Hello, I'm a second-year cheme who got a manufacturing internship offer for the spring. It's $28 an hour but they don't offer housing assistance. I live somewhat close but not close enough and would have the spend my income on rent at a place next to it or on uber (which would be $30-$40 per ride from traffic). I don't have a car and public transportation doesn't cover that area. They also only gave me three days to accept or deny it and I'm still waiting on hearing back from a couple of summer internship interviews. I don't have any summer internship offers yet as of now and I'm not sure what to do about the spring offer?

I have the solid components present in the water stream in ppm. My doubt was whether to model the stream as an electrolyte (assuming the ions from the dissociation form salts with these metals) or just as a normal liquid stream with solid particulates.

Hey, i need some guidance/help with the problem i have to generate! The math ain’t mathing I probably did something wrong and can’t figure it out.

Edit: I forgot to give the actual problem. I belive the problem generated (DOF) are not working. I probably have more equations than unknowns. https://imgur.com/a/C1pCWwN

Hi everyone, hopefully this question is not too basic.

I am wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks to doing material balances quickly and accurately. I have mostly seen people using visio or paper for bfds and then excel to do the math.

Is there anything else you recommend?

Thank you!

Hi all,

I'm wondering what vessel design/mixing software you all use in your industries? Ones I've looked at such as Scale-Up Systems and Visimix are extortionate in their pricing, just wondering if there are cheaper alternatives out?

I know I can use some 3D software to draw and use some CFD but I'll have to train this out to chemists in my team who aren't able/interested in this type of stuff.

TIA

I'm a 4th year undergrad student for a chemE bachelor's degree in Turkey and I'm currently evaluating my options for when I graduate. Ultimately I want to move to europe so I was thinking maybe shoot for a masters degree there but I can see that the general consensus here is that masters degrees are pointless. Should I instead try and get a job and is there any way that I can move to europe or get a job there without a masters? Thanks.

My facility has 3 very old gas fired steam boilers. I believe there is significant scale on the inside (as well as outside) of the tubes. My BWF comes from a lime treater with zeolite softeners. I would like to do a chemical treatment to remove the iron, magnesium, and calcium scale from the inside of the tubes. I believe we have used hydrochloric acid in the past with inhibitors but it caused a few more tube failures than we would have liked. Is this the best thing to use? What about citric acid? Is it possible to use a combination of both to be gentle on the tubes while still being aggressive on scale? Any other suggestions? On top of that we may have melted zeolite media in the tubes by blowing it past our filters. Has anyone truly seen a great reduction in fuel usage by descaling?

The topic is as simple as the title, I am a process engineering student who is willing to take a masters post graduation with distant plans of having a PhD later on.

Now back to my topic, how do I start? And from where? Sharing your plans/experiences will help me a lot!

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone. I have some troubles in ChemSep separator. What does this mean?

My simulation is not showing stream results even when I run it successfully. I have tried playing around with the display option but its still not showing anything

I graduated in 2022 with a chemical engineering degree, good GPA. I took two gap years after graduating to do some traveling, live abroad, and work as an adventure guide. I'm now back in the US and have been job hunting for some time. Because of my gap years and my lack of any internship experience (I spent most of my summers in college doing chemistry research that's not terribly applicable to most chem e jobs) I'm naturally finding the job hunt quite difficult. I'm looking to start applying to jobs with lower qualification requirements to gain some experience. However, I want to make sure I don't end up taking a job with no relevant experience/upward mobility opportunities. I'm interested in ending up in pharmaceutical / biotech roles. What are some lower qualification job titles I should look for that might provide good experience and allow me to move into a process engineering (or similar) role in a year or two?

Hello all,

I am a freshman in college, and almost done with my generals. I currently work part time in my biology department as a secretary, but an opportunity for a full time position as an administrative assistant opened up.

Since I am in my generals, I have no clue how hard my schedule is going to truly be, but I know next year in my fall and spring semesters I am taking 17 credit hours each semester, and worry that if I go for the full time position, I will burn myself out.

I am trying to go into Chemical Engineering, and was wondering how realistic it is to keep a full time job while going through this degree. Because all the people I’ve gotten advice from either only got their associates, or majored in ASL (American Sign Language). It’s not to say this major isn’t difficult, but I’m wondering if their course load is lighter than what mine is looking like.

