Established | 1904 |
---|---|
Academic staff | 25 |
Undergraduates | approx. 800 |
Postgraduates | approx. 100 |
Location | , Gauteng, South Africa 26°11′35.14″S28°01′46.95″E / 26.1930944°S 28.0297083°E |
Website | Official Website |
The School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering is one of seven schools in the University of the Witwatersrand's Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. [1] The School offers 4-year undergraduate degrees and post-graduate degrees in chemical [2] and metallurgical engineering.
The University of the Witwatersrand was founded in 1904 as the SA School of Mines from the original 1896 Kimberley School of Mines. It moved to Johannesburg in 1904 after the second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) and became an autonomous university with its own charter and statute in 1922. While Metallurgical Engineering degrees were granted from the onset, Chemical Engineering degrees were granted from 1922 onwards. Chemical Engineering was originally part of the Department of Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering became a separate department in 1961. In 1995, the two departments of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering merged, and after a brief period as the School of Process Engineering and Materials, became the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering in 2005. [3]
The School will be celebrating its 21st birthday (as a combined entity) in 2015 and has several activities planned.
The School is located in the Richard Ward Building on the East Campus of the University. The building is named after Richard Ward (1891–1976) who left R1 million to Wits on his death. At the time, this was the largest amount left to the University. [4]
In 2013, the School started major upgrades and modernisation of the building, with budgeted plans to the value of R75 million. [4] Renovations to date include:
– 2nd floor (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Coal, VOC and Syngas Laboratories)
– 7th floor (postgraduate office space)
The School offers undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in chemical and metallurgical engineering.
The School has several research focuses:
Centre for strong materials. [5]
The South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering was established in 2013 under Professor Thokozani Majozi. [6] The work conducted under this chair can be broadly categorised into batch and continuous process integration. In Batch Process Integration research is focused on developing novel mathematical models for capturing the essence of time, which is the backbone of batch processes. These mathematical models are then used as the basis for energy and water optimization in multipurpose batch facilities. On the other hand, work on Continuous Process Integration is focused on Utilities Debottlenecking for energy and water optimization. The Chair's recent studies have also addressed systems that exhibit the water-energy nexus, as traditionally encountered in integrated water and membrane networks. [7]
The Clean Coal Technology Research group is the home of the DST/NRF funded South African Research Chair of Clean Coal Technology. Its expertise in coal processing, characterisation, and application, is amongst the best in the world. The group's interest lies in the in-depth research into coal and carbon as a material, and the advancement of technologies and industry practices that significantly increase coal conversion efficiency and decrease environmental impact. [8]
The Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit comprises several researchers in chemical engineering, microbiology and other disciplines, investigating acid mine drainage (AMD), [9] constructed wetlands, water footprinting, life-cycle assessment [10] [11] and more. [12] [13]
The group aims to develop new, improved and innovative processes for the beneficiation of various metals from a variety of different sources, including low grade ores, solid wastes and secondary sources of metals (e.g. electronic scrap). The group consists of Prof. Selo Ndlovu, Prof. Vusi Sibanda, Dr. Lizelle van Dyk, Dr. Geoffrey Simate and Prof. Herman Potgieter. A number of postgraduate students are being supervised on various projects ranging from bioleaching of metals to gas phase extraction of vanadium from spent catalysts. [14]
Research into tribology. [15]
Several research topics in the School focus on biochemical, bioprocess and related engineering fields. [16]
The School also offers specialist research interests including: Attainable Region Theory, [17] Comminution (using Discrete Element Method-DEM) and flotation, [18] Engineering education, [19] Nanotechnology, [20] Petroleum engineering, [21] and Pyro-Metallurgy. [22]
The following have been the Heads of the School:
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Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials into useful products. Chemical engineering uses principles of chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, and economics to efficiently use, produce, design, transport and transform energy and materials. The work of chemical engineers can range from the utilization of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the laboratory to large-scale industrial processes that convert chemicals, raw materials, living cells, microorganisms, and energy into useful forms and products. Chemical engineers are involved in many aspects of plant design and operation, including safety and hazard assessments, process design and analysis, modeling, control engineering, chemical reaction engineering, nuclear engineering, biological engineering, construction specification, and operating instructions.
