Happy New Year 2008 to Chemical Engineering World Readers

Dear students, chemical engineers to be, chemical engineers, senior engineers, professional engineers, lecturers, researchers etc...

Thanks for reading and supporting my blog. I wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year ;)

Graduate Engineer Should Be A Profesional Engineer

All graduate chemical engineers must have the desire and vision to become a professional engineer (PE). But, what is a professional engineer?

Professional Engineer is the term for registered or licensed engineers in some countries who are permitted to offer their professional services directly to the public. The term Professional Engineer and the actual practice of professional engineering is legally defined and protected by a government body. In some jurisdictions only registered or licensed Professional Engineers are permitted to use the title, or to practice Professional Engineering.

For more definitions, reference and more understanding on professional engineers, please check out the following websites (which is from other countries too):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_engineer
http://www.nspe.org/aboutnspe/ab1-what.asp
http://www.peo.on.ca/registration/l&rpage1.html
http://www.boett.org/whatiseng.htm

Advantages of Becoming a Professional Engineer

A professional engineer is the mark of a professional. The status demands an extra measure of competence and dedication. While not all engineers find professional engineer status mandatory for their chosen career paths, the PE initials before (or after their names) can provide many advantages.

Employers in all disciplines indicate that they find engineers with PE status to be more dedicated with enhanced leadership and management skills. PE also achieve an enhanced status in the eyes of the public, which equates the engineer with professionals licensed in other fields. PE status is an indicator of dedication to integrity, hard work, creativity and assurance that the individual engineer has passed at least a minimum screen of competence.

http://www.nspe.org/lc1-why.asp
www.ieeeusa.org/careers/ (10 Reasons to become a professional engineer)
http://www.iem.org.my (benefits of IEM member, which can lead to PE)
http://www.sabah.org.my/iemsabah/(benefits of IEM member, which can lead to PE)


Professional Engineer in Malaysia

A graduate engineer in Malaysia can apply and be a professional engineer. From my general observations, there are very few graduate engineers registering with Board of Engineers, Malaysia (BEM), a Malaysian government body and Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), a professional body for engineers promoting professionalism and encourage continuous learning.

JoeWong has detailed out the route to become a professional engineer in Malaysia. On top of that, the issue is also been discussed in Chemical Engineering Forum. If you have doubt or more queries regarding the issue on becoming a professional engineer in Malaysia, you can ask and discuss it in the forum.


Professional Engineers For Other Countries

There are various professional organization that promotes the professional engineer status in other countries. Some examples are:

http://www.icheme.org/ - For those who graduated in UK



http://www.aiche.org/- For those who graduated in USA

•Chemical Engineering JOBS in Asia
•Chemical Engineering JOBS in Europe
•Chemical Engineering JOBS in Malaysia

Me and My White Safety Helmet

When i was a student, I wonder how would it feel to become a chemical engineer? How does it feel to wear the safety helmet, that will made us look like a real cool macho engineer.

In the lab at the university, we just put on the white lab coat and not the safety helmet. After my first degree, I continued with my masters degree and still, I have not yet put on the safety helmet. I wonder when will I own and wear the safety helmet.

After completing my masters degree, I joined a local oil and gas servicing company and directly traveled to the site on my first day at work. I was supplied not only with the safety helmet that I wanted to put on all this while, but also jacket, safety boot, coverall, cotton glove, leather glove, goggle and 3M half face mask. On top of that, I have to manage a group of people who were about 5-10 years older than me to blend some specialty chemicals. Under the hot shiny sun, I have to wear the safety helmet. That time, I wished I don't have to wear the safety helmet with the goggle attach on top of it (The goggle need to be applied while blending or pouring the chemicals). I don't feel like the safety helmet is protecting me from anything. After all, there's nothing going to fall onto my head at the side. It was really heavy and I felt like my center of gravity is at my head!!!

Despite of that, I felt sort of proud to display my safety helmet on the rear dashboard of my car and let everybody see it. At home my son will take my helmet and act as an engineer, just like his father. I don't know whether he wants to be an engineer too. It's totally up to him.

Few years after servicing the oil and gas industry, I get a new job as a process engineer in a refinery plant (in the oils and fats industry), I still put on the safety helmet. Now, it is different. I don' have to put any accessories on the safety helmet. It is lighter. I have to wear the safety helmet which is white in colour as soon as I enter the factory. White safety helmet differentiate executives from supervisors, technicians, operators, and others which put on a yellow safety helmet. In different places, safety helmet colour coding is applied. Some may have blue colour representing a safety committee or safety officer etc.

Wearing safety helmet in the plant is very important. The plant is really big and there are a lots of equipments. I lost track of the number of occasions where I knock my head on something. Sometimes, my head hit a metal bar, a globe valve, a lowered roof and others which I could not recall. Luckily I have my safety helmet to protect my head and brain! I could not imagine the state of injury I'm going to face if not protected by the safety helmet.

Previously, I wrongly used the safety helmet. How did I misused it? I sat on it!!! That is totally a wrong usage of the safety helmet. As a result, my safety helmet have a lot of ugly scratches. The white safety helmet on the picture above belongs to me. If you have super focus eyes, you can zoom in and notice some scratches and uneven surface on the helmet edge. Don't be like me. Appreciate your safety helmet. Don't sit on your safety helmet. Respect it. It will protect you, your head and brain!

•Chemical Engineering JOBS in Asia
•Chemical Engineering JOBS in Europe
•Chemical Engineering JOBS in Malaysia

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Chemical Engineer Genius Converts Pollution into Profits

How does he do it? He simply converts unwanted or waste into a valuable useful product. Have you ever imagine it before? Have you ever thought about the possibility? Check out how this chemical engineer academician cum scientist realized it. This post is adopted from progressiveengineer.com.