Just through my associates, I know I’m getting up to Calc 4, Organic Chemistry 2 and other classes that will be difficult.

I need advice from someone who has the major, and can tell me if having a full time position is really realistic at all. Because I can cap off at 25 hours a week, and make around 1600$ a month where I’m at currently. The new job would be around 45,000$ a year, meaning around double, 3000$ a month.

Once I go into the position, I wouldn’t be able to just pull out of it and retain my old position as a secretary. So this is something that would affect my part-time employment pretty heavily.

So if I decide a year from now, it’s too much to carry both, I would give up my classes. Which I don’t want to do, I want to go further into my degree and actually succeed, and be apart of research. I do not want to cap off at basic office work.

So, what are the thoughts? Advice? I am 18, and just need some realistic input from people who have done the major I’m trying to go into.

Thanks.

I've spent about 3 months in the Process Engineering department in a chemical plant as part of my internship. It's been a great experience and I've enjoyed doing all the tasks I've been assigned to do. As an intern, I have not had the chance to expose myself some aspects of the process engineering work, such as unit troubleshooting, implementing changes to protocols and coordinating with the Operations team. My work has primarily been about utilising software to create certain digital tools, such as for anomaly detection, as well as doing feasibility studies on potential ideas (on both economic and technical aspects). I especially enjoy carrying out the various feasibility studies, as they require me to do some form of modelling together with a bunch of calculations, often using various core chemical engineering principles, e.g. transport phenomena, thermodynamics, energy/material balances.

It is difficult for me to decide if a Process Engineer job would be suitable for me since I know that process optimisation, which I have been working on as an intern, is only one aspect of the job and a lot of it still revolves around unit troubleshooting and coordinating with the Operations team. Clearly, I cannot accept a job knowing I only like 1/3 of the job scope. I am wondering if there are jobs in this industry out there that focuses primarily on the tasks I have outlined above.

I’m a freshman studying chemical engineering at UF. So far I have all A’s and one low B, (Chem for engineers 1) which hopefully will become an A- after my third practice exam and final despite to the fact that I did poorly on my second major exam. Luckily, I did really well on the first exam and I’m going to meet with the professor to see what went wrong on the second exam.

Anyway, I was wondering any if there are any important things I should be doing in this first year to help me get internships / experience that will set me up for success in the future. My goal is to maintain a 3.5 GPA. Is this a reasonable goal, or will that limit my opportunities? Obviously higher is better but I want an achievable baseline that I can use to push myself.

Any studying resources / tips are also really appreciated, as I genuinely don’t know what went wrong with my second major Chem exam and I’m disappointed in myself. I studied for a week+ before the exam and still did poorly even though i thought I had a good grasp on the material after doing lots of practice problems and the assigned practice tests, but obviously that wasn’t the case.

My semester course load is currently: Intro to bio molecular engineering, calc 1 (retaken for gpa boost re advisor recommendation despite credit), chemistry for engineers 1 (with lab), and a humanities course.

My second semester plan is: Physics with calculus 1 (+ lab), calculus 2, chemistry for engineers 2, and an intro to python course. Is this too much? I’m coming in with a lot of credits so I don’t have many gen eds I can use to boost my gpa throughout my bachelors.

Sorry if this is a big text wall, I’ve just been a little stressed out lately. I know I’m asking for a lot, so just feel free to answer whatever points you want to.

Thank you for reading this and have a great day.

I am currently working on my bachelor's and I wanted to hedge my expectations on future earnings. How viable is just a bachelor's degree? Can I reasonably break 6 figures within 5 years with just a bachelor's?

Additionally, how reasonable is it to work on a master's while employed?

Context: I'm a bit older(30) and right now I don't think pursuing my masters is in the cards at this moment I have work experience, but non of it's relevant (service industry) Grade-wise I'm pretty meh hovering mid 2s I'm planning on picking up any internships I can land

Are they really being truthful? If so how? They said they focused on Thermonuclear studies and going to be working full time with a company that’s recommissioning nuclear reactors in the Midwest/great plains

What specialization did you choose and why did you choose it? How was it overall?

Any suggestions for a recent grad to polish up his interview skills quickly (before interview next Weds.)? Is there a service or site that anyone knows of where he can do practice interviews specific to the profession?

Does anyone have experience or know what I could expect for an entry level role as a PhD graduate? Interested to know for big oil, mid-size companies, and startups.

