I am an international student who is planning to study in the US in the Fall of 2025.

I'm looking for two universities (I have two open spots) for chemical engineering. So far, I have applied to UIUC, Uwashington, and Purdue, which I chose mostly due to their ranking and campuses, I was quite unaware of other ChE universities back then. For the regular decision round, I want to be more intentional with my universities.

I would say that I'm a relatively strong student (1480 SAT, 3.95 weighted GPA, 38/45 IB Score, mid-strong extracurriculars).

Something that I'm looking for:

1. Job Prospects (this is a VERY important one, as an international student I would like to continue working in the US after my undergraduate, if possible).
2. I prefer a school with less research and more real-life experience for the industry (like UT Austin), or co-op experience
3. A university with some sort of 'prestige' in the US
4. Campus/Urban area

I've considered applying in UMinn and maybe GATech for a more 'prestigious' one

TLDR: Looking for ChE universities with good job opportunities and a more industrial style over research.

Hi, so as I am going through engineering, I am finding out that there are many fundamental things that I do not understand about pressure, particularly in the context of fluids and piping:

- I struggle to understand the relation of pressure and flowrate, why are certain pressures through a pipe desired? For example, if I say that there should be 22psi at the discharge nozzle, what exactly does that mean?

-Why is losing pressure in a piping system important? What happens if too much pressure is lost? Does this affect the velocity and the flowrate?

- I still do not fully understand why pressure decreases with an increase in velocity.

Can someone simulate a RO water plant using Chemcad or Aspen Hysys

Apologies if this isn’t the best sub for this - happy to delete and post elsewhere

I recently inherited a watch from my grandfather that I believe he received for 25 years at Monsanto. I’d like to clean it up and wear it as it has a ton of sentimental value for me, but Im trying to just get as much information as possible since I believe the watch and bracelet were from different years. Specifically, Im trying to figure out what was actually a gift given to Monsanto employees, vs. what he would have just added on years or even decades later? I’d like to keep everything that’s original to the watch / received from Monsanto, however, the bracelet isn’t in the best shape so if it’s not original / was added on later, I don’t feel as bad about replacing the bracelet and trying to incorporate the emblem in the new bracelet in some way (assuming it can be removed). Happy to clarify anything if I’m not making sense / can remove if this type of post isn’t allowed here and thank you!!

anybody here from oklahoma? if so, what are some companies y’all have liked working for?

Hello all, My 1st term is nearly coming to an end and I’m going to be applying for graduate jobs soon. I find it hard to remember equations and units and when I’m doing tutorials I panic and blank out (I do know how to do it but I struggle with starting).

Does anyone have any tips related to remembering my calculation methods and tips for applying for jobs? Please. Thank you

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to understand what factors employers in chemical engineering prioritize during the hiring process.

Any insights or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

After doing lot of hardwork in engineering getting good CGPA and also doing internships in three companies, Why it is geeting very hard for me to land on a good Job. It has been 5 months now........

Is Hardwork really overrated??? or am I unlucky person :( #ChemE #Engineering

Hi! In our programming course we were task to make a presentation for python applications in ChE. At first taught I say 'cool' this will go handy with open resources. Halfway through, I collected certain informations and its up for us with my group to decide which one to discuss in class. Here are what's on the lists:

•Process Simulation •Chemical Reactions & Kenetics Modeling •Data Mining •Process Control & Monitoring •Automation of Chemical Data Analysis

The problem is, in our uni. most of it have not yet taught in first year, so I was thinking it might seem too advance for us, and for those non-ChE's in our class to comprehend easily (We were given five minutes for Questions from the class). I would like to have your thoughts and suggestions on this one. Your response is much appreciated.

P.S. My apologies for grammatical errors. English is not my native language.

I'll be starting my first ever internship soon. I'm kind of somewhere in between excited and anxious . What's usually expected from a chemical engineering intern?

Hello, chemical engineers and enthusiasts!

We’ve just launched a new tool on our website that simplifies the calculation of the Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) for heat exchanger design. What makes this calculator unique is its integration of the correction factor (Ft), making it even more accurate for real-world applications.

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Check it out here: LMTD Calculator with correction factor for Heat Exchanger Design

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

#ChemicalEngineering #HeatExchanger #LMTD #EngineeringTools #CalcTools

Recently got accepted. It is a ABET accredited program and I got good scholarship too. But is the college worth it?

