The Chemist in lndustry: An Introductory Course T. A. Ordim, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga. TN 37403 The maioritv of students graduating with degrees in chemistry begin their working careers inindustry prepared for the new environment with little beyond formal science training. Increasingly, the chemical industry seek applicants with broader exposure to modern technologies, better communication skins. and nrenaration for workine as team --- ~~-~~ members. A good eourse in industrial chemistry &n be very hebful in beeinnine to address these needs. In this article. tbiauthor de-scribesa course in which he had the opportuni: ty to pass along some of his own observations and opinions from an industrial career. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has a long tradition (I) in teaching industrial chemistry. The first course was offered in 1909 and continued to be taught intermittently until 1962. In 1979, Chemistry in Industry 426 was introduced with support of a grant from the CAUSE program of the National Science Foundation. The course currently is offered in alternate years. The 1987 outline. a somewhat different annroach. is sho& in the table. his course combines the u& instiuction in technical subiects of industrial chemical o~erations with some of the business aspects that composethe total commercial enterprise. I t is senior level, but also attracted a few students at the junior level and a number of graduates already working in industry. This one-semester course met for two hours a week over a period of approximately 16 weeks. The table indicates the division of lecture material into two parts. Typically, one hour of each lecture session was allocated to each. The traditional suhjects, Session A, represent the chemistry of modern-day industry, whereas Session B includes subiects desiened to introduce the student to other aspects or employment in the chemical industry. Because of the oreanization of the textbook (2)selected for the course, which ~pecificallyincludes a number of chapters on the Session B topics, it was possible in most cases to give reading assignments for both halves of the lectures. The text. Derhans understandably, is not as comprehensive in coverage of traditional chemistry for industry. However, a number of excellent books already exist for that purpose and it was no problem to supplement the material aineeded. We found the text by Cook (3)useful in augmenting such tecbnical subjects as petroleum refining. Not much need be said about the detail of Session A subjects, as these are essentially the basic technical introduction to chemical industry. We did make the point that useful information about the chemical industry is a moving target; unlike a fundamental subject such as thermodynamics. what is imnortant to know changes rather rapidly with tide. For this ieason, we included inone of the sessions an introduction to technolow of some of the more recent developments, such as fiber optics, composite materials, and biotechnolow.Thestudentssuickly rot the point that, whereas learning&out leather processing was important a century aeo, - . one would be better advised today to learn a little about genetic engineering. Another a s ~ e coft the traditional material we felt deserved more emphasis was the field of polymers, plastics, and resins. Although Emerson's text contains a chapter on this ~
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Journal of Chemical Education
Chemistry (L Industry 426 Course Schedule Content NO.
Session A
Ten
Session B
1 course outlinelexpectati~1~ Uw chemical industry 2 chemical lndustrylnew repmsllecimlcalperentaths developmenk 3 chemicals from petroleum company argsnlzations 4 chemicals horn petroleum marketinglcommercial development environme~/salety/linanclal 5 pebochemislrq 6 first exam term project subiens 7 indumial chemicals corporate planning business games 8 industrial chemicals 9 polymer chemistry planning a career 10 polymer chemistry company penonalitylgetting a Job business osm
15 patents 16 final exam; renn pmjen due
8111~188 course review
Chaptas 1 1. 15
2, 13, 14 2. 16 4
3, 11 3 5. 17 5, 18
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subject, it does not include much on basic principles. Many otherwise excellent treatises on chemical industry even ignore the polymer field in which, sooner or later, most of the chemistry students entering industry will work. Also included (Unit Operations) was a lecture on the essentials of mass, heat, and fluid transfer, intended to aid somewhat in bridging the gap between the traditional domains of the chemist and the chemical engineer. Finally, because it is a technical subject so important to the industrial chemist, we included a session on patents. Broadening the technical coverage in this way is helpful in enhancing the student's comprehension of industry. Benefits of excursions into new suhject areas accrue, even more so, in the case of the Part B sessions. The first Part B session was devoted to an overview and some basic statistics on the industry (4),including identification of the largest companies, larger volume chemicals, and the principal organic chemical products. The facts of sales volumes, profits, and R&D investment were presented. No one would argue with the importance of the session on reports and technical presentations. A consistent complaint from industry is the rather mediocre communication credentials that entry-level professionals, and even some experienced ones. show on technical assignments. This subject is often treated in a separate course,-but we felt that reiteration..narticularlv with reference to the specific types of presentations and technical communicatio~scommon in industrv. .. was most awro~riate. .. . Even the rather simple concept of company organizations can be a revelation to the college student in science. Following the text, we pointed out the differences between small com~aniesand large corporations, the kinds of organizational skuctures, and theqrrespondingly different ways in
