If you live on Earth planet, you may be aware of the Coronavirus crisis. It is spreading around the world and each country is taking its precautions to prevent fast contamination into the population. In Brazil, where I live, the local government decided to let most of the people at their homes for the following weeks. Companies are adapting themselves to these measurements, and some of the companies I do consultancy do not want their employees to get to the office up to March, 27th .
If you do not know me yet, I am a chemical process engineer working with plant design since 2007, and I will share with you how Corona Virus is impacting my work with plant design.
PLANT DESIGN FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERS
Different than then working with Operation, in most cases, the chemical process engineer working with plant design does not go to the field or follow up daily production. It is especially true in Design Offices. And as much bigger is the company more specialized are each department, and far away you will be from the field. In small companies, the chemical process engineer that develops the process engineering documentation is the same that go to the meetings with the customer, that support commissioning and startup and that solve plant troubleshooting. It is the fastest way you can have to develop your skills in chemical process engineering and plant design.
In big companies, usually, there is a chemical engineer to work with the proposal. He or she is responsible to do the interface with the customer up the deal is closed. Another chemical engineer, or a group of them, is responsible for developing the basic engineering/front end engineering design. In summary, with customer info, they develop process engineering documentation and support other disciplines to do the same. If you do not know which documents a process engineer does, watch the video I did for my YouTube channel (The Chemical Process Engineer and Plant Design). Before the plant is ready for startup it needs to be commissioned, in big companies, there is a specific team for that. They live more in the field than in their home and usually, the chemical engineer working in this area has a multidisciplinary set of skills and can lead the plant startup. About plant troubleshooting, it is usually solved remotely where the process engineer gives guidance for the customer.
Based on that, you can see that the development of process engineering documentation to plant design is done priory in the office.
PLANT DESIGN IN THE OFFICE
The main reason to work in an office, as a chemical process engineer in plant design, is to have easy access to people and to engineering tools. And to your boss control your time also. In fact, most of the time you do your job alone. For instance, once you have customer information like required flow, purity, pressure and temperature, you starting developing your process simulation, or more often if you are doing standard design, you review and update an existing simulation to match with the new project. It is you and the computer. If something does not convert, you may want to talk to a senior engineer or someone more skilled than you in the process simulation software. The same is for developing a process flow diagram, preliminary piping and instrumentation diagram, process datasheet, process description, operating manual, etc. Although these documents need revision and approval, the working process usually is done by email, intranet or in a bigger company, through specialized software. Normally, you do not need to sit side by side with the reviewer and approver. They do not have time for that.
To do the tasks mentioned above you will need Microsoft Office or a similar system like Google Docs, a CAD software, a Process Simulation Software, an email account, and the internet. Probably the most important utility in your work. It is more important to have a phone line at your desk to talk to the people.
CORONA VIRUS AND HOME OFFICE
As you can see, working with plant design can be lonely work. If you like to talk too much with people, think twice before getting a position as a chemical process engineer in plant design.
Once that everything you need to do your work is info, a computer, and the internet, Design Offices can let you work home without big issues. The main challenge is to keep communication and deliverables on the date.
I have been using a notebook for developing my tasks as a chemical process engineer for a long time. The previous company I was employee let available for the engineering team notebooks because often we needed to go to the field solve issues, do commission, startup etc.
As a consultant, fortunately, I keep doing the same. The big issue is commercial software licenses. However, if you can validate its use via the internet, this issue is solved. To run Microsoft office, process simulation software like Aspen HYSYS, Unisim Design, Schlumberger Symmetry etc you do not need a supercomputer. Even to do or review process flow diagram (PFD) and piping and instrumentation diagram (P&ID) in Microsoft Visio or AutoCAD you do not need either.
About interface with people, it is increasing the time we do meetings with someone online. More and more companies have been using Skype Business, but there are other tools like ZOOM, and you can even use Whatsapp to see the other person. Talking about Whatsapp, each day more info is being shared in this app in the work I do.
The home office is a real option to keep doing your work as a chemical process engineer in plan design.
LAST WORDS
The home office is something that I already was doing before this crisis and that many chemical process engineers can do depending on the Company support and do not depends on the Coronavirus pandemic.
The real problem with Coronavirus, besides people’s health, of course, is that the global economy may crash. And my generation, and maybe yours, we have not seen anything like this before. This means that if people were not able to handle this crisis, in the future there will be much less plant design to care about and another job crisis will arise.
Let´s see what the future reserve for us by keep improving your inner self, mastering technical skills and investing in external skills. It is more important now that you have never imagined.
To get more info about chemical process engineering and plant design
Telegram https://www.jefersoncosta.com/inprocess
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeferson-costa-process-engineer
