I just read a website about forgotten survival food last week. It kept me thinking if I am prepared or not if the day we live now become a chaotic scenario, havoc, crisis, emergency, or suddenly a war occurred. Are we ready? Do we have the stock food to keep on surviving?I’m a Chemical Engineering educator and am constantly involved in research work. It made me think if I have sufficiently thought of improving the great list of survival food introduced by Art Rood. Personally, I think chemical engineers have an amazing role to play in this.Here is what I think Chemical Engineers can do…Chemical engineers can make use of their expertise in chemical processes and food science to contribute to the discovery of superfoods that can aid in survival. They can use their knowledge to develop sustainable methods of growing and processing food, analyze the nutritional content of different foods, create new techniques for preserving food, optimize existing food processing methods and develop food fortification techniques. This way chemical engineers are able to help identify foods that are rich in essential nutrients, making them "superfoods" for survival.Chemical engineers can utilize their knowledge of bioprocessing and agricultural engineering to create new, sustainable ways of growing food. They can also use their understanding of food chemistry to identify foods that are high in essential nutrients. With their expertise in food science and preservation techniques, chemical engineers can develop new methods for keeping food fresh and safe for consumption. They can also optimize food processing methods to make food more nutritious and less wasteful. Additionally, chemical engineers can use their knowledge of food chemistry and nutrition to fortify food with essential nutrients, making it a "superfood" for survival.To summarize, chemical engineers can use their knowledge and skills to develop sustainable food production methods, identify nutrient-rich foods, develop new food preservation techniques, optimize food processing methods and develop food fortification to help in discovering superfoods for survival.What about you?What do you think?Chemical Engineering World

I stumbled upon flange guards not when I was a process engineer, but rather recently when a practical student mentioned about it few months back. I goggled right away and found the answer. I realized that it is something to do with the joints and threaded fittings in the form of flanges, unions, T joints and elbows, sockets or expansion joints for any piping system. Then I asked myself why flange guard was not installed in the plant I worked before. It was then that I realized that it is more required for a plant with critical and hazardous chemicals. My previous plant was more on edible oil and maybe that was the reason why I believe there was not flange guard installed. Anyway let me just share slightly more on what is flange guard.Flange guard is also known as flange spray shields are used in a range of industries to prevent hazardous spray outs from leaking flange joints and dangerous fluids such as acid, oil or steam. Flange guard cannot contain leak for an indefinite time, but are used to prevent fire and explosion which may cause death and injury. There are several types of flange guards which are explained below: ·        PTFE Flange Guards PTFE flange guards are made of multiple layers of Teflon coated fibreglass fabric. Teflon is resistant to most of the chemicals and Fibreglass provides strength to the fabric. ·        Stainless Steel Flange Guards Stainless steel flange guards are manufactured from SS316 steel. These shields have a steel mesh welded inside. The mesh diffuses the pressure and gives a safe discharge to the leaking fluid. These Flange spray shields are used on high temperature and pressure flange joints. ·        Clear Type Flange Guards These Flange shields have a transparent central window to provide easy visual inspection of flanges. This helps in easy leak detection without dismantling the shield. The Central window is made from ETFE in the middle which has a high tensile strength and PTFE on the sides. I hope you are clearer on what flange guard is about. It’s an excellent tool for providing safer working environment and lost prevention. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments section below.  Chemical Engineering World

This is UTM Faculty of Engineering's Hang Out Zone #40 talk by me titled "Engineering Practice Experience Sharing". In this talk, I shared in about 1 hour an example of engineering career sharing, which was my own personal experience. The case study of engineering career dwells around my adventure in the (1) oil and gas, and (2) oil and fats industry. It' difficult to share the experiences in 1 hour, but at least this is something that can be considered a sneak peak of one or two of the numerous engineering careers. Enjoy. Feel free to subscribe and request to get notified for all my videos. Chemical Engineering World

Hey guys! How are you doing?It has been quite some time since I freely write here in this very first blog of mine. This blog is my first and early success and I will never abandon this blog. I have been writing in another official work blog (the blog image is below and the url is people.utm.my/zakiyamani/) on a daily basis, but few days ago I thought that I should not fully ignore this blog and that's why I am back here doing some sharing. On 1st January 2020, I started to write on a daily basis all the official task that I am doing as a chemical engineering academia. Reason and RationalThe reason I am doing so is to share information, share working experiences and share insights on becoming a chemical engineering educator. Many people still think that an educator task is mainly to teach and lecture. But, that's more than just lecturing. That's the main reason I started sharing my official daily task. If you are interested to read it, you can click here. In many typical days, there are plenty of task that I need to perform, but for the sake of simple sharing, I would just select one of the official daily task. Sometimes, if there are more than one unique tasks, I will just state two or several of them. On top of that, I feel that it is nice and good to review back and reflect back on what I have been doing in the past. Believe it or not, often when I clicked my way back to several months in the blog, I forgot that I have done this and that! Hence, it is good to have a casual record on my daily log work, stating only one of the important things that I have done on a particular day.ChallengesThe main challenge on my mission is to be able to update all the selected official task daily. Sometimes, the working days seem hectic and I missed out updating it. But, I try to just put the title or main task and publish it. Then, when I have the time in future, I will look at the pending post and knew immediately what I should continue share. Another challenge is to have the bold and courage to state that there are days that I don't do any official task. Yes, that's true, very true. I am normal human and I do need a break once in a while although if you notice, I still record something to do on many of the weekends. But when I am so overwhelm with work on a particular week or if I am on a trip to my hometown, I will truthfully declare that I am not doing any official task. Yes, my story, my statement need to be realistic and true. Once in a while we need to break the pattern, not only working all the time.Recommendations?At this point of time, I have already have up to Day 282 Task. If i am to complete this year's daily task recording, it will be 366 days. I am wondering if you have any ideas or recommendations, please do not hesitate to inform me. I am very glad to read and consider your idea/recommendation....................................Download at no cost: Debunking Five Myths About Sustainable InvestingMisconceptions about the nature, purpose and definition of sustainable investing have taken hold, and it’s sometimes hard to find a signal in the noise. J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s guide offers insights to set straight common sustainable investing myths.Request complementary copy by clicking HERE.Chemical Engineering World

Chemical Engineering Career Talk - 3 Parts - What you need to know about preparing yourself for the industry. In this session, 3 final year students (Zulhilmi, Sufi Sazmin and Izzati ) from UTM Chemical Engineering Course were given the opportunities to ask any question regarding chemical engineering career ass they are going to seek a job and face the industry in less than 3 weeks time. WHO WERE IN THIS SHARING SESSION? Ir. Dr. Zaki Yamani Bin Zakaria (Lecturer, Ex-Engineer, Author) Muhammmad Zulhilmi Bin Zaiful Kamil ~ Pahang Sazmin Sufi Bin Suliman ~ Johor Nurul Izzaty Nor Jefri (IG: nuiz_zaty) ~ Sabah Watch Part 1: https://youtu.be/0NYog5JDExU Watch Part 2: https://youtu.be/oB_jWPBYjMY Watch Part 3: https://youtu.be/ZGqKS8t3Njk Feel free to ask questions related to chemical engineering career and I will try my best to help answer it. RESOURCES: https://www.chem.eng.blogspot.com https://www.chem-eng.online https://people.utm.my/zakiyamani/ ........................................... Free eBook: "Meeting the Demands of Hydro Energy"   It's no secret that the hydro energy industry is demanding in terms of equipment requirements. The systems in place must be able to withstand harsh environment conditions, all while maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety. Apply for the Free eBook here Chemical Engineering World

This is a great blog in town discussing about chemical engineering. It is almost like this blog of mine. It is run by a chemical engineer, Mr. Barat, from India. His blog is continuously sharing about chemical industries, pharmaceuticals, refinery, power plant & offshore. It is an alternative learning platform for get lot of updated knowledge about chemical, mechanical, Instrumentation & HSE. Upon visiting this blog, I can clearly see 5 tabs on the top of the header, that shows the main topic being discussed which are Instruments, Piping, Mechanical, Process and Environment & Safety. All of these are crucially imperative for chemical engineers.  Mr. Bharat, who is 31 years old now, started this blog in 2011. He graduated from Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, India. He is now a Panel officer in Refinery and have vast experiences in chemical engineering related industry. Feel free to visit his site at: https://chemicalengineeringworld.com/ Ejen Viral review Chemical Engineering World

