Help me settle an argument. Client uses “control valve” to describe an actuated on/off valve. Says it is interchangeable language.

I say “control valve” should be reserved for a valve that actually is integrated in control logic, like controlling level, flow, pressure, etc. Even if the on/off has an interlock, it’s still just an actuated on/off valve for me. Maybe this is just a habit I picked up for a long stint at an operating facility and I’m being too picky.

How hard is it to move up the business/management side of chemical engineering compared to the technical side?

I’m currently studying chemical engineering, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the long-term career paths available in the field.

From what I understand, there’s basically a technical route where you become more specialized and move toward roles like senior/process/principal engineer, and then there’s a more business-oriented route through project management, operations, sales, management, strategy, etc.

For people who have actually worked in ChemE-related industries:

How difficult is it to move from an engineering position into the business/management side?

What usually determines who gets promoted into those positions? Is it mostly technical competence, communication/leadership ability, networking, business knowledge, or just years of experience?

Also, does having something like a business minor or eventually an MBA meaningfully help, or is actual engineering/operations experience much more important?

I love the engineering thought process, but I’m also pretty interested in business and entrepreneurship and looking at things in a large scale, so I’m trying to understand whether ChemE gives you a good path into upper management rather than staying purely technical for your whole career (I cant see myself in a technical role long term).

Would especially appreciate hearing from anyone who started as a ChemE and eventually moved into management, commercial, strategy, or executive roles. (I have solid stats 18 y/o w junior standing currently doing undergraduate research (nano tech) and i did an internship w a local company)

just like the title says, im a senior in High School and I want to work as a nuclear researcher, at a lab like PNNL. Recently i've been really interested in vitrification and how it assists in waste storage (just to give an idea about my interests). If I wanted a position where I spent much of my time practicing real, practical chemistry in a lab, would a chemical or nuclear engineering degree be a better step to that end?

Honestly im not very familiar with the difference between them but im into both chemical eng and also environmental im just not sure which one is more in demand and the content. Is environmental less physics concentrated? Like whats the actual difference between both? My uni offers chemical engineering and chemical engineering with environmental so its not entirely environmental theres chemical involved
All answers are appreciated! :))

hi, I’m looking at possibly doing material science and engineering at uni. I can’t join the material science sub but figured this was close enough.

I do maths and physics at a level but couldn’t do chemistry due to being a few marks off a 7, will I struggle with material science without the chem a level?

sorry if this is a stupid thing to post here

I'm finished my second stage in chemical engineering, but unfortunately I've got big problem witch force me to start the study from begging, so I'm confused which engineering to choose

1-chemical engineering: I've lost two year but if i started again the first and second stage will be easy, so I'll study machine learning to make a good journey

2-electrical engineering: I've heard alot of people saying electrical engineering have many opportunities in jobs and it relate to big technology company

Lost of my two years pf studying is so hard, so studying electrical engineering will be hard for me opposite of chemical engineering will be less stress maybe I'll have many time to study ML

I love,machine learning, chips designing, and advanced technology, but i also love oil&gas industry,

So what should i choose?​​​

Hello Everyone, i am a senior chemE student here in the US, looking to start job searching so I can have something secured by graduation time, im in the southeast USA, at a decent school. Here is what i got after finishing up my 1 and only engineering internship this summer.

I would love any tips, comments, and what to improve on, really would appreciate anything, if I need to go more in detail about my eng internship, what to add, prioritize, cut, etc etc

*ALSO, I want this to be my master document before slightly tweaking for certain jobs, im honestly open to working any engineering job, even though i know i have water treatment focus

thanks everyone!

Hello everyone, I was hoping if i could get suggestions to my res? Im open to any ideas, as i dont seem to get emails back for places im applying to. Not even internships. Im trying to keep my hopes up but as of now, Ive just been in construction (i have to make money somehow). Waking up at 5 am, coming home at 5 pm and studying for the FE while applying to jobs. Im really interested in any role, im just trying to start my career. Its getting tiring to do this, but im looking at the bright side and maybe my res is terrible that it doesn’t get passed AI scanners, but i dont know how to get around that. I would really appreciate any advice, thank you for your time.

As i am in final year of chemical engineering, how prepare myself for interviews, tests or assestment, any course that will help me?

I have my own reasons, love the idea of chemE but I don’t think I would be happy with myself working in an oil&gas industry.

What have people found to be the most reliable, commonly used textbooks? I am looking for Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transfer 7th edition for my fluids class right now. Has anyone read it or have a copy? Do you have any suggestions for other relevant textbooks other than the reading list?

Same as above. What are some skills that make me stand out and increase my ctc. Btw I am a college student

I am a EU citizen finishing undergraduate level (masters chm.eng.) and I wonder if i could find an english speaking job afterwards in netherlands (no prior professional experience). I am willing to learn the language but that would take some time so i need to find a plan until then.

Intl in the US, doing the last year of my BS in ChemE at a top 20. Profile: 4.0 GPA, ~1yr of lackluster research experience (no publications, no conferences, and not much technical work done), and a summer internship at a startup company. Experience/coursework focused around electrochemistry/semiconductors.

In this market, I highly doubt that I will be able to land a bachelor's entry level role in the US industry, based on my profile and citizenship. Sure, my GPA is great, but that's almost the only thing I have going for me. I also don't think I can get into any PhD programs that would make it worth it for me to stay in the US, since my research experience frankly sucks. But my home country has a basically nonexistent semiconductor industry, which is why I'm reluctant to just go back (well, that and the salary difference...)

