Faculty of Engineering

Chemical and Materials Engineering are disciplines concerned with the application of basic and engineering sciences to the study of processes in which raw materials undergo both chemical and physical changes to produce value added products. Chemical and Material engineers deal with the design, construction and economic operation of plants and equipments in which these processes take place. Quality and characteristics of manufactured materials are also studied in these disciplines.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is endowed with vast resources of petroleum and minerals, which require the expertise and services of chemical and materials engineers to harness these resources and contribute to the rapid development and progress of the country. In order to meet this challenge, the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering was established in the year 1981/1982 at King Abdulaziz University. Since its inception, the Department has produced more than 500 qualified chemical engineers who are serving various organizations in different parts of the country.

The Department is well equipped to provide effective training to the graduating engineers. It has a B.Sc degree program of a five-year duration consisting of 155 credit hours with specialized courses, suitable to the requirements of the Kingdom. The programs leading to the Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Chemical Engineering and Materials Engineering started in 1996 G. Each of these programs requires two years of full-time study consisting of 36 credit hours of course work and a thesis. The Department has well equipped laboratories and computer facilities as well as highly qualified faculty and technicians to achieve its educational aims and objectives.

VISION

Commitment to total quality in teaching and scientific research and aspiration to leadership in chemical and materials engineering education.

The Mission of the Department

The mission of the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department at King Abdul-Aziz University (KAU) is to graduate highly qualified chemical and materials engineers who are well trained and prepared to pursue professional careers in industry, government or research. Moreover, the department thrives to conduct world-class research and provide consultation services sectors of the community in the chemical and materials engineering sciences and technology.

The mission of the program

The mission of the Chemical Engineering Program at King Abdul-Aziz University (KAU) is to graduate chemical engineers who are qualified to pursue professional careers in industry, and prepared for graduate studies.

PROGRAM EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

1. Employ their extensive Chemical Engineering knowledge and skills to actively take part in solving techno-economical problems in private and public industries in general, and in the petrochemicals, petroleum refining, and gas related industries in particular

2. Pursue career building skills through life-long learning in the fields of Chemical Engineering in order to address contemporary local and global issues.

3. Uphold and reflect the core values and lofty principles of Islam through personal and professional integrity, ethical and responsible behaviors, proactivity and a sincere desire and effort to serve society both individually and within teams.

PROGRAM OUTCOMES

Graduates of the Chemical Engineering program at King Abdul-Aziz University (KAU) must demonstrate the following:

(a) an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering

(b) an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data

(d) an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams

(e) an ability to identify, formulates, and solves engineering problems

(f) an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility

(g) an ability to communicate effectively

(h) a broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context

(i) a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning

(j) a knowledge of contemporary issues

(k) an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice

(l) a working knowledge including material and energy balances applied to chemical processes; thermodynamics; heat, mass, and momentum transfer; chemical reaction engineering; separation processes; process simulation, simulation and control; process design; and appropriate modern experimental and computing techniques.

The first 11 outcomes are identical to the 11 ABET outcomes a to k, while outcome l map to the requirements specified in the ABET Program Criteria for chemical and Similarly Named Engineering Programs

PROGRAMS OFFERED

The Chemical and Materials Engineering Department currently offers a B.Sc. program in Chemical Engineering and M.Sc. programs in both Chemical and Materials Engineering. These programs were designed and have continuously been revised and improved to meet the needs and demands of the ever-growing and diversifying process industries of the country. These programs are now poised to meet the demands and challenges of the 21^st century and prepare their graduates with the best education and training which would allow them to capitalize on the ever growing career opportunities available to them as chemical engineers in the global market with professionalism and confidence.

A major feature of the current undergraduate program is its design to provide students with balanced courses in relevant fundamental and engineering sciences, engineering designs, and a variety of technical and applied engineering elective courses, in addition to a variety of humanities and communication courses. The program, thus, focuses on a balanced development and tuning of the students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes and their analytical, experimental as well as their intellectual capacities.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Demands for chemical engineers have continuously increased in Saudi Arabia over the past 30 years. This is due to the phenomenal growth this country has been witnessing in the process industry over this period of time, particularly in the oil and gas, petrochemical, water desalination, cement, and food industries, to name a few. The Chemical and Materials Engineering Department at King Abdulaziz University, and since its establishment in 1982, has been a major contributor to meeting this demand by preparing highly qualified and trained chemical engineers to meet the different technical and industrial needs of these diverse industries. The Program has since September 2003 been evaluated by ABET (Accreditation Board for Science & Technology) to be “substantially equivalent” to similar American universities’ programs.

Such an evaluation is bound to create expanded and diverse career opportunities for the Department’s graduates, in the local, regional, as well as the international job markets.