I accept this recognition 🙂 I received an email last week congratulating me because my blog has been selected as the Top 10 Chemical Engineering Blogs in the internet. The email came from Feedspot.com. I am not really aware of what is Feedspot but they have somehow acknowledged my Chemical Engineering World blog. Thanks Feedspot. Then I checked the link that they sent to me and saw the top 10 listed blogs and websites. I was very shocked to see that my blog is at no. 3 position after AiChe and IChemE website. That's pretty cool. That means i am in the Top 3 actually....  Wow... I hope i can continue share great, awesome and relevant information related to Chemical Engineering to our community 🙂 Thanks for all the support and encouragement. Here are the complete Top 10 list: 1. aiche.org  (AiChe)  2. ichemblog.org  (IChemE)  3. chem-eng.blogspot.com (this blog) 4. cheresources.com 5. Chemical Engineering Guy 6. Chemical Engineering Reddit 7. chemicalprocessing.com/blogs 8. thechemicalengineer.com 9. Fauske and associates 10. chemicalengineeringpost.wordpress.com Chemical Engineering World

As a Chemical Engineering Student or Chemical Engineer, I believe that you are very much closely attached with your work place. This is actually your facility, plant etc. This is where you learn and practice Chemical Engineering. It's quite challenging, if you are not sure how to play the game and what you are dealing with. Sometimes, wrong decision can be very costly. You don't want bad thing happen to your facility. You definitely want the best for your facility, correct? But the question is how to do that? How to make your facility operating at its optimum capacity? Well, here are five things you can do fast to make a huge impact on your sustainability effort. Sustainability is the IN THING nowadays. It is very important. It is about more than checking a box. It’s about making critical decision that will have a positive and lasting impact on your workplace. From green building certification to sustainable shipping, we are going to share five eco-conscious things you can do to save money in your workplace. Get this 5 FREE TIPS from the following link (fast download): https://chem-eng.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?secure=1&sr=oc&_t=oc:&qf=w_staa60 Chemical Engineering World

The 3rd quarter of 2018 saw that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), my work place for the past 10 years experienced a major restructuring in its organization. I was previously in the Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering (FCEE), but after the synergy restructuring, it is now no longer a faculty, but a school. It is now known as the School of Chemical and Energy Engineering (SCEE).  What happen was all 6 engineering faculties were merged into 1 huge engineering faculty, called "Faculty of Engineering" Under the Faculty of Engineering, there are School of Chemical & Energy Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and School of Computing. As a result, our official website also changed. No need to know the old official website domain, I will just let you know the new one. It is now http://people.utm.my/zakiyamani/.  To get official update on my career, you can visit the website.  Thanks for the note. By the way, my other half's website is http://people.utm.my/mazura/.  Chemical Engineering World

FOREWORD I was inspired to choose chemical engineering when I first saw the chemical formula from my father’s chemistry book. The chemical formula shapes look fascinating and interesting to me. My father was an organic chemistry lecturer in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). When I was 14, I read his organic chemistry book and willingly learnt from it by myself. When I was 17, I wanted to have a career associated with chemistry. Back then, my first choice was chemical engineering and my second choice was biochemistry. To be honest, I was unaware of what chemical engineers do and what the industry is like. I could not imagine it due to lack of exposure and information. After completing my high school education, I pursued my A-Levels and took 3 core subjects which are essential for engineering: Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Then I continued my degree in chemical engineering. I managed to get a place in Bradford University, United Kingdom. I was unlucky because in our contract, practical training or sandwich course is not included by our sponsors. Therefore, we didn’t have any valuable practical and industry exposures. That didn’t matter and I kept on studying until I graduated in 1999. Post graduate - Research and Development (1999-2002) After completing my degree, I returned to Malaysia and was appointed as a research assistant for 5 months in UTM. I joined “Chemical Reaction Engineering Group” (CREG), where its main research was developing a single step conversion of natural gas to gasoline using zeolite catalyst. It was a very interesting topic and that encouraged me to further my chemical engineering master’s degree in it. Hence, I then became a full time research student and my research title was “Optimization of Oxidative Coupling of Methane (OCM) Using Experimental Design”, which is part of the natural gas to gasoline research project. Oil & Gas Exposure – Servicing Company (2003-2005) After completing my master, I was offered a job as chemical technologist for a local oil and gas servicing company. In a year, I became a project/chemical engineer in the same company. My main task was to lead the “internal pipeline chemical cleaning” project for a local oil company. We basically have to assist the oil company to reduce corrosion activities inside the downstream pipeline and prolong the life span of it. To efficiently and effectively monitor corrosion activities in the pipelines, we utilized latest corrosion monitoring techniques such as electronic resistant probe (ER) and field signature method (FSM). I was also in charge of the oil and gas specialty chemicals. I travelled to a number of offshore platforms in East Malaysia to conduct deoiler and descaler tests for their oil reserved. It was very challenging and fun performing those tasks. I love going offshore because the working hours are less compared to the amount of time we spent on the platform. The foods are marvellous and comparable to 5 star hotels. Entertainment and other activities such as television, movies, snooker, ping-pong, gymnasium and reflexology chair are made available for the platform dwellers. To be able to go offshore, I have to undergo Helicopter under Water Escape (HUET) training and get myself an offshore passport. With this job, I travelled extensively and visited neighbouring countries, Singapore and Indonesia, for work purpose.. In Kalimantan, Indonesia, I joined our company principal to conduct bottle test field trial for local oil company on their onshore oil rig. It was a very interesting and exciting assignment because I got to see how simple the setting of an onshore oil rig because in Malaysia we only have expensive and complicated offshore oil rigs/platforms. Oil Fats Industry – Refinery (2005-2008) I love my oil and gas career but I was unfortunate because I could not continue being in that industry. The company management has bigger plans and they moved to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.  I was instructed to transfer which I could not do because I don’t want to hinder my wife’s career establishment as a lecturer/researcher/consultant in UTM and we also have just purchased a house in Johor Bahru, the same year. I seek for other jobs and managed to get one in a physical refining plant in the oil and fats industry. This is a whole new chapter and totally different from my previous job. I was required to punch in and out every time we enter or exit the factory. Life is no longer as flexible as before. I don’t have ample time to do my work and that made me work longer hours and I always reach home when it’s already dark. I don’t really mind because it’s a new working environment and I know I have to learn as fast as possible. I set my target to know everybody around my circle of work as soon as possible. My first task given by my boss was to identify and list down all the valves in the plant I was in charge of. It was an interesting and good assignment. It made me traced the entire pipeline from the feed tank to the plant and to the product tank. I learned a lot of stuff regarding valves. I know and understand various types of valves, brand/ origin, sizes, spare parts, principle/operation, tag number etc. In addition to that, indirectly, I learned about the plant process and operation. That was just the beginning. Being in a process plant is a perfect place to learn and put in practice my unit operation knowledge. It also gave me a better comprehension on what process control is all about. I learned about other supporting units like heat exchangers, cooling towers, high pressure boilers, utility boilers and much more. The learning curve continued every day and never stopped. Not only that I learn about all the technical stuff, handling manpower and conflict is another challenging area that I made myself good at. Manpower is not an easy matter to deal with. Some of my down line manpower never experienced any disciplinary action taken when they violated certain laws such as coming in late and simply not coming to work. Despite a series of reminder and warning, the bad attitude still continues. I could not stand it. With the support of my senior colleague, I enforced the discipline and forced them to obey. I gave the problematic staff some disciplinary action. I want them to learn some lesson and be more serious towards their responsibility and work. During plant shut down, I learned a lot. Techniques on ensuring the fastest and effective way to cool down the plant, managing and coordinating a team of people to service the plant, conducting air test, steam test and driving the plant start-up are among some knowledge I acquired. A Little Something from Me There is a lot to share, but it’s impossible to include everything here. I’m glad to have experienced chemical engineering in three different areas; research (academics); oil and gas; and oil and fats. Each area has their own challenges, advantages and unique. Being very vague about the chemical engineering industry during my student life urged me to improve the situation. Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody can tell and share what they can expect from the industry? It will be some sort of a chemical engineering informal education for the students and other junior engineers. That is why despite of my busy life as a process engineer (previously), I progressively and continuously share some of my experiences in my “Chemical Engineering World” blog that I created in 2006. I sincerely hope it can provide at least some useful information for fellow young chemical engineers. I believe it’s a good thing if other professional and practicing engineers out there can do the same for others to benefit. It will be a great contribution. Below are some of the photos of those grabbed hold of my book 🙂 With Dato' Prof. Ir. Dr. Rafiq, Dean of Engineering Faculty, UTM. Thanks for the support Dato'. With Prof Ir. Dr. Zain Manan, Deputy Vice Chancellor, UTM. Appreciate your guide and encouragement Prof... 😀 . With Dr. Asmadi Yussuf... Already received the book few days ago, but we didn't make this post that time, so now we seize the moment 😂 . With Nabila, PhD Student under the supervision of Dr. Zarina Muis and Prof. Ir. Dr. Linda Hashim. Wow... Dr. Peng Yen from MJIT, UTM is not just very tall, but also among those very supportive of my efforts. Tks bro. With Dr. Azizul Azri Mustaffa. Thank you for your support and some interesting points and comments just now 😀  . Part of ICLCA 2018 committee & my book being displayed 🙂 With beloved Prof Dr. Mohd Nawi Derahman 🙂 at his beautiful house. With my ex-student, Luqman who is working in Pasir Gudang. With my MSc and PhD Supervisor, Prof. Ir. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin. With My Engineering Education Mentor, Prof. Dr. Khairiyah Mohd Yusof @ Center for Engineering Education, UTM. With Lotte's tough and genius dude 🙂 — with Muhammad Zakwan Zaine at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM. With Khairil Anwar Razali at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, UTM. A friend's daughter holding my book 🙂 To learn further or to buy this book, please click the link below: https://www.facebook.com/zakiyz/posts/10156876230709973This post is contributed by Unity Supplement - The Ultimate Weight Loss Supplement Chemical Engineering World

