Technical Report
Position: Process Engineer
Workplace: Chevron Philips Company
Executive summary
The report below is a technical report that summarizes the tasks of a chemical or a process engineer during a work placement at Chevron Philips Company. The report highlights the introduction of the major tasks that a chemical engineer has during operations at Chevron Company as well as the main objectives during the period of placement. The theories of other scholars about chemical properties have also been highlighted. The process of production of aromatics and olefins starting from acquisition of raw materials, processing and output of the by-products and products are shown in details in the methods section of the report. The standards of operations in the process are also discussed to ensure that safe amounts of chemicals in the chemical products are produced. A the report also is required to ensure that the process engineer’s tasks at Chevron Philips Company such as responsibility for the chemical, biochemical and other physical processes that are undertaken for the transformation of raw material into valuable products, responsibility for the development of new industrial process and designing of the new process and the modification of the existing equipment and process was also part of the technical report. The report finally gives a conclusion of the chemical engineer’s success during the placement and also provides a recommendation of what should be done to improve safety operations during chemical products handling by the users.
Table of content
Executive summary 1
Table of content 2
Introduction 3
Background 5
Processes 7
Outcomes 10
Discussion 11
Conclusion/Recommendation 12
Reference 13
Introduction
Saudi Chevron Philips Company is identified with its prime production of ethylene, propylene, polyethylene and other range of specialty chemicals (Cremaschi, 2015). Among its objectives are to be the leading producer of olefins and polyolefin products; to be a leading supplier of aromatic, specialty chemicals and piping products; to manufacture chemical and products that are vital to be used by over seventy thousand consumers; to ensure that it’s thirty-six manufacturing and research ventures are in operation and to create more employment opportunities for the nearby communities (Cremaschi, 2015).
For the last four months, I have been carrying out my work placement at Chevron Company. During the same period, I have been carrying out my duties as a chemical process engineer. As a process engineer in Chevron Philips company, I was responsible for the chemical, biochemical and other physical processes that are undertaken for the transformation of raw material into valuable products (Cremaschi, 2015). I was also responsible for the development of new industrial process and designing of the new process. Modification of the existing equipment and process was also part of my duty. These duties were carried out to ensure that the end products were as per the chemical and physical standards of production.
The designed method will finally be used to producing some products ranging that will range from oil gas as well as foods and drinks ultimately. The company roles that I undertook composed of collecting data required to make improvement and other necessary modification in the company; overseeing of new construction plants and using of simulation software to create complicated process. Moreover, other roles I had included procuring and installation of the same equipment; supervising the entire process of plant operation; troubleshooting and investigating problems in the process and retrieving environmental safety issues (Cremaschi, 2015).
Together with the team I worked with, we were ensuring that the sustainability of products was achieved. This was through a thorough environmental and consumers consideration. It was made sure that the building blocks of the end products contained chemical levels that not harmful to the users. Moreover, the carbon foot prints was reduced and the quality of the lives of consumers was assured. Work or job ethics demanded that we do our duties responsibly and ethically as a model corporate and consider the global business environment as well as the diverse needs for citizens. Among the objective of this company are; to be the leading producer of olefins and polyolefin products, to be the leading supplier of aromatic, specialty chemicals and piping products, to manufacture chemical and products that are vital to be used by over seventy thousand consumers, to ensure that it’s thirty-six manufacturing and research ventures are in operation and to create more employment opportunities for the nearby communities (Cremaschi, 2015).
Background
Chevron Philips Company is a leading company that is owned jointly by the chevron corporation along with Philips 66. Chevron Company was formed on 1st July 2000 (Cremaschi, 2015). The initiation of this company was done through the merging of chemical operations of Chevron Petroleum and Chevron cooperation. During this period, the company was managed and governed by the board of directors from both leading companies.
Chevron Philips is located situated at 10001 Six Pines Drive in Texas, woodlands. The region is in the northern suburbs of Houston being its headquarters. The company is well known for its primary production of ethylene, propylene, polyethylene and other range of specialty chemicals.
