Teaching

Prospective students often enquire about the difference between chemical engineering and chemistry as a field of study. Roughly speaking, chemistry deals with chemical reactions, i.e. the binding together and splitting of molecules.

When chemical reactions are carried out on a large scale - as is typically the case in a chemical plant – a variety of additional issues have to be considered. They involve the transport and mixing of the reactants, the evacuation or supply of the heat involved in the reaction, the purification of the products, the energetic optimization of the entire process, etc. All these issues are the bread-and-butter of chemical engineers.

The Wikipedia page on Chemical Engineering provides the following definition, which highlights the multidisciplinary nature of the field:

The training in chemical engineering at the University of Liège consists in :

- a three-yearly general Bachelor program in “Civil Engineering” in which 65 of the 180 credits can be devoted to chemical engineering. A suggestion of a trajectory is made here.  

- a two-yearly specialized Master program in “Chemical and Materials Science”.

We also offer a PhD training.

The employment opportunities for chemical engineers are myriads. Over the years, our alumni have found employment notably in the following fields of industry:

• production and distribution of basic chemicals and energy carriers
• synthesis and application of specialty products and functionalised materials in chemical and non-chemical sectors such as the electronics, automotive, construction
• development and implementation of environmental and depollution processes
• industrial process development and production in the pharmaceutical, biotechnological and food industries.

In all these fields, chemical engineers hold a wide variety of jobs including research and development, process design and optimisation, production management, as well as environmental, quality and safety management.