Paper engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with the usage of physical science and life sciences in conjunction with mathematics as applied to the converting of raw materials into useful paper products and co-products. The field applies various principles in process engineering and unit operations to the manufacture of paper, chemicals, energy and related materials. The following timeline shows some of the key steps in the development of the science of chemical and bioprocess engineering:
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.
Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer may manage any phase of mining operations, from exploration and discovery of the mineral resources, through feasibility study, mine design, development of plans, production and operations to mine closure.
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The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg was established on the 1st of January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University. Prior to the merger, the Daveyton and Soweto campuses of the former Vista University had been incorporated into RAU. As a result of the merger of Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), it is common for alumni to refer to the university as RAU.
A bioprocess is a specific process that uses complete living cells or their components to obtain desired products.
Mehran University of Engineering & Technology is a public research university located in Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan focused on STEM education.
Bioprocess engineering, also biochemical engineering, is a specialization of chemical engineering or biological engineering. It deals with the design and development of equipment and processes for the manufacturing of products such as agriculture, food, feed, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, chemicals, and polymers and paper from biological materials & treatment of waste water. Bioprocess engineering is a conglomerate of mathematics, biology and industrial design, and consists of various spectrums like the design and study of bioreactors to the creation of kinetic models. It also deals with studying various biotechnological processes used in industries for large scale production of biological product for optimization of yield in the end product and the quality of end product. Bioprocess engineering may include the work of mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineers to apply principles of their disciplines to processes based on using living cells or sub component of such cells.
The College of Engineering of the University of the Philippines Diliman is the largest degree-granting unit in the U.P. System in terms of student population. The college is also known formally as UP COE, COE, and informally as Eng'g.
Eckehard Specht is a professor in Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. He belongs to Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics (ISUT) department. His specializations are Combustion technology, heat and mass transfer, chemical process engineering, global warming, and ceramic materials.
William Bleloch was a South African metallurgist noted for developing smelting techniques for the processing of chrome ores. At a 1975 ceremony when the University of the Witwatersrand conferred upon him an honorary doctorate of Science and Engineering, the citation read "William Bleloch can truly be called the father of our electrochemical and electrometallurgical industries".
Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf was a German metallurgist.
The Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit is one of several research entities based in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It provides research as well as supervision to masters and doctorate students within the University, as well as consulting to industry.
Prafulla Kumar Jena was an Indian metallurgist who served as director of the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Bhubaneshwar. He previously held the TATA Chair for the Distinguished Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, in 1977.
Anne Neville was the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in emerging technologies and Professor of Tribology and Surface Engineering at the University of Leeds.
David Glasser is a South African engineer best known for his co-development of attainable region theory and research into improving the efficiency of chemical processes. In 2001 he was the inaugural recipient of the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award. He has also been awarded the Bill-Neale May Gold Medal by the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers, as well as the Science for Society Gold Medal from the Academy of Science of South Africa.
Ashlie Martini is a tribologist and professor of mechanical engineering at University of California, Merced.
Binoy Kumar Saikia is a Principal Scientist at North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat (NEIST), Assam, India. He is also the Group Leader of the Coal and Energy Research Group in the Materials Science and Technology Division of NEIST. His research interests span energy and environment in general and in particular chemistry and technology of coal, carbon and nano-materials, atmospheric aerosols, and air pollution. He has developed and patented, both in India and the US, a technology for the production of blue-fluorescent carbon quantum dots from Indian coal.
Thokozani Majozi is a South African chemical engineer. He has been the Dean of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand since 2021. He holds the South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering at the same university. His research focuses on chemical process engineering, particularly batch chemical process integration.