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which the technical participant must interact. The numerous line and staff fu&tions;n a large corporation were identified. This served as a good introduction t o a subsequent lecture on career planning. The discussions of marketing and commercial development activities in industrv were interestine subiects for the students and, we felt, we& extremely imp&nt in bridging the ean between formal universitv trainine and the realworid i^ssuesof industrial commerce. Our seslion defined the ooerations. introduced concepts such as the rice volume sensitivity curve, provided some examples, and in general emphasized the important relationship between technical knowledge and techhical applications essential for a successful industrial career. A modern industrial chemistry course certainly should include some material on environmental concerns and safety in the workplace. Although students may be generally aware of their importance, the emphasis that large industries place upon them, for reasons of both social responsibility and economics, is not generally understood. Again, entire curricula and snecial courses are available in these subiects but the typical t&hnical graduate may not have had access to them. Novel and useful additions to the Session B course material were two exercises in what we called "business games". As everyone in middle management learns, industry uses training exercises in simulated business experiences as a tool for sharpening the employee's perception of the commercial operation as a whole. As justification for inclusion in this course, we reasoned that both the benefits of such specific exercises and the knowledee that a student mieht well be engaged in similar game-pGying on the job, s h o z d be helpful. In a twical exercise.. we . oresented the students with a handout &cribing a business-related technical dilemma, divided them into "moups, - . and asked them to consider the options for resolving the problem and to select a spokesman from their mouo t o present i t t o the class. One example is given in th;~~pendih. Afterwards, we critiqued the presentations. I t was gratifying to observe that the students took the exercise to heart, devised some rational approaches to the problem learned from the earlier course material, and even showed inventiveness in supplying some additional information to bolster their cases. Such exercises can reinforce the student's understanding of chemical technology, together with providing an excellent medium for group interaction and ex~ression. ~ e s p o n s eto career planning was a subject of immediate interest t o manv of the students. We were able t o follow the text fairly closely on this subject, pointing out the many types of jobs that a chemist or chemical engineer might find in industry. Of particular interest were insights provided, from experience, on how assignments in such disparate departments of the company as R&D and Purchasing could call upon quite different skills and provide quite different routes for advancement. The subject of company personalities, or corporate cultures, is always a fascinating one and proved so also in the case of this course. There are a number of texts written on this subiect and outside readine was both used in our Dreoaration and as a suggestion f o r i h e students. The antjlrobomorohic descriotlons of industrv bv Sethia and Von Glinnw (5) were readiligrasped. The c&cept was broadly explained and some specific companies who seem t o have rather welldefined "cultures" were described. The origins of these cultures, how they sometimes may be changed, and how sometimes the employee and the corporate culture are quite incompatible were points worth making. m he lecture on industrial R&D ripresented another attempt t o focus scientific applications to solutions of busip
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ness-related technical problems. In the companion A and B lectures, the viewpoints of the chemist and management were compared and contrasted. I t was worth emphasizing that manv of the new emdovee's exoectations about comoany personnel policies may not be fuklled. An excellent reference on this point is the article by Lynch (6). Also included in the course were a presentation by an outside speaker from local industry and the requirement for a written term report on some aspect of the chemical industw. Options for the latter included work-related subjects for gosealready employed in industry. A list of specific subjects was provided, too, from which the student could choose. In addition to conventional subjects of a chemical nature, we included some on chemical pricing (7) and employment statistics (8)and an invitation to prepare a patent disclosure. A ouestionnaire submitted a t the end of the course elicited a generally favorable response, particularly in support of the business games. Some felt Emerson's book is too expensive. I. Gms, 6.H. univrraity 0fTenalaa~ at chsttmooga, wwml annmuniestion.
2. Emermn, W. S. Gul& to the C k m i w l Indurtry; Why.NmYork, 1983. 3. Cook,G. A. Survey of Madem Indurtriol C h e m i a t ~Ann ; Arbor Seiene: Ann Arbor, MI, 1976. 4. Chem. Eng.Newr 1986.64(23).3Z-B). 6. Sethia. N. K.; Von Glinoar, M. A. In Coining Control of the Corparnle Culfun;Kilmaao, R H.; Sum, M. J.; Serpa, 8.. Ed% J--Be: San Francism. 1985; Cba0t.r 19.
Appondlx. Buslness Games-New B u S l n 0 ~Opportunlty for Ace Chemlcal Company (20-mln proparatlon. 5-mln presentation each group) Your group is the board ofdirectorsof Ace Chemical, and you are meeting LO develop a plan for business expansion.Select a chairman, work as a group to discuss this business opportunity, outline your recommendations on a poster sheet, and have your chairman present it to the clans for critique. In the presentation, make recommendations on (1)how to organize your new business, (2) how to produce the product, and (3) how to price it. Backmound. Ace Chemical is in the oetroleum refininn business. nroducrnne oroduets such ap benzene. ~ Lthvlene. ~ . other , l&e-volume , " ~ chemicals from petmleum,garoline,and heating oil. Amajor market isopening up for vinyl chloride, which youdo not currently produce, and you have decided to offer it as a new product from your company. Organization Options. (1) A "vinyl chloride" division could he set up in your current (large-company)organization. Discuss where it mieht fit in the overall commnv oreanization chart. together with itssuooort functions. (21 . . you c&~ldtrvto buv a coko&~valreadv producing vinyl chloride. ~dvantagei?~iskvantaies?-(3)YO; could enterintoajoint venturewith another company; in particular, you have one in mind that is a major producer of acetylene, with excess capacity. Producing the Product. Consider the four synthesis methods for vinyl chloride presented in class r~
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CH4H CH,=CH,
+ HCI + C1,
+ Cl, + 0, CH3- CH, + HCI + 0, CH,==CH,
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CH2=CHCI CH2=CHCI + HCI CH,=CHCl CH,=CHCI
and select the one(s) compatible with your organization option above. Pricing the Product. The average selling price of vinyl chloride is $0.18/lb. Your Marketing Director says he could sell 20 X 1O6Ib/year ata price of $O.l8,l X lo8at $0.20 and 90 X 10"t $0.14. Your cast to make it is estimated at $0.13/lb. Sketch the pricevolume sensitivity curve, and recommend a selling price.
Volume 66
Number 5 May 1989
421
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