Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering is the discipline that transforms laboratory chemistry into industrial reality. Chemists discover new substances and reactions; chemical engineers design the processes that make those discoveries useful at scale, whether that is producing pharmaceutical medicines, refining fuels, manufacturing food ingredients, treating water, or developing new materials. The discipline combines chemistry, physics, mathematics, and engineering principles into an approach that is fundamentally concerned with how things are made and how those processes can be made safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.

At London South Bank University, this three-year full-time programme provides a solid grounding in the core principles of chemical engineering, including thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, mass and heat transfer, reaction engineering, and process design. A sandwich year in industry and a work placement are both built into the programme, giving you structured professional experience in real industrial settings. These opportunities are genuinely significant for career development, and graduates of similar programmes have secured placements with pharmaceutical, chemical, and energy companies across the sector.

You will also develop skills in process simulation, safety analysis, and sustainable engineering design, reflecting the profession's increasing focus on environmental responsibility.

Chemical engineering graduates are in strong demand across the pharmaceutical, energy, food and drink, water treatment, materials, and chemical manufacturing industries. Many graduates enter roles in process design, production management, research and development, quality assurance, and environmental health and safety. Professional accreditation routes leading to Chartered Engineer status are available through the relevant engineering institutions.

Further study at postgraduate level is also a common pathway for those wishing to specialise in particular areas of the discipline.