process engineering stellenbosch 2024-2025

Here is all about Process Engineering at Stellenbosch.

Welcome to the Faculty of Engineering at Stellenbosch University’s Department of Process Engineering. We take pleasure in producing well-rounded, highly talented, and professional chemical engineers while doing cutting-edge research. Twenty full-time academic employees, twenty postdoctoral researchers, and 28 members of the technical and support personnel make up our team. You can find information about our academic programs, research interests, and staff contact information here.

For students studying chemical engineering, the department of process engineering boasts first-rate facilities. You can have a look at some of the department’s ongoing research initiatives while taking a tour of our facilities in this video. Additionally, students talk about their experiences at SU studying chemical engineering.

DEPARTMENT OF PROCESS EENGINEERING

FIELDS OF RESEARCH

This Department, with its strong emphasis on research, plays a leadership role in creating and utilizing contemporary information systems technology to upgrade and improve chemical and metallurgical processes in the industry. Collaboration with other regional and international research institutes is frequently used to achieve this. The primary fields of study are:

BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING

Our biological resources must be exploited as efficiently as possible to ensure a sustainable future, and the Chemical and Process Engineer’s function is crucial to the development of industrial processes that are secure, long-lasting, and profitable. The focus of the group’s research is on the use of biological resources in the design of production processes, and it can be divided into two categories: production processes that use biological raw materials as inputs or processes that use biological resources as outputs (such as live organisms like yeasts or bacteria or active biological molecules like enzymes).

EXTRACTIVE METALLURGY

Changing raw material properties (such as decreasing mineral/metal content as easily accessible ore bodies are exhausted), minimizing energy use (to reduce carbon footprint), minimizing water use (to lessen the impact on scarce natural resources), and successfully managing emergent complex behavior from complex flowsheets and heterogeneous, multiphase raw materials are some of the major challenges in extractive metallurgy. Hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, physical processing, surface chemistry, flowsheet design and monitoring for anomalous events, process control, and financial optimization are important research fields.

SEPARATION TECHNOLOGY

Distillation, membrane technology, supercritical extraction, thermodynamics, and absorption are the main topics of experimental and theoretical research. Characterization of packing materials and trays, comprehension of the hydrodynamics in distillation columns, hands-on distillation work, and modeling are all included in the work in distillation. Catalytic membrane technology and the use of membranes for water treatment are the two main foci of membrane technology research. New supercritical extraction processes are being developed as a result of work on supercritical extraction. The measurement of high-pressure multicomponent phase equilibria in the supercritical realm, measurements of solubility in supercritical fluids, and thermodynamic modeling of complex systems are the key areas of attention in thermodynamics. Sequestering CO2 is the primary goal of absorption.

WASTE VALORISATION

It is now generally acknowledged that what has been seen as “trash” represents a significantly untapped resource. By closing the loop in the circular economy through the successful valorization of diverse wastes, we will go one step closer to a future that is truly sustainable. The intricacy of the problem necessitates an interdisciplinary approach, and the process engineer is firmly at the center of this global movement because of their concentration on turning raw materials into high-value products. Separating and concentrating valuable products as well as functionalizing relatively inert compounds are major difficulties in the industry. Waste tyre conversion to high-value chemicals (REDISA project), electronic waste processing for metal recovery (lithium, gold, copper), and biological waste usage (such as wastewater, agricultural leftovers, and fishery waste) are the three main research directions.

WATER TECHNOLOGY

The goal of research and development is to address current regional and global difficulties in the availability and treatment of water. Our goal is to develop new water treatment technologies and improve existing ones in order to help the world meet the challenge of maintaining this resource. Our expertise is in membrane technology for the reuse and treatment of water (including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, reverse and forward osmosis, membrane distillation, and Donnan Dialysis), as well as in sustainable and adaptable technologies for developing nations. Our research interests include the reuse and reclamation of mining wastewater, industrial wastewater, agricultural processing wastewater, and fishing sector wastewater. We also provide potable water, with a focus on technologies for developing economies and rural populations.