Unit Operations Laboratory is the course chemical engineering graduates remember and the one employers ask about. Students run pilot-scale equipment — distillation columns, heat exchangers, pumps, dryers, absorbers — take real data from processes that leak, drift and refuse to reach steady state, and write it up as a professional engineer would. The statewide description is narrower: laboratory work in unit operations involving mass transfer.
⚠⚠⚠ Budget for it honestly. This is routinely the heaviest course in the curriculum relative to its credit value: the laboratory sessions are long, the equipment does not cooperate, and the reports are the real assessment. Students who treat it as a 3-credit course rather than a term-defining one are the ones who fall behind.
Carried by three Florida public institutions.
Named on the Chemical Engineer career path, and it is the strongest item on an entry-level résumé after the capstone. ⚠ Name the specific equipment you operated — a graduate who has run a distillation column and can discuss why the tray efficiency came out at 60% is a materially different candidate from one who has only calculated one.
| Institution | Credits | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| FAMU, Florida State | 3 | the general unit operations laboratory — flow, heat transfer, separations |
| University of Florida | 2 | the separations and mass transfer laboratory specifically |
⚠ The statewide description sides with UF — it says “laboratory work in unit operations involving mass transfer” and titles the number “Chemical Engineering Operations Lab 2”, implying a sequence. So UF is running the number as defined and the FAMU-FSU college is running something broader on it.
⚠⚠ Neither is wrong and the difference is real work. Half again the credit is half again the laboratory time and the reports. A student transferring in with the 2-credit version is a credit short; one transferring out with the 3-credit version may find a credit with nowhere to go. Send the list of experiments performed — it is the only document that says what was actually covered.
This is the first time most students operate equipment that can genuinely hurt them: steam, pressure, rotating machinery, hot surfaces and chemicals in quantity. Expect a hazard assessment to be required before each experiment and to be graded. Treat it as the professional habit it is meant to become — it is the same procedure a plant requires before any non-routine operation.
Chemical engineering is awarded by four Florida public institutions in three cities: the University of Florida (110 bachelor’s degrees a year), the University of South Florida (73), Florida State (27) and Florida A&M (4). Florida State and Florida A&M share the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, a single joint college in Tallahassee, which is why their records for this prefix are identical down to the title.
⚠⚠ So a carrier count in this prefix overstates how many independent programmes exist. A course carried by “FAMU and FSU” is one programme’s course, not two institutions agreeing. Read the hedging on this page accordingly, and treat anything stated about content as a description of a small number of specific curricula rather than a Florida-wide norm.
⚠ Neither UCF nor FIU awards a chemical engineering degree — the two largest universities in the state by enrolment. See the Chemical Engineer career path for what that means if you live in Orlando or Miami.
All four Florida programmes are accredited by ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission, which is what employers screen on and what carries the four-year route to Professional Engineer licensure under s. 471.013(1)(a), Florida Statutes. ⚠ Accreditation attaches to a named programme at a named institution, not to a course list — verify the specific programme in ABET’s own search.
Most chemical engineers never license: process plants fall under the industrial exemption. ⚠ The Florida exceptions are environmental and water engineering consulting, where work is sealed for public clients. Sit the FE examination in your final year regardless — the chemical FE is written for the curriculum you have just finished and will never be easier.
Generated September 18, 2026 · Updated September 18, 2026