Strike up a conversation with Israel Wachs, and you'll find him enthusiastic and ready to talk about his latest project. You can't blame him. A chemical engineering professor at Lehigh University, Wachs has discovered a process that could help paper mills save millions of dollars a year by converting methanol, a pollutant, into formaldehyde, a useful product. Any chemical engineer would relish this.

But that doesn't explain all the giddiness. Wachs envisions taking his process a step further and applying it to other industries, and it has him speaking like an ecologist. He calls it an environmental solution that could change the business approach to making pulp from timber and help achieve sustainability. Continue reading...

HAZMAT Team In Action

This video reminds me on my Hazmat experiences while I was in the oil and gas field a few years back. Hazmat is not ONLY required during/after chemical explosions or biological warfare but also when dealing with very hazardous materials. For my case, we dealt with oil and gas with high mercury content, which is above the minimum exposure level to human (Mercury is very dangerous!). Hence, we need to really protect ourselves from mercury contamination. The following video shows an example of a group of people being trained for Hazmat. You can see people with coverall going through few steps to be cleaned. That's part of the buddy system which requires other people to help us get cleaned up. In addition, a Hazmat team must be well organized so that the activity will be smooth and well coordinated.

Production Plant Problem # 2 - Inconsistent Pump Flow - Part 2

This post is the continuity from Production Plant Problem # 2 - Inconsistent Pump Flow and Production Plant Problem.

...Finally we came out with a very risky idea but can solve the problem faster. We have to maintain a slight vacuum inside the buffer tank just to hold the oil from pouring out of the leaking hole. We must attain the right balance i.e. to avoid oil from coming out of the vessel so that welding can be done; and to avoid spark from entering the vessel to avoid fire. We gathered enough manpower to execute and monitor the job.

The welding job runs smooth. Due to lack of time, we could not conduct air or steam test to really ensure that the welded portion is properly sealed. With that in mind, the fitters must properly weld the leaking section. They welded a few layers to ensure there’ll be no leaking at all.

While the welding job is in progress on the ground floor, another big vessel on the first floor was externally caught on fire. Smoke rushed out from underneath the insulation and we can see fire coming out of it as well. We swiftly grabbed the fire hose and spray water towards the fire.

It was the insulation wool that was actually burning. The big vessel has some hidden leak and when the plant breaks vacuum, oil came out of it. Combination of oil, high temperature and air triggered the fire as the flash point was reached. That was not the first time. It had happened several times during plant start up or stoppage. Luckily, we managed to put off the fire. However, we continued spraying water to cool down the hot insulation wool. We also poured few pails of low concentrated caustic to encapsulate all leaked oil (hydrocarbon molecules) in the insulation wool.

As soon as the situation on the first floor was under control, the welding job on the ground floor was also completed. Everything looked fine and the plant is ready to start. The vacuum system was slowly established and crude oil is pumped into the plant. After I was really satisfied with the overall situation, I left the plant, relieved that we have identified the prime pumping problem that haunted us all these while. It was already dark and I was very exhausted.

That was the problem # 2 that recently occurred in the plant. I shall continue with problem # 1 followed with problem # 3 in few days time. Oh yea, the photos are not actual events of what occurred in the plant.

Check out Chemical Engineering Forum.

Revolutionary Vacuum Cleaner from James Dyson the Inventor

James Dyson is an inventor and a technology team player. He is the type of man who likes to make things work better. Dyson and his team have developed various brilliant quality products that achieved sales of over £3 billion worldwide. He has established James Dyson Foundation in 2002 with the intention to promote charitable giving in the field of science, engineering, medicine and education. He is also the founder of Dyson School of Design Innovation which will be opened in 2009.

In 1991, Dyson won the International Design Fair prize in Japan for his 'G Force' vacuum system. The Japanese were so impressed by its performance that the G Force became a status symbol. He designed and built an industrial cyclone tower, which effectively and efficiently removed powder particles by exerting centrifugal forces greater than 100,000 times those of gravity.

In 1993 he opened his research center and factory in Wiltshire, and developed a machine that collected even finer particles of dust (microscopic particles). He came out with the revolutionary Dual Cyclone™ (DCO1) system, the first in a range of cleaners to give constant suction. The traditional bag has been replaced by two cyclone chambers which cannot clog with dust. After the outer cyclone has spun out the larger dust and dirt particles, the inner cyclone further accelerates the air to remove unhealthy microscopic particles. It proves to be a better and improved vacuum cleaner.

The technology that this Dyson vacuum cleaner employed separates dirt and dust from the air by centrifugal force and collecting it in a bin. It doesn't rely on a filter or bag that clogs, hence suction remains constant. Users will save money because there’s no bag or filter to be replaced in the vacuum set.

The technology is so great that it captures particles as small as pollen, bacteria and mould spores. That's why the air a Dyson expels has 150 times less pollen, bacteria and mould spores than the air you breathe. On top of that, the Dyson vacuum set is tested strong, tough and durable.

Production Plant Problem # 2 - Inconsistent Pump Flow

From my previous post, I stated about having three problems in the plant while starting and stopping it. I'm going to share our experience on problem # 2 first. I'll post problem # 1 in a few days time. There's no particular reason for me to post about problem # 2 first instead of problem # 1. I just think problem # 2 is more interesting and I learned a lot from it.

Problem # 2 – Inconsistent pump flow

The pumps below a buffer tank could not deliver the required flow rate that they are supposed to. The flow rate was extremely slow and the discharge pressure was not consistent at all. The pressure went crazy up and down from 0.5 to 5 bars. We tried to adjust and play around with the pump in order to get the desired flow rate.

Slow flow rate means lower throughput, hence lower production. In actual, if we keep on running with the low flow rate, production will be 50% less. We could not afford that to prolong. We have heavy shipment ahead and we need to immediately rectify the pump problem.

