The Dangers of Becoming too Remote
Aniqah Majid speaks to the University of Bath’s John Chew about the damaging impact remote and hy...
Features
Putting the AI in Feedback TrAIning
Stuart Prescott explores the use of AI tools to support students practicing and developing thei...
Safe AI Innovation Needs Robust Regulation
Aniqah Majid joined industry leaders as they came together for an IChemE roundtable on AI’s use i...
AI Prizes and Warnings
Adam Duckett looks at the increasing adoption of AI, for better or worse
Drink it in
Martin Pitt looks back on the history of drinking water and chemical engineers’ contribution to it
Flixborough 50 Years On: Stirring Memories and Sharing Memories
Paul Okey visits the Flixborough 1974 Exhibition with his dad to discover the stories behind the ...
Flixborough 50 Years On: Application of Inherent Safety Principles to Plant Design
Steven Murphy and Graham Ackroyd look at how applying Trevor Kletz’s concept of inherent safety a...
Flixborough 50 Years On: Remembering Flixborough by Someone Who Wasn’t Alive in 1974
In the engineering industry, it is often asked if major incidents could ever happen again. Early-...
The Loch Ness Monster and Plant Safety
Martin Pitt recalls his time spotting monsters, and warns that just because they are hard to spot...
Flixborough 50 Years On: How Management of Change Failures Contributed to the Disaster
Richard Mundy reflects on the Court of Inquiry’s findings relating to what we now call management...
Flixborough 50 Years On: Safety is a Team Sport
A massive gap that wasn’t filled, key players in the wrong positions and no one taking overall re...
Flixborough 50 Years On: Legislation has been Transformed, Organisations not so much
Trish Kerin speaks to safety consultant Andrew Hopkins to find out how the safety culture at Flix...
Flixborough 50 Years On: Lessons for Managers and Engineers Today
Robin Turney says the lessons learned from the disaster are still as relevant now as they were in...
Better Safe Than Sorry (Whatever Safe Is)
Trevor J Hughes on why reducing risk will only come from engineers challenging cringeworthy ‘ma...
Customer Viewpoint: IChemE Forms of Contract
IChemE’s The Blue Book provides a standard reference point for the engineering, procurement, and ...
Navigating IR35 in the Engineering Sector
Matt Tyler, IR35 consultancy manager at Kingsbridge, sheds light on the evolving attitudes toward...
Making the Grade: Assessing the Assessment Capabilities of ChatGPT-3
Peter Neal and Sarah Grundy put ChatGPT to the test to understand how it can reshape education
Navigating the AI Frontier: Bias, Ethics, and the Vital Collaboration Between Engineers and Policymakers
Graham Herries on the guardrails that must be established to ensure the fair and responsible inte...
Using AI: What You've Been Saying
We asked members of TCE’s reader feedback panel to share their experiences of generative AI
When Measurement is Money
Derek Scott explains how to ensure the robustness of systems that determine the income and tax bi...
COP27: Three Things I Would Revisit for COP28
David Simmonds suggests three ways that could help next year's COP28 deliver real results
Ethics: No Room for Relativity
Malcolm Staves explains the importance of applying the highest safety standards regardless of reg...
Safety is my job: Muhammad Naeem Ullah
Robin Turney speaks to Muhammad Naeem Ullah about his work as a process safety specialist at the ...
Ethics Series: Did you sleep well?
Speaking the truth when others don’t want to hear has to be part of our DNA as engineers, says Da...
Making Medicines: Safely
Naomi Atkinson talks about her role in ensuring safe and compliant manufacture of therapeutics an...
COMAaaaargH! COMAH Reports Gone Wrong
How to avoid some common pitfalls in the production and use of a COMAH report; from Robert McGreg...
Book Review: Credibility Crisis: Brumadinho and the Politics of Mining Industry Reform
Andrew Hopkins and Deanna Kemp; ISBN: 9781922509048; Wolters Kluwer; 2021; US$65
Risk: Tools of the Trade
Andy Brazier asks are you satisfied that everything ‘reasonably practicable’ has been done to red...
Transforming Supply Chains
Industry will be forced to adapt, says Paul Hodges
New EU Safety Data Sheet Requirements
Aidan Bushell explains changes for Dust Explosions (Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/878)
The Pharmaceutical Industry: Engineering Frustrations
Hedley Rees and Keith Plumb discuss how current methods of drug development are impeding engineer...
Brexit: Thomas Swan urges businesses to get ready for 1 January
CHEMICALS manufacturer Thomas Swan is urging businesses to act now to be ready for new trading ru...
How Strong are your Barriers?
What can be learned from inspections of loss of containment audit and assurance systems in the UK...
After the spill: an introduction to the series
Adam Duckett, Editor of The Chemical Engineer, introduces a series looking at Deepwater Horizon o...
