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Chemical Engineering

Do you want to help end starvation? Do you feel a responsibility to eradicate disease or poverty? Are you interested in saving the environment? By graduating with a chemical engineering concentration, you’ll develop, design, and foster new ideas in the field of chemical engineering. New ideas that can save lives, change the world, and glorify God in the process.

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Program Overview

When studying chemical engineering at Dordt, you’ll be challenged to achieve more. As a result of your coursework and hands-on experiences, you’ll grow academically and spiritually. Through learning to convert natural and recycled resources into fuels and materials for everyday products. Through researching emerging technologies. And through turning your own passion into your career. All together, it creates a chemical formula for success.

Professors with years of research and industry experience create a rich learning environment. Our resources, facilities, and labs set us apart from other engineering programs. Collaborative projects give you opportunities to work together with teams of students to solve real-world problems. And you’ll learn how to engage the engineering field from a Christian perspective.

A Top Undergraduate Engineering Program

Dordt's engineering program was listed as a top program within the "Undergraduate Engineering Programs (No Doctorate)" list by U.S. News and World Report. To qualify, a school must have an undergraduate engineering program accredited by ABET.

What You'll Learn

A concentration in chemical engineering from Dordt University is designed to prepare you for a future of creation and innovation. Dordt’s cutting edge program pushes you to be your best. Coursework will include core Engineering classes. It also includes more focused options such as thermal-chemical systems, organic chemistry, and more.

What You Can Do With A Chemical Engineering Concentration

Chemical engineers make an impact in industry, government, education, and many more fields. Your career could lead you to life-changing scientific research. You may work as a field engineer. Or, depending on your employer, you may find yourself traveling all over the world. Whatever path you choose, you’ll have a chance to incorporate your Christian faith into everything you do.

Chemical Engineer

A Chemical Engineer deals with the development of chemical manufacturing processes.

Biotechnologist

Biotechnologists study the many aspects of cells, tissues, and organisms with the goal of developing new processes and products.

Chemical Plant Operator

A Chemical Plant Operator oversees and operates the system of machines and entire chemical processes within a chemical plant.

Students who choose the chemical engineering concentration will complete 11 engineering courses, one required chemistry course, and one elective upper-level chemistry course, in addition to the general requirements for an engineering degree. This coursework includes at least three additional credit hours of lab work.

  • Mechatronics and Instrumentation: An introduction to engineering mechatronics with applications of engineering measurement, data acquisition, instrumentation, sensors, actuators, digital and analog signal fundamentals, automatic control, and other electro-mechanical system interfacing.
  • Thermal-Chemical Systems: Engineering thermodynamics applied to chemical, energy, and environmental systems. Students will study cycles and efficiencies, mixtures and solutions, chemical reactions, chemical and phase equilibrium, combustion thermodynamics, availability analysis, gas mixtures and psychrometrics, and thermal-fluid systems analysis. Applications to chemical reactors, combustion systems, emissions measurement, efficiency assessment, and indoor/outdoor air quality will be explored.
  • Fluid Mechanics: A comprehensive, introductory course in fluid mechanics covering: hydrostatics; control volume approach to the continuity, momentum, and energy equations; dimensional analysis, similitude, and modeling; introductory boundary layer theory; fluid drag and lift; flow through conduits, pumps and compressors; and hydraulics and open channel flow. All students participate in team design projects involving design of water supply, irrigation, air handling system, or other complex fluid dynamics system.
  • Heat Transfer: Studies of the three modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection, and radiation) with application to heat exchangers. Computer methods are used extensively for heat transfer design and analysis. A formal heat exchanger design project is included in this course.
  • Thermal-Fluids Lab I: Afluid mechanics and advanced thermodynamics lab with an emphasis on experimental design, the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data, along with technical communication and report writing.
  • Thermal-Fluids Lab II: thermal-fluids and heat transfer lab with an emphasis on experimental design, the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data, along with technical communication and report writing.
  • Separation Processes and Mass Transfer: A study of equilibrium and non-equilibrium mass transport in chemical engineering applications. Methods for analyzing continuous contacting and multistage separation processes are explored. Mass transfer principles are applied to the design of distillation, gas absorption, extraction, evaporation, and humidification systems.
  • Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design: An introduction to chemical kinetics and the design of chemical reactors. Differential and integral analysis of homogeneous reaction and heterogeneous reactions using kinetic data are explored. Ideal reactor designs, non-isothermal reactor designs, and the design of catalyzed reactors are addressed.
  • Engineering Research and Methods: A research course that explores the techniques and knowledge necessary to design and conduct experiments. It will include the nature and scope of a research project, how to conduct literature searches, and how to design methods and protocols for problem solving. In collaboration with a faculty mentor(s), students will choose and conduct a research project. Project results will be presented in a departmental seminar.
  • Dynamic Systems and Process Control: A study of the dynamics and automatic control of systems. Topics include dynamic system modeling, feedback, steady-state operation, transient response, root loci, state-space representation, frequency response, stability criteria, and compensation. A variety of system types are modeled and analyzed, including mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, thermal, and chemical systems. Structured modeling approaches using Laplace transform methods and state equations are explored.
  • Process Control Lab: A laboratory course in the dynamic modeling and automatic control of thermo-chemical processes.
  • Organic Chemistry: Structure and Mechanism: In this foundational organic chemistry course, students will learn the foundational topics and problem-solving skills needed to understand the plethora of chemical reactions that involve compounds containing carbon. A working knowledge and application of topics such as nucleophiles, electrophiles, acids, bases, stereochemistry, mechanism, kinetics, substitution reactions, elimination reactions, carbonyl chemistry, and conformational analysis will be developed. Through a detailed understanding of the chemistry, an honest discussion of ethical implications, and a thoughtful interaction with the material we will develop an understanding of how God reveals himself through his creational structure.
  • One 3- or 4-credit course from Chemistry 200 or above

See the course catalog for more information

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Faculty

With experience in a variety of fields, our faculty members are equipped and ready to help you succeed.

Science and Technology Center

When studying chemical engineering at Dordt, you'll have the opportunity to spend time in Dordt's Science and Technology Center. Informally known as the "Science Building," the Science and Technology Center is home to labs for mechanical engineering, electronics, electrical engineering, and computer-aided design.

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Student Stories

Dordt students and alumni use their gifts to make a difference in the world. Check out their stories to see how Defender Nation lives out our mission to work effectively toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life.

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Empathy and Mystery

Aidan Bender

Dealing with the constant uncertainty of what he wanted to do with his future, Aidan was able to lean on Dordt professors and mentors to help him become more open-minded and flexible, eventually finding a place where he fit in.

Aidan Bender

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Rubbing Shoulders

Nathan Ryder

After being worried that he was stuck inside a bubble after choosing Dordt for college, Nathan found that he was able to become involved in a variety of different activities that allowed him to extend himself outside of his comfort zone.

Nathan Ryder

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Building Relationships and a Major

Jenna Veenstra

In addition to developing her own path to her future career, Jenna was able to fit right into the built-in community at Dordt that became her second home.

Jenna Veenstra

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Room to Grow

Riley Arkema

Despite Dordt's familiarity, Riley was able to step out of his comfort zone and make the uncomfortable decisions that allowed him to further learn how to serve in God's kingdom in his future.

Riley Arkema

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