CHEN - Chemical Engineering

CHEN 601/SENG 601 Laboratory Safety for Chemical Engineers

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour. Overview of hazards associated with chemical engineering research laboratories and the chemical process industry; causes and prevention of accidents, emergency procedures, safety codes, health effects of toxic substances and experimental design for safety. Prerequisite: Graduate classification. Cross Listing: SENG 601/CHEN 601.

CHEN 604 Chemical Engineering Process Analysis I

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Development and analysis of chemical process models that involve systems of algebraic equations, ordinary differential equations and partial differential equations. Prerequisite: MATH 308 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 610 Humanitarian Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Basic concepts of humanitarian engineering; application of engineering and technology for the benefit of humanity and especially disadvantaged communities; understanding the role of engineers in achieving sustainable development goals; Identification, formulation and solution of related engineering and design problems considering historical, cultural, ethical and practical perspectives. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

CHEN 623 Applications of Thermodynamics to Chemical Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Application of thermodynamics to chemical engineering operations and processes. Prerequisite: CHEN 354 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 624 Chemical Engineering Kinetics and Reactor Design

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Rates and mechanisms of chemical reactions; thermal and catalytic reactions both homogeneous and heterogeneous. Prerequisite: CHEN 464 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 629 Transport Phenomena

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Principles of transfer of momentum, energy and mass studied by application to advanced chemical engineering problems; theoretical analogy of these three modes of transfer. Prerequisite: CHEN 424 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 630 Energy Transition and Security

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Overview of the challenges and strategies for energy transition, security and sustainable manufacturing. Focus will be given to the trends in technological advances for the efficient use of various energy sources and carriers in the process industries and the energy sector (current and future). Covers the sources, transformation and sinks of energy carriers, products and wastes from a life cycle perspective. Emphasis is given to tracking inventories, capture/removal/reclamation, transportation, utilization and storage of various. Covers emerging strategies and technologies in energy transition. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering.

CHEN 631 Process Dynamics and Advanced Process Control

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Modeling, analysis, and simulation of linear and nonlinear process systems; model-based control techniques for achieving desired process dynamics. Prerequisite: CHEN 461 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 632 Multicriteria Assessment of Sustainable Processes

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Covers criteria for assessing sustainability projects, including economic evaluation and financial aspects such as cost estimation, time value of money, profitability analysis, risk, valuation, discount rates and capital structures. Examines environmental criteria, life-cycle analysis, safety and resilience. Introduces integrated frameworks for multi-criteria evaluation and applies concepts through case studies. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering.

CHEN 635 Advanced Nanostructured Materials

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Chemical synthesis and characterization of materials with structures and properties in the nano-scale; emphasis on the fundamental science and engineering of understanding and manipulating "bottom-up" material formation. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

CHEN 636 Resilience and Sustainability of Industrial Supply Chains

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Overview of integrated energy and manufacturing supply chains and their key functions, the financial impacts and levers, while further describing the major challenges in managing efficiently next-generation data-driven supply chains (further discussing the value of tradeoffs among efficiency, resilience, flexibility and resilience); various strategic and tactical supply chain components and relevant quantitative models and decision-making tools, such as planning and inventory management strategies, distribution and fulfillment strategy, outsourcing, sourcing and procurement, value of information, customer value, supply chain risk management and resilience, and supply chain sustainability. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering.

CHEN 638 Thermal Energy Management in Sustainable Chemical Processes

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Integration of heat transfer, thermodynamics and sustainability in chemical processes; fundamentals of conduction, convection, radiation and thermodynamic analysis; energy efficiency strategies, heat recovery and exchanger design; pinch analysis, heat integration and exergy analysis for evaluating process inefficiencies; sustainable energy sources, waste heat recovery and energy storage; thermodynamic property estimation and equations of state; life-cycle assessment of thermal systems; case studies and emerging technologies in sustainable thermal management; application of theoretical concepts to the design and operation of thermally efficient, environmentally sustainable chemical processes. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering.