I was doing some exercises and preparing for my final, and I don't fully understand how the energy balance works for the heat exchanger in the bioprocess where glucose and water are converted to 5-HMF. I’d like to know how energy is transferred in the system, how the heat exchanger handles energy input and output, and how this affects the efficiency of the overall process.

found online* : https://imgur.com/a/7Nr05bm

So I graduated in May 2024 with a degree in chemical engineering and have had a nightmare of a time finding a job. I have been able to get flown out for a few on-site interviews, but have never made the final cut (3 in process engineering and 2 in insurance/consulting). I'm at a sort of crossroads and I wanted to seek some advice from some people with an outside perspective.

Path 1: I keep applying to jobs and hope one comes through

I have some good experience I got while I was in college. I graduated with a 3.4 gpa. I had a co-op in process engineering and then an internship that was more management oriented. In the latter, I was the only intern they trusted enough to put me in charge of the maintenance department for two weeks. I did so well that during my final presentation my site director was getting messages from other site directors asking if they could hire me instead. I didn't end up doing many extracurricular activities except my social fraternity, but that's about the only place where I suffered. I'm going to start substitute teaching at a high school soon to fill the gap in my employment, and I may end up taking the FE soon (I was too broke for the test when I graduated lol). There is a large part of me that thinks that something will eventually come through. Companies wouldn't be flying me out as much as I have if I were just that terrible of a candidate.

Path 2: Go back and get my master's

I know for a fact that I am not the only engineer on the planet who struck out in the job market and went back to school for their masters. The reason I want to post this here is because I have seen conflicting things about how useful this would actually be. On one hand, it would give me another year to job search, network, and study, so that my job searching could be more fruitful. On the other, I have seen post after post about how it actually hurts a lot of people because they become overqualified.

All this to say, I wanted to pose the question to the crowd. Please give any advice you have.

There are various methods to improve the energy efficiency of a distillation column. Typically, column overhead is cooled using cooling water while there is a reboiler that uses either hot oil or steam to supply heat to column bottoms. I was reading this research paper which discusses various technologies for heat integration between a condenser and a reboiler: https://publications.tno.nl/publication/34631284/uv2Y86/m10090.pdf

And I have several questions after reading it:

1. The paper referred to the "temperature lift" of a column. Does that refer to the temperature difference between the overhead and the column bottom or does that refer to the difference between the average temperature in the condenser and the average temperature in the reboiler?

2. The paper was written in 2010. It has been some years since. The paper mentioned that if the "temperature lift" of the column is small, then technologies like heat exchangers and mechanical vapour compression heat pumps can be used to perform this heat integration. However, if the "temperature lift" is large, like in the range in 45 to 70 degrees Celsius, then we would have to use "novel heat pumps". I am wondering if there have been new heat pump technologies which can help to perform this heat integration where the "temperature lift" of the column is large?

Hello, guys. I am currently a 4th year ChE student. We currently have only one week left in our semester and we are struggling to make the MSD, UFD, and P&ID for our plant design. For context, we are already done with our PFD.

Any tips on how to find papers about design that we can use as guide? and how can we learn this on our own since our professor hasn't been teaching the difficult parts of the design process.

Hello everyone. I graduated from the graduate program in mechanical engineering with a major in process engineering. Through college, we gained really good knowledge about technical thermodynamic. This includes thermodynamic, thermodynamic of mixtures, heat and mass transfer, process engineering, HVAC, process control, fluid mechanic, and similar things. This major is a lot harder than the others at the college and is quite isolated and few people take it. That's why I'm asking this in this subreddit because I think chemists can understand better and maybe help. I'm curious about your experiences with mechanical engineers. Because as far as I can see, there are a few predetermined paths that most of my colleagues take. These are designing the equipment itself after the P&I diagram is made, which turns into following standards and drawing in 3D. HVAC - boring. Working in a factory (food, chemical industry, pharmacy...) which turns into energy supply, which isn't bad, but I don't think it uses all the knowledge about processes that we learned at college. Am I wrong somewhere? Are there any process-based positions that are more mechanical? I'm also looking at potential small business ideas. The only one I've come across so far is gas liquefaction.