Freshly released from the oven. My VERY FIRST BOOK. NOW OPEN FOR SALE! ONLY HERE IN FB... This is not offered in other platform yet. Special price for October 2018 🙂 BismillahirRahmanirRahim... Ramblings of A Chemical Engineer - the blue book There is a lot to share, but it’s impossible to include everything in the book. I’m glad to have experienced chemical engineering in three different areas; research; oil and gas; and oil and fats. Each area has its own challenges, advantages and uniqueness. Being very vague about the chemical engineering industry during my student life urged me to improve the situation. Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody can tell and share what they can expect from the industry? It will be some sort of a chemical engineering informal education for the students and other junior engineers. That is why I progressively and continuously share some of my experiences in this book. I sincerely hope it can provide at least some useful information for fellow young chemical engineers and chemical engineering students. I believe it’s a good thing if other professional and practicing engineers out there can do the same for others to learn. It will be a great contribution. "Learn something about chemical engineering that is not in your textbook". Some of the copies of the book Some of the table of content of the book More table of content of the book RAVING REVIEWS... "I read Zaki’s writings from 2008, it has been 10 years that I am following his interesting web based publications. There is always something to learn from his writings and more importantly those are not in standard text books. Zaki is one of the rare chemical engineering professionals who understand the value of dissemination of knowledge to public as well as young chemical professionals. Generally in traditional engineering fields such as chemical and process engineering, knowledge is being transferred one-to-one which is quite slow and inefficient. However, effort of Zaki and such knowledge sharing professionals will change the eco-system in chemical engineering for good!" - Dr. Thushara Subasinghe, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka "Ramblings of A Chemical Engineer! The title says it all. It is a compilation of wonderful stories of life as a student and chemical engineer. Zaki has managed to shine a light on chemical engineering world by sharing good stories, wonderful experiences, topical issues and much more. And all this in an entertaining way! Thank you Zaki, for putting your experiences ‘in word’ so many of us can learn, get inspired, and be motivated by your pen!" - Dr. Aziatul Niza Sadikin, School of Chemical & Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia "Ramblings of A Chemical Engineer is a good book which features the real life experience sharing by Zaki & indeed beneficial to students, young engineer or academics who have not had opportunities to be in the chemical process or related industries. Thumbs up to the author!" - Dr. Siti Shawalliah Idris, Universiti Teknologi MARA "I enjoyed this book very much and would recommend it to any chemical engineering student, junior chemical engineer or just chemical engineering enthusiast regardless of age." - Tarig Hussein, CTP Trainee in an American multinational engineering, procurement, construction and installation company based in Europe. Professor Kamarul Asri from School of Chemical & Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) gets my new book.  Fizzat @ DR. Love (my student), among the first buyer of my book RAMBLINGS OF A CHEMICAL ENGINEER Facts - Purely a sharing of my experiences from 1997-2008. - 255 pages of informative casual ramblings. - Simple English and easy to be understood. - Awesome Bonuses ---> available in the last 3 pages. - It's a self-published book. - Size of book is 6" x 9". - Great suitable reading for (1) potential chemical engineering students / secondary school students; (2) university chemical engineering students; (3) junior chemical engineers; and (4) academicians and researchers, and (5) of course others who just want to learn and know what a chemical engineer really does... HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Not RM275 Not RM120. Not RM75. So, how much does it really cost? Well, you can get this book for RM49.00 (Price for Malaysia & excluding postage cost). But here is the BEST PART. For a limited time only, I will be offering "RAMBLINGS OF A CHEMICAL ENGINEER" for ONLY RM40 (Excluding postage cost). Postage cost per book: RM8 (Peninsular Malaysia) RM12 (Sabah/Sarawak) Yes, RM40 per book, for a limited time only. And you can learn a lot from my sharing. Be the fortunate early ones to own this great book. Stocks available. Once your order is received and payment is verified, we will immediately courier the book to you. =================================== Zaki, I want to order your book. How can I order it? Please contact me (the author) at: zaki.yz@gmail.comSpecial price starting from 2021: Only RM30 (excluding courier cost) I will then process the order. I will then courier the book directly to you at the designated address. If you are in UTM Skudai, we can meet up for me to deliver you the book. INTERNATIONAL PURCHASE For international buyer, please kindly email me "zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com" for further information to buy this book. Thanks for your consideration. ABOUT THE AUTHOR (ME) Zaki has been fond to be a chemical engineer since he was 14 and in 1999 he earned his Chemical Engineering bachelor degree. He has been in various industries such as oil and gas as well as oil and fats. He realized that there was lack of information or sharing about real chemical engineering career, experiences and exposure from practicing engineer; and that was the reason he started Chemical Engineering World blog in 2006, which received overwhelming responses from chemical engineering students and junior engineers around the globe. In 2008, he started Chemical Engineering Facebook Page which managed to attract 29k followers. His personal mission is to help build interest, excitement and enhance knowledge within the chemical engineering community in line with his favourite tagline, “Learn something about chemical engineering that is not in your textbook.” #chemicalengineeringbook #chemicalengineering #chemicalengineeringebook #chemicalengineeringstory #chemicalengineeringstories #chemicalengineeringexperiences #chemicalengineer #book #nonfictionbook #recommendedbook #juruterakimia #kejuruteraankimia #engineering #engineeringeducation This post is brought to you by CeraCare - The Best Blood Sugar Support Supplement!Chemical Engineering World

Fresh and hot from the oven is my new eBook, "Ramblings of a Chemical Engineer". Standby to DOWNLOAD this 100+ pages which is a little collection of my learning curves and experiences as an engineer. Stay tune and wait for it as I will open it for download this Sunday, 13th May 2018. Chemical Engineering World

Time flies. Flies so fast. I did not noticed that I have not posted anything in this Chemical Engineering World blog this year of 2015. My bad. I have been really fully occupied with numerous on-going tasks, projects and responsibilities. Fortunately, I still have time to muse a word or two in 2015. Well, nothing much to write here but just wanted to highlight few things of 2015. 2015 Grand Opening What a great way to open up 2015 with a publication accepted a highly sort after Energy journal. I hope 2016 will come up with more exciting publication such as this. Well, that means more hard works and more time to invest towards this effort. Thanks Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anwar Johari and Mr. Bembga Bevan Nyakuma for inviting me to contribute a bit for this journal. The manuscript in Energy journal. Bravo guys... 🙂 The first and the second... It was a complete struggle to seek and search for a Ph.D student. The journey to find one has been quite a long pain staking effort since I wrapped my very own Ph.D, end 2013. My eLPPT record, that's what our academic KPI system is measured by, indicated i don't have any post graduate students for 2014, and that looked bad. If not bad to others, I personally don't like the look of it. Fortunately, first quarter 2015 opened a new window to my personal post graduate supervision endevour. Finally, my very first full time Ph.D student and first Industrial Ph.D student, which I am the main supervisor. I promise myself that I will guide and supervise them the best that I can. This, I can say is one of the monumental moment for me as an academician and researcher. ( Cultural Gorgeous Bali It is at this beautiful island that I presented my paper about thermodynamic analysis of glycerol conversion to olefins in The 2nd International Materials, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering Conference (MIMEC2015). The conference took place on early February 2015. MIMEC 2015 conference hall was really huge. This is the venue for key note speaker. This is one of the proof that I am here. Presenting my research work. It went well 🙂 My conference name tag   The program book The paper presented A visit to a mountain in the center of Bali. A superb spectacular view and peaceful place to be. Me and my other half at on of our must stop place at Bali. Historical Phenomenal Istanbul For me, this is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. The trip was actually to accompany my other half to the 2015 APCBEES Istanbul Conference. conference. It took place in April 2015. My wife, Dr. Mazura Jusoh, highly sort after progressive freeze crystallization (PFC) expert, presented her research work on a new PFC design for desalination of seawater. The banner. The conference is quite small... Dr. Mazura Jusoh posing with some delegates / presenters. Part of the participants of the conference A visit to Emirgan Park Bosphorus river Blue Mosque view My Google Scholar 2015 (just for record)...  Hmmm... for record, I would like to take this google scholar screenshot for the end of 2015. Then let's compare it later and see if there will be positive progress.  Citation - 84 h-index - 3 i10-index - 3  If you asked me, I think not bad for me as I just started my journey as a true academician after my Ph.D in 2013. Here is the link for my real time Google Scholar page. Master Plan for 2016 I won't post a microscopic detail of it, but rather a macroscopic one. I would like to focus more on research, secure 1 or 2 research grants, publish more in reputable journals, write and publish a book, commercialize a product. Seems too many, but what's wrong with that. Let's try and do it, and see how it goes... As for all of you, i trust you also have your own 2016 goals. Go for it. Embrace and work for it. All the best. Happy New Year 🙂 Chemical Engineering World