CHEN 639 Biomass Processing

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Introduction to the principles and applications of magic of photosynthesis through which plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to create biomass, a sustainable and infinitely renewable carbonaceous feedstock; fundamental and applied skills to process biomass into commodity chemicals (e.g., alcohols, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, ethers, aldehydes, olefins, aromatics, cyclics) and carbon-based fuels (e.g., alcohols, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel). Prerequisite: Graduate classification in engineering.

CHEN 641 Polymer Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Principles and practice of polymer structure, synthesis, reaction mechanisms and kinetics; polymer characterization, chemical and physical properties degradation and recycling, melt and solid mechanical and rheological properties; technology of production and processing operations. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

CHEN 642 Colloidal and Interfacial Systems

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Fundamental principles related to interactions, dynamic, and structure in colloidal and interfacial systems; concepts covered include hydrodynamics, brownian motion, diffusion sedimentation, electrophoresis, colloidal forces, surface forces, polymeric forces, aggregation, deposition, equilibrium phase behavior, rheology, and experimental methods.

CHEN 645 Fundamentals of Catalysis with Applications

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Principles of catalyst preparation, methods of characterization, catalyst deactivation and regeneration techniques; effect of physical transport processes on the rate of catalytic heterogeneous reactions; kinetics of heterogeneous reactions; laboratory and industrial reactors; application to selected industrial processes. Prerequisites: CHEN 354; CHEN 464 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 647 Chemical and Biological Sensors

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Theory, design, and applications of sensors for chemical and biological detection. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.

CHEN 648 Sustainable Chemical Process Industries

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Overview of the major chemical process industries including key sectors, history, operating principles and supply chains with a focus on sustainability. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering or approval of instructor.

CHEN 649 Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Instruction in ultra-small materials useful for fabricating next-generation energy conversion devices (e.g., thermoelectrics, and photovoltaics) synthesized in various forms including nanoparticles and quantum dots, nanowires and nanotubes, and thin films; exploration of the fabrication and assembly of these materials; involves the use of both traditional materials syntheses approaches (e.g., chemical vapor deposition) and newer syntheses approaches (e.g., template-assisted syntheses of nanomaterials); materials syntheses, characterization and assembly of these nanomaterials; exploration of the basics of crystal structures, necessary for understanding structure-property relationships in materials. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.

CHEN 651 Biochemical Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Fundamentals of microbial and enzyme kinetics; biochemical reaction theory and reactor systems; heterogeneous reactions and transport in enzyme and cell reactors, including immobilized systems; bioreactor design principles in bioprocessing; application of chemical engineering principles to systems using biological catalysts such as living cells, cell components or enzymes; discussion on the challenges and emerging problems in bioengineering and synthetic biology. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

CHEN 655/SENG 655 Process Safety Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Applications of engineering principles to process hazards analysis including source and dispersion modeling, emergency relief systems, fire and explosion prevention and mitigation, hazard identification, risk assessment, process safety management, etc. Prerequisite: Graduate classification; approval of instructor. Cross Listing: SENG 655/CHEN 655.

CHEN 656 Advanced Process Chemical Optimization I

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. State-of-the-art optimization based techniques for process synthesis, process design and process operability; emphasis on mathematical modeling via mixed integer and continuous optimization formulations; application to heat integration problems; use of modeling/optimization software systems. Prerequisites: Graduate classification; or approval of instructor.

CHEN 659 Natural Gas Processing from Upstream to Downstream

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Upstream natural gas production; emphasis on natural gas midstream and downstream processing plants; natural gas monetization routes and economics and risks facing monetization pathways. Prerequisite: Graduate classification in chemical, petroleum, or mechanical engineering, or approval or instructor.

CHEN 660 Risk Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Fundamental concepts, techniques, and applications of risk assessment and risk management for engineering systems; current industry practices for risk assessment of industrial facilities using qualitative and quantitative approaches are demonstrated through exercises and case studies from diverse engineering fields. Prerequisites: Graduate classification. Cross Listing: SENG 660 and ISEN 660.