Chevron Philips Company is an organization that needs diligence, competence and careful products scrutiny since they manufacture items that directly concerns people’s daily lives’ activities. These items include piping and trade-marked plastics, particular chemicals, alpha olefin, aromatics and styrenics (Cremaschi, 2015). The production of such items therefore needs to be appropriately conducted, ensuring sustainability throughout the entire business. The production must ensure that both industrial and consumer products of chemicals and plastics aim at preserving the natural environments, caring for the surrounding communities and developing the employees.
The company production process objective is to ensure quality and sustainable material production through a smooth and prudent processing which is economically sustainable. In material production, a chemical engineer is must be competent, possessing a wide range of processing and production skills. These attribute would allow active team participation of a chemical engineer in a multidiscipline production company such as Chevron Philips Company.
Chevron as a company has more joint ventures and partners around the world. Currently, it has more than 34 production facilities that located in Colombia, Singapore, and China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, United States Qatar and Belgium. As a process engineer in the company, I was in charge of the chemical, biochemical and other physical processes that are undertaken for the transformation of raw material into valuable end products. I was also responsible for the development of new industrial process and designing of the new process. Modification of the existing equipment and process was also part of my duty.
Chevron Philips company has two major research and development centers globally. The facilities have a well-coordinated functionality thus providing significant petrochemical and polymer research. These chemical plants conduct the research comprise catalyst development that is new so as to provide support to the commercial process. Chevron Philips company has employed more than two hundred and fifty scientists. These scientists will be categorized and grouped according to the specialty. Others will be put under research section, and others will work as chemical engineers.
The offerings in chevrons Philips Company has two business units that offer varied services. During the end of 2014, the company had more than five thousand employees worldwide (Cremaschi, 2015). With a larger number of workers, there is increased development of assets accords the regions they have spread across. The estimated value of assets that Chevron Company has accumulated is going to more than nine billion dollars. The entire value is calculated within the thirty-six manufacturing and research facilities in eight countries.
Processes
Chemical processing involves converting one or more chemical or their compounds. In engineering perspective, a chemical process is intended to be used in an industrial scale or manufacturing to convert the material with chemical compositions into final products that are environmentally healthy to both human and environment. Often, scientists and chemists use chemical process in an engineering sense as well as a general sense. The engineering sense of a chemical process entails multiple steps known as unit operations. Many chemical reactions are involved in chemical processes, however, other methods of converting materials to final products can also be used for example separation and mixing processes (Cremaschi, 2015). These reactions occur in in various sections known as units. The steps in a chemical process may either be sequential in time or space along a moving material or a flowing stream. For a given material input amount, products or material output and an amount of expected materials can be determined at all the key steps in the manufacturing, starting from empirical data to calculations of the output data. The output amounts can either be scaled down or up to a desired capacity depending on the specifications of certain chemical plants. Multiple chemical plants can be used for the same chemical processes often at different scale capacities. A chemical process can be shown using a flow diagram or rather a process flow illustration. Units of processes are shown as blocks while streams running between them can be shown by the connecting lines with arrows pointing at the flow directions. This general process is used in most chemical processing plants, gas processing, oil refining, pharmaceutical and polymer plants and wastewater treatments. An example of such a company is Chevron Philips Company (Cremaschi, 2015). The following important processes are included in the chemical processing at Chevron Phillips Company depending on a particular product been processed. They are reduction, oxidation, hydrogenation, hydrolysis, dehydrogenation, hydration, dehydrations, nitrification, halogenation, alkaline fusion, ammoniation, esterification, dealkylation, polymerization, catalysis and polycondensation. Below is a schematic diagram elaborating the process of production of petrochemicals.
