Research Specializations and Collaborations

  The department faculty is strong in virtually all traditional areas of chemical and petroleum engineering including chemical reactor design, heterogeneous catalysis, phase equilibrium thermodynamics, biotechnology, and separations. There is an emphasis on applications in the minerals extraction and processing industries (coal, petroleum, natural gas and trona), but research is not limited to these areas. Environmental cleanup and clean energy production are also areas of emphasis.

    Department faculty routinely collaborate with other laboratories on and off the campus, nationally and internationally. Examples include collaborative projects with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), and the General Electric Research and Development Laboratories. An arrangement with LANL allows students working in selected areas to conduct their research at Los Alamos. Collaborative research is ongoing with the University of Bergen, the University of Loughborough, the University of Manitoba, New Mexico Tech, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Current and recent industrial sponsors of UW research include Chevron, BP-Amoco, FMC Corp., General Electric, Insitut Francais Du Petrole, Japan National Oil Corp., Phillips Petroleum, Shell, Solvay Minerals, StatOil, and OCI Wyoming.