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Chemical engineers bring chemistry to life. They use the principles of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering to develop or improve processes for the production of fuels, foods, medicines, and household goods of all kinds. Chemical engineers along with industrial engineers and mechanical engineers in the design of refineries, factories and other industrial facilities. While chemical engineers enjoy relatively high salaries and intellectual stimulation, some chemical engineering jobs involve occasional exposure to hazardous conditions, and in the U.S. Decline in production is affecting job prospects.
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Chemical engineers are highly paid professionals. U.S. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, chemical engineers earned a median salary of $102,160 in 2017. Chemical engineers working in Texas earned the most with a median salary of $145,660. Those living in South Carolina came in at the bottom of the wage scale with a median wage of $81,990. Most employers also offer chemical engineers a generous benefits package, including paid time off, retirement contributions, and health insurance.
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Boredom is rarely a problem for chemical engineers. The work of a chemical engineer is almost always challenging and intellectually stimulating. Typical projects for a chemical engineer might include developing a more efficient process for cracking hydrocarbons in a refinery or working with the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up a highly contaminated Superfund site. In both cases, solving the problem will require creative thinking, research and a lot of hard work.
As with any job, being a chemical engineer has some downsides. Chemical engineers are sometimes exposed to hazardous space conditions. Despite important safety precautions, accidents are not uncommon in mining facilities, manufacturing plants, and chemical processing operations. Chemical engineers may experience chronic exposure or may be exposed to hot process media or toxic chemicals in the event of an accident.
Chemical engineers have mixed job prospects depending on the field they are in. While the BLS expects an average growth of 8 percent for the overall occupation between 2016 and 2026, manufacturing in the US has been in decline for several decades, and this has led to worse job prospects for chemical engineers for some types of manufacturers. However, emerging new technologies such as alternative energy and biotechnology are expected to increase the demand for chemical engineers, and they are also in demand in natural gas and plastic resin production.
Clayton Brown has been writing professionally since 1994. He has written and edited everything from science fiction to semiconductor patents to essays in linguistics, after editing for Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Stack-Vaughn, and The Psychological Corp. Brown holds a Master of Science in Linguistic Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
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Average Chemical Engineering Starting Salary How much does the average rocket scientist make per year? How Much Money Do Biological Chemical Engineers Make? Advantages of Petroleum Engineer What are the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a petroleum engineer? What kind of environment do mechanical engineers deal with? Metallurgical and Materials Engineer Salary What is the Job Description for a Polymer Chemist? Who Gets Paid More: Biochemists or Chemical Engineers? What is the Salary for an Associate Degree in Industrial Technology? Average Hours for a Chemical Engineer Salary Petrochemical Engineer Typically, “bosses” looked down on their accomplishments for this mini-milestone. But to break with tradition, I look ahead to speculate how a career in chemical engineering might evolve.
I think newspapers often produce articles with assumptions about the possible careers we will take in the future. Often these future careers involve an aspect of chemical engineering.
I know from working as a chemical engineer that it is difficult to identify as we are rarely called ‘chemical engineers’. We can be process engineers, safety engineers, bioproduct engineers, design engineers, environmental engineers… and some of us are not even called engineers!
While reading the literature online I came across various future professions and roles, some more fictional than others, which I think would suit the skills of tomorrow’s chemical engineers and some are already being done by today’s chemical engineers.
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With the impending dawn of commercial space travel e.g. Virgin Galactic? It is likely that competition from other companies will drive down the price of travel, making spaceflight more common.
Space tourism will initially involve only two- to three-hour suborbital flights. But these would gradually evolve into longer flights lasting several days or weeks to allow visits to distant planets or space stations.
Chemical engineers are currently working to find new sources for fuels e.g. Biorefineries, wind farms, hydrogen cells, algae factories and fusion technology. This could apply to fueled space travel.
Alternative energies such as solar, wind, tidal energy and hydrogen will become increasingly important. But currently the strategy emphasizes the leading role that nuclear energy will play. However, the current thinking is that the lack of uranium is undermining this plan.
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Chemical engineers working as uranium recyclers will be needed to convert bomb-grade uranium from warheads into low-enriched uranium for use in nuclear power plants to ensure that uranium shortages do not cause an energy crisis.
Farmers of the future will not only grow livestock and agricultural crops, but also genetically engineered plants to grow therapeutic proteins, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. So they are genetic “pharmacists”!
Chemical engineers are already working to produce plants that carry the vaccine. A recent example was the Ebola outbreak. Tobacco plants have been engineered to develop antibodies against the Ebola virus.
I think this will be a key area in the future where chemical engineers can play a big role in advancing these processes to achieve better results.
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Advances in nanotechnology already offer a wide range of nanoscale processes, creating these systems will require a new pool of nanochemical engineers.
Nanotechnology is essentially very small (or nano – Greek for dwarf) matter of only 1 to 100 nanometers in size.
Some experts believe that the next decade will see an increase in manufacturing. TUC UK senior policy officer Tim Page said: “The UK will identify niche manufacturing industries that are highly specialized and knowledge intensive,” and these will be driven by advances in nanotechnology.
This explosion of technological advances in nanotechnology will lead to opportunities for chemical engineers to lead the way.
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This is an area that is happening right now. By using vertical farms we can increase food production while keeping in mind the limitations of land use.
The idea of urban farms stacked in towers or underground with hydroponic crops and artificial lighting is gaining momentum. Chemical engineers would be well suited to these systems and could drastically increase our food yields and reduce further environmental damage.
This will negate the ‘food mile’ issue by offering a method where all your food can be grown together.
This job is a bit more abstract than some others, but when I saw it listed, I thought that simplicity is what every chemical engineer strives to achieve. By refining and optimizing processes, surely all chemical engineers should be called experts in simplicity?
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Connoisseurs of simplicity will look for ways to make everyday tasks simpler and easier. In the future, to save time, we will need to condense three days’ work into half an hour’s work (although I already feel the need to do this). Chemical engineers, who excel in mathematics, have an eye for design and a strong sense of design will do well in this line of work.
The world we live in today seems complicated, so we often assume that it may become more complicated in the future. The chemical engineers of the future will work to ensure this does not happen by finding ways to simplify and streamline our processes.
Advances in 3D printing are often in the news. Printers work by bonding particles of material together layer by layer until a complete object is formed. It is suggested that this can be applied to food.
Many chemical engineers work in the food industry to help improve products, measure them for production, and improve their health. A 3D food printer will require chemical engineers to narrow down these processes for use on personal printers.
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Converting a 3D printer to work with food grade cartridges will prove challenging on many levels. Chemical engineers can solve this type of problem, e.g. Developing component “canisters” that can be placed in printers. NASA has already implemented a study to see how a 3D food printer would work on a space mission.
The focus of all chemical engineers is to work sustainably. Companies and consumers worldwide are increasingly adopting green technologies e.g. At the IChemE Awards in November we will celebrate achievements in sustainable technology, water management and energy efficiency.
This is not a new field, but I can only see these roles becoming more and more important as new processes take place