General schema
Detailed Schema
Photochemicals can either be olefins (ethylene, propylene and butadiene) or aromatic (toluene, benzene, and xylene isomers). The end products of the process above are aromatics and olefins produced by the method of steam cracking of petroleum fractions. Chemical plants take in naphtha light gas such as butane, ethane and propane from a gas manufacturing plant and utilize steam cracking methodology to produce olefins. Aromatic is the output when naphtha is catalytically reformed. Olefins and aromatics are major components for many materials such as adhesives, solvents and detergents. Polymers and oligomers are basically originating from olefins and are used in fibers, resins, plastics, lubricants, gels and elastomers. Polymers and plastics for example polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polystyrene, terephthalate and polycarbonate make up a majority of chemical industry globally (Cremaschi, 2015). Chevron Philips Company produces these products and serves a huge market in the petrochemical industry.
During the processing, a chemical or process engineer must ensure that the chemical quantities in the output adhere to the standards on environmental safety and sustainability (Cremaschi, 2015). The by-products should be properly eradicated by treating them first before allowing the factories effluents into the water bodies.
Outcomes
Chevron Philips Chemical company’s products are widely used in the production of a variety of goods as indicated in above. The products according to the end users, they are chemically stable. Therefore, if they do not meet the required safety standards as per the organizational health, consult the material safety data information. Before using any product from Chevron Company, ensure to read its instructions.
During the above production method in Chevron Philips Company, a lot of by-products are produced together with the end products. Therefore, a complex and sophisticated process is needed for refining the material product. A variety of equipment and operations are consequently demanded for efficient products. Process engineer, are therefore needed to make updated designs using design software. Moreover, it is the process engineer’s work to replace the old instruments with the modern ones while also maintaining and putting into order the available machineries and equipment. Based on the company’s experience in the chemical production industry, the designing process has been sufficient and the total production of safe products is around 0.1 to 1 million tons annually or about 10,000 tons by utilizing analysis, design, simulation and engineering expertise (Cremaschi, 2015).
Chevron Philips worked and created excellent products to an extent it was awarded as being top workplace being honored by Houston Chronicle. The award was given in 2014 and 2015 (Cremaschi, 2015). The award by the Chronicles is given put based on the employee’s feedback through a survey that is typically administered by the workplace dynamics. Leading research firms to specialize in organization health, and the improvement of the workplace is also concerned with the awarding of the best company.
Discussion
A chemical or a process engineer in a petrochemical industry such as Chevron Philips Company is responsible to change the structure of a raw material used in material production to for the purpose of producing a product of value to both the industries and in the daily life. Chemicals are released from the principal raw materials such as hydrocarbons and metals during the series of production in a chemical industry. Mixing and treatment is needed to convert the raw materials into end products. A chemical engineer is core in the design of the production scheme and ensuring that the results are sustainable to the human and environment (Cremaschi, 2015). The products are therefore sold to consumers in their safe state with instructions of use well inscribed to guide the users.
Conclusion/Recommendation
As could be identified, there is a relationship between production of materials and process design. A product design process considers cost, regulatory compliance, product safety, idea selection, creative thinking, et cetera. The products, its manufacturing process and the used equipment is developed concurrently by a multidiscipline and integrated team. The design process is in the engineering field and the process or chemical engineer is responsible for the following during the process; collecting data required to make improvement and other necessary modification in the company, overseeing of new construction plants, using of simulation software to create complicated process, procuring and installation of the same equipment, supervising the entire process of plant operation and troubleshooting and investigating problems in process. Adherence to the consumer standards is core in the production of petrochemicals (Cremaschi, 2015). The products should have a user guide to avoid harmful incidences during usage. I would recommend that proper product sensitization is conducted for all the lethally susceptible products to reduce harm from them. I would also recommend that the company should motivate the employees awarding their efforts in cases that they perform in an outstanding manner to earn the company a step forward. Employees’ education in various departments should also be conducted in order to enable them know their roles as well as how to handle harmful chemicals.
Reference
Cremaschi, S. (2015). A perspective on process synthesis: Challenges and prospects. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 81, 130-137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2015.05.007