For a small chemical engineering blog like this, it is a great pleasure and recognition when another website, Web Technology USA, feature us as their content.  WEB TECHNOLOGY USA is a directory of technology websites. This directory is a good place to start when looking for a list of the top technology websites, blogs and forums. Promising websites are selected from the listing to be the featured websites of the week. The website also posts Press Releases from leading technology companies. There is a dedicated detailed page for each website. The link to the website is provided at the bottom of each directory page. Chemical Engineering World (this blog) is featured on the home page of Web Technology USA for 2 days. Chemical Engineering World (this blog) is archived under the Chemical Engineering section. The website cover the following disciplines: Aerospace, Automotive Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computational Engineering, Computer Science, Cryotechnology, Cybernetics, Data Acquisition and Control, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Energy, Industrial Engineering, Invention and Innovation, Lighting, Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering, Metrology, Military Science, Mining, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Power, Optics, Propulsion, Robotics, Space, Structural Engineering and  Surveying. Almost all of the disciplines listed above are directly and indirectly related to chemical engineering.   The directory is maintained by editors who evaluate technology and engineering websites for inclusion in the listing. All entries are subject to the editors’ evaluation. The website is highly selective and takes pride in the quality of their listing. Their main objective is to make the directory a useful resource for the Technology and Engineering Community. The people who runs this directory also maintain another awesome informative website called EEWeb, which caters for electrical engineering communities. EEWeb is so comprehensive where it integrates product news and highlights, article and videos, feature engineer, cartoon, quiz, projects and others related to electrical engineering. I hope one day chemical engineering can be up to the level of EEWeb. ------------------------------------------------------------------- FREE Recommended magazines to get you updated with current engineering news   Have you downloaded my free "Choosing Alternative Fuel" Ebook? If not, then please download it here. It's Free and on top of getting the free ebook, you'll get eCourse on Alternative Fuel. It's a good and easy way to add more valuable information to yourself. Chemical Engineering World