There were all together 3 pumps in a row of similar motor kW and pumping capability. Initially we thought all three pumps were having some problem (or the same problem). We asked the maintenance fitters to check, service and replace the mechanical seals. We checked the pump pressure and found it was OK because the discharge line pressure can go up to 4 – 6 bar. There’s no way the pump is having a problem.

Then we thought it was Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) problem. We increase the level of oil inside the buffer tank so that the NPSH will increase. That didn’t work either. The flow rate was still low and the discharge pressures were inconsistent.

By this time, we suspected the pumps were experiencing serious air-lock. Air-lock is a situation where the pump could not pump efficiently and effectively due to some disturbance from air turbulence inside the pump suction line. The pump discharge line pressure inconsistency might be due to the air-lock problem. The question now is where the air is coming from? We decided to thoroughly check the pump suction line to search for any hole/leak (which air may easily enter because the tank is operating under vacuum). We removed the insulations covering the suction line, checking and inspected it, but still we could not see or detect any leak (because the tank and pipe was under vacuum, which means oil would not pour/come out from the leak due to vacuum holding it). Time was running fast but we have not yet settled the problem. We began feeling the pressure coming from our superior/management.

After almost one day running low, we made a more drastic and radical move. We hold the plant and braked vacuum – stopped production. We waited for a while. At first, we noticed nothing. The pump suction pipeline looked fine. After 15 minutes, we were caught by surprised on what we saw! Droplets of oil came out from the tank insulation. At first, it was little, but then there were more and more oil pouring out. This confirmed that there is a leak somewhere underneath the tank insulation. We cautiously removed a small portion of insulation covering the tank where the oil came out (because the oil and the surface was extremely hot (260^oC)).

After successfully removing the insulation, we saw oil pouring out from the welding joint between the tank and the pipeline. We looked at each other, wandering how we are going to resolve the already identified problem. We cannot simply weld the leaking point because there traces of vacuum was still inside the tank and system. If the maintenance fitter welds the leak point, we fear spark may enter the tank (and system) and trigger fire inside the tank, pipeline and other vessels. At the same time, it is impossible to weld the leak point because oil was coming out from the tank. Should we drain the balance oil in the buffer tank? If yes, that would cost a lot of time, estimated half a day. Just imagine the downtime we already faced and add up another half a day for repair work and starting up the plant again. We have to think of a better and faster way to weld the leaking point.

Finally we came out with a very risky idea but can solve the problem faster. We have to maintain a slight vacuum inside the buffer tank just to hold the oil from pouring out from the leaking hold.

To be continued in a few days time...

Production Plant Problem

Normally, there’ll be less or no problem when a production plant is running smoothly. The supervisors and plant operators will be happy taking care of a normal running plant. The executives and engineers will monitor and optimize the processing parameters and ensure all utilities consumption such as water, electricity, steam, air, chemicals, natural gas, LFO, diesel etc are kept at the lower side. Once in a while there’ll be some problems such as leaking mechanical seal in a centrifugal pump or the level transmitter signal is not showing the right reading. Well, those are just some minor maintenance problem and could be easily entertained by the fitters and technician.

However, the big test is when the plant is stopping (or starting). A plant which is running smoothly will be interrupted and stopped (vice versa). The utilities consumption will be higher than normal. The temperature, pressure, flow rate will be disrupted. The plant operators will adjust certain processing parameters and also a few valves in order to stop the plant safely. The supervisor must properly and carefully coordinate the plant stoppage (or starting). At this point, the experience of the supervisor and operators plays a very significant role. Operating the stoppage (or starting) of the plant just by referring to the working instruction or manual will not be sufficient. For me, I’ll be confident if the stopping (and starting) of the plant is led by an experienced staff/supervisor. It’s even better if a senior executive or engineer could be around to monitor and oversee any problems or possible danger.

There were cases where serious accident/disaster occurred during starting up (or commissioning) of a plant. In a case 2 years ago in a plant next to my work place, the distillation column was caught by a blazing fire leaving 3 staffs crying helplessly for assistance on top of the highest roof above the column. We thought those unlucky staffs would lose their lives either by being burnt to death or from injuries after jumping down the 80 meter column to the ground (if they could not stand the heat). Luckily the fire brigade finally came and used their ladder crane system to fetch the trapped staffs from the almost melting structure. There must be something gone terribly wrong during that particular plant start up. That’s why we need to be extra careful and have ample manpower to assist on the plant stoppage or starting up.

In the next post, I’ll share 3 problems that we faced during our plant stopping and starting up last week, which made a lot of us miserable. You’ll learn these real problems that none of us ever expected it to happen. Check it out later…

2 Major Exhibitions and Conferences in 2 Countries

There will be two major events (Exhibition and Conference) coming on this coming week from 27 - 30th November 2007. One will be held in Malaysia while the other one will be organized in Singapore. Check it out:

BioMalaysia 2007 - Venue: Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur.

BioMalaysia 2007, Malaysia’s premier international biotechnology event, brings together biotechnology and life science professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers from all over the world to connect, network, learn and exchange ideas.

BioMalaysia 2007 is targeted at local and international biotechnology and life sciences attendees from all areas of the industry specifically in Agriculture, Healthcare and Industrial sectors.

This year’s theme focuses on innovation, the driving force of biotechnology. Get new perspectives and insights on how the biotechnology and life sciences industry plays a crucial role in innovation economy, and what the unique opportunities and challenges are in bringing innovative discoveries to commercialisation in the global markets. Hear what the roadmap for an Innovation Economy in Malaysia will be.

