What do Graduate Chemical Engineers do?

The Chemical Engineer is a versatile engineer among all other type of engineers. They design and operate the chemical plants, which manufacture valuable and useful products from low value and waste materials. Moreover, a chemical engineer is responsible for the environment sustainability and operational safety also. A chemical engineering graduate starts his or her carrier in chemical process industries as a graduate engineer trainee or GET. So, in this blog we will discuss about the role and responsibilities of a graduate engineering trainee.

Contribution of chemical engineers can be seen every where. We can see all these products in our everyday life, without which it is impossible to imagine this modern world. For instance below are the areas for your reference.

• Energy (gasoline, diesel, cooking gas, etc.)
• Polymers (plastics, rubber, fibers, adhesives, etc.)
• Chemicals (alcohol, vinegar, soda, esters, solvents, APIs, etc.)
• Processed food (chips, cold drinks, health drinks, powder milk, etc.)
• Medicines, paper, dyes, paints, fertilizers and pesticides

If you are a fresh chemical engineering graduate and have joined an industry as Graduate Engineer Trainee. You might have lots of doubts in your minds regarding roles and responsibilities. If yes, then please continue to read.

After completion of your B.Tech., you have opportunities to work in two major areas. We will discuss this in detail as below.

Production Area

Typically production area comprises below sections inside a plant,

• Plant building, control room building and MCC room
• Utility section (cooling tower, instrument air unit, nitrogen plant, chilled water unit, brine unit, etc.)
• Boiler & turbine unit, effluent treatment units, etc.   

Production people are responsible for the operation, maintenance and management of the plant. In production area graduate chemical engineers join as a shift engineer. And, generally in a plants you will find 4 shifts. First is general shift for supervision and management. And, others 3 shifts have 8 hrs duration, in which shift engineer and plant operators run the plant. A shift engineer learn about the plant operation and moreover shift management activities also. Below is the list of activities which a shift engineer needs to perform.

• Understand the plant process thoroughly, including P&ID (piping & instrumentation diagram), process description and process technology of the plant. Thus he can operate the plant on DCS comfortably.
• Material and energy balance of the plant. In addition to that you study about MSDS for the raw materials, intermediates & finished products.
• You get a SOP (standard operating process) to read. This is a very important document to run a plant with efficiency and safety. Mainly SOP includes below following sections.
  1. Plant Start Up Operation
  2. Normal Plant Operation, and
  3. Plant Shutdown Operation.
• After doing above study, you need to trace each and every equipment, pipe line, instruments and control valve inside the plant physically. Finally, this activity will help you operate the plant effectively.
• You are responsible to achieve production capacity, raw material and utility norms as per the budget or business plan. Besides that, you are responsible to keep the plant in well maintained condition also.
• Also, you should find out the possible areas of improvement in your plant. Consequently, this will be a big plus point for you.
• Preparation of plant performance reports and reporting. Because it is required by plant manager on daily basis.
• Managing a shift is very important responsibility for a successful shift engineer. You will be dealing with the plant manager, plant operators, maintenance engineer, instruments engineers, safety person, PC and QC lab people, boiler and power team. Therefore, people management skills are very important for effective in dealing with all these team members.
• A successful shift engineer should be a good team leader and team member. In addition to that he should be a good communicator, sensitive, assertive, courageous and quick decision maker.

Process Design Area

In process design area graduate chemical engineers join as a design engineer. Here you may find departments such as Design & Engineering, Technical Services or Process Improvement Department. Type of process department, which an organization has depends on their strategic goal. Undoubtedly, a design engineer must be very good in chemical engineering fundamentals and project management skills.

A process engineer will be working on new plant projects or existing running plants and will be delivering below list of activities.

• PFD (process flow diagram) of the plant or it can be a unit operation for instance distillation, absorption, evaporation, extraction, drying, reaction, etc.
• Material & energy balance calculations, estimation of heat load for various process equipment such as, reboiler, condenser, reactor, chiller, compressor etc.
• Design calculation of the process equipment. (heat exchanger, distillation column, reactor, separator sizing, tanks & vessel sizing, etc.)  
• Equipment costing (i.e., heat exchanger costing, distillation column costing, vessel & tank costing, etc.) and plant costing and capex proposal document is a good experience. 
• Pipeline sizing and pressure drop calculations of the piping networks for process, steam, steam condensate, chilled water, instrument and cooling water piping networks.
• Preparation of PID (piping & instrumentation diagram) for this you will be working under an experienced chemical engineer.
• Preparation of process data sheets for fabricated and bought out equipment of the plant. Fabricated items include column, tank, vessel, condenser, reboiler, cooler, heater, decanter, knock out pots, reactors, etc. The bought-out item includes mechanical, instruments, electrical, piping & fittings.
• Preparation of equipment inquiry specification documents. This document you require to subscribe the quotations from vendors.
• After receipt of quotations you will prepare TBE document (technical bid equation). This document is very important to finalize the vendor, to whom we will place the order for equipment purchase.
• In instrumentation you prepare process data sheets for flow meters, control valves, thermocouple, RTD, level gauge, pressure gauge, temperature gauge, etc.
• Preparation of line list for process and utility piping, list of process and utility valves, list and specification for strainers, non-return valves, steam traps, etc.
• In electrical section you will be preparing list of motors in your project. This will be used during detailing of electrical engineering.
• Review of detail engineering documents for example, P&ID, equipment layout & elevation drawings from the process point of view.
• Plant commissioning is a practical experience of all the unit operations. In commissioning you will be able to validate your theory, moreover this will reinforce your fundamental knowledge of chemical engineering.
• Preparation of standard operating document for the plant operation.  Also other document preparation for closing and handover the project to production team. Therefore, production team can operate plant smoothly.
• You will learn to use process simulators for process engineering. Commonly used process simulators are Aspen, ChemCad, Pro2 etc. Simulators are very important to prepare a model of the plant. This model is very helpful to perform material & energy balance calculation for a plant quickly. In addition, you can do process design of various equipment on these simulators, such as heat exchanger, distillation column, absorber column, reactor etc.

Conclusion

When start your job as a graduate chemical engineers in an organization, first of all it is very important to understand the roles and responsibilities clearly. Because a clear understanding will align your efforts towards your final goal. I have seen after joining many engineers want to join process design streams and some wants to make their future in manufacturing. Since competencies and required skills are different for both the areas, therefore conscious decision is important.

Above all, you work in any area you must need to invest your first 5 years in learning and competency building. Because these first 5 years will be foundation stones for your bright and successful future.

I have mentioned both areas in details. However, you need further information or any clarification then please free to write me.

Thanks