Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
(OP)
I graduated from Chemical Eng back in 1986 but ended up doing Instrumentation Sales specializing in Control valves/PSV's with the Fisher/Emerson organization for 15 years then moved on to become a Instrument Engineer with an Engineering company for 5 years. The opportunity came & I decided to take up the offer to become a Process Engineer after 20 years from graduation. I figured this will be something I want to do before the sun sets. It has been a struggle espcially on Hysys but other than that it is fun!
I would greatly appreciate some guidance from my peers here in this forum what steps should I take to help turn me into a Jedi of Process Engineering or at least a good student....thks
I would greatly appreciate some guidance from my peers here in this forum what steps should I take to help turn me into a Jedi of Process Engineering or at least a good student....thks





RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
BIG question; here are some general pointers, no particular order:
- Bone up on the processes you're responsible for; learn as much as you can re process chemistry, op conditions, etc.
- Study the PFD's and P&ID's. Walk the plant/area and notate the difference between design/as-built/existing. You've got to know how your area is laid out.
- Get tight with production engineers and operators; they know the process like the back of their hands. Ask questions; why do they do what they do?
- Crawl around/inspect equipment during turnarounds.
- Spend time in the control room/bone up on the DCS. Learn what's monitored and where. Get proficient at extracting process data.
- Get tight with maintenance/instrument tech folks; you'll need sensors calibrated at some point.
- Get proficient doing mass and energy balances for every unit op in the area; you've got to be able to quantify operations and changes/options, etc.
- Locate/extract performance data/equipment specs for all equipment; you'll need them for the M&E bals.
- Pay close attention to physical property data and models; without good/applicable data your sim runs are fantasy.
- Don't neglect the little things; impurities/byproducts can cause headaches even in small amounts.
- Keep as current as you can with the technical literature. A good start is Chem Eng Progress, Hydrocarbon Processing and AIChE Journal. And of course whatever applies to your specific units.
- A zillion other things (or seems like it), safety,hazard analyses, environmental regs/permits; you'll know it when it hits you in the face.
Hope this helps, at least it's a start. Good luck.
John Boyd, PE
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
HAZOP at www.curryhydrocarbons.ca
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
My 2 cts:
Theory is theory. Practice is practice. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
Being a good process engineer is like being a good photographer. Don't stand too far from the object, don't stand too close, or you won't get a good picture in either case.
This means that, after spending a few hours in your office studying something, you HAVE to go out in the plant and the control room and compare against practice. Also, and operators hate it when I say it, after having spent an hour chatting with the operator behind the console or at some platform outside in the sun, you HAVE to go back to your office and see if their story is in line with the theory.
Theory, operating manuals, operators, mechanics, follow process engineers, instruments, lab analyses all tell you a part of what is really going on in the plant.
Lastly don't be afraid to swim against the stream, it's the only way to improve.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
If anyone has an excerpt of this "Rule of Thumb" from Chemical Prcoeesing issue Mar 1987 that would be great otherwise I will try contacting CP library to see hiw I can get hold of a copy.
cheers
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
There is a collection in book form titled: Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers edited by Carl R. Branan, Gulf Publishing Co., 1994
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
Good luck,
Latexman
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
1. It is not a 40 hour/week job
2. Volunteer for night shift in a turn around or other major project. You will gain a lot of valuable experience being the only authority figure around. Just be wary of 3am control room stories.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
There will also be a lot of the NIH people, believing that our way is the best way. This is hard to overcome but with the proper timing and actions it can create great opportunities for you.
As stated above keeps your eyes and ears open.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
also it will be very useful to read this book
Surface Production Operations Volume 1 & 2
http://www.knovel.com/knovel2/Toc.jsp?BookID=1256
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
1. get a proven P&ID
2. from the proven P&ID, design your own P&ID
3. assume all components of the P&ID will fail
4. know the weakness of each item
5. re-design P&ID
6. review & improve
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
When you take a few hours or days to do "what we never have time for", that's when great improvements are born.
In the category excellent things to do for a greenie "for which we never have time": read all your predecessors' files.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
We once had a warrantly claim going on for months and months, double mechanical seals kept burning out, and we went through absolutely everything for many months, spent many thousands of pounds trying to solve the problem, then one afternoon, having just rebuilt the pump, the shift change siren went, and as we stood talking to Project Engineers, two guys went over to the pump, took off the external flush pipe and washed their hands, when finished, returning the pipe back on to the pump - that action was the cause of the problems, and being on the floor, talking to the right people, and seeing things happen is OFTEN required to solve a problem.
