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I.
Educational
Laboratories
The teaching and learning
environment in the ChE Program is enhanced through excellent correlation
between required course offerings and the laboratory facilities. These
integrated laboratory experiences offer students substantial opportunities
for hands-on training and experience that makes their theoretical studies
more meaningful. Instructional laboratories are spacious and equipped with
instrumentation to perform both basic and advanced experiments and
measurements
Teaching laboratories, both their
operation and development, are considered a priority in the department. The
department has made an effort to integrate laboratory work with classroom
instruction whenever possible.
Adequate laboratories are available
to meet the course requirements. In cases when the number of students is too
large for equipment/space available in a specific lab, such as unit operation
and material science labs, the students are split into groups so that a
reasonable number of students perform the experiment.
The Departmental Laboratories and
Safety Committee (DLSC) consist of four faculty members and three technicians
who are responsible for drawing up plans for future upgrades. They hold
frequent meetings to discuss laboratory requirements and future planning. The
DLSC also organize equipment orders and file them in the required form. The
Chairman of the department forwards the recommendations of the laboratory
committee to the Central University Budget Committee through the Deanship of
the Faculty of Engineering
I.1 Heat Treatment Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room L4G25
Course(s)
supported: ChE 210
This lab is used to instruct
students about experimental aspects of heat treatment of metals and alloys.
The lab is furnished with varieties of tube furnaces, muffle furnaces, vacuum
furnaces and ovens.
I.2
Materials Testing Laboratory
Location: Bldg. 40,
Room 24G40
Course(s) supported: ChE 210
This lab is used to instruct
students about experimental aspects of the testing of materials, especially
those related to the strength of materials. The lab is equipped with a number
of mechanical testing machines such as, fatigue, tensile, creep, impact, and
hardness testing machines.
I.3.
Metallography Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room L4G36
Course(s) supported: ChE 210
This lab is used to instruct
students about experimental aspects and the application of metallographic
techniques to study the structures of various materials. The lab is equipped
with a range of equipment utilized for the metallographic preparation,
microscopic studies, thermal processing, and mechanical characterization of
various engineering materials including, metallic alloys, ceramics, polymers
and composites. Microscopes, metallographic device and micro-hardness testers
are also available in this lab.
I.4.
Corrosion Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 4GL36
Course(s) supported: ChE 311
This laboratory is for teaching
various principles and techniques in corrosion measurements and some basics
in electrochemistry. It is equipped with a multipurpose corrosion kit and cathodic
protection.
I.5.
Process Control Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 14G09
Course(s) supported: ChE 442
The process control laboratory
is equipped to demonstrate the fundamentals of feedback control theory,
process measurements of temperature, level and concentration. This laboratory
contains the following apparatus: temperature
control unit, level control apparatus, PH control apparatus, process plant
trainer and coupled tank apparatus.
I.6.
Unit Operation Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room L4G09
Course(s) supported: ChE 430
This is the major fully
dedicated lab for a full 2 credit hours course (ChE 430). This lab is used to
instruct students about experimental aspects encountered in major industrial
unit operation processes such as distillation, liquid/liquid extraction, sedimentation,
drying, size reduction... etc..
This laboratory has the
following equipment, some of which are of pilot-plant scale: plate and packed
distillation column, liquid-liquid extraction pulsed packed column, tunnel
dryer unit, double pipe heat exchanger, shell and tube heat exchanger, gas
and liquid diffusion coefficient apparatus, sedimentation apparatus, screen
analysis set, cooling tower and a computer-controlled distillation column.
I.7.
Computer Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 34E67 & 34G24
Course(s) supported: ChE 321, ChE 441, ChE 499, ChE 334
The department has recently
upgraded the computer laboratory with 48 new workstations with LCD monitors
to serve the students. This laboratory has computer software applications
such as Microsoft Office [Word, Excel, Powerpoint], Polymath and AspenHYSYS.
II.
Research
and Graduate Studies Laboratories
II.1.
Surface Analysis Laboratory
Location: Bldg. 40,
Room L4G15
Course(s) supported: Research
This laboratory has a
state-of-the-art surface analytical instrument (MAX 200) developed and
manufactured by Leybold (German Company). It is a multi-technique electron
and mass spectrometric device equipped with real time data system that
facilitates completely unattended operations once the samples have been
loaded into the high vacuum load lock. MAX 200 consists of various techniques
that can be performed in one vacuum chamber under ultra-high vacuum
conditions such as: XPS (X- Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), AES (Auger
Electron Spectroscopy), ISS (Ion Scattering spectroscopy), SAM (Scanning
Auger Microscopy), SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry), SNMS (Secondary
Neutral Mass Spectrometry, and RGA (Residual Gas Analysis).
II.2.
