Students from the School of Chemical Engineering, with their poster, take third prize in the Chem-E-Car Competition held in Barcelona as part of the World Congress of Chemical Engineering

Twenty-five teams of university students from around the world have participated in the biennial global competition organised by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), which this year was held in Barcelona to coincide with the 10th World Congress of Chemical Engineering. A team of first and fourth year students from the URV’s Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering was awarded third prize in one of the two sections of this global car competition. The team gained entry to the Chem-E-Car Competition by winning an internal competition at the URV the previous year.

During the competition the participants had to use their knowledge of chemical engineering to build cars that ran on chemical reactions rather than mechanical devices. The vehicles had to be controlled chemically and have chemical motors and all teams needed to demonstrate compliance with the chemical safety regulations. Teams had to display a poster explaining their project in order to pass through to the second round and show their cars in action. During this part of the competition, the URV students were awarded third prize for the quality of their poster and thus qualified for the second round.

The qualifying teams had to control their cars using chemical reactions and make them travel for a specified distance whilst carrying a pre-determined load. The URV team was unable to finish among the prizes during this part of the competition.

The Chem-E-Car Competition is organised by the AIChE every two years to encourage university students to design and build cars that can carry a specific load for a certain distance whilst powered by a chemical energy source. This is the first time that a team from the URV has entered the competition and their success has fuelled a desire to enter future editions.