I have been asked several times the steps and how to be a professional engineer having an IR status in Malaysia. Due to that, I thought it is better for me to write a special guide explaining step by step what should be done. I'll try to make this guide as compact and short possible (but still resourceful) so that it won't waste any of your time. 1. Register with BEM If you just graduate from university in Malaysia or have graduated for several years already, register with Board of Engineers, Malaysia (BEM). Please take note that registration with the Board of Engineers upon graduation is compulsory under the Engineers Act 1967 for all practising engineers. To know the procedure and requirement to register with BEM, click here. To download the registration form, click here. You may need a professional engineer to stamp and sign your application form, degree certificate, results transcript etc. (Check list on list of documents to be prepared are shown in the application form). It will take you few weeks to get BEM membership number. Example of BEM membership number is like this: 49818A. This membership number is imperative and will be required when you apply as a graduate member with IEM. (BEM Registration cost: RM50). 2. Register with IEM After you get your BEM membership number, you can fill it up and apply to be a graduate member under Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM). To know the procedure and requirement to register with IEM, click here. Now, it is easier as you can apply it online (link to apply online) (Check list on list of documents to be prepared are shown in the application form). After you submit completed form, wait few weeks. (IEM Registration cost: (a)RM180 if you are under 30 years old {consisting of RM80 for entrance fee and RM100 for first year IEM fee} or (b) RM235 if you are above 30 years old {consisting of RM80 for entrance fee and RM155 for first year IEM fee}). 3. Training / Mentoring Process After your IEM graduate membership is approved, and presumably you work as an engineer (practicing, academic/research), you can start seeking for a mentor. You can ask IEM head quarters located in Petaling Jaya for the list of mentors available in your engineering discipline. If you are a chemical engineer, you need to have a chemical engineer mentor. If you are a civil engineer, you need to have a civil engineer mentor. Similarly for other engineering disciplines. After you have identified and contacted your mentor, you need to filled up a form to IEM to inform that that person is your mentor. Then you can start meeting / discussing / contacting your mentor.  Your mentor will be the person who will check / guide you to be a matured professional engineer. You need to prepare monthly report and quarterly report and submit them to your mentor. At the end of each year, you then need to submit the 1 year report to IEM HQ. A special committee will evaluate and check your report. The entire mentoring process will take 3 years. Supposedly, by this time (that 3 years), you are already trained to be a professional engineer, capable to prepare good level of proposal / report etc. This can be observed from the quality and maturity of the report that you prepared. To read IEM Log Book Training Scheme and Guide click here. Please take note that your the overall training process is conducted by IEM and your mentor is a member of IEM as well. Within this 3 years, it is advisable that you undergo all the 3 mandatory courses that is required by BEM which are (i) Safety and Health at Work (ii) Engineering Management Practice (iii) Code of Ethics and Regulation. Traditionally, the trainings are offered by IEM Training Center (IEMTC) in Petaling Jaya. IEMTC will provide a form that looked like this. However, if you are in other states in Malaysia, you can refer to the regional IEM office. Sometimes the regional IEM office conduct those mandatory courses. As in Johor Bahru, besides IEM Southern Branch (IEMSB), UTM under the Centre For Academic Leadership & Professional Development (CALPD), UTMLead also conduct in-house BEM Mandatory Courses for UTM Staff (link). (Log Book Cost: RM10. Mandatory courses cost: RM1050 (RM350/course as stated by IEMTC form, courses in Petaling Jaya). Don't forget to consider your traveling, food and accommodation course if you travel from other state)). p/s. You will save cost if the mandatory courses are conducted/organize nearby your place/state/city. 4. Professional Interview (PI) to attain Professional Engineer (PE) status - Initial Process After 3 years, your mentor will hopefully say that you are ready to sit for the Professional Interview (PI) and the special committee that checks/evaluate your report annually will also recommend you for the PI. The PI are conducted regularly throughout the country for members aspiring to attain PE status. For more information about this, IEM has prepared Professional Interview Guidelines and several essay samples (section B) to be downloaded and referred (link). By this time, it is best that you start filling in IEM PI(1) form [APPLICATION FOR ELECTION AS CORPORATE MEMBER] and standby to fill up IEM PI(2) form [PROFESSIONAL INTERVIEW – DECLARATION AND CERTIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS FORM] - Download link for both forms.  At the same time, it is best for you to prepare your (a) Training and Experience Report (T&E), and (b) Project Technical Report. The T&E report is basically a report of yourself comprising all of your training and experience since you graduated your bachelor degree. Hence, it is wise to keep a systematic record of all your works, tasks, responsibilities, job scopes etc from all your work(s), positions(s) from various companies (if you have worked in more than one company). In addition, you must make it a point to maintain good and healthy relationship with your previous employer(s), just in case you need to refer back to them for certain things/verification etc. The Project Technical report should be a specific project that you have performed previously that comprised of all engineering elements. This include but not limited to the problem itself, engineering design, calculation, project management, safety-health-environment, costing etc. Having a real engineering design solution will be far better than a conceptual design. Take note of that in mind. After submission of IEM PI(1) form, the IEM committee will see whether you are eligible for the Professional Interview or not (Check list on list of documents to be prepared are shown in the application form). Your name will be published in the magazine Jurutera, to advertise that you plan to sit for the Professional Interview. If anybody feels that you are not eligible for the interview, they should let IEM knows about it. Normally, everything will be OK if you are an ethical engineer. Then you are required to fill up IEM PI(II) form. IEM committee will assess the form and assign a Principal Interviewer to handle your interview. There will be a second interview as well. However, normally the Principal Interviewer or IEM secretariat will liaise with you on the interview. By this time also you need to get yourself familiar with the engineering codes of ethics. (Professional Interview fee cost: RM150 for graduate member, RM200 for non-graduate member) 5. The Professional Interview (PI) If everything is fine, the Principal Interviewer or IEM secretariat will contact you to decide the date and venue for the interview. They will also request for the T&E Report and Project Technical Report. It is imperative that you prepare a very good reports for them to evaluate during the Professional Interview. During the interview, both panels will interview you. The interview process will be in a relaxed atmosphere and they will attempt to check all requirements from you. After the interview, you need to sit for the essay questions. There are all together 2 essay questions that you need to do. The first one is related to you Project Technical Report and the second one is related to the engineering code of ethics. Duration of the essay question is 3 hours.After you complete everything, just wait for the result. 6. Result of Professional Interview The result could take about 1 to 2 months to be officially announced. You can also call or email the IEM secretariat in charge to know the result. After the IEM committee monthly meeting, if you passed, a certificate acknowledging that you are upgraded as an IEM Corporate Member will be produced and delivered to you. This is a massive result and the ticket for you attaining the IR status is almost there. 7. Getting the IR status Endorsed Now, you should prepare all the paper works required by BEM to upgrade yourself as a Professional Engineer. You need to fill Form BI (PERMOHONAN UNTUK PENDAFTARAN SEBAGAI JURUTERA PROFESIONAL)(download link) and prepare the following are: (i) Application shall be accompanied with a processing fee of RM50.00 and a registration fee of RM300,00 in *postal order/money order/bank draft/cheque made payable to Lembaga Jurutera Malaysia. (ii) Certificate (s) of training. (iii) Copy of Board’s letter on passing of the Professional Assessment Examination (Professional Interview) or copy of MIEM certificate. (iv) Copy of degree certificate. (v) Copy of registration letter as Graduate Engineer with the Board of Engineers Malaysia. (vi) Photocopy of birth certificate / identity card. (vii) Passport size photo-please write your name and registration number. (viii) Evidence of compliance to Regulation 22(1)(b) i.e. certificate of attendance only for Graduate Engineer registered after 1/1/2005. Submit all of them to BEM and wait. If everything is fine, it will normally take about 2-3 weeks until your certificate of IR endorsement is couriered to you. However, if there is some problem or incomplete documentation (normally the Certificate of Training), then you will need to complete whatever necessary, then resubmit to BEM. It is important to note that all photostated documents submitted together with this application must be certified-true-copy by a registered Professional Engineer. NOTES ON CERTIFICATE OF TRAINING (i) All certificates of training must be on the letterhead of the department/company addressed to the Registrar of the Board of Engineers Malaysia and the originals should be submitted to the Board. The certificate should state the period of practical training, post held and summary of the work you have undergone. The certificate of the training must be certified by the registered Professional Engineer/Professional Engineers under whom you have obtained your training. (ii) For those involve in teaching profession, he/she must undergo at least one year of industrial training under the supervision of a Professional Engineer in the same branch or engineering as that practiced by the Graduate Engineer. (iii) The name of the Professional Engineer signing the certificate of training must be clearly stated together with his Professional Engineer registration number and the branch of engineering he is qualified has to be indicated beside his name. (iv) The Professional Engineers certifying the applicant's prescribed training must be of the same discipline as that of the applicant. (v) If you have worked in more than one department/company in the 3 years, you need to submit two or more certificates. All the certificates of training submitted must be certified by the respective registered Professional Engineer under whom you have undergone your training.  If you still have doubt on the IR endorsement part after you obtained you already become IEM Corporate Member, you can contact 603-2696 7095 / 7096 / 7097 / 7098 or email: bem1@jkr.gov.my or enquiry@bem.org.my. (Processing fee cost: RM50.00, registration fee cost: RM300). 8. Maintaining your PE Status You need to maintain certain training CPD hours while working. Don't worry, this does not mean that you have to attend all trainings/seminars that have BEM and IEM CPD hours. You should do that when you can. However, part or most of your work can get you qualify for the CPD hours. Just go to BEM website (http://www.bem.org.my). Click the image to enlarge. Then, fill up your username and password. For first timer, you need to contact BEM to get this information. Then fill up your personal details and academic qualifications. Next, you can start filling in the CPD Records. The online CPD record makes it easier for us to keep and maintain our record. For first timer, just click Register New CPD record. Then, you'll arrive at a new page to insert all your activities. The CPD hours will be automatically calculated. It is very simple and easy. At the end of every year in December, make sure you complete filling up all your activities, jobs, tasks, assignments, meetings, trainings, courses, seminars, consultancy, projects etc. Then after everything is complete, you can click the Renewal link to renew your PE status for the following year. The PE status must be renewed each and every year. You should not ignore this, especially after all the 3 years of hard work preparing all those reports and attending the mandatory courses. (BEM annual renewal cost for professional engineer: RM200, IEM annual renewal cost for member: RM160) -------------------------------------------------------- Summary of cost involved (for applicant under 30 years old) No Item Cost 1 BEM Registration cost RM50 2 IEM Graduate member registration cost RM180 3 IEM Log Book Cost RM10 4 BEM Mandatory courses cost RM1050 5 IEM Professional Interview fee cost RM150 6 BEM Processing fee for PE cost RM50.00 7 BEM Registration fee for PE cost RM300 TOTAL COST RM1790 Summary of cost involved (for applicant above 30 years old) No Item Cost 1 BEM Registration cost RM50 2 IEM Graduate member registration cost RM235 3 IEM Log Book Cost RM10 4 BEM Mandatory courses cost RM1050 5 IEM Professional Interview fee cost RM150 6 BEM Processing fee for PE cost RM50.00 7 BEM Registration fee for PE cost RM300 TOTAL COST RM1845   Note:  This is rough estimation of the cost from applying as graduate member to applying as professional engineer within 3 years+. The estimation of cost is correct at the time of publication of this article. Extra cost may incur during traveling/meeting your mentor and attending mandatory courses/other IEM activities in order to accumulate CPD hour. The estimation of cost also does not include maintaining your yearly PE status. Take note that the current annual cost to maintain both IEM and BEM renewal fee are RM160 and RM200, respectively. -------------------------------------------------------- If there is any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment area below. This article is last updated on the 10th of July 2014. I will continue updating this article from time to time. Feel free to share this article to those interested to be a professional engineer. I apologies for the lack of clarity and length of the article. Free Magazine / Resource: Chemical Engineering serves chemical engineering professionals in the chemical process industry including manufacturing, engineering, government, academia, financial institutions and others allied to the field serving the global chemical process industry. To get complementary digital Chemical Engineering magazine, request for it HERE. Instead of reading, why not share your writing of chemical engineering knowledge and experiences here, in Chemical Engineering World blog? It will be interesting. It doesn't matter if you are still a chemical engineering students or you just work as an engineer or you are a very experience engineer. Sharing your story would be great. I am also still learning and would like to learn something from you. Just email me to share something in this blog. You can share stories, articles, photos, infographics, podcast, videos etc.  Chemical Engineering World

If you fancy working at offshore oil rigs, chances of experiencing a challenging and financially rewarding job is there. It's definitely going to be a fun, tough, exciting job. I've experience it before and I know how it feels like. However, before you can work there, you need to have an offshore passport and one of the important requirement to obtain the offshore passport is to undergo Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET). In United States, HUET is known as Helicopter Underwater Egress Training. In other parts of the world, it is famously known as Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET). HUET is training provided to offshore oil and gas industry staff who are regularly transported to and from facilities by helicopters over water. As the name implies, the purpose is to prepare them for emergency exit in the case of a crash landing over water. Imagine this situation. The helicopter crash land on the sea and it submerge. The passenger are trained to escape from the helicopter and there are several techniques to escape from the heli (image source). Helicopter passengers escaping from the simulated helicopter underwater (image source) A guy escaping from an over-turned helicopter underwater during the  HUET training (image source) The training involves simulated sinking in a pool while rotating the training module upside down and focuses students on bracing for impact, identifying primary and secondary exit points, avoiding smoke inhalation, surfacing for air, and head count. The conventional simulators simulate an immersed cabin rotating around single axis, usually lengthwise. Most trainees find that the repetition of predictable submerging and controlled rotation does not offer any additional improvement to their survival skills. While the traditional simulators can only be turned left or right in the horizontal plane, the new generation simulators can turn 360° in both the horizontal and vertical planes. I did my first HUET in Trengganu Safety Training Center (TSTC) in 2004. It was a 3 days course which include the activities described above as well as some theories and fire fighting practical. That time the cost was RM1400 if I am not mistaken. I am not aware of the present cost. For better comprehension on what is going on during HUET, I have included a video below. Check it out. Instead of reading, why not share your writing of chemical engineering knowledge and experiences here, in Chemical Engineering World blog? It will be interesting. It doesn't matter if you are still a chemical engineering students or you just work as an engineer or you are a very experience engineer. Sharing your story would be great. I am also still learning and would like to learn something from you. Just email me to share something in this blog. You can share stories, articles, photos, infographics, podcast, videos etc. Chemical Engineering World

