Process Engineering
So What's It All About, Then?
Process Engineering is synonymous with Chemical Engineering. Indeed, many Chemical Engineers are gainfully employed as Process Engineers.
Process Engineering involves the study, design and commissioning (and de-commissioning) of processes. Now processes are made up of unit operations; and these unit operations centre around the conversion of raw materials or chemicals, into useful products. These unit operations can be reactions, mass, heat or momentum transfer operations. Unit operations are assembled in order to produce the desired ouput.
Process Engineering can also be applied to intangibles, such as services, or business processes, in the field of Business Process Re-engineering, or BPR. Unit operations in these respects centre around people or information as the input to the process, rather than a chemical or physical unit.
Lots of processes together also make up Operations. The management of these processes is called Process Management (or Operations Management on a larger scale). Process or Chemical Engineers are often promoted to Operations Managers, sometimes with considerable responsibility for personnel, profit and loss, production and safety. The best example of this is perhaps the refinery manager. With the right management training, Chemical Engineers make outstanding operations managers.
Typical Activities of the Process Engineer
Common activities that the Process Engineer is engaged with include the following.
- Research and development
- Capital costing estimation and budgeting
- Front End Engineering (FEED) studies
- Process Engineering calculations
- Detailed design
- Equipment specification and selection
- Process optimisation
- Debottlenecking
- Troubleshooting
- Commissioning (and de-commissioning)
- Safety study and risk assessment
- Simulations and modelling
- Training of operators
- Development of operating procedures
- Project management
In project environments, some common initial activities include:
- Development of process flow diagrams (PFDs)
- Development of a high-level process description
- Development of basic control and instrumentation requirements
- Heat and mass balances (to establish raw material and utility requirements)
- Generation of a fluids list
- Check of chemical incompatibility
- Corrosion engineering (compatible materials of construction)
- Preliminary equipment sizing
- Preliminary pressure drop calculations for pipe sizing
- Datasheets for equipment selection for budgetary purposes
- Participation in hazard identification studies (HAZIDs)
Once these basic engineering activities have been carried out, a detailed phase of process engineering will be required.
- Development of piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs)
- Development of a detailed process description
- Development of detailed control and instrumentation requirements
- Detailed utility requirements
- Detailed equipment sizing including pressure drop
- Detailes pressure drop calculations for control valve and pipe sizing
- Datasheets for equipment selection for procurement purposes
- Participation in hazard and operability studies (HAZOPs) and layers of protection analyses (LOPA)
- Construction of operating procedures
- Development of pre-commissioning and commissioning plans
- Participation in Hazard Study 4 (construction) and 5 (pre-commissioning)
- Development of training procedures and active involvement with training
- Project management
- Liaison with vendors and licensors
- Client and stakeholderrelationship management
It's clear to see that the Process Engineer is required to be proficient in a wide array of areas. And he/she must manage resources under considerable time constraints. Hence, Process Engineers should learn to become self-sufficient and above-all, good project managers.
In the project environment, Process Engineers can learn a great deal of new skills and will be exposed to a number of interesting technologies. The larger engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms are excellent arenas in which to develop as a Process Engineer. Plant operational experience is also invaluable to gain expertise in some selected technology areas. At the start of one's career, it's probably best to go for breadth rather than depth in order that one can find areas of particular interest or aptitude. As one's career progresses, the opportunity for specialism can be taken.
The current economic climate makes is abundently clear that Process Engineers should develop a portfolio of skills that can be utilised in a variety of industry or commercial segments. That way, should the economic climate deteriorate, the Process Engineer can position himself in so-called defensive segments like food and beverage , safety, higher education, etc.
One thing is clear: the Process Engineer will become increasingly useful to society given the challenges in energy, climate change, pollution,water stress, population explosion, etc., that the world faces today.
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