Also, the lower down the management chain you get, the closer to the truth you get too - no need to cover each others backs at operator level.
Good luck, enjoy !!
Ash Fenn
www.cdrpumps.co.uk
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
--review the way conmpetitors configure their process and note that there is more than one way to solve a process problem. Often one can find such information in conference papers.
--Times are changing- there is an increased emphasis on energy efficienty and "green" issues. So , you should view potential changes in the process as they impact these newly emphasized issues. Perhaps becoming familiar with exergy analyses or other optimization methods is the way, but one can be sure that the competition will eventually publish or patent improved methods based on these optimization methods.
--new technology is becoming available every day- what you learned in college in 1986 is almost but not quite irrelevant.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
After that go to the site to visualize what is in the drawings
Spend time with the skill operators to see how they work
Verify the unit operating windows and alarms
Question the control room operators when they are out of operating windows.
Be curious on heat transference
And fouling matters
Study the equipment you are dealing with
When something fails and needs to be repaired try to have feedback from maintenance
During turnarounds go inside the equipment to understand it
Read books of process and control
Later on for sure you will a good process enginee
Regards
Luis marques
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
i am an new enginner and have three years working experance. in this years ,i found more and more things that i can't know. so i hope some one can tell me which books & codes can make me muture speedly!!
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
My background is Process Plant Piping Engineering and Design. I will offer the following advice to help you become "a Jedi of Process Engineering or at least a good student".
As a process engineer you will be or are the start of a very complex process that ends with the successful startup and operation of a process plant. Two of the tools you create and use are the PFD and the P&ID. These are tools of communication. You are communicating with the other major players (piping and others) what needs to be done.
The next major player is the piping engineering and design group who are (in most companies) responsible for converting the schematic (PFD and P&ID) into a real physical plant. If they get it right then everybody is happy and the Project Manager gets a bonus. If they get it wrong then nobody is happy. Some of the peons get fired and the process engineer spends the next six months under the gun at the job site trying to correct the mistakes.
The best process engineers I ever worked with knew and understood this. They all took a proactive approach to prevent problems before they happened.
Their approach was to hold a P&ID Review conference when they had the P&ID's about 85% to 90% complete. The attendees at this meeting were the leaders and workers who would be doing the actual detailed design and engineering. Paramount in this group was the piping designers who would be routing all the piping and locating the key instruments and controls.
The meeting was conducted by the process engineer who was responsible for the unit or set of P&ID's. The process engineer would discuss each piece of equipment as we proceeded and would "talk" each line, what was in the line, what it was supposed to do and what to avoid if applicable. There was ample time to ask questions and there was no lack of time or interest in giving answers. The P&ID was "yellowed" off and everyone took notes. These sessions served a valuable purpose and I am sure avoided costly delays later in the job.
I strongly recommend that you (and others) consider using this method to improve communications and the effectiveness your effort alone with that of the rest of the team.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
"We don't believe things because they are true, things are true because we believe them."
"Small people talk about others, average people talk about things, smart people talk about ideas and legends never talk."
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
Hello everybody!
I'm also a new process engineer, completly novice and doing a lot of mistakes everyday...But I love this job and want to improve myself...
I would like to thank you all for these advices that I have put on my archives.
I'm also going to buy the book: "Rules of thumb for chemical engineer" that looks very very interesting, I think it will be useful for me everyday...
If anyone has this book, could you tell me more about it?
Thanks a lot!
Méli
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
From Google books...preview of the book and its contents.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
Thank you very much goldnwhite!
Méli
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
It is unbelievable how much you can learn (being fresh from school) from operators.
I would just add:
Find 1 or 2 guys close to retirement, those are willing to transfer their knowledge, discuss the things and ideas with them - you might hear: "Ooo, young man, we did exactly that what you are proposing, it was back in 198x... and it didn't work because..."
And get Lieberman's books.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
i am a huge fan of talking with operators and maintenance. people are not respected enough just because of a lack of theoretical education, but have seen more changes and failures in their years than any of us ever learned in class.
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer
Hello everybody and especially nbog,
You spoke about Lieberman's books...They look very interesting but what do you think about these other books
(I'm asking for clear and simple books for a very novice process engineer like me, they were advised to me by another engineer):
GPSA and Crane Technical Paper 410 are both essentials.
Maxwell's "Data Book on Hydrocarbons" has a lot of good info in it. Kind of like a mini API for way less money.
Lieberman's "Working Guide to Process Equipment" and "Troubleshooting Process Operations" are both pretty good.
Cameron Hydraulic Data is another handy reference.
Thanks a lot,
Méli :)
RE: Advise on How to become a "good" Process Engineer