The research in the Department of Chemical Engineering aims at developing creative solutions to challenging problems in the field of separation technology and catalysis by exploiting the new possibilities in materials engineering and nanotechnology.
Key to this development process is a thorough understanding of the fundamental events, from the molecular scale to the real life application level. In our group, advanced experimental techniques (microfluidics technology, ultra high pressure instruments, high-throughput experimentation, …) are combined with state-of-the-art computer modeling methods, including molecular modeling and computational fluid dynamics, to obtain insight in the fundamental adsorption, diffusion, reaction and mass transfer effects. Integration into the traditional engineering methods allows a rational design of improved or innovative applications. Examples of current research themes are hydrocarbon separations using microporous solids development of novel capillary LC column formats, flow and mass transfer phenomena in HPLC, miniaturization and on-chip chromatography, controlled release of bio-active compounds, high-throughput catalyst screening, …
On the education side, the Department of Chemical Engineering organizes the traditional courses in chemical engineering (heat and mass transfer, separation processes, reactor engineering, catalysis, environmental engineering, …) in both the Master of Science in Engineering: chemistry & materials and the Master of Science in Bioengineering. In these courses, the importance of mathematical modeling and optimization techniques is always highly emphasized.