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Start your chemical engineering journey here
Thermodynamics, reactor design, mass balances and separation processes: the subjects students struggle with most, taught the way they’re actually assessed at university.
- 15
- 493
- 507
- DiffusionFlagged
- Systems, Properties & Basics
- Fluid Properties & Statics
- Weekly target
- 6–10 hrs
How it works
From “where do I start?” to your own study plan
Answer a few questions, see the pathway we’d build for you, then start learning.
Step 1
Tell us where you are
Six quick questions about your year, your subjects and what you’re working towards. Want a sharper starting point? Add a short topic check.
Step 2
See your pathway
We turn your answers into a place to start: your first lesson, your first practice set and a weekly study target that fits the time you have.
Step 3
Learn, practise, track
Work through video lessons with checkpoint questions, practise with hints and worked solutions, and ask CERA whenever you’re stuck.
Chemical Engineering Reasoning Assistant
Meet CERA. She reasons like a chemical engineer.
The physical picture first, assumptions stated, units carried through every line: CERA works the way your course does. Pick a mode to watch her answer, or tap her and see what she’s made of.
CERA · general arrangementFig. 2
CERA by The ChemEng Student
Example conversation
What is actually happening in a mass balance?
CERA · Explain
Start with the picture, not the equation. Draw a boundary around your unit and watch the mass that crosses it. Whatever goes in has three choices: leave, build up inside, or be used up or made by a reaction. At steady state nothing builds up, so for a mixer with no reaction, mass in equals mass out. Does that picture make sense before we write it as an equation?
Water at 100 kg/h and ethanol at 50 kg/h feed a mixer. Where does my mass fraction go wrong?
- Step 1: Total out = 100 + 50 = 150 kg/h
- Step 2: Ethanol out = 50 kg/h
- Step 3: x(ethanol) = 50 ÷ 100 = 0.50
CERA · Solve
Steps 1 and 2 are right. Step 3 is where it goes wrong: a mass fraction divides by the whole stream, and you worked out the whole stream leaving in step 1. Have another go at step 3 with that in mind.
Test me on steady-state balances.
CERA · Test Me
A drum is fed 20 kg/min and drained at 18 kg/min. Is it at steady state? Tell me why in one sentence.
Give me an exam-style question on mixing.
CERA · Generate question
200 kg/h of brine at 30 wt% NaCl is mixed with pure water to make a product at 12 wt% NaCl. Find the product flow rate and the water flow rate, stating your assumptions.
How CERA helps
Help that makes you think, not answers to copy
Every mode is built around one habit, the one that gets you through the exam on your own.
Teaches in checkpoints
A big idea arrives a stage at a time, and she checks it has landed before going on.
Starts you off, then hands it back
She sets up the first step, or finds the first place your working goes wrong. The full solution waits until you’ve had a real go.
Makes you explain it back
One question at a time, pitched at your year: harder when you get it right, from a new angle when you don’t.
Hides the answer on purpose
Fresh exam-style questions with realistic conditions, and the working held back behind hints you choose to take.
Pitched at your year, and slower on the topics you’ve told us you find hard.
Units on every number, and the magnitude sanity-checked before she gives an answer.
Says plainly when she isn’t sure, and tells you what to check it against.
The curriculum
Your whole degree, on one map
Every subject in a chemical engineering degree, from first-year maths to process control. Pick your year to see what’s pitched at it, then open a subject for the themes your pathway is built from.
All years: 493 lessons across 15 subjects
DatasheetFig. 3
Mass & Energy Balances
A course on mass and energy balances, covering reacting systems, enthalpy, process modelling, recycle and purge, and multi-stage systems.
- 23
- 31
- 56
Lessons by year
Themes in your pathway
Nothing is locked to a year: your year decides what comes first, and every lesson is open on every plan, Starter included.
Industrial cases · in 3D
Stop reading about plants. Start running one.
Real processes, built in 3D. Learn how every unit works, then run the plant through its problems the way a shift engineer does.
- Industrial case studies, each a real process taken a unit at a time
- Take the shift as the engineer on duty: an alarm sounds, a reading drifts, and it is your call
- Diagnose the upset, choose the fix, and see what your decision does to the whole plant
- Every challenge tied back to the lessons it draws on
All stable
Take the controls
199 °C
Heat the jacket until the reactor vents2 °C
Chill the drum until it frosts over66 m³/h
Run the pump and the agitatorWhy The ChemEng Student
A pathway through your degree, not a pile of videos
Lessons, practice, CERA and real industrial processes, built for chemical engineering and joined up around your year.
Your own pathway
Built from your year and the subjects you take. Tell us the topics you find hardest and they come first.
Every lesson open
Video lessons with checkpoint questions, on every plan. Your year decides what comes first, never what you can open.
Practice that marks itself
Numbers, units and formulas marked the moment you submit, with hints on every question. Core adds the worked solutions.
CERA, where you’re stuck
Open her from a lesson or question and she starts there. She explains and tests you, and on Core solves and writes questions.
Real industrial cases
A real process, taken a unit at a time. Trace it in 2D on Starter; on Core, build the plant in 3D and handle its upsets.
Ready for revision week
Cheat sheets and guides from the library, plus each subject’s equations on one sheet. Core opens the whole library.
Accountability, built in
A plan that keeps you on track
Tell us your goal and when it’s due. Your dashboard counts down to it, keeps the next lesson one click away, and shows the days you studied and the lessons you finished: an honest record, with no streak to break.
