Our Department ranks as number one in Canada for Chemical Engineering according to the U.S. News and World Best Global Universities.
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.
Check out this short presentation by one of our second year undergraduate students, talking about the undergraduate Chemical Engineering Program at UWaterloo!
Are you wondering what Chemical Engineering is? Check out our new animation!
Chemical Engineering Lab Tour
Join us for a tour of the Chemical Engineering undergraduate labs in the Douglas Wright Engineering Building at the University of Waterloo.
Find out more by exploring the programs, research and news stories on this site.
News
Chemical engineering team excels in circular water economy challenge
A team of graduate students from the Department of Chemical Engineering earned an impressive second place in the WEF Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC).
The student team, supervised by Professor Sarah Meunier, first won the Water Environment Association of Ontario (WEAO) competition. The contest, a municipality that provides a current and relevant problem. After that the team, sponsored by WEAO moved on to a second-place win at WEFTEC.
WEFTEC is the largest water quality exhibition in North America, and they hold an annual international student competition. The University of Waterloo team, which included Joseph Wortman, Rosa Maria Castillo, Maryory Ocana and Jinxuan Zhang competed against students from universities from across North America in the new Circular Water Economy category.
The teams were tasked with optimizing a wastewater treatment plan in Barrie. One of the biggest real-world hurdles is that Barrie expects its population to double by 2051, but the treatment plant itself has no room to grow.
Leveraging synthetic biology to address the plastic waste crisis
Chemical engineering professors are taking on the problem of plastic waste in the environment by leveraging synthetic biology to turn plastic waste into valuable resources.
“We’re stepping out of our silos to advance sustainability,” says Professor Marc Aucoin. “The question is: can we use biology—or can we tune biology—to aid us in tackling plastic pollution?”
The answer may well be yes. The research group recently co-authored an overview of strategies to leverage synthetic biology, microbial engineering and engineering design to degrade and upcycle plastic waste.
Professor Christian Euler, Waterloo’s lead for the Center for Innovative Recycling and Circular Economy (CIRCLE) in a recent study is investigating whether feedstocks derived from plastic waste could provide the energy to drive carbon dioxide (CO₂) conversion.
Milad Kamkar wins student teaching excellence award from Waterloo Engineering Society
Congratulations to Chemical Engineering professor Milad Kamkar for receiving the Igor Ivkovic Teaching Excellence Award! The Waterloo Engineering Society, a student run group presents this award to professors, lab instructors and teaching stream faculty who excel at supporting student success and advocate on behalf of students.
“I am over the moon about receiving this award. It is especially meaningful because it comes directly from undergraduate student nominations and votes.” says Prof. Kamkar.
Building strong foundations
Kamkar teaches two first year courses, CHE 100 (Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering) and CHE 102 (Chemistry for Engineers). These are core concepts that students will use throughout their journey in chemical engineering and other disciplines.
“When I see them a couple of years later, they tell me they still use the concepts from these courses and how essential those fundamentals are,” says Kamkar.
Events
MASc Final Exam\ Cellulose Nanocrystal Coated Paraffin Wax Coating for Fog and Dew Water Harvesting by Riyao Yan
Thesis Title: Cellulose Nanocrystal Coated Paraffin Wax Coating for Fog and Dew Water Harvesting
Abstract:
Fresh water scarcity is an urgent global issue. A sustainable and renewable method is harvesting atmospheric water, among which fog and dew water can be passively collected onto a surface. The efficiency of such collecting systems depends critically on the wetting and dynamic behavior of water droplets on the surface. Common approaches to modify surface topography and hydrophobicity often relies on lithographic, plasma, or fluoropolymer-based methods that are costly, complex, and environmentally unsustainable. In contrast, this work proposes a novel, simple, and bottom-up approach for producing surface with functional coatings through cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)–stabilized Pickering emulsions.
MASc Oral Exam\Recovery and Reuse of Nanomaterials from Radically Polymerizable Thermoset Nanocomposites; Towards A Circular Economy by Zahra Rezaei
The widespread adoption of thermoset nanocomposites has created significant end-of-life management challenges due to their permanent crosslinked networks, which resist conventional recycling methods and trap valuable nanomaterials within non-degradable matrices. This work presents a proof-of-concept study to assess a new approach for achieving a circular economy for thermoset nanocomposites; recovering and reusing nanomaterials from thermoset nanocomposites through the incorporation of cleavable comonomers into the polymer matrix, enabling controlled matrix degradation and nanofiller recovery at end-of-life.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were selected as the nanofiller for this study due to their widespread use in nanocomposites and growing industrial significance, and a styrene/divinylbenzene (DVB) thermoset matrix was chosen as a model matrix for its chemical compatibility with CNTs. To enable controlled degradation at end-of-life and nanofiller recovery, comonomer additives that can install cleavable bonds into the matrix’s polymer network were systematically evaluated. Several candidates were investigated, including cyclic ketene acetal (CKA) (specifically 2-methylene-1,3-dioxepane, MDO), which underwent hydrolysis too rapidly and an unwanted ring-retaining side reaction for practical application, and thionolactones (specifically dibenzo[c,e]-oxepine-5(7H)-thione, DOT and 2-(isopropylthio)dibenzo[c,e]oxepine-5(7H)-thione, 2SiPrDOT), which was limited by the monomers’ solubility in the styrene/DVB system. Through this careful screening process, 2SiPrDOT was selected as the most suitable option, offering both chemical stability during processing and sufficient solubility in the system.