associate professors and twenty-seven lecturers and engineers. There are area more than 2,500 m2 for working and enough equipment for experiments.

Institute of Chemical Engineering Design: It was founded in October 1985. The institute is mainly occupied with chemical industrial device design and achievement engineering realization, holding the class B qualification of chemical design. Several sets of apparatus for 200 kt/a powder MAP and 120 kt/a granule MAP have been designed and built by the way of lump-sum contracting since 2001. And all these projects are of successful operation at the first feeding within the time limit of 150 days. The institute sets a good example of the integration of production, teaching and research to universities and colleges, and makes great contributions to the production localization and industrialization of large phoschemical industrial equipment.

Institute of Chemical Engineering: It was founded in November 1981. The institute is mainly engaged on the engineering and technology research in various chemical professional fields, and capable of handling the whole comprehensive development process: from laboratory investigation to middle amplification experiment then to industrial design and technology transfer. There is a group of creative and experienced research men, who are in charge of several items of National Natural Science Foundation, 985 Program and 973 Program. Furthermore, they have established long-term stable cooperative relations with several domestic and foreign enterprises and other research institutes.

Institute of Chemical Machinery: It was founded in November 1981. This institute is primarily involved in the basic research of process equipment application and development of chemical process equipment and packaged technology, including filtration and separation technology, equipment and energy conservation for heat transfer process, membrane material and membrane separation technique, material corrosion and material surface, fluid transport machinery and its sealing, technique and device for wastewater treatment and so forth. And also several items of national/ministerial/provincial foundations and technological innovation projects have been (or are being) carried out.

Research Office of Integrated Utilization of Pan-xi Resources: It was founded in October 1978. Preparation and extraction methods of nonferrous metals and its compounds are their research directions.

Institute of Applied Chemistry: It was founded in November 1981. The institute makes researches on molecular structure and its reactivity, natural medicine, new materials and phosphorus-containing compound fertilizer.

Institute of Environment Bioengineering: It was founded in October 1998. The institute researches on application basis and engineering technologies in the fields of organic wastewater treatment and its high efficient reactor, biosynthesis of refuse to fertilizer, disposal of heavy metal pollution, flue gas desulfurization, reaction process control, solid-liquid separation and their interdisciplinary subjects, and have achieved good results in three wastes treatment and the technologies of reclamation, industrialization and automatization.
Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Engineering Technology: It was founded in October 2001. This institute mainly studies on the engineering technologies in pharmaceutics and biological fields by modern methods.

Institute of Safety Engineering: It was founded in 2005. It aims at chemical process and equipment safety. The institute undertakes safety evaluations and investigations covered aspects of hazardous characteristics of medium and its supervision, chemical process and equipment safety, pressure vessels and piping safety, burning and exploding process theory, accident analysis and security evaluation, etc.

Specialities and Training Targets for Undergraduate Students
We lay equal stress on both research and engineering to undergraduate education, aim at training students’ ability and sense of creation, and have trained a great number of senior technical and managerial personnel for the national chemical industrial circles. The students will occupy the working positions of development, design and management in enterprises and government institutions in the field of chemistry, petrochemistry, medicine, light industry, environmental protection, food, energy, labor safety, etc, or do teaching and research work in related scientific academies, institutes, colleges and universities.

Speciality of Chemical engineering and technology: This speciality covers professional directions of chemical engineering, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry and fine chemistry. The students are systematically trained to grasp the basic information of chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical engineering principle and the basic skills of engineering design, drawing, machine, computer, electrotechnics and electronics, to be capable of instructing, managing, designing, developing, analyzing and improving production process, production techniques and equipment, to form good scientific and engineering ability of thinking and ability of self-study, to generally analyze and solve practical problems, and to be versatile senior technical personnel and professional research personnel with knowledge of chemical production, developing, operation, design and management.

Speciality of Process Equipment and Control Engineering: Students in this speciality are trained to grasp the fundamental principles and professional basic skills of process engineering, mechanical engineering, control engineering, administrative engineering, etc, to possess good individual comprehensive qualities, and thus to adapt to the competitions in science, technology and economy of 21st century. The graduate students will do work of design, manufacture, research and management in the fields of equipment manufacturing, consumer goods production and processing, power and raw material, and in the places of research institutions, engineering design institutes and consultative machinery, government technical supervisor section, financial institutions and the relevant departments.

Speciality of Bioengineering: The students are trained to fit in with the needs of modern biological industry, to systemically grasp the fundamental principles, basic knowledge and skills of modern bioengineering and its relevant science, to grasp the organically combined interdisciplinary scientific principles, technologies and engineering design methods of biology, chemistry and engineering, and thus to be able to work on productive technology management, quality control and developing, designing, producing, programming of new techniques or products in modern biological industry.

Speciality of Pharmaceutical Engineering: The students are trained to fit the need of modern pharmaceutical industry, to systemically grasp the fundamental principles, basic knowledge and skills of modern pharmaceutical engineering and its relevant science, and thus to be the senior professional personnel who can work on productive management, design of process and apparatus, pharmaceutical preparation, quality control and new product development in modern pharmaceutical industry.

Speciality of Metallurgical Engineering: The students are trained to possess solid chemical and engineering fundamental knowledge, to systemically grasp the professional knowledge and skills of metallurgical principles, metallurgical technology, powder metallurgy, metallurgical process and equipment, metallurgical control and automatization, applications of computer in metallurgy, etc, to grasp the preparation methods of nonferrous metals and their compounds and the principles of metallurgical process automatic control, to be capable of developing electronical, information and chemical high-tech materials, and thus to be the senior professional personnel who can work on processing of metallic ore and secondary metals and especially research on the preparation ways of inorganic chemical materials and electronical materials.