Featuring

• Latest research findings
  
• State-of-the-art technologies
  
• New product launches and demonstrations
  
• Networking opportunities with local and international attendees
  
• Business and collaborative opportunities
  
• Production and research capabilities
  
• Media publicity opportunities

Focus Area
Agriculture, Healthcare and Industrial Biotechnology

----------------------$----------------------

CIA 2007 - Venue: Suntec Singapore, Level 4.
ControlsAsia2007 - The 15th International Plant Process Engineering Exhibition and Conference
InstrumentAsia2007 - The 13th International Instrumentation, Measurement and Testing Exhibition and Conference
AnaLabAsia2007 - The 11th International Laboratory and Analytical Technology Exhibition and Conference

CIA2007 provides an ideal platform for the sharing of ideas and building of new contacts among the industry leaders and professionals in controls & automation, instrument, testing, analysis and process engineering. Preregister Online at: www.cia-asia.com

Personally, I have attended the CIA2006 held in KLCC last year. I gained a lot of informations, ideas, knowledges and goodies. It will be great to attend the CIA2007 in Singapore. Unfortunately, I could not make it to either the BioMalaysia2007 or the CIA2007 due to job constraint. Hopefully I can visit such exhibition later in the future. I hope anybody attending the exhibition or seminar can share their experiences with us.


Discuss your problems at Chemical Engineering Forum

Monitoring Activities Via Surveillance Video

A processing or production plant is a place which does not simply belong to anybody. It is strictly for authorized personnels such as production executives, process engineers, supervisors, plant operators, maintenance fitters, contract workers and others. Inside a production plant, there are hundreds and thousands of equipments, instruments and machineries.

As a process engineer, sometimes I need to see and monitor what is going on inside the control room or plant. It's easier to monitor the ongoing activities via a CCTV or a video surveillance system. There are moments where we need to check what the night shift was doing. There was also an occasion where a plant operator lost his handphone while charging it in the control room. After he realized his handphone was missing, he swiftly went to the place where the video surveillance is monitored to trace who took his belonging.

I believe not all production plants or factories install their own video surveillance system. I seriously think they should install them at various strategic spots for security reasons and monitoring any suspicious activities going around the premises. Even offshore platforms in the oil and gas industry are installed with video surveillance system.

One of the best in the business of professional grade video surveillance systems is EZWatch Pro Video Surveillance. EZWatch Pro video surveillance systems are among the most reliable and popular computer based video surveillance systems on the market. The products are of the highest quality, great value and fully supported by the factory.

The EZWatch Pro video surveillance systems is packed with complete feature that customers want. These include Easy Remote Viewing and Internet Monitoring, IP Camera Integration, Pre Alarm Recording, Area Select Motion Recording, Object Tracking, Missing Object Alarm, Dual Monitor Display, PTZ Auto-Tracking etc. The emergence of this technology have created a smarter video surveillance. This behavior recognition software adds intelligence to video as it is captured, recorded and analyzed. On top of that, the intelligent video offers improvements in video image enhancement even in extreme darkness.

Combining the intelligent video surveillance and its analytics software, a predefined detection of violation which occurs are automatically, in the form of real-time alarms/alerts sent to their responders. This keeps security personnel from continually having to watch monitors, particularly during the bulk of their shifts, when nothing is happening on screens. Surprisingly, this high tech video surveillance system is very easy to use. Most of the customers never open their user manual because the on-screen programming is so simple. They just look at the screen and it provides the customer a clear understanding of how to use it.

With such a good set of video surveillance system, we can ensure a more safer and secured working place. It's an investment that should be made by asset owner for the benefit of his business. In fact I may consider to use one for my house, just for the fun of it and off course - security purpose. The video surveillance system set is available for customers all around the world and will be shipped via UPS worldwide express.

Engineering Award

Would it be nice to be awarded handsomely for our good and brilliant effort? Would it be wonderful to be recognized by our peers and professionals from the same field? Have you been awarded for something before?

During my undergraduate studies, I was awarded “BP Computing Award 1998, University of Bradford”. I received a letter during summer informing and inviting me to attend a brief ceremony that was held that afternoon (I forgot the exact date and hall. That was about 9 years plus ago…). Initially I was puzzled and wandered why I received the award. Soon, I was informed that I got the highest mark for the subject “Computer Aided Process Engineering” and that led me to the award. Unfortunately, the prize was a just a gas handbook. I was hoping some sort of certificate or trophy which can be displayed on my wall or desk. Well, that’s fine; I just kept the official invitation letter to receive the award.

Few years after that, I’m a member (research officer and master student) of Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG), a research group in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The group (which included me) won numerous local and international awards. I even kept a local newspaper cutting about our research. The photo of the head of research group, Prof. Dr. NASA, my colleague Ir. Dr. Didi and me beside the rig was printed. It’s fun and I’m proud of it. There was also documentary of our research group being shown in national television and off course I’m one of the stars in it. I acted performing some experiment to synthesize HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst (a type of silica alumina adsorbent).

Maybe you want to share some of your awards? Recognitions?

Other “Engineering Award” story occurred recently:

Bath: A chemical engineer who used a saucepan to develop a method of eliminating a source of radioactive waste has won a prestigious award. Professor Stan Kolaczkowski, of the University of Bath, was jointly given a highly commended award for services to the environment at the Institution of Chemical Engineers' gala dinner awards in London.
Continue reading HERE.

Terrifying Forklift Accident

Does your workplace have a forklift? If yes, you better be extra careful. My workplace have a lot of forklifts. We need those forklift to carry our drums, heavier goods and equipments (motor/pump/spare parts etc). A forklift do not have the speed equivalent to a car, but it can be deadly because of its mass and sometimes human carelessness.

A forklift accident recently took place in Hampshire industrial estate, United Kingdom. A lorry driver was crushed to death by a forklift truck in a horror accident. The unlucky man, aged in his twenties, had driven his lorry to Budds Lane in Romsey to deliver sheet metal to the firm Wessex Medical Equipment. It is believed he was hit by a green Mitsubishi forklift truck while he was standing at the back of his lorry and suffered serious injuries. Continue read the full news...

