What the future has in store for Chemical Engineering?

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!!