Speciality of Safety Engineering: The students are trained to possess the comprehensive knowledge of natural science and humanistic social science, to grasp the fundamental principles, basic knowledge and skills of safety science and engineering and the relevant professional techniques, to possess good individual qualities, and thus to be occupied in safety supervision and management, safe facilities design and study, security detection and evaluation, investigation and analysis of accidents and the solution as well as development of protective products in related manufacturing fields and in the places of transportation sectors, engineering design institutes, construction consultant agencies, government technical supervisor sections and financial insurance agencies, etc.

Specialities and Training Targets for Postgraduate Students
The college takes advantage of traditional chemical engineering discipline while extending new resources, forms a whole school-running system which includes basic subject, main subject, supporting subject and new interdisciplinary subject, and is dominant and distinctive in the fields of multiphase flow mass transfer and reaction engineering and phosphorus chemistry, partly playing the leading role of the state.

Doctor’s Degree Authorized Unit of first-class discipline of Chemical Engineering and Technology
It was allowed to set up in 2003, including enrollment specialities and research areas for doctor and master as follows:
Enrollment Speciality of Chemical Engineering for PhD and Master (used to be independent second-class discipline doctoral program): mass transfer and separation engineering, chemical thermodynamics, chemical process simulation, fluidization and granule technique, chemical clean production technology, and chemical reaction engineering.

Enrollment Speciality of Chemical Technology for PhD and Master (used to be independent second-class discipline doctoral program): novel reactor development and catalytic reaction process, green chemical engineering and clean technology, resource chemistry and phosphorus chemistry, material chemical technology and functional material, crystallization and techniques of separation and purification, chemical modification and deep processing of natural macromolecule, new chemical (containing metallurgical) technology development, biotechnology and environmental protection of chemical process, organic synthesis and fine chemicals development, and chemical reactor analysis and computer simulation.

Enrollment Speciality of Industrial Catalysis for PhD and Master: controllable preparation of nano-catalytic material, catalysis and synthesis under special field enhancement, catalyst design and computer simulation, organic catalysis and fine chemicals, natural gas chemistry and environmental catalysis, catalyst engineering and technology, and catalysis reactor and adsorption technology.

Enrollment Speciality of Applied Chemistry for PhD and Master: computational chemistry and medicine design, applied electrochemistry, biological analysis technique, chemical and biological sensor, chemical analysis automatization and on-line monitoring, fine chemistry, modern analysis method and bioanalysis, computational chemistry and pharmaceutical calculation, applied inorganic chemistry, applied organic chemistry, and resource and environmental chemistry.

Enrollment Speciality of Bioengineering for PhD and Master: biological separation technology, biological process engineering, natural products development, biological chiral technology, biological fermentation and genetic engineering, biological reactor and membrane technique, industrial microbe and environmental bioengineering, and renewable resources utilization.

Enrollment Speciality of Pharmaceutical Engineering for PhD and Master: pharmaceutical separation technology, intelligentized drug delivery system, analysis and preparation of chiral compounds, form and effect of Chinese herbal trace element, information technology of drug research, pharmaceutical intermediate and drug synthesis, bio-pharmacy technology, natural medicine and modernization of Chinese traditional medicine, pharmaceutical engineering and material, and pharmaceutical process detection and quality control.

Enrollment Speciality of Chemical Safety Engineering and Technology for PhD and Master: hazardous characteristics and detection of media, safety of chemical process and equipment, pressure vessel and piping safety, theory of burning and exploding process, accident analysis and safety evaluation.

Enrollment Speciality of Nonferrous Metallurgy for Master: comprehensive utilization of nonferrous metal mineral, nano-material and its preparation method, metallurgical engineering design and study, forming and machining of nonferrous metal materials, functional nonferrous metal material, and nonferrous metal surface engineering and the thin film technology.

Enrollment Speciality of Chemical Metallurgy and Material Technology for PhD: comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, biological metallurgical technology, chemical metallurgical clean process and technique, and nano-material and the technology.

Doctor’s Degree Authorized Unit of first-class discipline of Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics
Speciality of Chemical Process Machinery: filtration and separation, separation engineering, transfer process and the equipment, membrane material and membrane technique, electrochemical engineering, process enhancement and energy conservation, process equipment control technology, fluid transportation machinery, and wastewater treatment.

Doctor’s and Master’s Professional Degree Authorized Unit of Independent second-class discipline:
Speciality of Chemical Process Machinery: filtration and separation, transfer process and the equipment, membrane material and membrane technique, electrochemical engineering, and wastewater treatment.

Mobile Postdoctoral Center of Chemical Engineering and Technology
Established in 2003, the center possesses doctor’s degree authorized unit of first-class discipline of chemical engineering and technology, covering the subjects of chemical engineering, chemical technology, applied chemistry, biochemical engineering, industrial catalysis, chemical process machinery, nonferrous metallurgy, chemical safety engineering, pharmaceutical engineering and so forth. The research achievements attract attention from home and abroad in the fields of phosphorus chemistry and clean process, multiphase flow mass transfer and the reaction engineering, filtration and separation, resource and material chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry and biochemical engineering and their interdisciplinary fields. In recent years, the center has been awarded by the first prize of National Award for Science and Technology Progress, the top grade award of Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, national merit award of Integration of Production, Teaching and Research, and several awards at the provincial and ministerial levels.

Enrollment Fields for Engineering Master: chemical engineering, power engineering, bioengineering, and pharmaceutical engineering.