Morale of the story: Be careful wherever you are. Death can happen anytime anywhere even though we're perfectly healthy person.

FROM THE CHEMICAL ENGINEER’S WIFE Part II

In my previous post, one of the readers put a comment requesting for some tips on choosing PhD specialization. Well, I am obviously not the most suitable person to talk about this for I myself is still in the process of pursuing the degree. However, I will try my best to incorporate my own experience on how I choose my specialization/topic here.

My Experience

I was forced to do my PhD. As soon as I finished my Masters degree, I started teaching in a Chemical Engineering Department at a local university. I enjoyed my teaching years where I can get close to the undergraduate students and try to make them understand the subjects. Unfortunately, a Masters degree is not adequate for me to supervise a Master’s degree or/and Phd student. A Masters degree is also not the faculty’s goal for all the faculty members. A PhD is inevitable in order to continue teaching and working as a lecturer there.

Therefore, with a heavy heart, I filled the form to enroll in the PhD program in my own faculty. It was not hard for me to choose my supervisor because I choose a person that I have worked with before for my Masters dissertation. I know his personality and he knows mine. We clicked. However, at that particular time, my supervisor has ran out of research grant money and has already completed all his existing research. Therefore, I was assigned to choose my own topic. I was lost for a while…but not for long. I reflected on what I want to do in the future and where will I be positioned in the faculty. I am supposed to be specializing in ‘separation method’ in chemical engineering because I have been told to join the Separation Group of the faculty. To be more specific, I chose ‘crystallization’ as my specialized area because nobody in the faculty has mastered it.

During my Master’s dissertation, I researched on Palm Oil Crystallization in Producing Edible Oil. Therefore, I decided to continue in the same area but in different medium. I searched the Internet on crystallization and two of the areas caught my attention, metal glass crystallization and freeze concentration. After reading existing journal papers on both topics, I decided to do Freeze concentration. The reason: it’s cheaper, easier to understand and interesting. To conclude, the choosing process was not difficult for me because I know where I’ll be positioned in the future in my career.

For those who are just embarking in pursuing their PhD, here are some tips on how to choose a PhD topic.

Some Tips on Choosing a PhD Topic

1. First of all, do it with considerable care. Never lose sight of the fact that the PhD thesis should be the crowning achievement of your graduate education and will influence the direction of your career for many years to come.

2. It is of great advantage if the supervisors are willing to offer a choice or two or three dissertation topics. He/she will have a better overview of the field, knows the sources, and knows if the dissertation is doable within the allotted time frame. In effect, you will receive a crucial implicit promise that you will be closely guided along the way.

3. If you have good reason to be confident in doing research on the topic of your own choice if close guidance feels too restrictive to you, then proceed, but at least be forewarned that you can easily lead yourself on a wild goose chase.

4. It is imperative that both you and your supervisor be interested in your thesis topic. It is important that your mentor be interested in it because otherwise he/she might be much less motivated to help you.

5. Make sure that you do not start a dissertation on an unfamiliar topic. You should prepare some plans, even if tentative ones, well in advance and have a good overview of the topic before you commence active research.

6. Once you have chosen your thesis topic in collaboration with your supervisor, you should seek his/her active guidance to the utmost degree possible.

7. You will need to learn who the important scholars are in the field. Ask your supervisor who is working in your area, check their respective home pages on the Internet, and look for their working papers.

8. Whether you take a topic selected by your supervisor or develop your own, you have to be excited about the topic. I think it is more likely that this will happen if the topic is developed by you yourself, and coming from questions that you really want to pursue.

Inside McDonalds Meat Processing Plant

Everybody enjoys having a happy hour meal at the most famous franchise fast food restaurant - "Mcdonalds" and that includes me. In fact, I just had a nice dinner with my family 2 days ago in Mcdonalds Jaya Jusco Johor Bahru. As I googled about processing plant, I found this very interesting short video on how the meat for their famous burgers are processed. It is amazing to learn about their hourly quality control (QC) to ensure that the meat is tasty and juicy before packing it. The cleanliness factor is also strictly taken into consideration. After neatly, safely and cleanly wrapping the boxes (which contains the meat), they're distributed throughout the States.

Photo of the Day, Half Bridge Half Tunnel

This picture of the day is not directly related to chemical engineering stuff, but I admire and appreciate the engineering behind it. The bridge (or should it be called tunnel) goes under the water to allow movement of ships. In order to pass, this bridge is half under the water. You drive down in the water and then come out on the other side. Truly marvelous piece of engineering. This bridge is between Sweden and Denmark. This picture was taken from the Sweden side.

Oil and Gas - Global Refining Updates

I apologized for not updating this blog for a week. I'm been pretty busy the past few days. By the way, I received an email last week about being constantly updated with the global refining industry and it's associated rapid transformation. It's very informative and good reference if you're in the oil and gas arena. This is a paid subscription and you need to ask from their expert for more information regarding the content or subscription. Check it out. Following is part of the email that they sent to me.

Dear Energy Industry Colleague,

World petroleum product markets are rapidly transforming. Rising crude prices, strong demand for cleaner fuels, and increasing pressure on refining capacities, make strategic planning for the next decade challenging.

How much of new refining capacity will actually materialize?
What will be the role of biofuels and alternative fuels in the marketplace?
How will petroleum demand increase and which regions will provide the supply?

Hart Energy Consulting's World Refining & Fuels Service provides a single reference source on crude supply and quality, regional petroleum product demand and refining capacity and configuration trends; all provided on five global regions.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND KEEP YOUR COMPANY AHEAD OF THE CURVE!