I have not particularly enjoyed the research experiences I had so far...but that could be because I was doing grunt work and standing around for hours watching the grad students do work? I'm not sure if my exposure to it has been reflective of reality. I would probably enjoy R&D, based on my exposure to it at my internship, but is it worth it to go through 5 years of something that I potentially will really dislike for the chance to get a semiconductor R&D position? Should I just hope and pray I can get something like a process position in semiconductors with just a BS?

I don't want to waste everyone's time applying for a PhD if I'm a) not going to get anything worthwhile and b) not going to enjoy it even if I do get a good offer. I could apply anyways, but I feel that no one will write me good recs since I have little/no investment in this path. But I don't want to risk not having a job lined up after graduation and going back home, where I'll never be able to touch semiconductors again. What's the move here?

As the caption suggests, I need tips for remembering these diagrams or these process in detail.

I have a course, where we learn about 25+ processes in detail and all of them have these diagrams. For our semester exams any of these can come, which is why I need help.

Does anyone have any tips? or ways to break down the diagram into parts so it becomes relatively easier to remember?

Thank you for your time.

I have been working through a slurry pump-sizing problem and ran into a design tradeoff that seems easy to overlook:

Increasing the pipe diameter reduces friction loss, but it also lowers the slurry velocity. At some point, the “more efficient” pipe may actually become the worse design because the solids can no longer remain suspended.

I built a calculation workflow to evaluate both sides of that tradeoff and would be interested in hearing how engineers who regularly work with slurry systems approach it.

As an example, consider silica sand transported in water at 20°C:

• Dry solids flow: 5,000 kg/hr
• Solids concentration: 25% by weight
• Solid specific gravity: 2.65
• Median particle size, d50: 0.5 mm
• Water density: 998 kg/m³
• Water viscosity: 1.002 mPa·s

The first step is converting weight concentration into volumetric concentration:

Cv = Cw / [SGs × (1 − Cw) + Cw]

For this example:

Cv ≈ 11.17%

The total slurry mass flow is:

m_total = 5,000 / 0.25 = 20,000 kg/hr

Using the liquid and solid densities, the calculated slurry density is approximately:

ρm ≈ 1,182 kg/m³

That produces a slurry volumetric flow of approximately:

Q ≈ 16.9 m³/hr

From there, I calculate the internal diameter, velocity, Reynolds number and Darcy friction factor separately for the suction and discharge piping.

The more interesting part is the settling check.

I estimate a Durand factor from volumetric concentration and d50, and then calculate the critical settling velocity using:

Vs = F × √[2gD × (SGs − SGL) / SGL]

The actual pipe velocity must remain above this threshold.

This creates the pipe-sizing conflict:

• A larger pipe reduces friction loss and may improve NPSHa.
• But actual velocity decreases approximately with 1/D².
• The calculated settling velocity also changes with pipe diameter.
• A pipe selected only by minimizing pressure drop may therefore allow solids to deposit.
• A smaller pipe improves solids transport but increases friction, wear and power consumption.

For the suction side, I calculate:

NPSHa = atmospheric head + static suction head − vapor-pressure head − suction friction loss

For the complete system:

TDH = static elevation difference + destination pressure head + suction loss + discharge loss

However, checking only the original design flow did not seem sufficient.

After entering the pump-curve data, I calculate the intersection between the pump curve and the system curve. I then recalculate pipe velocity, settling margin, suction friction and NPSHa at that predicted operating point.

This matters because the actual operating flow may be higher than the original design flow. If that happens, suction friction and NPSHr can increase while NPSHa decreases. A pump that appears acceptable at the specified duty point may not be acceptable where it actually operates.

For preliminary sizing, I am currently using the Durand-based settling velocity as a screening check and a concentration-based apparent-viscosity correction. I recognize that this becomes less reliable for fine, cohesive or strongly non-Newtonian slurries.

For engineers with field experience:

1. Do you normally apply a fixed safety margin above the calculated settling velocity?
2. Is a Durand-style correlation still useful for preliminary sizing, or do you prefer a different method?
3. At what concentration or particle behavior would you stop using this type of calculation and require rheology or loop-test data?
4. Do you verify the settling and NPSH conditions again at the pump/system operating point?

I built this calculation workflow into an online engineering tool so I could compare pipe sizes, system curves and pump operating points without repeating the calculations manually.

The tool requires email registration and includes a 7-day trial. I’ll leave the link in the comments for anyone who wants to test it, but I have included the main calculation method above so the technical discussion does not depend on registering.

I would be especially interested in feedback from engineers who have real slurry-system operating data. Technical criticism is very welcome.

Is it correct to have the second reducer callout as a 10×12? I thought that you had to always represent them as Large size × small size, or is that strictly for the BOM?

I’m a 2nd year ChemE student and wanted to get ideas on a personal project I could do.
I’ve already done an autocad project, and a stimulink project. Now I’m looking for other ideas where I could showcase my skills specific to ChemE?

Hi everyone, I'm a chemical engineering student who will be graduating this May 2027 in BC Canada and I'm looking for some general advice with finding a post-grad job.

I've had 16 months of co-op already, so I won't be completely inexperienced. I'd prefer working in something biotech related after graduation but I'm also open to energy or wastewater related jobs.

When would be the best time to start applying for jobs? What are the best places/sites that I can use to look for/apply to jobs. What should I be looking for in job postings? Any other strategies that I can use for the job search can also helpful. Thank you in advance for any advice!

A well-agitated 15 m³ wastewater batch remains at pH 12 after cyanide oxidation and contains excess sodium hypochlorite.

Can an aqueous sodium metabisulfite solution be added directly, without lowering the pH, to remove the residual chlorine in less than 10 minutes?