Student Journal - Curtin Student Chapter - Process and Chemical Engineering Students Vacation Work
My name is Vesakhan (but I go by Vesa), and I have spent the previous three months as a Process Engineering Vacation Student at Tronox Kwinana, under the Technology and Improvement department. My role had me assigned to various projects and responsibilities, and I am content with having experienced everything a combined office/plant has to offer.
My role consisted of four major projects, being:
- Sampling method analysis for critical equipment
- Equipment commissioning, Stage Gates (SG) 0 to 3
- Plant trip contingency planning and calculations
- Diagnostic method development for pipe fouling with SEEQ
Tronox Kwinana’s most critical unit undergoes frequent sampling to ensure the process’ control. My project was determining which of 3 analysis methods are ‘best’. This project required my consideration of as much qualitative data as quantitative data due to my interfacing with the operators and engineers. The results of this project will potentially save significant OPEX, by improving sampling analysis alone. I enjoyed spending my time on this project mostly on site, as ‘desktop engineering’ can only teach so much.
My second project was acting as the project owner for a recommissioning SG0. I managed the other vacation students such that the project owner (my) work was complete and accurate as soon as possible, such that the work for my colleagues is straight forward. After they had completed their portion of the pre-feasibilty study, I produced two separate versions of the final uprev(s) of the PID markups to present options for my successor. I also conducted financial parameter calculations, and the project proposal was submitted to my manager. I believe he was happy with it, as I was advised to prepare a full handover for the near future “for when someone continues your work”. This project received an AFE, $30k for external design auditing and $800k in CAPEX for the project was approved.
My third project was calculation of volume displacement to a surge tank in the event of a plant trip, accounting for 5 unique scenarios ‘branches’. I was initially overwhelmed by this task; however, I spent half a day planning how to format my spreadsheet such that I am working efficiently. Using at least 160 design documents/ isometrics, I produced a matrix of minimum possible volume displacement under different scenarios with contingencies.
My final project was finding a way to use SEEQ to diagnose fouled vs healthy pipes under different scenarios. I spent about a day learning the coding language of SEEQ and eventually iterated myself into a master formula with several nested loops to combine data cleaning and creation and compositing several conditions to find values for expected healthy and unhealthy pressure drops. I found this project not only the most enjoyable, but also frustrating. As powerful as SEEQ is, the inability to combine capsules led me to finding my own creative solutions.
Most importantly, I have learned key life skills such as efficient and clear communication, scope management and balancing my life with my work. I am happy to say I was a Tronox employee and would love to do it all again. My dreams of being a Principal Process Engineer have been reinforced during my time here, and I thank Tronox for this opportunity.