Most of us know what is a heat exchanger. If you are not that familiar, no problem, just read some of my past articles: Heat Exchanger : Introduction & Basic, or search other of my articles related to heat exchanger  here. It is basically an equipment to allow heat transfer from one medium to the other medium. There are several types of heat exchanger such as (1) plate and frame heat exchanger (2) shell and tube heat exchanger and (3) spiral heat exchanger. Those 3 are the most common used in chemical plant. When a heat exchanger is continuously used, it will gradually lose the ability to transfer heat as the fouling and scaling develops on the surface of the heating material. When this occur, any heat exchanger will become inefficient and needs cleaning. When a heat exchanger is clean, it needs to be stopped. Hence, that's why there is a need to have a back up heat exchanger in a particular section of the plant. Otherwise, the plant will either run with a non-economic process or the plant have to shut down for a while to allow heat exchanger cleaning. Here, I would like to share a video on cleaning a plate and frame heat exchanger. It will be very useful exposure in case you have not seen how a plate heat exchanger is classified as dirty, dismantled from its frame by loosening the bolt and nuts, individual plates cleaning and arrangement, tightening of bolt and nuts to sandwich the plates between frames. This system uses 60 degree well-water as a medium to transfer heat via cooling plates in a heat exchanger. The other half of the heat exchanger system is condensing loop water, where heat pumps use it to transfer heat when cooling or heating.Check out the overall process of how it is cleaned. Credit to Rhomis Rhemis for creating this video Instead of reading, why not share your writing of chemical engineering knowledge and experiences here, in Chemical Engineering World blog? It will be interesting. It doesn't matter if you are still a chemical engineering students or you just work as an engineer or you are a very experience engineer. Sharing your story would be great. I am also still learning and would like to learn something from you. Just email me to share something in this blog. You can share stories, articles, photos, infographics, podcast, videos etc. Chemical Engineering World

Are you a chemical engineer? or perhaps a chemical engineering student? Chemical Engineering is a universal engineering discipline compared to electrical, mechanical, civil, mechatronic, robotic engineering. When I studied my first degree 18 years ago, I do not know that much about chemical engineering related work and discipline. Most of my friends also were not sure what this field is all about. Interestingly, that time, and probably still this time, students decided to choose chemical engineering because they love chemistry. Well, that is sadly not the case because this type of engineering is not merely about chemistry. In fact, there are more physics and mathematics involve with chemical engineering. I learn this fact not only from my own experience, but also when I asked new first year students who enrolled in my faculty. More than 75% admitted they choose this field mainly because of they loved chemistry!!! What a pity. As a result, we have to adjust their thinking and make them believe that they can excel in this course. They are also some chemistry that they can learn and enjoy. Now, in the new borderless era, students and people new to chemical engineering can learn this discipline far better than those few years ago. With internet dominating the world, we have websites, blogs, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and others to explain and elaborate about it. All information is just seconds away from us. This, I can say is a new version or strategy of learning the so call online chemical engineering. With such tools, information and discussion related to this subject is easily and swiftly discussed, exposed and distributed. More and more lecturers are using web 2.0 in e-learning as a medium to enhance and stimulate chemical engineering teaching among the students. Perhaps not all universities has employed online education but my university has started adopting online engineering education few years ago. An engineer in action on an offshore rig (image source) A group of engineers visiting a boiler manufacturing plant (source). Can you identify me? I have earlier created this blog related to my work in 2006 when I was working as a process engineer in an edible oil refinery. That time, I created my blog mainly because I have no medium to write and share my adventures experiences. I love writing and I have always been an editor of any newsletter or magazine in wherever I studied. That is the reason, when I discovered about blog, I immediately use it as a way to share my previous and present engineering experiences for the sake of young engineers and students. I never expected to receive numerous questions, feed backs and comments from engineering students and practicing engineers from all over the world. They can easily and comfortably ask question to real engineers like me. They can read stories and chemical engineers experiences. It is really a new way of learning this course or subject. Then, in 2008, I started Chemical Engineering Rocks Facebook Group and in 2011 Facebook Chemical Engineering World Page. Both platforms received phenomenal response and I am so glad. I strongly believe, online chemical engineering will be a major part of engineering learning curve. Early education can be catalyzed with web 2.0 and whether you believe it or not, you can not stop it. Do you think so? For further technical knowledge, I have prepared a note in my Chemical Engineering World Page, that is a compilation of top 7 free resources (that you can register). Get it here. Instead of reading, why not share your writing of chemical engineering knowledge and experiences here, in Chemical Engineering World blog? It will be interesting. It doesn't matter if you are still a chemical engineering students or you just work as an engineer or you are a very experience engineer. Sharing your story would be great. I am also still learning and would like to learn something from you. Just email me to share something in this blog. You can share stories, articles, photos, infographics, podcast, videos etc.  Chemical Engineering World

I completed my Ph.D study last year and it has been a great experience, I must say. I am going to continue doing research mainly because I am very interested to conduct research, I love publishing my work, I like presenting my work in conferences as well as I want to contribute to the advancement of technology and knowledge. Hence, in order to continue the research culture, I am currently looking for master and/or PhD student to work on a project with me. Following are the criteria/information for the future student. Citizenship:- Malaysian (because scholarship can easily be obtained). Topic: related to biodiesel sustainability study. Scope: experimental, optimization, modelling and kinetics. Full time position. Trusted, honest, self discipline, self motivated, responsible. Have the desire to complete master in 2 years and phd in 3 years. Good command in English (writing especially) Location: Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor.  If you fulfill the above criteria, you are welcome to contact me via email. zakiyamani@cheme.utm.my Instead of reading, why not share your writing of chemical knowledge and experiences here, in Chemical Engineering World blog? It will be interesting. It doesn't matter if you are still a chemical engineering students or you just work as an engineer or you are a very experience engineer. Sharing your story would be great. I am also still learning and would like to learn something from you. Just email me to share something in this blog. You can share stories, articles, photos, infographics, podcast, videos etc.  Chemical Engineering World

Presently, I am actively teaching and supervising students. It is important to know our students. What I mean is not to know them very close but enough in order for us to know the best way to treat them based on who they are, their background, based on what they want to be and several other factors. One of the most frequent question I asked my student are what do you want to be after you graduated as a chemical engineer? For your information, I received numerous answers and feedbacks. Not majority of the students I asked want to be an engineer? However, I can easily categorize them into 3 huge distinctive segments. Illustration of a chemical engineering student (source) Here is the breakdown of what they want to be regardless of the gender:  40% wants to be an engineer 44% wants to be an entrepreneur 6% wants to be an academician The sample size of the students that I asked the questions was 20 students. From those 20 students, 16 are in their 3rd year and 4 students in their 4th (final) year.  What does this information tells us? This is a Chemical Engineering course and the students are trained to be a good and reliable chemical engineer. Is there anything wrong somewhere along the teaching? Should we conduct a more extensive survey to see our product output?  Well, this is just my very rough survey. It is a quite a shocking personal early discovery. I will investigate this matter seriously in future. Any comments? Ideas? Instead of reading, why not share your writing of chemical knowledge and experiences here, in Chemical Engineering World blog? It will be interesting. It doesn't matter if you are still a chemical engineering students or you just work as an engineer or you are a very experience engineer. Sharing your story would be great. I am also still learning and would like to learn something from you. Just email me to share something in this blog. You can share stories, articles, photos, infographics, podcast, videos etc. Chemical Engineering World