- A countdown to the date you set
- The next lesson, one click away
- Your last 14 days at a glance
Our mission
Made by chemical engineers, for chemical engineers
To make world-class chemical engineering education accessible, practical and career-transforming, blending academic rigour with real industry application.
Academic integrity
Every lesson authored and reviewed by fully qualified chemical engineers.
Practical learning
Step-by-step tutorials, problem-solving tools and exam-focused, industry-relevant content.
A student community
Announcements from our team and a Discord server of chemical engineering students, open on every plan.
Built by a chemical engineer
Dr Callum Russell
PhD Chemical Engineering, lead course author
“Every lesson is authored and reviewed by fully qualified chemical engineers. Content follows your university modules, so topics match your lectures and coursework, not a generic syllabus.”
Membership
Choose how you’d like to study
Start free with a personalised plan. Upgrade only when it’s helping, and cancel anytime.
Starter
Free
See your pathway. Start learning.
- Your full personalised pathway, every lesson open
- Practice questions with instant marking & hints
- CERA to explain and test you, every day
- Industrial cases in 2D: trace a plant’s process
- Starter resources from the library
- Progress tracking & community access
Popular
Core
£19per month
Everything you need to master your degree.
Everything in Starter, plus:
- Step-by-step worked solutions to check every attempt against
- CERA’s Solve and Generate question modes
- Six times Starter’s daily CERA allowance
- Every industrial case in 3D: build the plant, handle its upsets
- The lessons each case draws on, linked into your pathway
- The full resource library: every cheat sheet and guide
Coming soon
Pro
£49per month
Academic & career performance support.
Everything in Core, plus:
- Assignment & report feedback
- Interview & viva coaching
- Priority CERA with 3× Core’s daily usage, on our most advanced model
- First in line for CERA at busy times
- Advanced simulator tasks & saved runs
- Skills Passport export
- Priority support
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about learning chemical engineering with us: what it costs, what it covers and how it fits your degree.
What is The ChemEng Student?
The ChemEng Student is an online learning platform built for chemical engineering students in the UK, from first year to the final year of a BEng or MEng, through postgraduate study, and for recent graduates. It turns your degree into one personalised pathway of video lessons, marked practice questions, worked solutions, industrial case studies and CERA, an AI assistant that knows chemical engineering. It was built by a chemical engineer, Dr Callum Russell, who leads the course writing.
Is The ChemEng Student free?
Yes. The Starter plan is free, with no card needed: your full personalised pathway with every lesson open, practice questions with instant marking and hints, CERA to explain topics and test you every day, industrial cases in 2D and the Starter resources. Core, at £19 a month, adds what helps most when exams get close. Compare the plans.
What do I get with Core, and can I cancel?
Core adds step-by-step worked solutions to check every attempt against, CERA’s Solve and Generate question modes with six times Starter’s daily allowance, every industrial case in 3D, and the full library of cheat sheets and guides. It costs £19 a month. You can cancel any time from Billing & plan: Core stays on until the end of the period you’ve paid for, then you move to Starter and keep all your progress.
Which chemical engineering topics does it cover?
15 subjects and 493 lessons, including Mass & Energy Balances, Thermodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, Reactor Design, Separation Processes, Distillation and Process Design & Control. Each subject is grouped into themes rather than module codes, so it lines up with your own course. See the whole curriculum.
Is it right for my year and my university?
It is built around UK chemical engineering degrees: every year of a BEng or MEng, postgraduate study, recent graduates and working engineers. Tell us your year and your pathway puts what your year covers first; your year decides the order, never what you can open. Topics are grouped by theme rather than by any one university’s modules, so they fit whichever course you take.
What is CERA, the AI chemical engineering assistant?
CERA, the Chemical Engineering Reasoning Assistant, is your AI chemical engineering companion. Open her from a lesson or a practice question and she starts from there. On every plan she explains a topic step by step and tests you on it; on Core she also solves problems with you and writes new practice questions. Her answers can set out equations and draw graphs, and you can always see how much of today’s allowance is left.
How are the practice questions marked?
There are 507 practice questions, and each part has its own answer box, marked the moment you submit: numbers with their units, within a tolerance, and formulas, vectors and matrices too. Every question has hints on every plan, and Core adds a step-by-step worked solution to check your working against.
What are the industrial case studies?
Each case takes a real industrial process one unit at a time, with its operating figures and the decisions the engineers on shift had to make. On Starter you read the cases open to Starter and trace each process in 2D; Core opens every case, and lets you build the plant in 3D, move the levers yourself and handle what goes wrong. It is a way to see how what you learn in lectures runs in a working plant.
How does it help me revise for chemical engineering exams?
Tell us your goal and when your exam is, and your dashboard counts down to it, keeps your next lesson one click away and shows the days you studied over the last two weeks, with no streak to break. Revise with lesson checkpoints and marked practice, ask CERA to test you on a topic, and keep each subject’s equations on one sheet beside the cheat sheets and guides in the library.
How do I get started, and do I need to install anything?
There is nothing to install: it runs in your browser on a laptop, tablet or phone. Start free and CERA asks a few quick questions about your year, your subjects and your goal, then builds your pathway. Start straight away, or answer a few more and take a short topic check first. Your account is made at the end, with your email. Anything else, email us at info@chemengstudent.com.
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Ready when you are
Build a plan around exactly where you’re stuck
Tell us where you are and get a pathway with your first lesson, your first practice set and a weekly study target. You won’t need an account until you want to keep it.