Some of the current major employers of the Department’s graduates in the local industries include Saudi ARAMCO, SABIC, Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC), and various private and multinational companies such as Proctor & Gamble, SAVOLA, and the different Cement companies.

FACILITIES

There are six laboratories used for undergraduate instructions in the program and the rest are research labs. The function of these laboratories is to strengthen the instructional material of certain courses by providing adequate practical experience. Additionally, there are some research facilities, which are utilized for faculty research, senior projects and postgraduate research work.

1. Materials Science Laboratories

These laboratories maintain equipment utilized for the metallographic preparation, microscopic studies thermal processing, and mechanical characterization of various engineering materials including metallic alloys, ceramics, polymers and composites.

· Metallographic device

Microscopes, metallographic device and micro-hardness testers.

· Heat treatment device

A number of tubes, muffle, HF induction, vacuum furnaces and ovens.

· Mechanical testing device

Mechanical testing machines and machines for fatigue. Tensile, fatigue, creep, impact, and hardness testing machines

2. Corrosion Laboratory

This laboratory is for teaching various principles and techniques in corrosion measurements and some basics in electrochemistry. Multipurpose corrosion kits, cathodic protection.

3. Unit Operation Laboratory

This laboratory has the following equipment, some of which are of pilot-plant scale: Plate and packed distillation column, Liquid-liquid extraction pulsed packed column, Tunnel dryer unit, double pipe heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger, Gas and liquid diffusion coefficient apparatus, Sedimentation apparatus, screen analysis set, cooling tower and a computer-controlled distillation column.

4. Process Control Laboratory

The process control laboratory is equipped to demonstrate the fundamentals of feedback control theory, process measurements of temperature, level and concentration. This laboratory contains the following apparatus: Temperature control unit, level control apparatus, PH control apparatus, process plant trainer and coupled tank apparatus

5. Computer simulation laboratory

This laboratory has computer software applications (Microsoft Office [word, Excel, PowerPoint], Matlab, Polymath, Mathcad , Chemcad and HYSYS), twenty workstations, and one central printer. This facility serves a number of courses in the program (e.g. ChE 321, ChE 441, ChE 442, ChE 499)

6. Petroleum Testing Laboratory

The experiments conducted in this laboratory are for testing petroleum products according to ASTM standards. The laboratory has the capabilities to carry out the following tests:

· Salts in crude oil, lead in petroleum, oil content of petroleum waxes, copper strip corrosion, distillation of petroleum products, cloud and pour point of petroleum oils, Conrad son carbon residue and flash point by Fensky Martens closed cup methods.

· Density, specific gravity, API gravity of petroleum products, refractive index of petroleum products and vapor pressure of petroleum products (Reid method).

7. Polymer Laboratory (Research)

This laboratory has equipment for testing and mechanical characterization of various polymeric materials. Equipment for measuring density, melt-flow index, impact resistance and microtone and microscopes are used frequently.

8. Instrumental Analysis Laboratory (Research)

This laboratory contains a variety of analytical instruments such as atomic absorption spectrophotometer, spectrofluorometer, Spectrophotometer and UV/visible spectrophotometer.

9. Industrial Wastewater Treatment Laboratory (Research)

This laboratory contains the following devices; Sedimentation apparatus, oxygen analyzer, drying oven, the Jar test apparatus and turbidity meter, COD and BOD kit and anaerobic digestion unit.

10. Catalyst Preparation and Characterization Laboratory (research)

In this laboratory an automated reactor system is installed by which catalysts can be prepared in full automated procedures. This equipment is installed with pH, amounts of reactants and reaction temperature controlling and monitoring systems. The laboratory also contains a micropycnometer for measurements of true densities of solids, Nitrogen adsorption and surface area determination equipment, drying ovens and pressure batch reactors.

11. Catalysis Testing Laboratory (Research)

The equipment available for catalyst research are: Two automated micro-reactor systems with online gas chromatographs to conduct gas phase catalytic reactions, vacuum drying oven, muffle furnace with variable ramp settings, glove box, high pressure liquid phase reactor (5000 Pisa – 350^oC), UV-Vis spectrophotometer and gas phase reactor system.

12. Surface Science Laboratory ( Research)

This laboratory has a state – of- the art surface analytical instrument (MAX 200) developed and manufactured by Leybold (German Company). It is a multi technique electron and mass spectrometric device equipped with real time data system that facilitates completely unattended operations once the samples have been loaded into the high vacuum load lock. MAX 200 consists of various techniques can be performed in one vacuum chamber under ultra high vacuum conditions such as:

XPS (X- Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy),

AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy),

ISS (Ion Scattering spectroscopy),

SAM (Scanning Auger Microscopy),

SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry),

SNMS (Secondary Neutral Mass Spectrometry, and

RGA (Residual Gas Analysis).

Last Update

12/2/2008 2:40:41 PM

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