Wednesday, November 13, 2019

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CAREER



The aerospace, automotive, biomedical, electronic, environmental, medical, and military industries seek the skills of chemical engineers in order to help develop and improve their technical products, such as:
  • Ultrastrong fibers, fabrics, and adhesives for vehicles
  • Biocompatible materials for implants and prosthetics
  • Films for optoelectronic devices
Chemical engineers work in almost every industry and affect the production of almost every article manufactured on an industrial scale. Some typical tasks include:
  • Ensuring compliance with health, safety, and environmental regulations
  • Conducting research into improved manufacturing processes
  • Designing and planning equipment layout
  • Incorporating safety procedures for working with dangerous chemicals
  • Monitoring and optimizing the performance of production processes
  • Estimating production costs
American Chemical Society: Chemical Engineering https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/careers/college-to-career/chemistry-careers/chemical-engineering.html

What is chemical engineering?
Chemical engineering is all about changing raw materials into useful products such as clothes, food and drink, and energy. Chemical engineers focus on processes and products – they develop and design processes to create products; either focussing on improving existing processes or creating new ones. This means that they are also concerned with managing resources, protecting the environment and health and safety. Chemical engineers are sometimes called ‘universal engineers’ because it is such a broad discipline - they are essentially concerned with transforming one thing into another.
Many people are unsure about the amount of chemistry involved in a chemical engineering degree. Ultimately, as with all engineering degrees, physics and maths are the most important elements of the course, with around 20% of the course related to chemistry – particularly physical chemistry. There are some elements of chemical engineering that are related to biology, but these would typically be more specialised areas. If you would like to specialise in chemistry, then a chemical engineering degree is probably not for you.
There are a wide range of industries that utilize chemical engineers, including pharmaceutical, energy and information technology. These roles will involve developing existing processes and creating new methods for altering materials. There are also other sectors and careers which utilize the skills developed in a chemical engineering degree – including quality assurance, manufacturing, and consultancy. Depending on the role there are some risks associated working as a chemical engineer, as you can be exposed to health or safety hazards handling chemicals and working with plant equipment. However, risks can be avoided if safety procedures are followed. There are excellent opportunities for chemical engineering graduates; prospects for higher earnings in the profession are good. Work in certain industries, for example, oil and contracting, will attract particularly high salaries.
Chemical Engineering: What is it and what are the career opportunities?
https://www.mendeley.com/careers/article/chemical-engineering/ Accessed, 13/11/2019

Duties of Chemical Engineers
Chemical engineers typically do the following:
  • Conduct research to develop new and improved manufacturing processes
  • Establish safety procedures for those working with dangerous chemicals
  • Develop processes for separating components of liquids and gases, or for generating electrical currents, by using controlled chemical processes
  • Design and plan the layout of equipment
  • Conduct tests and monitor the performance of processes throughout production
  • Troubleshoot problems with manufacturing processes
  • Evaluate equipment and processes to ensure compliance with safety and environmental regulations
  • Estimate production costs for management
https://collegegrad.com/careers/chemical-engineers

Levels of Degree in Chemical Engineering
Degrees in chemical engineering exist at the bachelor’s level and will prepare graduates for entry-level positions in the field. In addition to chemistry classes, students also study in physics, biology, mathematics and kinetics through a mix of classroom teaching, laboratory experiments and fieldwork placements.
While a master’s degree isn’t required, it can help students advance their careers to managerial levels or into research positions. It will also help those who completed their bachelor’s degree in a different field get up to speed on necessary skills and knowledge. After covering the same areas of a bachelor’s degree more in depth, students at this level typically complete a research project or fieldwork placement.
PhDs in chemical engineering are reserved for students who wish to work in the most specialized areas of development and production, or teach the discipline at the collegiate level. This degree covers the intricacies and nuances of chemical reactors, thermodynamics, transport phenomena, and numerical methods and typically includes a large-scale original research project and comprehensive exams.
https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/engineering-careers/chemical/



Some courses at B.Eng Level
Some courses at Masters Level
What Can You Do With a College Degree in Chemical Engineering?

