Want to know about Chemical engineering?Here some information about this career.
What is Chemical Engineering?
Chemical engineering is a broad discipline dealing with processes(industrial and natural) involving the transformation(physical,chemical or biological) of matter or energy into forms useful for mankind, economically and without compromising environment,safety or finite resources.It is an engineering profession branch that covers all activities and processes to produce products from raw materials or to create value-added products.
What do Chemical Engineers do?
Pharmaceutical - making the many diverse medicines and therapeutics,antibiotics and vaccines required by expanding population worldwide.
Oil refining - refining crude oil to produce petrol,other fossil fuels,oils,lubricants and feed stocks for petrochemical industry.
Petrochemical - processing crude oil into plastics such as polythene,polystrene,polypropylene.
Natural gases - Production,distribution and use for power generation and chemical synthesis.
Food processing - dairy products from milk such as cheese,yoghurt,ice cream,and diverse desserts - bakery products - fermented products such as beer and wine from grins and grapes - nutritional supplements from natural and traditional sources - packaging, and quality retention processes.
Biotechnology - developing processes for using renewable raw materials for manufacture of fuels,medicines,plastics,chemical,etc.Development of processes to utilise the benefits of recombinant DNA technologies.
Environmental - solving water,air and soil pollution problems.Developing new 'green' processes with high efficiency and minimal impact on the environment.Water and waste treatment.
Energy - developing new high efficiency,environmentally friendly processes for generation of electric power from fossil fuels,the development of fuel cells for hybrid cars and diverse other devices(to reduce global warming).
Chemical - making fertilisers,solvents,detergents,inks,perfumes and cosmetics.
Paper - recovery and recycling of chemicals used in breaking down wood into pulp for manufacture of paper.
Mineral - processing bauxite ore to produce aluminium,converting iron ore into steel,extracting gold,platinium and titanium from their ores.
Materials - processes to produce and utilise the many diverse modern materials such as polymers,carbon fibre,silicon wafers.Development of biodegradable materials.
Which industry chemical engineers work?
Fuels and energy - Petroleums/natural gases,Utilities,Hydrogen,Batteries,Fuel cells.
Commodity chemicals - Agricultural chemical,Plastics,Rubber
Specialty/consumer chemicals - Adhesives,Specialty chemical,Paint,varnishes,inks,Soaps,detergents,cosmetics,perfumes.
Advanced Materials - Glass,Ceramics,Composites,Polymers,Metals,Catalysts
Transportation - Automotive,Aerospace
Textiles
Petrochemicals
Air chemicals
Medicines
Biomedical devices
Biotechnology
Microelectronics
Pharmaceutical
Process control
Process design
Food and beverages
Pulp and paper
Design and construction
Environment,safety and health
What type of jobs chemical engineers do?
Process design engineer
Environmental engineer
Plant process engineer
Process safety engineer
Project engineer
Consultant
Product engineer
Manufacturing engineer
Research and development engineer
Project engineer
Biomedical specialist
Computer applications and technology engineer
Technical manager
Business coordinator
Academicians/Professors
Quality control engineer
Regulatory affairs engineer
Technical services engineer
Sales and marketing engineer
Risk asessors
Do Malaysia need chemical engineers?
Our country needs 29000 chemical engineers by the year 2010,according to Datuk Rahmah Abu Kassim,National Economic Action Council(NEAC)advisor.Until the year 2000,chemical engineers that have worked in Malaysia is only around 2900(The STAR,April 9 2003).In Malaysia,there are 10 universities that offers chemical engineering program.Until now thenumber of chemical engineers still not reache the target.Thus,the career chemical engineer prospects in Malaysia still very wide based on the current needed.The average starting salary for engineers (2004) is RM1970.00.
Some of the universities in Malaysia that offered this course:
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Universiti Teknologi MARA
Universiti Kuala Lumpur(MICET)
Universiti Teknologi Petronas
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Taylor University
Monash University
INTI International University College
SEGi College
University of Nottingham
Curtin University of Technology,Sarawak
Info from http://chemical.eng.usm.my/main.htm, http://www.fkkksa.utm.my/chem/index.php?,Monash University brochure, Course now magazine.