Hi everyone. I am an electrical engineer and I just graduated in June. Currently I am doing an internship in an Oil and Gas sector and I want to apply for a plant operator position in the same company. I’ve known that these jobs would require a written test as a part of the recruitment process. Can you suggest me what sorts of topics should I prepare for this test? Which topics I should focus on, and if there’s any link you could share.

With a lot of different industries out there, between energy, water, food, paper, pharma, semiconductors, there's opportunity at every corner. So for those with a few years experience: if you love your career, what do you do? What makes it great? The work, the people, the location, your love for the field?

For medical purposes a plant is required to produce pure formaldehyde and then add deionised water to it How could I separate formaldehyde from water on aspen Hysys

Could I do liquid liquid extraction?

Could I do membrane separation?

I need to calculate capital and o&m cost for geothermal power plants. Most literatures used bare module cost estimation technique. But is it correct to apply outside of chemical plants? Are the factors associated with capital and o&m cost valid outside of chemical industry?

We recently had a higher up leave which created a gap with our management structure. I was informed this week that I was chosen to backfill the plant manager role (from my current role as a unit manager), so the current plant manager could backfill the higher up role. This transition plan will take place over the first half of 2025.

It's all still very hush hush, nobody else knows about this. I was told so that I could be involved in the decision making for my backfill and the movement of people that would report to me. I'm very far from ready for it, but it's an opportunity I can't pass up. This role would have 3 unit managers, 7 supervisors, and maintenance manager as direct reports, handful of other maintenance engineers, and probably about 100 operators and technicians as indirect reports.

I'm still young but have 8 years of experience in various different roles at this site, mostly in operations management. BS in ChE and an MBA. I think I've got a good reputation and a proven track record of success. My current base is around 125/year. I just wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone has any ideas on what salary expectations a role like this should have? Any advice on how to navigate salary negotiations?

Has anyone taken the inprocess booster course offered by Jeferson Costa? can anyone review it?

Many reactions take place at high temperatures so the reaction overhead (consisting of vapours of various substances) often needs to go to an overhead condenser, which uses cooling water on the cold side. For example, if lots of water is produced in the reaction, the condenser will condense the hot water vapours into liquid water, which is then sent to the wastewater treatment system. I was thinking, isn't it better to harness this waste heat by using a heat pump or some other waste heat recovery technology, rather than to waste it by cooling it with cooling water?

For example, if we were to integrate this condenser with a closed cycle heat pump, we could use the heat pump's refrigerant on the cold side instead of using cooling water.

As the title says, I’m interested in transitioning from the everyday life of process engineering to process development. I have been a process-production engineer for 5y, have done a stint in quality, have done some project engineering, and looking at the next path. I’m wanting to know what that looks like in terms of years of experience and potentially higher degree of education. I would say I’m interested for all fields—O&G, specialty chems, biopharm, med device, etc. Thanks in advance.

Does anyone have study material on chemical reaction engineering?

about to finish my process dynamics/controls class at uni but I want to keep learning more. Is there any readily available resources that any of yall would recommend? Considering going into controls in the future. Thanks.

Just started a new job as a process engineer at an old plant. The processes are mostly manual labour and almost no automation at all. The P&ID was last updated in the early 2000s and there are no senior process engineers for me to ask regarding the plant. I have been given a tour of the plant and I understand the main process and have drawn the PFD. I would like to identify if the process is optimized or not. Seeking advice from experienced CEng, what are the first things that I should do in technical terms of chemical engineering?

Fyi: I would like to try improve the efficiency and yield of the product with just the equipments we have right now. The spaces in the plant is almost maxed out. Adding more equipments is tough. But I was thinking of maybe adding a couple of sensors and automation to reduce the manual labour.

I built a small GUI application in Python that computes process equipment cost estimation based on data from Turton’s Analysis Synthesis and Design of Chemical Processes. The application is functional identical to Turton’s CAPCOST (Equipment costing) tab. So basically, a piece of Turton’s Microsoft Excel macro-enabled file (CAPCOST) but in Python/PyQT. I’ve been wondering if this is worth publishing. Any ideas, insights or recommendations would be appreciated.

Hello everyone! What can you advice for me as a 1st year college student of Chemical Engineering?🥺