The department's small class-sizes, engaging teaching practices, and hands-on learning in our state-of-the-art facilities empower our students to solve real-world problems.
The Department of Chemical Engineering is a vibrant center of collaborative research addressing some of the most pressing challenges in energy and materials. Our faculty members are engaged in a diverse array of research in areas such as machine learning and process systems engineering, CO2 capture and conversion, polymer engineering, renewable energy, synthetic biology, environmental remediation, and materials science that push the boundaries of innovation.
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News
Chemical Engineering leads in health technology
The Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo is equipping students with cutting-edge tools to advance research in health and biotechnology. Two new pieces of equipment, an Ambr-15 Automated Micro Bioreactor System and a Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) instrument, are opening doors for exciting graduate-level research in bioprocessing and biopharmaceuticals.
Chemical engineers play a key role in designing and optimizing processes for producing vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and other biologic medicines. They also use synthetic biology to engineer cells that produce therapeutic molecules.
Professor Hector Budman, who collaborates closely with industrial partners in biotechnology, recently received an Ambr-15 Automated Micro Bioreactor System through a donation from Sartorius. This advanced system allows students and researchers to grow cells and optimize culture conditions for producing biologics such as vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, which are widely used to treat diseases.
Using air pollution to achieve net zero emissions
Eric Croiset, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, aims to turn CO2 into sustainable aviation fuel to achieve net-zero emissions. The study proposes to upend the perception of CO2 as a harmful greenhouse gas and instead view it as a valuable new feedstock for producing green fuels.
Croiset’s research group, including PhD student Mohammadali Emadi, is exploring an innovative idea to capture CO2 gas directly from the air and turn it into sustainable aviation fuel. This idea has the potential to create a financial incentive to treat CO2 as a resource, bringing a circular carbon economy a step closer to becoming a reality.
The study combined two emerging technologies, Direct Air Capture (DAC), taking CO2 from the air and using Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOEC) to change CO2 and steam into syngas, a mixture of primarily CO and H2. Syngas can then be processed into synthetic chemicals or fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel.
Third-Year Student Wins Top Prizes in Multiple Competitions
Congratulations to Trevor Van Den Heuvel, a third-year student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, along with his teammates Jeff Qiao Wang (Math) and Denis Goubkine (Math), who achieved first place and a $500 prize in the 2025 Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Club Case Competition.
This competition took place virtually and challenged undergraduate student teams to provide strategic advisory for a legacy department store experiencing challenges with customer loyalty, inflation, and margin pressures.
Van Den Heuvel and his team developed a strategy to increase the revenue and profitability of the department store by leveraging AI price matching and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) tactics to appeal to a younger generation that is sensitive to prices.
Their innovative solution took first place. By participating in the contest, they gained valuable insights into deal execution, stakeholder management, and data analysis.