After the spill: safety standards and metrics
Ten years after Deepwater Horizon, US offshore drilling safety improvements remain elusive
Just Add Water
Hugh Thomas looks at the challenge of ensuring resilient and wholesome water supplies
Where Next for AI in Drug Discovery?
Adrian Tombling explains why drug developers need AI
Strategy 2024
IChemE President Ken Rivers explains the purpose of Strategy 2024 and why it is fundamental to t...
Hydrogen Transport
Andy Brown looks at the options and challenges of moving hydrogen from A to B in bulk
Keeping it Local
David Simmonds explains the challenges of pursuing major projects sustainably
UN report calls for urgent action to tackle chemical pollution
INDUSTRY will not achieve environmentally sound management of chemicals and waste by 2020 without...
Managing ALARP in Major Engineering Projects
How to identify threats and achieve ALARP on a big scale
Deal or No Deal?
No deal is now the base case – are you ready for Brexit?
The Long View on Longford
20 years on from Australia’s infamous gas explosion, what have we learned, and what should we do ...
Step Up and Share
As lessons emerge following the Grenfell Tower review, chemical engineers have a duty to share th...
Dame Judith Hackitt and Erin Johnson talk fire safety
Chemical engineers are well suited to assessing fire safety by applying systems thinking and a ri...
Using Bow Ties to Classify Barriers
Not all parts of a process safety management system are of equal importance
What is it Like Being a Chemical Engineer in Parliament?
Erin Johnson, Ashok Kumar Fellow, talks to IChemE’s Rachael Fraser
Chris Flint: Energy Regulator
HSE director Chris Flint discusses the need for all of us to seek to improve the approach to regu...
Fighting the Fight
Cyber attacks on industrial control systems are increasing. What can you do?
Landfill vs Skyfill
How landfill might be the better option for disposal of low-grade plastics
Beyond ALARP
Why considered, informed, respectful dialogue is needed
Vaccines: The End of the Cold War?
How an award-winning ensilication technology could remove the need to refrigerate life-saving vac...
Demolition Man
Expert observations of demolition dangers and how to avoid them
How to Reduce the Risk of a Dust Explosion
Unwrapping the explosion pentagon to reduce risk
A South African Challenge
Mobilising chemical engineering resources to mitigate drought
Get Ready
Chemical engineers: start answering climate change questions now
Ditch the Deluge
An argument for using insulation rather than fixed firewater deluge to protect bulk LPG storage t...
Something in the water
Managing the safe discharge of active pharmaceutical ingredients during drug production
An urgent request: new decommissioning head must bring fresh-thinking to wrong-headed plans
THE appointment this week of a new head of decommissioning at the UK’s Oil & Gas Authority (OGA) ...
News
Safe AI innovation needs robust regulation, warns IChemE roundtable
Industry leaders come together for a roundtable discussion on AI’s use in plant operation and the...
US industry risking lives due to lack of remote isolation equipment, CSB warns
US CHEMICAL facilities are putting lives at risk by failing to heed lessons learned from loss of ...
EU refuses call by auditor to update its "unrealistic" hydrogen targets
EFFORTS by the EU to establish a hydrogen market to decarbonise heavy industry have been criticis...
Landmark ruling could put UK fossil fuel projects at risk
THE impact of burning fossil fuels should be taken into account when approving energy development...
Royal Society of Chemistry calls for a chemicals agency to overhaul ‘broken’ UK regulatory system
AHEAD of the UK’s 4 July general election, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is urging the nex...
Government calls for stakeholder views on changes to UK REACH
CHEMICAL businesses, downstream chemical users, and other stakeholders are being called to consul...
Engineers urge UK action on sewage to guard against sickness outbreaks
IMMEDIATE action to bolster maintenance of the sewage system and sensors to allow real-time monit...
G7 countries enact coal exit plan but Greenpeace label it ‘too little, too late’
THE days of coal-fired electricity are numbered after G7 nations agreed to phase out production o...
UK and US join forces to strengthen global AI safety
THE UK and US have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on research and poli...
UK CCUS strategy ‘outdated’ for current industry use
THE UK’s current carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) strategy is overpromising and failing ...
Regulators urged to embrace systems thinking to deliver on net zero
WELL-DESIGNED green regulation can help the UK deliver on its net zero commitments, while also dr...
Dame Judith Hackitt named interim chair of UK’s nuclear regulator
FORMER IChemE president Dame Judith Hackitt has been named the interim chair of the Office for Nu...
UK government’s targeted approach proposal for UK REACH, ‘a step in the right direction’
THE UK government is planning to introduce an alternative transitional registration model (ATRm) ...
New supercomputers will put the UK 'first in the queue' when it comes to R&D and managing AI risks
UK INDUSTRIAL researchers have been promised a boon on the fringes of the Bletchley AI Summit tha...
