Monday 30 April 2012

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE KENYA: WHO IS A CHEMICAL ENGINEER

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING INSTITUTE KENYA: WHO IS A CHEMICAL ENGINEER: Who really is a chemical engineer?? Where should they work?? This are some of the questions that linger in most peoples mind and especially ...

WHO IS A CHEMICAL ENGINEER

Who really is a chemical engineer?? Where should they work?? This are some of the questions that linger in most peoples mind and especially a employers who are "full of knowledge" or perhaps in their specialized field and still lack the ability to comprehend the versatile Chemical engineer.

In an era where Kenya should be in an exponential industrial growth geared towards vision 2030 (which in my opinion should be extended by 20 years, am sure the politicians will back me up) the lack of chemical engineers in most if not all industrial sectors in the nation sickens me as a chemical engineer and adversely slows down this growth. Furthermore their absence in this industries is duly caused   my employers who actually do not  recognize and utilize the available chemical engineers.This brings us back to our question... who is a chemical engineer.

Some say (employers and human resource managers) that a chemical engineer manufactures chemicals or deals with chemical substances... this is an assumption they take and as my lawyer counterparts vehemently utter the word 'objection' with contempt and arrogance I will emulate them not with contempt and arrogance but vigor and enthusiasm to erase the nescience that have befallen to such.

 I will take the employers and others for a journey into history where the World war 11 was halted by the atomic bomb. This was an ingenious invention by a chemical engineer that revolutionized medicine and power generation  by the ability to split the atom(fission). In addition they have greatly improved medicine as we know it increasing drug efficiency by high rate absorption,through mutations. Manufacture of synthetic fibers,petroleum sector,as environmentalist by providing viable answers to revert and prevent pollution.
The magnitude of work for chemical engineers can not be exhausted.

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Chemical engineers are comfortable with chemistry and like all engineers they employ mathematics, physics, and the engineering art to overcome technical problems in a safe and economical fashion . Yet, it is the chemical engineer alone that draws upon the vast and powerful science of chemistry to solve a wide range of problems. The strong technical and social ties that bind chemistry and chemical engineering are unique in the fields of science and technology. This marriage between chemists and chemical engineers has been beneficial to both sides and has rightfully brought the envy of the other engineering fields.

Chemical engineers concern themselves with the chemical processes that turn raw materials into valuable products. The necessary skills encompass all aspects of design, testing, scale-up, operation, control, and optimization, and require a detailed understanding of the various "unit operations", such as distillation, mixing, and biological processes, which make these conversions possible. Chemical engineering science utilizes mass, momentum, and energy transfer along with thermodynamics and chemical kinetics to analyze and improve on these "unit operations."
Furthermore they continue to research and develop new methods and more efficient processes to increase output of existing products which have a wide range varying from food substance,beverages,medicine to oil and its products just to mention a few.

Imagine the world with no chemical engineers no antibiotics, no nuclear power,no cosmetics,no beverage(soft and hard) in a nutshell we could simply be living in the stone age. The world industrial growth revolves around chemical engineers. Now back to our beloved Kenya which I think is in a state of modern stone age with limited industrial growth and  we wonder why???

'My people perish because of lack knowledge' With all the hype and joyous mood I captured some words from a reporter cant quite remember the TV station who said that oil drilling and extraction is more of technical  skill and will give jobs (unskilled & semi-skilled) to Turkana people. It got me wondering are we extracting our oil in a ditch?? Because we have people referred to as drilling engineers who are often known as petroleum engineers, although they may come from other technical disciplines(chemical engineers,mechanical engineers and geologist) and subsequently trained by an oil and gas company
 We still have a long way to go to achieve Kenyan goal vision 2030 but the time is dwindling quite fast putting our goals to be unattainable  dreams.