The School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (CCE) of Hefei University of Technology (HFUT) was established in 1958, serving as the earliest and largest educational base for chemical engineers in Anhui Province ever since. The school has two First-Level Disciplines that can offer Master’s degrees, i.e., Chemical Engineering and Technology, and Chemistry, which were recognized as World-Class Disciplines in 2020 by the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. The school also offers Doctoral degrees in Materials Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Biomass Chemistry and Engineering, Energy and Power Engineering, etc. For undergraduates, the school offers five majors including Chemical Engineering and Process (listed as one of the “National First-Class Majors” and pilot major for the “National Distinguished Engineer Program”), Polymer Materials and Engineering (pilot major for the “National Distinguished Engineer Program”), Chemistry, Applied Chemistry, and Energy Chemical Engineering with Chemical Engineering and Process and Applied Chemistry being the two Key Provincial Disciplines. The school has more than 2,440 undergraduate and graduate students in total. For the past 60 years, our school has provided the whole nation with more than 14,000 talents in various fields such as chemistry, chemical engineering, materials engineering, etc., including 1 in the Chinese Academy of Science, 2 in the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 in the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, and 9 National Distinguished Young Scholars, who have made significant contributions to the nation’s education and industry progress as well as the advancement of science and technology.

The school set up five departments based on the above five undergraduate majors and two additional centers for teaching and experimental learning. They are: (1) Department of Applied Chemistry; (2) Department of Chemical Engineering and Process; (3) Department of Chemistry; (4) Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering; (5) Department of Polymer Science and Engineering; (6) Center for Advanced Chemical Technology; and (7) Center for Experimental Learning and Teaching. Our school has a total of 127 faculty members, including over 10 high-level talents such as Academician of the Chinese Academy of Science, National Distinguished Young Scholars, National Outstanding Young Scholars, Young Yangtze Scholars, etc. With 37 Full Professors (including 19 Ph.D. advisers), 53 Associate Professors, and 4 Senior Laboratory Technicians, the faculty composition can meet our school’s daily education and teaching demands. Our school also provides many inter-departmental collaboration platforms such as “Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Catalytic Materials and Reaction Engineering”, “Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Controlled Chemistry and Materials Chemical Engineering”, and “Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices” to breed and facilitate collaboration among faculty members from different departments.

Aiming at key scientific questions in chemical engineering such as energy, materials, environment, and resources, our school has delivered a series of basic and applied research outputs in major areas including energy storage materials and technology, catalysis and synthesis technology, chemical separation technology, industrial flue gas purification technology, nanotechnology and applications, etc. Many significant results have been generated from more than 40 Chinese National Science Foundation projects and over 100 industry-supported projects, publishing more than 120 original research papers in celebrated international journals (e.g., Chem Soc Rev, Acc Chem Res, Nature Comm, J Am Chem Soc, Angew Chem Int Ed, Adv Mater, AIChE J, Ind Eng Chem Res, Chem Eng Sci, etc.) and more than 40 patents.

Through the cycle of “industry-university-research” cooperation, our school has built up strong connections with many enterprises across the country and produced many scaleable applications, such as “lithium iron phosphate cathode material preparation technology”, “industrial tail gas sulfur dioxide removal and utilization technology”, “medium- and low-temperature SCR catalytic denitration technology”, “asymmetric synthesis technology of high optical purity nucleoside drug intermediates”, “high thermal conductivity insulation potting composite materials”, “environmentally friendly trace element water-soluble fertilizers”, “water-based semi-PU leather special series resins”, etc., generating tremendous economic and social benefits. Recently, faculty members from our school have received 1 Second Prize for the “National Natural Science Award”; 2 First Prizes, 6 Second Prizes, and 3 Third Prizes for the “Provincial and/or Ministerial Science and Technology Award”; and 1 Second Prize for the “China Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation Achievement Award”; etc.