United Utilities fined £800,000 for illegally removing water from the environment
UNITED UTILITIES, a water and wastewater services provider, has been fined £800,000 (US$1m) for i...
The importance of engineers and not strangling AI
SIR PATRICK VALLANCE reflects on five years as the UK’s chief scientific advisor.
Mill owner accused of wilful violation of safety standards following worker’s death
THE US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has accused a mill owner of wilful vi...
Australia sets new limits on heavy industry in push for decarbonisation
AUSTRALIA has passed legal reforms that set a hard cap on industrial emissions and require new ga...
US moves to restrict PFAS chemicals in drinking water
IN WHAT is described as a major step forward in protecting public health, the US Environmental Pr...
EU launches net zero plan to rival US greentech incentives
THE EU has outlined its plans for scaling-up the manufacturing of crucial clean technologies as i...
Chemical campaigners warn against lagging UK restrictions
CONCERNS of a widening gap between the EU and UK on hazardous chemical regulation have emerged fo...
UK to launch consultation on chemicals policy
THE UK Government has said that it will launch a consultation next year on the UK REACH chemicals...
UK strategy is pivot point for fusion development
Experts welcome UK plans to build fusion demonstrator
UK regulator relaxes effluent rules as water treatment firms begin running out of chemicals
A SHORTAGE of chemicals used to treat wastewater in the UK has led the Environment Agency to rela...
Australia expands role of renewables funding agency to support CCS, hydrogen and greener metals
THE Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) now has a wider remit that includes funding CCS an...
Climate-related incidents need to be accounted for in process safety
ENVIRONMENTAL and scientific advisory groups have called on the US Environmental Protection Agenc...
Engineers’ report says proper building ventilation crucial to control Covid
THE Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), along with partners including IChemE, have released a r...
Santos greenlights Australia’s largest oil and gas investment in close to a decade
SANTOS has sanctioned a US$3.6bn investment in the Barossa gas project off Australia’s Northern T...
Richardson: Make systems thinking education mandatory
ICHEME President Stephen Richardson has recommended to a House of Lords select committee that sys...
Engineering regulator issues fresh guidance on sustainability
SUSTAINABILITY guidance for engineering professionals has been issued by the Engineering Council,...
Volunteers publish guide to help public understand fill and finish and drug product release
Members of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering UK Affiliate (ISPE UK) and IC...
Brexit: relief rapidly gives way to fresh concerns
Businesses and industry groups warn of costly administrative burdens and the impacts on supply ch...
Attention turns to vaccine production following successful trials
FOLLOWING three highly-encouraging Covid-19 vaccine trials, the light at the end of the tunnel su...
UK government will host Brexit webinars to advise chemicals industry
CHEMICALS companies are being urged to get going on key actions as the UK counts down to its new ...
IChemE set to publish new Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Regulations
ICHEME is updating its Code of Professional Conduct and Disciplinary Regulations, with the change...
Chemical engineers urge industry action to break cycle of accidents
INDUSTRY has to do more to ensure that it is learning lessons to help prevent it from repeating t...
China pledges to be carbon neutral before 2060
IN what has been called a surprise announcement by multiple media outlets, Xi Jinping, President ...
UK will review how to license North Sea production while achieving net zero emissions
THE UK Government has launched a review into how it will license the offshore oil and gas industr...
UK REACH chemicals registration deadline extended
THE UK Government has extended the deadline for UK chemicals companies to register their products...
UK confirms it will not align with EU chemicals agency
THE UK Government has said that it will not align with EU chemicals policy, instead bringing in i...
UK Government announces new Emissions Trading System
THE UK Government has unveiled its UK Emissions Trading System (ETS) for a carbon trading market ...
UK gas networks join forces for net zero
THE engineering expertise of the UK’s gas network operators have joined forces to outline how to ...
EPA finalises changes to mercury rule
THE US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalised changes to a rule that requires coal a...
UK relaxes rules to speed up sanitiser production
THE UK Government and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have relaxed rules over the manufactu...
US EPA relaxes policy, citing coronavirus pandemic
THE US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced temporary policy that will allow non-c...
Uncertainty remains over UK chemicals regulations after Brexit
UNCERTAINTY remains over the future of chemicals regulations in the UK as the UK will only remain...
Drax announces ambition to be world’s first carbon negative company by 2030
DRAX power station in North Yorkshire, UK, plans to become carbon negative by 2030 through its us...
UK Government issues temporary ban on fracking
THE UK Government has temporarily halted fracking on the basis of a new scientific study from the...
South Africa unveils 2030 power plan
SOUTH Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has updated its Integrated Resou...
BP on continuous hunt for methane leaks
BP says it is deploying technology to continuously detect, measure and reduce methane emissions f...