It is indeed very tough to see any industry without a slight touch of hydraulic system. Hydraulic system is crucial for various industries as well as our daily life routine, but its’ importance are occasionally unrealized by many. One of the most common hydraulic system application is in our vehicle breaking system. I’ll explain further about the breaking system later in this article. Anyway, from my previous experiences, I worked with several types of equipments and machineries employing hydraulic system. Among them are tractors, crane hoist, robots, actuators and hydraulic motor. All of them are unique, special and fasten my assignments and team’s job. Basically, a hydraulic system can be explained as one force that is applied to one point (or piston), and is then transmitted to another point via the use of an incompressible fluid. A hydraulic system confines the liquid so that it uses the laws governing liquids to transmit power to do specific work. Figure 1 illustrates the principle of hydraulic system. Figure 1: Principle of hydraulic drive system (source). Often, the fluid utilized to transfer the motion is typically a type of oil. Oil is in nature incompressible and is very efficient for the transfer of force and motion. A critical point to take into account is that a hydraulic system cannot contain any air. If air bubble appears in the system then the force applied to the piston would be used to compress the air bubble, instead of going on to move the subsequent piston. As a result, it affects the efficiency of the hydraulic system. Let’s visualize the hydraulic system closely. A simple example of a basic piston-driven hydraulic system is the braking system of our typical car (refer Figure 2). When we hit/pressed the break to slow or stop the car, the brake pedal is depressed. It then pushes on the piston in the master cylinder of the brake. Other four slave pistons in each wheel actuate to press the brake pads against the brake rotor to slow or stop the car. Figure 2: Typical breaking system in a car (source) Principally, these systems normally involve equipment meant to handle heavier weights. This demands more physical strength as well as higher operating pressure for the system. Such hydraulic system operating pressure ranges from a few hundred pounds per square inch (PSI) to several thousand pounds per square inch. Hydraulic systems offer advantages over other methods of power transmission. For instance, hydraulic systems have a simple design. In many cases, complicated mechanical linkages can be replaced with a few pre-engineered hydraulic components. These systems are also more flexible. The location of component in a system is extremely versatile. Instead of sedentary mechanical elements, flexible pipes and hoses used in these systems eliminate location problems. Additionally, these systems are also much more smooth and quiet while in operation. With high efficiency and minimum friction or interference, these systems keep the cost of power transmission at a minimum. When working with hydraulic system and its associated fluid, we cannot afford to settle for less or mediocre quality. We must use one with high quality produced/delivered by reputable companies. Numerous companies are available in the market which provides hydraulic system and extensive areas of fluid technology expertise. The company I worked with before used hydraulic and lubricant oils from Hydac for most of the equipments and machineries. It was from them I learned more about the principle and application of hydraulic system and fluid technology. I must say I truly appreciate the knowledge, skill and experience delivered during their visit and discussion. It made me a better and more mature engineer.  Chemical Engineering World

I hope it is not too late to wish you a happy new year. Happy new year and I wish 2014 will be a successful and fruitful year for all of you.  I have been missing from blogging regularly here recently. It has been due to my hectic daily task and me myself as a family man.  Career wise, towards the end of 2013, I was fully occupied to prepare, defend and correct my Ph.D thesis. Bottom line, the important thing is that, Thank God, I completed my Ph.D. On top of that, I have reported duty as a lecturer on the 1st of July 2013 and I need to fulfill my responsibilities as an academician. Moreover, I am still writing several technical research papers from my Ph.D. Most of them got rejected, so I need to keep improving and sending them to other reputable journals with decent impact factor. Oh, why they keep rejecting my manuscript? I hope 2014 will see more of my manuscript accepted for publication.  Normal human being wise, me and my family just moved to a new, bigger house, 4 days after I defended my Ph.D in the 2 hour VIVA session. Moving to a new house means more time is required to prepare the house for proper decent living. Not to mention transporting clothes and basic kitchen utilities from old house to the new house. Luckily we don't have to shift all the old furniture from the old house to the new house. The new house is furnished with new furniture. What to expect in 2014? First of all, I wish and hope that my family and I be granted with excellent health condition. With healthy body, we can work and aim for our goals set for 2014. I just want to do more and better in 2014 compared to 2013. I want it to be a more fruitful year, more positive year and more successful one. Without any particular order, here are some of my career goals : Published more in ISI journal - I'm not revealing the numbers. It will be my own secret. Published more in SCOPUS journal - I'm not revealing the numbers. It will be my own secret. Secure at least 1 research grant - for me to fund and run my research.   Have some post graduate students - I'm not revealing the numbers. It will be my own secret. Write useful books - I'm not revealing the numbers. It will be my own secret. You will know soon. Secure at least 1 consultancy/industrial project. Attend at least 1 international conference outside my own country. Participate at least once in research exhibition/contest. Learn and understand more about thermodynamics modelling using ### software. I would like to contribute the best that I can to give positive impact (motivate) my students and perhaps others, so that they can become better person, and contribute to their family, society and world.  I also have my own non career related goals. They are divided into personal and family. However, it is not relevant to discuss about them here. How about you? I would like to read your goals. Why not share them in the comment section or in the Chemical Engineering World Facebook page? The more the merrier.  That's me wishing you HAPPY PROSPEROUS 2014... photo credited to Dr. Azizul Azri, snapped during the recent FWRC 2013 competition. p/s: I began part of the new year with my Samsung Note 2 suddenly not working. Feeling very sad. Chemical Engineering World

Let me ask you a question: "What is the one thing you are expert in?" Can you give me a fast straight forward answer without taking up to 1 minute to think? If you can answer this question in just a matter of seconds, then you confidently know what you are good at. That's good. It doesn't matter if the thing you are expert in is associated with academic or not. It can be sport, science, social science, arts, IT etc. Your expertise can also be the one thing that you love to do and can potentially be your career back-up. As a chemical engineering student/practicing engineer, it is imperative to be good in one or more things. It can add value to yourself. It can add value to your salary. It can add your worth to the company or your future employer/boss. Don't you think so? I would like to provide some interesting examples for you. a) My Electrical Engineer Friend  When I was an undergraduate studying in Bradford University, I lived with 3 electrical engineering students and 1 computer science student. One of the electrical engineering student was slightly different. He is special in his own ways. He was passionate about computer defense system. In order to pursue his interest, he purchased additional computer on top of the one he already owns. So he has 2 computers, let's name it A and B. He made computer A - an attacking computer and computer B - a defense computer. Using computer A he attacks computer B using various types of viruses. He tested computer B defense system using the markets' products as well as anti-virus that he creates. He also hacked computer B from computer A and develop a defense mechanism to protect computer B. Non of this activities are related to the curriculum of what he was studying. This was confirmed by my other 2 electrical engineer house mates. Just few years after graduating, he was offered a job related to his passion (his specialty/hobby), which is computer and IT security from a multinational corporation and he was paid handsomely despite still being relatively young. His salary quadrupled mine. This is a really good story to show case what ones interest or expertise can do for his/her career.   b) My Chemical Engineer Friend I have a chemical engineer course-mate who was very interested in aviation technology. While still a chemical engineering student, I can see his interest towards aeroplanes and the tendency to be a pilot. I lost contact with him but the latest news I heard about him was he had became a pilot, not a chemical engineer. Although he is short-sighted, that never inhibit his interest and expertise to become a pilot.  c) My Petroleum Engineer Friend A colleague of mine who is a petroleum engineer by education, is very good in computer and have into certain level some technical programming knowledge. He is very business minded and at the same time love to work out some extra money from Forex. He then work out to develop a software robot to operate his Forex activity. He also sell the software to other Forex enthusiasts and make extra cash from both ways. He is happy and his expertise proofs to be beneficial as well. The three true stories above shows how an interest towards something had led my friends to be an expert in something and finally changed their career path, I would like to share other cases which is related to us, chemical engineers. I have numerous other stories but I guess that's it for now... haha... Advice for students and young chemical engineer: It is good for you to be an expert in something. You can choose something related to your best interest and be really good at it. Being good at it is by training and experience. You can be finally an expert in it and get rewarded nicely. Let's say you like computer, you can choose a software related to a chemical engineering area which you like and master it. For example you can learn Aspen, Hysis, Matlab, Autocad, Fluent and other numerous softwares. Let's say you are good in writing, you can be a writer. You can write in a technical paper, journal, magazine, guess author, editor, newsletter, perhaps your own blog (like me but I don't claim myself as a good writer. I just love to share stories.) and so on. Let's say you like stuff related to renewable energy. You can start by learning new technologies related to renewable energy and get all updates related to it. You can read and learn various policy applied by our government and also other governments. You can end up be an expert in renewable energy technologies like solar system and biodiesel and end up being a renewable energy consultant or business owner. Who knows? Well, bottom line, just be an expert in something. It is good. If you are not sure what you are good at, you can ask your close friends. They may know what you are best in and from their input, you will know and focus on something to be an expert. Be good at it and soon the market/industry will seek for your expertise to help solve their problems. Do you want to share any of your expertise with us? I hope you will.  Following are two recommended resources for your reading pleasure: Title: Six Ways to Dial in Your Talent Strategy Short Description: Learn the six steps to creating a business case for talent. Publisher: SuccessFactors Click here to request for a free copy. Title: Creating an Effective Resume - Free Video Training Tutorial Short Description: In Creating an Effective Resume, author Mariann Siegert provides step-by-step guidance on creating resumes that highlight accomplishments and specifically target a potential employer's needs. Topics include: (1) Discovering your dream job (2) Avoiding identity theft (3)Reverse chronological (4) Including (or not including) an objective. Along with the free video training tutorials you will also receive monthly offers, tips, and insider information you won't hear elsewhere--including special discounts extended to newsletter subscribers. Publisher: Lynda.com Inc. Brought to you by Homestay Skudai Johor Bahru (Zara Homestay). Click here to request for a free copy. Chemical Engineering World

