What does a process engineerer do?

Question

My uncle keeps telling me I should study process engineering after high scool. What does a typical process engineering firm do? I get pretty good grades in school and consider myself pretty bright.

Answer 1

He engineers processes

Answer 2

Process engineers are normally chemical engineers, but other engineers some times choose to work as process engineers.  I have given a lecture (in year 2000) at American University Sharjah to engineering students about what a chemical engineer does.  The following are taken from that presentation:

Slide (1)

- Engineers in general employ mathematics, physics and the engineering art to overcome technical problems in a safe and economical fashion.

- Only Chemical Engineers draw upon the vast and powerful science of chemistry to solve a wide range of problems.

- Some call the chemical engineer “the universal engineer.”  Typical titles of chemical engineers are “process engineer” or “plant engineer.”

Slide (2)

What is Different about Chemical Engineers:

- Chemical engineers have the necessary skills to encompass all aspects of design, testing, scale-up, operation, control and optimization.

- This requires a detailed understanding of various unit operations such as distillation, mixing, reactors, separation, and biological processes.

- They utilize mass, momentum and energy transfer along with thermodynamics, chemical kinetics and process control to improve these unit operations.

Slide (3):

Typical Tasks of Chemical Engineers:

- Performance Optimization to: Increase Production, Reduce Cost, Simplify Operation

- Performance Monitoring / Product Specs / Performance Reporting

Troubleshooting

- Construction Projects / Design Studies

- Process Control: Make Process Steady, Simplify Control, Advanced / Intelligent Control

Slide (4):

Chemical Engineers are:

- Smallest group between the “Big Four”, but highest paid.

- Hold very prominent positions in many industries.

- Have occupied the highest ranking positions in many industries (e.g. GE, Dow, Exxon, Union Carbide, Texaco and the CIA)