ENGINEERING
SPECIAL
What the future has in store for Chemical Engineering?
The most popular college major choice for high school seniors, the majority of
whom already have a career in mind—is engineering. But it’s hard to come to
terms with your own chosen field of study when there are less job prospects.
However engineering is a very evolving field and has always grown, sometimes
more and sometimes less.
Job growth from 2010 to 2015 has been in
the double digits in four occupations: petroleum engineers (30%), mining and
geological engineers (12%), biomedical engineers (10%), and industrial
engineers (10%). But every engineering occupation has added jobs, the most
coming among mechanical engineers (21,500 new jobs since 2010). As a whole,
engineering jobs have grown 7%.
In our special series – ENGINEERING SPECIAL we will take you to the in depths
of job prospects of every engineering field for you to decide, which field of
study fits in best with your passion and job prospects.
FUTURE TRENDS & SCOPE IN CHEMICAL
ENGINEERING!
Twenty or 30 years ago, most chemical engineers had two basic choices. They
worked in the chemical industry for companies or they worked in the petroleum
industry for oil companies. Today the choices are much broader, and involve fields
as diverse as food, biomedical, and semiconductors
1. Biotechnology
With
being No. 1 producer of Hepatitis B
vaccine recombinant and Third biggest biotech industry in the Asia-Pacific
region Bio technology is a rampantly evolving industry. The sector has seen
high growth with a CAGR in excess of 20% and the key drivers for growth in the
biotech sector are increasing investments, outsourcing activities, exports and
the government’s focus on the sector. Major recruiters include industries
engaged in processing and developing agricultural and biological products,
bio-processing industries, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. There are
ample opportunities in industries producing healthcare products, textile
industry, cosmetics and organisations engaged in different types of industrial
research and development. These days a growing number of qualified biotechnical
professionals are engaged by different industries for environment protection
activities and for the safe disposal of hazardous materials.
2. Genetic Pharmer
Farmers of the future will not only raise
livestock and agricultural crops, they will also grow plants than have been
genetically engineered to grow therapeutic proteins, pharmaceuticals and
chemicals. Hence they are Genetic ‘Pharmers’! Chemical engineers are already
working on producing vaccine carrying plants. A recent example of this has come
to light in the ebola epidemic; tobacco plants have been engineered to grow the
antibodies for the ebola serum. This will be a key area in the future, where
chemical engineers can have a huge role driving these processes further to
achieve better results.
3. Nano Technology
The explosion of technological advances in nanotechnology will lead to
opportunities arising for chemical engineers to lead the way. With advances in
nanotechnology already offering a huge range of nanoscale processes, a new
group of nano-chemical engineers will be required to manufacture these systems.
Also, research labs and institutions such as IISc, TIFR, NCBS, IITs etc are
performing excellent research in India. The areas where a nanotechnologist can
seek employment include biotechnology, agriculture, food, genetics, space
research, medicine and so on. Job opportunities are also available in National
Physical Laboratory, Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Candidates with Ph.D.
can also join as faculty members in colleges.
4. SPACE
The current scenario of space industry in India is very promising. India’s
space programme stands out as one of the most cost-effective in the world. 33
countries and three multinational bodies have formal co-operative arrangements
in place with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Also with 30
spacecraft in differing orbital paths, more space engineers are required to
keep everything in place. Chemical engineers are currently working to find new
sources for fuels e.g. bio-refineries, wind farms, hydrogen cells, algae
factories and fusion technology. These could be applied to fuel space travel.
With the prime objective of ISRO is to develop space technology and its
application to various national tasks new jobs for chemical engineers are on
the radar..
5. Climate Change Reversal Engineers
Chemical engineers are currently working
on models that predict the outcomes of climate change and developing strategies
to combat it. In the future they will need to work to develop long-term
strategies to intervene before an anticipated climatic disaster occurs, to deal
with climate events that are already happening and to try to help locations
that have been devastated by climate change. This work will typically involve
developing energy strategies, refining alternative energy systems or protecting
and rebuilding ecosystems.
There were many more areas I could see
chemical engineers leading the way in, for example; Energy Storage, Zero Water
Strategies, Alternative Food Design, Disposal Textiles Design, Land Fill
Reclaim and GM Food.
However, some aspects of chemical
engineering will never change. We will always need waste engineers, drug
developers, researchers and food processors.
STAY TUNED! Coming up next is MECHANICAL
ENGINEERS!!
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