Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

What is the objective of the course? What is it?
What does it train you for?

Chemical and Biochemical Engineers have a key role in contemporary society as they manage complex technologies and produce a huge amount of products crucial for the high standard of life that we know. Thanks to their efforts they offer society wide availability of food and drinkable water (sustainable fertilizers and pesticides, desalters and potabilizers), new energy vectors (biofuel, hydrogen, fuel cells) new materials for thousands of applications (drugs also with controlled release, traditional and adaptive polymers, organic electronics), processes for the decontamination of air, water and soil. The Chemical and Biochemical Engineers, who have been trained in Palermo for more than 40 years, have a multidisciplinary background that combines Physics, Chemistry and Biology with the technological foundations of Engineering. Therefore, they are able to participate in the solving process of complex problems at a wide range of length scales, from the (bio)molecular to the industrial scale. Thanks to these unique characteristics, Chemical and Biochemical Engineers are extremely appealing graduates to prospective employers in all industrial sectors, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology, food and consumer products, in the development of traditional and high tech materials and devices, and in the fields of energy and environmental preservation.

What do you learn?

The Bachelor Degree Course is characterized by the following 3 main elements:

• knowledge and understanding of fundamental science: mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology
• knowledge and understanding of industrial engineering fundamentals
• knowledge and understanding of chemical and biochemical engineering fundamentals: thermodynamics, transport phenomena, unit operations, process plant design, material science, biochemistry, microbiology

What can you do with it?

Most of the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Graduates from University of Palermo proceed to attend a Master Degree in Chemical Engineering as this further upskilling of their competences opens doors to much better job positions and salary. Bachelor level graduates can easily find positions as specialized technicians in many different industrial sectors such as refinery, petrochemicals and the process industry, even if with salaries that are generally lower than those of Master’s graduates.