This expanded outlook includes the following new sections and analysis:

• Complete update of baseline analysis with new supply, demand and price factors for crude oil availability, supply pattern, refined products and biofuels for all seven regions of the world
• Complete summary of refinery capacity to come on line - by country and region
• New marine fuels regulations and availability analysis
• Expanded global heavy crude oil analysis

• European Region: In-depth focus on Russia (new)
• Asian Region: In-depth focus on China, India and Japan (new)
• American Region: In-depth focus on USA, Canada (new) and Brazil (new)
• This year, the outlook extends to 2025

The Outlook is available in many forms to best suit your individual information needs: from a 500+ page hard copy report to a CD and full online access to the analysis, the data comes with 24/7 export support from our knowledgeable staff for on-site presentations and discussions.

For more information about the 2008 upgrades to the outlook, including questions about price and ordering, contact one of our experts or simply reply to this email:

Frederick L. Potter
1-703-891-4801
fpotter@hartenergy.com

Terry Higgins
1-703-891-4815
thiggins@hartenergy.com

300 , Design Project 2, 5S, NPSH, Pump - Rambling!!!

I did not realize that the previous post about "Dipping Tape and Measuring Oil Tonnage" was my post number 300. That makes this current post that you're reading - number 301 in this Chemical Engineering World blog. Wow, it has been about 1 year and 3 months since I began blogging about my working experiences. I never expected , thought or dreamed this blog can be like what it is today. I never imagined to have more than 250 subscribers (at this moment and growing) for a technical chemical engineering blog. Thanks for your support.

This coming days will be a very hectic one for me. Tonnes of jobs and projects are waiting for me at work. We are going to have some minor 9 hours plant maintenance job. That job must be carefully coordinated in order to reach its objective - which is to improve the vacuum system in our plant process. I also have my plant monthly reports to complete and that is not easy as it need us to really focus and concentrate.

At the same time, the final year design project 2 file number 2 just arrived last Friday from a local university for me to read, digest, check, evaluate and give marks. I'm not sure when I can finish reading the design project report, but I was ordered to complete and email the marks by the end of this week... Well, I got to rush for that as well.

Oh yes... I almost forgot that I also need to conduct a 5S training for my plant operators. Maybe I'll arrange that on Tuesday afternoon.

Yesterday, on Saturday, I attended a very brilliant 3 hours training regarding pump. The training was conducted by one of our very experience and knowledgeable superior. From the training I discovered various types of pumps with various applications. We also did some real practice on how to calculate the Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH), based on our plant condition and situation. This was more advance from the basic NPSH that we learned in university. Furthermore, at university, we only know the theory, but this time, we experience and appreciate the NPSH knowledge... of course after we faced all the pump problems in the plant. We did learned other stuffs on why the pump trips, cavitate, air lock etc and it's relationship with the pump curve.

Lately, I also received few emails asking me some favours on various issues and also asked for some advice/assistance. I'm trying my best to entertain those request, but occasionally, lately, I'm too busy. I hope you can understand my situation. I'll try my very best to get back to some of you. I'm also struggling and fighting with time to keep this blog updated with fresh feed and content for you to read. That's why I really appreciate anybody who is willing to provide one or two post (or more... which is good) so that we can have this blog updated more frequently. If you have anything to share, it can be from your own experience or some new stuff that you learn or know, you're welcome to email it to me. If it suite this blog, why should I not post it in this blog for you?!!

I also have some post which I did mentioned to elaborate more. I'll continue them soon. Just bare with me for a while. Some of you have personally asked the continuation of those post. Sorry for the delay mate...

Dipping Tape and Measuring Oil Tonnage

In oil industry or oil plant, there are a lot of oil storage tanks available. It is vital for the oil company to know their daily oil stock simply because they are in the oil business. Therefore, they need to measure the oil volume and further work out its tonnage. They need to know the exact volume of oil and to do that there are various methods. One of the traditional method is by using a dipping tape.

What is a dipping tape? Sorry, I could not find a suitable and proper definition for it. My own definition would be a tape made of from stainless steel (can be other material as well) and has some sort of calibration along it (up to 15m, or 20m, it depends on your tank height) and it's used to measure the ullage in a storage tank (filled with oil/liquid). Does anybody have a suitable definition of dipping tape?

I guess the next question from you will be: What is ullage?

The amount which a tank or vessel lacks of being full.

is the empty space present when a shipping container is not full.

The space in a tank not occupied by its contents. Used as a measure of storage space still available.

I hope the ullage definition would give you some idea on the concept.

A guy doing ullaging job at a ship tank

Dip weight - It is attached to the end of the tape

For each storage tank, there'll be some sort of calibration table. From it, we can know what is the volume of oil at certain height. The tank height is also recorded in the calibration table. So, in order to know the volume of oil, we substract the tank height from the ullage (which we get from the dipping tape measurement), and we shall get the oil level height. From there, we can already get the volume of oil and work out the tonnage (with the temperature reading available).

This model of dipping tape is called: Richter 25m Stainless Steel Dip Tape IPM, weight not included

Have you saw or used a dipping tape before?

My PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) Experience

At work there are still a lot of things to be done. The latest, hottest and interesting job in my list is the PLC (programmable logic controller) upgrading in my plant and control room. For me, this is a very enriching project and an excellent learning experience for me. All these while, I've been monitoring the temperature, flow rate, pressure, utilities, processes, costing, equipments, instrumentations, reports etc., but now I'm going to get myself a little bit familiar with the plant control system. Previously, at university, I don't really fancy process control; and advance control subjects, but now, I'm beginning to be develop some interest in them. However, if I'm not mistaken, the subjects don't really touched a lot of PLC stuffs.

OK, back to the present moment. Every process plant must have their own PLC to run the process or production plant. If not, the plant operators have to switch the pump, flow meter or other instruments manually and that's impossible at this era. It will be very difficult for them to control and monitor a running plant.