Catalyst Preparation and Characterization Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 34E58
Course(s) supported: Research
The lab
contains state-of-the-art modern instruments including a fully automated
liquid phase reactor used for catalysts preparation. The laboratory also
contains a fully automated surface area and pore size analyzer, used for
characterization of catalysts and porous materials. It also contains a
micropycnometer, oven, pressure batch reactors, and pressure controlled
rotary evaporator. This lab supports research in the area of catalysis and it
has been fully funded by the SABIC chair in Catalysis who was established in
the department nine years ago.
II.3.
Biochemical Engineering Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 34G22
Course(s) supported: ChE 465 & Research
This lab
is used to instruct students about experimental aspects of waste water
testing and treatment. This laboratory supports course ChE 465. The lab is
equipped with the following: sedimentation apparatus, oxygen analyzer, drying
oven, the Jar test apparatus and turbidity meter, COD and BOD kit, aerobic
bioreactor, rotating biological contactor unit and anaerobic digestion unit.
II.4.
Polymer Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 34G14
Course(s) supported: Research
This
laboratory has equipment for testing and mechanical characterization of various
polymeric materials. Equipment for measuring density, melt-flow index, impact
resistance and microtone and microscopes are used frequently.
II.5.
Local Ores Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 34G25
Course(s) supported: Research
The lab contains a variety of equipment used to
study local ores such as clays and to study oil bleaching. This lab contains
a state of the art fully automated microwave reactor, a ball mill, two
Lovibond Tintometers, a set of hot plates, varieties of ovens, balances, and
filtration units.
II.6.
Petroleum Testing Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 230
Course(s) supported: ChE 462 & Research
This lab supports the course ChE 462. The experiments conducted in
this laboratory are for testing petroleum products according to ASTM
standards. The laboratory has the capabilities to carry out the following
tests: salts in crude oil, lead in petroleum, oil content of petroleum waxes,
copper strip corrosion, distillation of petroleum products, cloud and pour
point of petroleum oils, conradson carbon residue, flash point by Fensky
Martens closed cup methods, density, specific gravity, API gravity of
petroleum products, refractive index of petroleum products and vapor pressure
of petroleum products (Reid method)
II.7.
Instrumental Analysis Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room L4G31
Course(s) supported: Research
This laboratory supports analytical needs requirements for research.
It contains a variety of analytical instruments including the atomic
absorption spectrophotometer, spectrofluorometer, spectrophotometer and
UV/visible spectrophotometer.
II.8. Catalysis Testing
Laboratory
Location: Bldg.
40, Room 34E68
Course(s) supported: Research
The equipment available in this lab is geared to be used in catalysis
research especially those related to heterogeneous catalytic reactions. The
lab contains the following equipment:
two automated micro-reactor systems with online gas chromatographs to conduct
gas phase catalytic reactions, vacuum drying oven, muffle furnace with
variable ramp settings, glove box, high pressure liquid phase reactor (5000
Psia – 350oC), and UV-Vis spectrophotometer.
II.9. Imaging and Spectroscopy
laboratory
Location: Bldg. 40, Room L4G14
Course(s) supported: Research
This Laboratory is composed of two units. The imaging unit offers
facilities of both Transmission and Scanning electron microscopes. The FEI-
Tecnai-G20 Super Twin TEM is equipped with EDS and STEM options; there is
also a set of sample preparation tools (Plasma cleaner, Ion Beam Miller, and
Cutting, Dimpling…). The Quant FEG 450 SEM from FEI Company is equipped with
a set of detectors (ETD, BSD, GBDS, LFD, STEM, EDS). These detectors used separately
as well as a combination, cover a large field of applications: material,
chemistry and biology.
The second unit is composed of a versatile INEL-EQ1000 X-Ray
Diffractometer and XRF kit. The diffractometer is equipped with two wave
lengths (Cu and Co), a couple of optics and a set of sample holders offering
the possibility of measuring bulk, powder, metal, liquid…In addition the
hardware facility there is a software package for phase identification and
Rietveld refinement. The Amptek-XRF kit is equipped with Silver X-Ray source
which can cover the whole periodic table.
II.10. Environmental Engineering laboratory
Location: Bldg. 40, Room 34E69
Course(s) supported: Research
II.11. Nanofibers laboratory
Location: Bldg. 40, Room 34E69
Course(s) supported: Research
This lab
is equipped with high voltage power supplies and automated injection and
movement carriages devoted for research activities concerning the analysis
and manufacturing of polymeric nanofibers. The process used in manufacturing
is the electrospinning.
Computing Resources
The departmental computer laboratories located in building 40, Room
34G24 (60 m2) & 34E67 (18 m2), were initiated in
2015. A major upgrade was made by the department with new 48 PCs and
important software.
Listed
below are the software packages available in the computer lab for the
students use:
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint)
- AspenHYSYS
- POLYMATH
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