Employers of many different stripes seek the analytical and problem-solving skills developed by chemical engineers in the course of their degree programs.
One major role for chemical engineers is the development and operation of chemical processing plants, as well as the equipment in those plants. Engineers might use software to plan the design of a plant, or they might develop the software that is used to plan the design. They may also be involved in obtaining the equipment, coordinating the construction, and supervising the plant operations. Other chemical engineers might be more involved in research and development, where they work with chemists or perform some of the research themselves.
Chemical engineers who are knowledgeable about a company or a specific product can act as troubleshooters by finding ways to improve plant operations. Being a successful troubleshooter requires a thorough understanding of the process and equipment, the ability to apply chemical engineering principles to problem solving, and a set of advanced data interpretation skills.
The same skills that allow chemical engineers to work effectively on a plant floor can help them transition to a career in the boardroom. Many chemical engineers use their creative troubleshooting abilities and their advanced interpersonal skills to advance into management positions.
Sometimes a chemical engineer's special knowledge of a product or a process leads to a career as a consultant, where he or she can work with several firms in an industry. At other times, a chemical engineer will take the knowledge learned over a career back into the classroom and pass it along to the next generation of chemical engineers. Chemical engineers who develop their communication skills can also enjoy a separate or supplemental occupation as a technical writer or author.
Not every chemical engineer is a generalist. Many choose a specific career path, develop an area of expertise, or serve a single purpose on a team. Some areas of specialty include:
Biochemical engineering
This field focuses on the chemical processes occurring naturally in plants and animals. Food companies hire chemical engineers to improve crop yields by developing safer pest control products for farmers and distributors. Utility companies employ chemical engineers who examine ways to dispose of waste more efficiently while delivering supplies of clean drinking water to challenging locations.
Food engineering
As the world's population increases, researchers are looking for new and better ways to improve the quality and extend the life of food products. Food chemical engineers also try to make crops more disease-resistant and safer to eat.
Petroleum and petrochemical engineering
Petroleum is a finite resource, so chemical engineers constantly seek better ways to find and extract oil and natural gas. Oil companies deploy teams of chemical engineers to existing plants and refineries to improve production yields from dwindling fossil fuel deposits. Chemical engineers also travel to new drilling locations to help teams of scientists develop better ways to tap previously overlooked sources of oil and gas. At the same time, chemical engineers also search for safer and more efficient methods of developing oil-based products. By integrating smart production methods at the site of the drilling or during the refining process, chemical engineers have discovered ways to create useful products by recycling waste elements.
Process control
Computers play an important role in just about every profession, and chemical engineering is no exception. Engineers oversee the quality-control portions of product development, such as temperature and liquid levels in processing tanks. Process control specialists improve production to a diverse array of industries, ranging from ice cream production to plastics manufacturing.
Pharmaceuticals
In conjunction with medical researchers, chemical engineers help design and operate the equipment that produces life-enhancing drugs. Chemical engineers specialize in taking the concepts of new drugs from the lab to the factory floor by discovering ways to scale these new inventions. Over time, their efforts produce medicine that costs less for consumers and can be made more efficiently in facilities around the world.
Production
Chemical and manufacturing plants require professionals to oversee their equipment and processes. Some employers use chemical engineers to maintain production levels or to advise in the purchase and layout of the equipment.

Chemical Process Design
In chemical engineering, process design is the choice and sequencing of units for desired physical and/or chemical transformation of materials. Process design is central to chemical engineering, and it can be considered to be the summit of that field, bringing together all of the field's components.
Process design can be the design of new facilities or it can be the modification or expansion of existing facilities. The design starts at a conceptual level and ultimately ends in the form of fabrication and construction plans.
Process design is distinct from equipment design, which is closer in spirit to the design of unit operations. Processes often include many unit operations.


Chemical process design requires the selection of a series of processing steps and their integration to form a complete manufacturing system. Once a structure for the process has been established, then a mathematical model of the process can be developed and the process simulated. The type of product, scale of production, and life cycle of the product have major influences on the priorities in chemical process design. Short life cycles require the design of multiproduct processes.
Chemical processes should be designed to maximize the sustainability of industrial activity. For chemical processing, this means that processes should use raw materials, energy, and water as efficiently as is economic and practicable, both to prevent the production of waste that can be environmentally harmful and to preserve the sources of raw materials, energy, and water as much as possible. All aspects of chemical processing must feature good health and safety practice.
The design might be a new design or the retrofit of an existing process. If the design is a retrofit, then one of the objectives should be to maximize the use of existing equipment, even if it is not ideally suited to its new purpose. Both continuous and batch process operation can be used. Different approaches to chemical process design can be adopted.
Robin Smith (2015): Chemical Process Design. Wiley Online Library. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/0471238961.chemsmit.a01.pub2 Accessed, 13/11/2019
Chemical Process Design Companies play a vital role in bringing up new chemical industries and also provides solutions for retrofitting the old ones to increase the production level. This article helps fresh Chemical Engineers to provide an idea about various Chemical Design Companies and their services, Chemical Engineers job profile and skill set needed to achieve professional excellence. 
Chemical Process Design Companies carry out Technical and economic feasibility study, Technical audits, Performance and Optimization study, Engineering Procurement & construction, Project management etc
Basic engineering packages, Detailed engineering packages, HAZOP study, Operator training simulators are also developed as per the client requirement.
Most of the Chemical design companies have their own technology for manufacturing chemicals/ petrochemicals and so they provide Commissioning and start up assistance to achieve performance guarantee trial run of the plant.

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