Chemical Engineering
Head
McLellan, P.J.
(on leave)
Acting Head
Amsden, B.
Associate Head
Hutchinson, R.
Coordinator of Graduate Studies
Guay, M.
Professor
Amsden, B.G., Cunningham, M.F.1, Daugulis, A.J.2, Grandmaison, E.W., Guay, M., Harris, T.J., Hutchinson, R.A., McAuley, K.B., McLellan, P.J., Neufeld, R.J., Parent, J.S., Peppley, B.A.3,Ramsay, J.A., Woodhouse, K.A.
Associate Professor
Docoslis, A.5, Karan, K., Kontopoulou, M., Waldman, S.4
Assistant Professor
Barz, D, Flynn, L., Li, X.
Professor Emeritus
Bacon, D.W., Baker, W.E., Becker, H.A., Hsu, C.C., Hunter, B.K., McCowan, J.D.
Adjunct Professor
Adjunct Associate Professor Jackson, B.W., Newstead, W., Ramsay, B.A. Adjunct Lecturer Poirier, D. Term Adjunct Instructor Dilamarter, D., Meunier, L., Prescott, K. Lecturer Mody, D. Cross-Appointed from other Departments Champagne, P., Liss, S.N. Whitney, R.A.
1 Ontario Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering 2 Queen’s Research Chair in Biochemical and Cell Culture Engineering 3 Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Fuel Cells 4 Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Tissue Engineering of Synovial Joints
5 Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Colloids and Nanoscale Engineering
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Departmental Facilities
The Chemical Engineering department is based in Dupuis Hall, which is a multi-purpose facility with extensive research laboratories, and large-and small-group teaching classrooms. Department researchers in the biochemical, biomedical and environmental engineering fields also have laboratory facilities in the multi-disciplinary Biosciences complex, and in the Human Mobility Research Centre (HMRC) at Kingston General Hospital. We are a medium-sized department, with sufficient size to ensure a breadth of research activities, yet small enough to foster a cohesive learning environment. Research serials and books are housed in the recently renovated Engineering, Mathematics, and Science library, and a variety of search and document delivery facilities are available on-line. Research is being conducted in the fields of polymer and reaction engineering, (including fuel cells), biochemical (including biomedical and environmental), and process systems engineering. Facilities within the polymer and reaction engineering field include a variety of bench and pilot scale polymerization reactors (gas-phase polyolefin, solution and emulsion free-radical, living-radical and condensation polymer systems), polymer processing equipment (twin-screw extruder, Haake internal mixer), rotational and capillary rheometers, fuel cell equipment, plus two wind tunnels and a gas fired research furnace. The biochemical research facilities include numerous fermentors and a fermentation pilot plant, and biomedical research facilities include cell and tissue culture labs. A new characterization lab has been established for the measurement of polymeric physical, thermal and structural properties. Physical measurements and chemical analyses are carried out using a variety of instruments such as gas chromatographs, elemental analyzer, HPLCs, gel permeation chromatographs, BET surface area analyzer, capillary hydro-dynamic fractionation submicron particle size analyzer, spectrophotometers, IR, FTIR, GC mass spectroscopy, and also by means of novel probes based in light scattering, absorption and fluorescence. Research computations are conducted on a variety of PC and Unix-based computer platforms, using a wide range of symbolic computation, numerical analysis, statistical analysis and process simulation software. The research laboratories are supported by the departmental laboratory technologist while the computing facilities are supported by a departmental computing systems administrator with support from the Central Applied Science Computing Services Group.
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Financial Support
The Department of Chemical Engineering endeavours as much as possible to ensure that every full-time graduate student engaged in research has adequate financial support during his or her graduate program. This support may come from several sources, either individually or in combination with National or Provincial scholarships, Queen's University scholarships and awards, research assistantships provided by faculty researchers, and Departmental teaching assistantships. The minimum level of financial support is presently $25,000 per year for both Master's and Doctoral students. Students who are National Scholarship winners can expect overall financial support that is competitive with that provided by any Chemical Engineering department in Canada.
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Fields of Research
Research activities in the department are concentrated in three areas: biochemical engineering, polymers and reaction engineering (polymer processing and modification, polymer reaction engineering, combustion, fuel cells), and process systems engineering (encompassing mathematical modeling and analysis, process control, and statistical analysis). Activities range from developing new bio- and polymeric materials and production techniques, to understanding how the dynamic structure of a chemical process limits the performance that can be achieved. Significant collaborations across these fields exist within the department, and faculty members also collaborate extensively with other researchers across Queen's and at other institutions.
