Science Forums 2

[HydrogenBond]

The Chemical engineer is in the field since his job is field assessment, sampling, pilot studies and then scale-up to production. The chemists offer support along the way, doing the needed chemistry as different stages come to fruition. The engineer may do a soil sample. The chemist analyzes that for all the unknowns. Based on those results and the EPA standards, the engineer then tries to come up with ways to treat it. Most of the processes are off the shelf, but sometimes new standards requires improvisation. The chemist then offers support as samples come from the test or pilot facility. If it works, then the engineer begin to process the toxin. The chemist now has to make sure the results are statistically valid.

If the chemist is at a university, National Lab or R&D center, he may be involved with future EPA standards, looking for new techniques to meet the requirements 10 years into the future. This research are the things that the engineer will research during his preliminary investigations.

I use to do this type of engineering many years ago. The engineers are more hands on and tend to be the ones in the field. The chemists were usually doing pioneer research for new techniques, or offering analytical support. Often the engineers generate complex samples requiring analytical ingenuity to process the samples. The engineer also uses the published chemistry of the research chemists and figures out how to scale this up into a continuous type process. This requires background in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, chemical reactor kinetics, mass transfer, heat transfer, etc., while also worrying about cost, by-products and laws.