Alexander Smith Email & Phone Number

Barton-Upon-Humber, Gb

United Kingdom

Dewsbury, England, United Kingdom

Huddersfield, United Kingdom

Grimsby

To further my understanding of the role a Chemical Engineer has in a working chemical plant I decided to apply for a year in industry during my degree. The placement brought together all the skills I had learned as an operator and as a student of chemical engineering. Some of the projects undertaken during my time with the company included an investigation into the steam, energy and material usage on the site with the goal to identify key areas to work on to improve efficiency. I was also tasked with conducting a trial costing, design and implementation of a spinning jet maintenance spreadsheet, management of change documentation and conducted a Valpak review of product packaging. I attended the health and safety committee meetings and was involved with work towards the ISO9001, ISO14001 and ISO18001 audits.

Meltham

The role was primarily looking after the stock coming in and going out of the warehouse keeping to strict deadlines and targets. I was involved with all areas of the warehouse and by the end acted as a spare man on other areas while still doing my main role of stock control. I also had the opportunity to be shown around two of the company’s other sites in the area Camira Yarns Ltd woollen yarn spinners and Park Valley Dyers dyehouse.

Grimsby, Lincolnshire

For this period at Bluestar I was employed as a chemical plant operator, my job consisted of working with my team leader and deputy leading operator to keep smooth operation of the polymerisation and solvent recovery plants, monitor and control the chemical storage area of the top tear COMAH site, monitor and report incidents on site and look after and maintain safe disposal of the site effluent. We also looked after our own areas permit control system, maintenance reports and emergency response to minor chemical incidents using breathing apparatus when necessary.

I worked at Lenzing under a temporary contract looking after the spinning lines of the fibre production part of the plant, this plant uses a far more viscous dope than Bluestar and also uses air gap spinning. My daily duties consisted of routine checks of the spin jets, spin pumps and rollers. Checking the condition of the fibre and fault finding, filling in engineer maintenance reports and overall responsibility of people and work going on in my area.

My time served as an apprentice required me to oversee all of the operator jobs on site, I also spent some time filling in for operators when they were absent for various reasons, this added responsibility allowed me to grow as an employee and made me more aware of the risks involved when working on a site such as Bluestar. I spent 6 months of this time working for Technical Absorbent Fibres (a sister company to Bluestar) where their systems are a lot more automated using a DCS control systems and a dry spinning process this when compared to Bluestar who use a SCADA control system and operate a wet spinning process gave me a broad range of experience.

Science Extended Degree, Beng Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: University of Huddersfield archery club competitions secretaryGained Certificate of higher education Year 2.

Advanced Apprenticeship, Chemical, Pharmaceutical And Petro-Chemical Operations

Based at the CATCH training facility in Immingham, North East Lincolnshire and at Bluestar Fibres Ltd NVQ level 3 in chemical.