Lets see some definitions of PLC. According to Wikipedia: "A PLC is a digital computer used for automation of industrial processes, such as control of machinery on factory assembly lines. Unlike general-purpose computers, the PLC is designed for multiple inputs and output arrangements, extended temperature ranges, immunity to electrical noise, and resistance to vibration and impact. A PLC is an example of a real time system since output results must be produced in response to input conditions within a bounded time, otherwise unintended operation will result."

A non-technical term to describe a PLC: A PLC is the type of computer that controls machines. The PLC is used to control and troubleshoot machine. The PLC is the brain of the machine. Without it, the machine is dead.

For the past few days, I've been studying the input/output (I/O) arrangements at the control panel. These connect the PLC to sensors and actuators. PLCs read limit switches, analog process variables (such as temperature and pressure), and the positions of complex positioning systems. On the actuator side, PLCs operate electric motors, pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders, magnetic relays or solenoids, or analog outputs. The input/output arrangements have external I/O modules attached to a computer network that plugs into the PLC. The I/O points consists of digital input, digital output, analog input and analog output. I checked them and counted how many spare I/O points are available to be used for additional pressure transmitter, RTD, inverter and pump that we're going to install (which is part of some slice of plant upgrading projects).

Hmmm....I guessed, that's enough for some brief introduction on the PLC. I may continue about my PLC adventure in future.

From the Chemical Engineer's wife

My husband has been begging me for quite some time already to write a post here in his blog. It’s not that I don’t want to, but I personally think you guys out there prefers to here from him than from me. Out of his mountainous work load, he seems like the busiest men on earth. Despite of him trying his hardest to update, sometimes he can’t catch up. So here I am, writing my two cents worth…..

I am now in my fourth semester of my Chemical Engineering Phd in a local university (Malaysia). It is not the most joyous experience for me. Since I was little, I hate studying. I have to do this one just because my faculty wouldn’t let anybody off without a PhD. What a bugger. However, it is not as heavy as doing my first degree back in England as I don’t have to attend classes or any exams..what a relief. The hardest part is getting myself organized and focused.

My supervisors are both very helpful and they do not force me to do anything. They just let me be independent. I don’t have to see them every week and they don’t even bother if I don’t see them for months…hahaha. There are goods and bads in that. The good part is that you don’t have to work like a horse in meeting their target and you don’t feel pressured. However, the danger is that you will be progressing very slowly. You will not be writing papers (journal, conferences), your experiments went on in a slow pace and you will be jeopardizing you PhD. Therefore, the key is discipline!! No matter what kind of supervisor you have, just discipline yourself and have your own set of targets. If your supervisor is the pushy type of person, just work with him/her and do everything he/she asked for. If your supervisor just let you be, arrange appointments to see them to discuss your targets/progress/plan. They wouldn’t say no, they just want you to work on your own pace. So if you think you are not a highly disciplined person, choose a supervisor that can make you work for it.

The relationship between student and supervisor is often difficult to orchestrate. Some supervisors treat their students as colleagues and friends, others prefer to maintain a formal teacher-pupil relationship. In any case, your PhD supervisor will be an important figure in your life for at least the next three years. Your PhD will inevitably affect the rest of your career, so take some time to consider not just what and where you'd like to research, but who you'd like to work with.

Here are some tips on How to Choose your PhD Supervisor.

1. If you’re doing your PhD in the department where you're doing your first degree or where you are currently lecturing, just ask these questions: Does he know your name? Can you face another three years of his jokes? If you're already calling him 'Uncle Keith' it may be time to move on.

2. If you’re doing your PhD in another institute:

- Approach someone whose work you know from the literature. It's important that there won't be a major clash of interests and personalities.

- Look around the department and assess your potential supervisor's standing. (if you could go)

- Talk to his other students (emails are also ok). Are they relaxed, confident and busy or do they have a glazed expression and a compulsion to look over their shoulders? Have they published single author papers? First author papers? At all?

- Communicate with him through emails. If he always answered your emails between lecture tour of Japan and a conference in Brazil, will you ever see him?

Hopefully this would be useful for those planning to do their PhD. Good Luck…

3 Blogs You Need to Check Out

Since I began this blog in August 2006, I did not notice other blogs related or dedicated to chemical and process engineering. That time, I started the blog with the name "Chemical Engineering World". After slightly more than one year, I'm glad there are more blogs related to chemical and process engineering. It's a good sign for the sharing of chemical and process engineering knowledge and experiences. A lot of students, young engineers and practicing engineers can benefit from these blogs.

Here, I would like to share 3 blogs that discusses about chemical and process engineering which are Chemical and Process Technology, Chemical and Process Engineering and Chemical Professionals.

The first blog is Chemical and Process Technology which is owned by Joe Wong, a practicing engineer in the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) industry in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His blog is packed with useful facts and information related to the chemical engineering industry. If you want to learn more, check out this blog which is saturated with great pure engineering and technical stuffs. To make sure I don't miss any the post, I subscribe to this blog content.

The second blog Chemical and Process Engineering is owned and maintained by a final year dynamic and motivated chemical and process engineering student from Sri Lanka, Thushara. The blog is lighter in chemical engineering content and is an easy reading. Sometimes, he chip in some other useful informations outside engineering. I like reading his blog very much. I think I'm his second subscriber.

The third blog is Chemical Professionals which is owned by a very experience process technologist from India. He has more than 13 years of experiences of energy conservation, technology improvements, process scheme development, technology transfer and much more. I just discovered this blog few weeks ago, and since then I regularly visited this blog to catch up with other chemical engineering knowledge and informations.

If you are reading or notice other blogs related to chemical and process engineering, please inform or share it with us. It's good to share informations and experiences for the benefit of all chemical/process and related engineers. It's good to have a common community, a community of chemical/process engineers...