Oil and gas majors are undermining climate goals, report warns
OIL and gas companies have approved US$50bn of investment since 2018 in major projects that under...
CSB calls for new onshore drilling rules after blowout kills five
THE US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has urged regulators to develop safety standards for onshore o...
Update: 47 dead after Chinese chemicals plant explosion
THE death toll following an explosion at a Chinese chemicals plant has now reached 47, reports st...
Six killed in Chinese chemicals plant explosion
FOLLOWING an explosion at a Tianjiayi chemicals plant in Yancheng, eastern China, six people are ...
BP agrees to disclose how its strategies align with the Paris Agreement
BP HAS agreed to a resolution from investors to disclose how its greenhouse gas reduction and fut...
ECHA publishes comprehensive plastic additive inventory
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has published a comprehensive inventory of all of the high-v...
Vale CEO resigns after Brazil dam collapse
FABIO Schvartsman has resigned as the CEO of Vale, following the fatal collapse of a Vale mine ta...
Brazil approves dam safety bill
THE Brazilian Senate has passed a bill to tighten dam safety, reports Reuters. This follows the c...
A matter of cost
The fatal Brazil dam collapse highlights failings in the mining industry. Amanda Jasi speaks to e...
Brazil bans upstream dams
BRAZIL has decided to ban tailings dams built by the upstream method. The decision follows the fa...
UK Government warned that no-deal Brexit REACH plans are ‘vague and insufficient’
THE UK Government has published draft legislation for chemical registration in the event of a no-...
Trump administration says mercury regulations not appropriate or necessary
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to change the way ...
Scepticism over the UK bioeconomy strategy
INDUSTRY has expressed mixed reactions towards the recently-released UK Bioeconomy Strategy. The ...
UK government publishes additional REACH guidance in case of no-deal Brexit
THE UK government has published additional documentation on how the UK will manage chemical regul...
Report assesses the role of biomass in meeting climate change targets in the UK
A REPORT by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said that biomass has a role to play in a l...
House of Lords calls on government to take urgent action to clarify chemical regulations
THE House of Lords EU Energy and Environment Sub-Committee has published a report expressing conc...
UK set to see surge in biomethane plants
THE UK is set to see a 50% rise in biomethane plants operating by 2020, with as much as £400m (US...
Chemicals coalition calls on EU leaders to allow UK to remain within REACH
A COALTION of European chemicals NGOs has called on politicians negotiating the terms of Brexit t...
UK fracking set to resume today after seven-year break
FRACKING is set to restart in the UK today after a High Court judge dismissed a last-minute legal...
UN climate experts warn society must make unparalleled shift
LIMITING global warming to 1.5°C requires rapid and unprecedented changes to society, UN climate ...
Pioneering SMR technology enters manufacturing phase
NUSCALE Power has selected BWX Technologies (BWXT) to manufacture NuScale’s small modular reactor...
UK government releases document on chemical regulation in case of no-deal Brexit
THE UK government has outlined a framework for regulating chemicals if a no-deal Brexit occurs, s...
Second Cuadrilla approval for onshore fracking
CUADRILLA, the natural resource company, has been granted government approval for fracking at a s...
No deal Brexit will hit chemicals sector hard, government warns
THE UK Chancellor has warned that the chemicals sector will be one of the hardest hit by a ‘no de...
Monsanto ordered to pay US$289m to cancer patient
A JURY has ruled in favour of a terminally ill cancer patient who claimed that Monsanto’s glyphos...
Chemical engineers talk fire safety
FIRE safety is important to all of us, both in residential buildings and on industrial sites, and...
UK must remain within REACH as it exits EU
ICHEME has backed calls for the UK to remain within the EU’s chemicals regulation (REACH) despite...
Singapore to introduce carbon tax from 2019
THE Singapore budget has revealed that companies emitting more than 25,000 t/y of greenhouse gase...
Paris Agreement targets can’t be reached with negative emission technologies
A REPORT has evaluated the potential of negative emission technologies (NETs) in the context of m...
DNV GL opens centre to catalyse 3D printing in oil and gas industry
DNV GL has set up an R&D centre in Singapore to accelerate the use of 3D-printed technology by th...
ExxonMobil expects to pump out majority of its oil, even in a low-carbon future
EXXONMOBIL says there is little risk that climate change policies will force it to leave its prov...
Trump proposes opening most US waters to drilling
PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s administration has revealed a plan to open almost all US offshore waters...
Bioengineering opportunities and risks
MAJOR issues that could face industry, society and the environment as a result of the growing bio...
Advanced nuclear design gets Canadian approval
THE Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) has given the first regulatory nod to a commercial ...
Natural gas emissions threaten EU carbon budget
METHANE emissions from natural gas have been underestimated by governments, and the “bridging fue...