CHEN 665 Sustainable Design of Chemical Processes

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Sustainability in chemical engineering; includes sustainable approaches to design and development of processes, products, energy usage; issues and roles of chemical engineers, service learning. Prerequisite: Graduate and senior classification in engineering or approval of instructor.

CHEN 668 Zymology

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Application of fundamental principles of chemical engineering in the production of fermented foods, specifically the beer brewing process; exploration of the basics of food fermentation and fermented beverage preparation technology as well as providing fundamental knowledge in beer production methods and processes. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in chemical engineering or approval of instructor.

CHEN 673 Electrochemical Science and Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of basic principles of electrochemistry, electroanalytical characterization, and electrochemical devices; exploration of electrochemical processes in the context of kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.

CHEN 675 Microelectronics Process Engineering

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. State-of-art process engineering principles on microelectronics, especially for the fabrication of very large scale integrated circuits (VLSICs); fundamental unit processes, such as thin film deposition, thermal growth, lithography, etching and doping, material structures and properties, and basic device operation principles. Prerequisites: CHEN 623 and CHEN 624 or approval of instructor.

CHEN 676 Sustainable Design through Process Integration

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Systematic and state-of-the-art techniques for the sustainable design of chemical processes; emphasis on holistic and systematic approaches using process integration for the conservation of natural resources and the enhancement of process performance; includes visualization, algebraic and mathematical optimization approaches. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering.

CHEN 678 Advance Process Economics and Finance for Chemical Engineers

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Overview of building financial models to evaluate projects; concepts on how a company is valued; overview of risk, uncertainty, and statistics. Prerequisites: Graduate classification in Chemical Engineering or approval of instructor and Department Head.

CHEN 679 Process Synthesis, Integration and Intensification

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Systematic methods for the synthesis, integration and intensification of chemical processes; special focus given to systematic process intensification for energy and the environment with applications to carbon capture and storage, energy systems, gas separation, and utility networks Prerequisites: Graduate classification in engineering or approval of instructor.

CHEN 680 Fundamentals of Heterogeneous Catalysis

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Basic concepts in kinetics and thermodynamics, reaction mechanisms, turnover frequencies, and activity and selectivity; principles and applications of catalysis in industry including energy, chemicals, and pollution abatement; connection of catalyst design to catalyst synthesis and characterization techniques that enable the creation, identification, and enumeration of active sites. Prerequisite: Graduate classification in engineering or chemistry; or approval of instructor.

CHEN 681 Seminar

Credits 0-1. 0-1 Lecture Hours. Presentations and discussions covering problems of current importance in chemical engineering research.

CHEN 684 Professional Internship

Credit 1. 1 Other Hour. Engineering research experience in industrial setting away from Texas A&M campus; projects supervised jointly by faculty and industrial representative. Prerequisites: Approval of student's advisory committee chair and department head.

CHEN 685 Directed Studies

Credits 1 to 12. 1 to 12 Other Hours. Limited investigations in fields other than those chosen for thesis or dissertation research and not covered by other formal courses. Prerequisite: Approval of department head.

CHEN 689 Special Topics in...

Credits 1 to 4. 1 to 4 Lecture Hours. 0 to 4 Lab Hours. Selected topics in particular areas of chemical engineering. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: Approval of department head and instructor.

CHEN 691 Research

Credits 1 to 23. 1 to 23 Other Hours. Research for thesis or dissertation. Prerequisite: Approval of department head.

CHEN 695 Graduate Mentoring Seminar I

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour. Development of skills to compliment formal research and coursework training; includes improvement of communication and interaction skills; development of technical writing and presentation skills. Prerequisites: Four chemical engineering core graduate courses; graduate advisor approval.

CHEN 696 Graduate Mentoring Seminar II

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour. Development of a variety of skills to compliment formal research and coursework training; includes improvement to communication/ interaction with students in a classroom setting, and improvement and development of teaching skills. Prerequisites: Approval of graduate advisor.