Examples of current research topics include: experimental and modeling studies of homogeneous and heterogeneous polymerization systems including catalyzed-olefin, free-radical, living-radical, and condensation polymerization reactions; polymeric materials for drug delivery and surgical applications; two-phase partitioning bioreactors for the biodestruction of xenobiotics; biosynthetic reactions in partitioning bioreactors; use of ionic liquids in biocatalysis; modeling and optimization of bioreactors and bioprocesses; encapsulation of microorganisms for in-situ bioremediation of gasoline-contaminated aquifers; microbial-processes for degradation of recalcitrant organic compounds; mathematical modeling of fuel cells; development of new materials for fuel cell electrodes; chemical modification of polymers through the functionalization of commodity polymers (polyolefins); enhancing cure rates of modified vulcanization halogenated elastomers; rheology and processing of polymer blends and composites; investigating the turbulent mixing of gaseous systems using laser light-scatter and laser Doppler techniques; mathematical modeling of acrylamide/bis-acrylamide copolymerization for improved radiotherapy dosimeters; modeling and analysis of chemical process behaviour; structural process and performance analysis using vector autoregressive time series methods, meaningful uncertainty analysis of process models using profiling techniques; and assessing the nonlinearity of steady-state and dynamic behaviour and its impact on control performance.
Research activities are funded from a variety of industrial and government sources, including; Advanced Foods and Materials Network, Arkema Group (USA), Asahi-Kanei Chemial Co., Auto 21, BASF (Germany), Bayer, Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), DANA, Dow Chemical, DSM Elastomers, DuPont Canada, DuPont Chemicals (USA), DuPont (USA), Dutch Polymer Institute, French Canada Research Foundation, General Motors (GM), Honeywell, Imperial Oil, Innovena (France), Malroz Engineering, Millenium Biologix, MITACS, MRI, Nova Chemicals, NSERC, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT), Praxair, Lanxess Inc., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich), Toagosei Chemical (Japan), Xerox Research Centre of Canada.
Professors Peppley and McKenna hold Tier I Canada Research Chairs, while Professors Docoslis and Waldman hold Tier II Canada Research Chairs. Professor Daugulis holds a Queen's Research Chair and Professor Cunningham holds an Ontario Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering. Professors Guay, Amsden and Cunningham hold Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Awards, and Profs. Cunningham, Amsden, Hutchinson, Guay and Waldman hold Queen's University Chancellor's Research awards. Additional information about research activities within the department can be found at
http://chemeng.queensu.ca/graduate/Graduate-Areas-Research.php
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Materials Science and Technology
The Department cooperates with the Departments of Chemistry, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, in offering courses and research projects to students wishing to concentrate in materials science and technology. Students are registered for M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees in one of the five departments and are encouraged to take relevant courses from the others.
Collaborative Biomedical Engineering Program
This collaborative program links the graduate programs in Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and provides shared learning experiences with interdisciplinary content, bringing students from a variety of backgrounds together to learn about research methodology and professional practice in the field of Biomedical Engineering. Students are registered in one of the three home departments in a Master’s or Doctoral program and will receive the designation of “specialization in Biomedical Engineering” upon graduation. More information about the program can be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/sgs/forstudents/gradprogkeycontacts/biomedicaleng.html
Queen’s Collaborative Graduate Specialization in Computational Science and Engineering
Queen’s Collaborative Graduate Specialization in Computational Science and Engineering is a three-course specialization that teaches you the latest methods for applying the power of high-performance computing to scientific problems in your area of study. From advanced numerical analysis, mathematical modelling and simulation, and parallel programming, these methods support and enhance more traditional approaches based on theory and experimentation. Completion of requirements entitles you to a special degree notation on your transcripts.
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DEGREE PROGRAMS
Applicants for the following programs are accepted under the general regulations of the School of Graduate Studies.
Note that courses of instruction are provided in term length (0.5 weight) or modular six-week (0.25 weight) types. Click on Chemical Engineering's Courses of Instruction for details.
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MASTERS DEGREES
MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE (M.A.Sc.)
The minimum requirements to be fulfilled are 4 term courses, a department seminar and a thesis. Two graduate courses must be from within the Department of Chemical Engineering, unless otherwise approved by the research supervisor and departmental graduate coordinator. One course may be selected from 400-series courses in other departments. All students must take CHEM-801*, a non-credit course in laboratory safety, at the first opportunity after their initial registration, and also participate in CHEE-897, the departmental seminar series. All programs of study must be approved by the department.
MASTER OF ENGINEERING (M.Eng.)
The requirements for this program are 8 term length courses or a combination of term length and modular courses to equal 8 term length courses. At least 4 term length courses must be taken from the department. A maximum of 2 term length 400 series courses may be taken. All programs of study must be approved by the department. With a graduate program focused on research, the current Departmental policy is to admit qualified applicants to the M.Eng. program only under special circumstances, with no financial support being offered by the University or the Department.
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DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D.)
Requirements additional to those in the general regulations are as follows. The minimum course requirement for the Ph.D. beyond the B.Sc. is 7 term length courses. Six must be graduate courses. The list of graduate courses taken will be evaluated by the supervisory committee on an ongoing basis and will be reviewed at the time of the oral comprehensive examination. One course may be selected from 400-series undergraduate courses in other departments. All students must take CHEM-801*, a non-credit course in laboratory safety, at the first opportunity after their initial registration, and also participate in CHEE-897, the departmental seminar series.
Ph.D. candidates accepted with a Master's degree must take at least 4 term length courses. The list of graduate courses taken will be evaluated by the supervisory committee on an ongoing basis and will be reviewed at the time of the oral comprehensive examination. One course may be selected from 400-series undergraduate courses in other departments. All programs of study must be approved by the department.
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Programs of Study 