My last post didn't really get any comments, so I am just going to keep it simple. I am wondering what the main difference from a Quality Control Technician vs a Quality Control Engineer. From my own research it seems that it is only the engineers who solves the problems regarding design of machinery; but I am not entirely sure. I would greatly appreciate any comments.

Hi, first year here. Question: if I change the reflux ratio of a distillation column does that change the degree of separation of the distillation? Cause I know that recycles increase efficiency of a reaction, but does this also apply to separations?

(Assume all temperatures of the reboiler, condenser, and input stream are the same as before)

Edit: assume no weeping. I am asking if it will change the purity of the product streams or just the temperatures. If it's just the temperatures why would people run large refluxes since you could reduce the load on your condenser and save yourself some energy

I am starting a new job in the water treatment field and have no experience in that industry. I am looking for recommendations on literature I should read regarding UF and RO as well as any helpful general info.

Thank you!

At the plant I work we've always "steamed out" our process piping by slowly opening a 3/4" or 1/2" ball valve with 140 psi steam. The purpose is to empty the pipe into the tank the material is being transferred to. We do this for many reasons but obviously there is the risk of steam hammer... Piping stays open on discharge end during the steam out process...

We are starting to look at different types of gaskets to try and mitigate the potential for blowouts at flanges. We traditionally have used Klingersill C-4401 which have always worked fine, minimal issues.

Now starting to look at teflon coated metal gaskets called Task-line which our pipefitters don't like as they leak after the pipe is hot and they need to go back and tighten the flanges.

I understand a better teflon option is James Walker Fluolion PTFE gasket.

What's the subs thoughts on the whole practice of steaming out piping to purge process fluid and any thoughts on the gasket options?

Greetings fellow chemies! How yall doing?

I would like to know from you guys how is the market around remote jobs for chemical/process engineers? I'm asking this because I'm a chemical engineer working for a company which provides capital EPC and EPS projects for the pulp and paper brazilian market and would like to know if is it common to have this sort of job in other countries. I mostly work with piping, valve and equipment sizing and design, mass and energy balances, P&ID crafting and logics creation, but the thing is, I work from the office, while everything that I do i could do at home (not when i need to visit the client mill site, but that's not an issue). Do you guys have any experience with that whatsoever?

I'm a recent chemical engineering graduate working as a junior process engineer in the oil and gas industry. I'm about to be assigned to a gas production and processing project and need to get up to speed with OLGA for transient multiphase flow simulation.

I already have a solid background in ASPEN HYSYS, but I'm a bit of a beginner with OLGA and would love some guidance on where to start. Are there any recommended resources, online courses (preferably free or affordable), or practical exercises that could help me get familiar with OLGA quickly?

Any recommendations for books, online tutorials, or even specific SLB resources would be really appreciated! Also, if you’ve got any tips for common challenges or mistakes to avoid when learning OLGA, I’m all ears.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I'm working on a small scale gas absorption system using a liquid medium for methane and CO2 separation. Straight after the absorber, the liquid goes to a flash column to strip preferable any methane off.

What I want to do is any gas given off in the flash column to be redirected into the absorber column. The absorber column is at higher pressure than the flash column, and I was presuming a gas pump would be the best solution. I wanted to ask if anyone had any other solutions or would the gas pump be the best idea?

For the full picture the liquid then goes to a regenerator to strip of the CO2 from the liquid before being pumped back to the absorber column.

Hello! I am doing a project about CO2 capture in a cement plant (pre heater, calcinator, and kiln). I have made some tutorials about solid combustion and MEA-CO2 absorption in Aspen Plus, but I am a little stucked in the cement plant simulation. Do you have some reccomendation of where to start? I already have plant data (flow rates, temperatures, fuel characteristics, process flow diagram). Do you know of any calcination / kiln aspen tutorial? Or any Ideas? Thanks for the help!

The first one I will work in a office for a environmental project that will end next july and then i will be non-employed but the project between Cairo University (my university) and Ministry of Environment, office work that away from home 1.5 hr from 8 to 4 pm i will set Infront of the laptop.

The second is outdoor sales representative (not an engineer) and i don't like this title But it's just sales outdoor for a chemical manufacturer company that we all not engineers some people are Faculty of Science but high salary with the commission (not interested in high salary now i want to take experience)

What should i do?