3rd IEM Chemical Engineering Design Competition - Registration

The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM) Chemical Engineering Technical Division (CETD) is pleased to announce that registration for the 3rd IEM Chemical Engineering Design Competition is now open!

Closing date for registrations is the 31st October, 2014

The competition is theme is "Technical Design and Economic Analysis of Potential Utilization of Crude Glycerol". Soft copies of the form may be downloaded here.

Plenty of Opportunities for Career Development

This is part of a series of articles that appeared CETD championed issue of IEM's monthly publication - Jurutera, September 2013. The article is best viewed in its original published form, available from IEM in print or online.

An Interview with John Thurtell, PhD 

John Thurtell, Engineering Global Support Office (EGSO) Manager of ExxonMobil Business Support Centre Malaysia Sdn Bhd, said demand growth in the chemical industry is anticipated to strengthen over time, linked to the growth of the broader economy.

“Most chemical demand growth is in Asia, driven by manufacturing of consumer products for both worldwide export and to serve the growing Asian middle class. These consumers are expected to purchase more packaged goods, appliances, cars, tyres and clothing, many of which are manufactured from chemical products,” he said. “Asia Pacific has accounted for more than two-thirds of global demand growth since 2000, and this trend is expected to continue,” said the Canadian who has just arrived in Malaysia approximately half a year back.

In the next decade, global chemical demand is expected to grow by 50%, driven by improving prosperity in developing countries. Large scale investments are ongoing in the region, particularly in Singapore and China where world-class facilities are being built in the refining and chemical businesses. Thurtell feels this augurs well for the chemical engineering profession as the industry boom will require more engineers with strong professional capabilities in every aspect of the business.

Will the development of the oil & gas sectors in Malaysia & Asia Pacific region affect the chemical engineering profession? In Malaysia, ExxonMobil has been operating for over a century. In fact this year marks the company’s 120 years in Malaysia, which is a significant milestone. Thurtell said: “We are a major oil producer and natural gas supplier in Peninsular Malaysia. We produce about a fifth of the nation’s crude oil and condensate and supply about half of its natural gas needs which is mainly used for power generation. Beyond upstream operations, our Business Support Centre, which is the second largest within ExxonMobil, also hosts ExxonMobil’s IT infrastructure and provides IT support across the globe 24/7.”

As an engineering-based company, ExxonMobil hires a lot of engineers to meet the operating needs of its business. “We also employ engineers in our EGSO in Kuala Lumpur. By virtue of the EGSO functionally reporting to ExxonMobil Research and Engineering (EMRE), our engineers are given the opportunity to provide technical, engineering and application support for ExxonMobil’s manufacturing plants around the world,” he explained, adding that about 95% of its total workforce is Malaysian which “reflects the tremendous local talent we have in our organisation”.

PROFESSIONAL BODIES

Sadly, many chemical engineers are not registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia. We asked Thurtell what ExxonMobil is doing to help develop young graduate engineers into professional engineers. He said: “We recognise that engineers play many different roles, depending on their specific job scope. ExxonMobil values the role of certification to ensure compliance with regulatory and process requirements. At ExxonMobil, membership in professional boards is not a prerequisite to employment or an on-the-job requirement as much of our focus is on safe and reliable project management and implementation, as well as operations of our existing facilities. Nevertheless, we are fully supportive of employees who wish to pursue qualifications to improve or maintain their skills and have over the years provided education assistance and reimbursement of the full cost of studies upon successful completion. We also provide internal training programme to strengthen the technical skills of our engineers.”

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Chemical engineers can help to promote sustainable development in the country. Thurtell said ExxonMobil’s commitment to operating in an environmentally responsible manner is anchored in its Environment Policy, which fosters appropriate operating practices and training, and requires its facilities to be designed, operated and managed with the goal of preventing environmental incidents.

He added: “Our ‘Protect Tomorrow. Today.’ Initiative guides our management processes to continuously improve environmental performance. Our business operations continue to drive enhancements in environmental performance by incorporating Environmental Business Planning into the annual business planning cycle. In Malaysia, one example where environmental considerations are incorporated into the design basis of our facilities is the use of a hybrid power-generation system on our unmanned satellite platforms. Solar panels produce about half the electricity required, and thermoelectric generators provide the other half. This combination ensures high reliability and low operating costs. Within the global ExxonMobil group, we also focus on various renewable energy initiatives, apart from doing energy optimisation such as co-generation, etc.”

Thurtell shared with us more about ExxonMobil’s new Engineering Global Support Office in Malaysia and the industry as a whole.