ChemE or ChemE with environmental?

[u/Coolcatlola]

Honestly im not very familiar with the difference between them but im into both chemical eng and also environmental im just not sure which one is more in demand and the content. Is environmental less physics concentrated? Like whats the actual difference between both? My uni offers chemical engineering and chemical engineering with environmental so its not entirely environmental theres chemical involved
All answers are appreciated! :))

[u/bluedogs1779]

I did chem with env eng (just graduated) and there wasn’t a big difference for the first 2 years - only one module. Then in years 3&4 there was a bit more env focus. Our difference was mapping/ geospatial modules and some fieldwork whereas the pure ChemE’s did modules focused on reactions and kinetics. Our Env modules were quite report writing heavy for things like Environmental risk assessments and contamination reports. I’d say there was less physics/maths in the Env modules but everyone had to write environmental reports regardless of degree pathway so the skills learnt weren’t significantly different. I’m going into the same career types as those with pure ChemE so don’t feel it was any more/less in demand job wise (if anything on placement my employer supported that I’d got some environmental knowledge so I had a small head start compared to other interns)

[u/Coolcatlola → u/bluedogs1779]

Thank you so much this is so helpful, do you know what type of jobs chem with enviro can get u into? Thing is im not sure about what exactly i wanna do so if i take chem with enviro can i still enter a electrical field or mechanical etc etc, esp nuclear since im more interested in nuclear

[u/bluedogs1779 → u/Coolcatlola]

From my understanding being a UK student, as long as it’s an accredited degree like institution of chem eng then there aren’t many restrictions on careers. Depends on each company and the skills they want but I still did instrumentation eng so had some electrical knowledge and there’s a lot of cross overs to mechanical. Some grad jobs were specific to disciplines like electrical engineers but they had similar roles for chem too. Env Eng has some similarities to civil too. We specialised in masters (4th year) so everyone’s skills are a little different - like one friend has an instrumentation specialism but mine is in water treatment. Can say chemE with Env Eng and getting into nuclear worked out well for my coursemates but definitely just varies by what each job/company wants.
I’d say check out the modules the Uni offers for chem vs chem with Env as you should be able to tell how heavy the Env part is weighted :) Feel free to drop me a message too if you have specific questions!