We are witnessing the tremendous demand of energy by our very own eyes. The petroleum, natural gas, coal and others are non-renewable sources of energy that will soon deplete. Hence, efforts are driven on renewable energy such as solar, wind, water, biodiesel, biomass and so on. The renewable energy efforts are quite expensive since it is relatively new and not really establish yet. As a chemical engineer, we need to think, contribute and take some level of action towards promoting renewable energy. It can be done by harnessing it from our environment. Basically, energy harvesting is a process in which energy is collected from energy fields such as heat, light and wind, and then either used or stored for off grind, on demand use. Energy harvesting is typically thought to be a solution for residential appliances and small, personal electronics, but it could play a big role in creating smart, energy efficient cities. This infographic by Sagentia illustrates how energy harvesting might just be a more realistic energy solution than it was previously thought to be. It is a useful infographic and I would like to urge you to share this beautiful infographic with your friends and family. Just click the infographic to make view it larger.    Recommended FREE resources: 1) Gauging Green Opportunities: Taking Sustainable Building to a New Level The most energy-efficient organizations in the US consume 30 percent less energy than their counterparts. What could your organization do with such savings? By evaluating sustainability opportunities—including those related to energy use, environmental impact, indoor environment quality, water conservation and waste management—facility managers can make a significant impact on the bottom line. Download "Gauging Green" to find out how you can evaluate your sustainability options and focus your organization's "green" dollars where they will have the greatest impact. Click here to request a complementary article  2) Renewable Energy Focus Magazine Renewable Energy Focus provides a forum for debate and dialogue between research, industry, financial organizations and government bodies worldwide. With in-depth coverage and incisive editorial on all areas of renewable energy, the magazine takes an objective look at Biomass, Geothermal, Hydroelectricity, Photovoltaic, Solar power, Tidal and wave power and Wind power. Click here to request a digital subscription (FREE copy) Chemical Engineering World

I would like to share a question that was asked to me recently. The question was posted to me in my Facebook private message. I have informed the person that I will try my best to answer her question in my blog, for the benefit of others because I believe more of chemical engineering students are facing the same dilemma. Identity of the person has been changed. Here is the question and it is followed by my answer. My answer is totally based on my knowledge and experience. It maybe suitable for some of you and may not for others. Hence, I would encourage you to evaluate my responses and adapt it wisely to your situation. In addition, my answer is within Malaysia context. Here it goes... Question: Hi Mr Zaki, I had been following your facebook page and blog for a few years. Let me introduce myself, I am Lin, currently taking chemical engineering at a private university in KL and is a final year student. I feel bad as I did not know which path should I take on after i graduate from my degree, and I wish to get some of your opinions since you are an experienced engineer. I was offered to study master under a grant by my current supervisor. At the same time, I thought of working in the industry. However, this offer does not come always whereby it provide me monthly stipend and at the same time I can fully concentrate on my master study. Should I take it? By reading some articles circulated in the internet, it shows that it might be quite tough for you to continue study once you start working and with other commitments. Few other lecturers at my university saying that students should go out to explore working world before entering into postgraduate studies and some said the opposite. this make me wonder the decision to continue study is right or wrong. Assuming that I completed my master in 2 years and decided to work at industry instead of entering into Ph.D, does the industry hire people that holds a master degree? I heard that it is difficult to find a job while you are having a masters degree. I don't mind getting a lower pay at the beginning as I know that I am not having any experience yet (just a fresh graduate). Also, some of them do mention that with a master degree, it will be useful to get you promoted in the corporate ladder. Is it true? If I were to apply a job after my master, is it wise to include it into my resume? (I'm afraid by including it I might not get into the first interview) Meanwhile, I also hope to get the qualification of being a professional engineer. And it is difficult to obtain when you are in academic field as you did not involve in design work. If I wish to work on getting professional engineer, which field would you suggest to work into and work as what? I'm sad to say that I have not found any position that I wanted to work as. That's bad. I hope that you can give me some advice and your opinions. I am quite confuse at this stage. Also, I am sorry for any inconvenient caused on my lengthy message. Besides, I wish to know that when the industry hiring workers, do they actually look on the electives you are taking? I am taking elective on polymer and petroleum, is that means that I cannot apply job in other fields, say food industry? My response: Hi Lin. I'm terribly sorry for my late response to your questions. I totally understand your situation. However, there are many things to consider. Hence, my response will not provide you a fix solution. Instead it will let you think and personally drive you to decide the correct path for your future. First, what is your true and final ambition? Is it to be (A) academician/researcher OR (B) practicing engineer? This is the typical question I will always ask to students entering their final years whereby they got confuse on which path to take. If you choose (A) academician/researcher, just pursue for masters degree (hopefully you like that field of research). You were offered to do masters with allowances. That's good enough. Along the way, which is about 2 years time, you will learn more about the field of your research in depth. You will slowly be an expert in some specialize area which is very good. You will be train by your supervisor to write journal paper. You will also learn to present your research in conferences, meetings and others. You will get to know more people - suppliers + technicians where you will learn a lot of things from them. Then after you graduate, I believe you will have the option to pursue to your doctorate degree or get a job in a research institution or university. From there on, if you are in a research institution such as Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) / Petronas Research Scientific Services (PRSS) / Shell Research / others, you will keep working on research and development. If you become a lecturer in a university, you will eventually be required to pursue a Ph.D. You will then need do a number of activities namely, teaching, research, supervising, writing, publishing, consulting and others. A lecturer is kind of a multitasking job. Either a career in research institution or university will allow you to get promoted depending on the working scheme. Now, if you choose (B) which is to be a practicing engineer, you will get the taste of the industry. Since chemical engineering is very broad, it is difficult to cover the explanations here. However, typically, an engineer will after a while be promoted as a senior engineer, then manager and so on. You will be practicing your engineering skills and knowledge mostly when you are an engineer/senior engineer. Once you get promoted to a manager, you will be more involved in the management and lesser technical or engineering stuffs. If you are working in a plant/refinery, chances are your working hours can be relatively long. If you are in the sales and service industry, for example selling instrumentation equipments like flow meter or software, your working hours will be quite flexible and tend to travel to many places. In situations A and B, you can be a professional engineer under the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and at the same time a member of Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM). Just follow the training program and guideline provided under IEM. There is a clear guideline on how to be a professional engineer in the area of practicing / industrial engineer, academia and research. So, it is not really a problem. If you think being an academician you do not have practical experience, you can request from the university permission for industrial placement for 1 year period. At present, I know that public universities in Malaysia now allows lecturer to undergo 1 year practical industrial training in order get the industry exposure and that so call design work etc. Alternatively, as academician, you can compile your consultancy work (with companies/industries) that include design work and consider that as industrial working experience provided you can accumulate the working hours up to 1 year. If let say you want to do masters degree, and then after 2 years be an engineer, normally, most of the time, your starting salary would not consider your masters degree. Your salary will be based on your first degree. Hence, you lost 2 years of working experience. Compared to your friends who becomes an engineer immediately after completing their first degree, after 2 years lapse, their salary maybe RM400 to 800 more than you when you started to work as engineer after doing your masters. So, can you see what you are losing. Climbing the corporate ladder in a company, as I know from experience of others, does not really require masters or so called Masters of Business Administration (MBA). If you have the talent, leadership skills, good communication skills, your way to be a manager is clear. There, you can easily climb the corporate leader and earn substantial salary plus attractive yearly bonus. Most companies also provide you a car and/or petrol card. After your masters degree, you can also show that you have a masters degree in your resume, or you can also not show. It depends on you. It is difficult to say if a company wants to employ a masters holder or not. But I will say, it is no harm if you want to show that you have a masters degree. Having taken elective subjects during your first degree is not a problem. It's an advantage. You may use it and you may also not use it when you work. So, don't really worry about that. To answer one final question from you, if you want to be a professional engineer, which field and what job? Any field you can be a professional engineer as long as you are within chemical engineering industry. So, also don't worry about this. That's my response. I hope you have clearer perspective on what your future will be. Anyway, I have some advice for you. Here they are: 1. Strive to earn a good chemical engineering degree. 2. Empower your softskills - communication and leadership skills. 3. Learn some extra skill (if possible), such as be a good in software like aspen or matlab etc. 4. Register with IEM and BEM as soon as you graduate. The end.  😉   Note: The image is my visit to a boiler company together with IEM Southern Branch member 2 years ago. Recommended resources to boost your chemical engineering knowledge and career. Get Chemical Engineering magazine. Chemical Engineering serves chemical engineering professionals in the chemical process industry including manufacturing, engineering, government, academia, financial institutions and others allied to the field serving the global chemical process industry. Get the magazine at NO COST by clicking HERE. Alternatively you may also want to check out another great free magazine. It is called Plant Engineering magazine. Plant Engineering is a problem-solving resource for industrial plant engineering professionals responsible for the planning, specification, installation, maintenance and operation of industrial plant facilities, utilities, equipment and systems. It provides information to the people who operate and maintain industrial plants and bridges the information gap between engineering education and practical application. Download this magazine free of charge HERE. 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