What I Get After My 5 Days Break

Yesterday, I began work after the 5 days break. It was a paradoxical emotion getting back to work while the festive season is still alive. It felt like the break was not enough. Would it be better if I can stretch my annual leaves to next Sunday. That would be a cool 9 days break for me. Well, I just have to face the fact that my annual leaves and public holidays are just 5 days. I have a number of responsibilities at work that requires me to get back to work early. One of the plant is stopped due to lack of raw material/crude oil and we are forced to take the opportunity to do some maintenance job.

Preparing a 5 days daily production reports after the break was not a speedy one as usual. It took me longer hours to prepare the report due to some changes in production planning. Having an annual management review meeting after lunch yesterday did not help me to reduced my job load. In fact, I received additional tasks and reports to be prepared within 48 hours. Up till now, I haven't completed the report yet. Well, I have to rush for it after this.

I also have to prepare for tomorrows maintenance coordination meeting. Wow..., there are really a lots of meeting here and there. With the plant stoppage and maintenance going on which have to monitored from time to time, I tried my best to manage and coordinate as good as I could. It's really a challenge for me to handle a lot of the projects, tasks and other jobs all at one time. Luckily, I'm still OK. We have good executives and supervisors to assists us executing the jobs. So far the plant operators and fitters are doing fine although manpower are still limited and lacking due to some of them are still on their annual leaves (remember, it's the festive season...).

I appreciate all of these as a good training experience for me. I hope other junior engineers/going to be engineers anywhere can be confident and strong enough to face any situations when they're really tested up to the maximum . They must be mentally tough and able to lead and keep track with the expectation from their superior. Anybody want to share their experiences...?

My 5 Days Break

I'm going to celebrate Hari Raya Eidulfitri Festive season a day after tomorrow. It's a big day for me and my family and the rest of the Muslims around the globe. We'll be traveling to my wife's hometown which is about 300+ km from our home. I'm taking a 2 days annual leaves + 3 days public holidays. That's a total of 5 days and I'll try my best to really enjoy this break. I don' want to be interrupted by phone calls from the plant/my work place. I don't want to think about the plant. I just want to relax my mind for a while. I want some peace...

My plant will still be running this coming festive season. Luckily my senior colleague is there to take care of this very important plant. He have been guiding, mentoring and supporting me all this while and I really appreciate it. I'm learning a lot from him (and his precious experiences).

On normal days, as a process engineer, I have to take care of the plant 24/7. That means to be alert and know what is going on in the plant at all time. I'm answerable on everything and anything that is happening to the plant. It's a really big and huge fast moving plant that we cannot afford any error. If not, the downtime will be very costly and I'll have difficult time explaining it to my superiors.

To be frank, I have to say that at all time, my mind will be focusing on the plant. While driving, going to sleep, taking bath, having dinner, outing with family, somehow, I'll think about what's happening in the plant. Is the plant OK? What if the oil quality is off spec? Is the flow rate maintained? Is the oil product sent to the correct tank? Is the vacuum pump OK? Are we getting the required process temperature? Is the steam supply enough? All these linger in my mind. Sometimes, in order to sleep peacefully, I'll call the plant and ensure everything is silky smooth before resting and going to sleep.

On a daily basis, my supervisors will call me (and my senior colleague) every early morning at 5.30 AM and report to us about the plant progress. Therefore, when we arrive at work, we are well aware of the plant overnight situation and performance. If there are problems, the shift supervisor or shift leader will call us even though it is 2.45 AM or 4.13 AM in the morning (and we are in deep sleep with sweet dreams).

Well, now that I have the 5 days break - that means my mind is also free. I'll just relax and give my mind some break which it definitely deserve.

Ops....don't forget to check out the new Chemical-Engineering-Forum.com.

Disappointing New Plate Heat Exchanger Is Now OK...

This post is the continuation of the "Disappointing New Plate Heat Exchanger” post.

After installing and using the new plate heat exchanger (PHE), we could not get the flow rate and temperature. This was really a problem because we were expecting the new PHE to perform excellently.

The PHE seems to be leaking although we have tightened it from 540mm to 529mm. The minimum length we can go according to the design is 506mm. But that is applicable after running the PHE after certain duration of time, not tightening it while it’s still new.

I called the PHE supplier and asked what’s wrong with the PHE? What should we do? Should we tightened it some more? The leaking is only at the end plate. Should we dismantle and check the end plate? Maybe the gasket is not evenly glued on the end plate? Maybe the gasket is damage or distorted!

The technical engineer came the following day and we performed an air test to show him the leaking points. He noticed the leaking point and agreed to dismantle the PHE to check what it wrong.

After dismantling the PHE, we found out that one plate is not arranged correctly. That was very surprising and it was not supposed to happen for a branded and reliable heat exchanger from Germany. Soon we found out that the heat exchanger was actually fixed locally by the supplier’s principal and not by the manufacturer in Germany.

The technical manager then guided our maintenance fitters to fix back the plate heat exchanger. Carefully they checked the plate’s arrangement. Diversion plates, flow pates and end plates must be in correct order. We don’t want to repeat the same mistake. If not, we are just going to waste our time and energy.

After completed fixing the PHE, we conducted air test and hold the pressure at 2 bars. We used soap liquid to check for any possible leakages. The pressure maintained for nearly one hour and that was good sign that the plate heat exchanger is not leaking.

We then gradually used the PHE and finally we get the desired temperature and flow rate. I’m so happy and glad that the new PHE is working perfectly as we plan. Now, we are focusing on other improvement and maintenance job such as cleaning in place (CIP), insulation, spare pipeline, and others. We’re taking it one by one.

Moral of the story:

1. Don’t expect a product or service to be perfect. Hope it to be perfect! If not, trouble shoot as soon as possible.

2. Be extra careful while arranging and dealing with plate heat exchanger. Once your arrangement is wrong, the entire effort is a waste.