Her Royal Highness Queen of Perak Darul Ridzuan, Tuanku Zara Salim presented two promising chemical engineers with trophies at the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Malaysia Awards yesterday. The ceremony, which took place at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur, is held annually to celebrate the achievements of chemical engineers in Malaysia.
Tuanku is the Royal Patron of IChemE in Malaysia, and, as a chemical engineer herself, a passionate advocate of the profession. She presented Sime Darby Plantation's Chew Chien Lye (also known as Mervin) the Young Industrialist Award. His outstanding work in process improvement has boosted profits, while reducing energy and wastewater at the organisation.
Ong Wee Jun also received his Award, for Young Researcher, from Her Royal Highness. The newly-appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, had a breakthrough in his research this year. He successfully mimicked the photosynthesis process in plants by engineering a photocatalyst that can use solar light to split water and reduce carbon dioxide into energy-rich fuels.
Malaysia’s major oil and gas company PETRONAS scooped three wins and two-runner up prizes.
PETRONAS Penapisan (Terengganu) Sdn Bhd won the Process Safety Award for establishing a safety framework that eliminates potential failures of overfill protection systems in its refineries. The framework drew on lessons learnt from incidents such as the 2005 Buncefield fire in Hertfordshire, UK and the 2009 Catano oil refinery fire which left three people injured in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Later in the evening, PETRONAS Research Sdn Bhd went on to win the Sustainability Award for its PN2 Membrane for Fuel Gas Conditioning. The Training & Development Award went to PETRONAS Chemicals Ammonia Sdn Bhd for its process safety training programme PCASB Process Safety 3Sixty (PS3Sixty).
This year, a new prize entitled the Student Chapter Award went to Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). In 2002, it became the first IChemE Student Chapter in Malaysia with a strong track record of research development and commercialisation programmes.
The Oil & Gas Award was won by NGL Tech Sdn Bhd and Vestigo Petroleum Sdn Bhd. The company’s Low Pressure Condensate Recovery System (LP-CRS) was commended by the judges for being the only technology on the market that effectively extracts valuable hydrocarbon condensates from a very low-pressure gas, in a self-contained unit.
Meanwhile, IOI Edible Oils Sdn Bhd was presented with the Palm Oil Award for their project Heat Recovery Using Vent Economisers. Vent economisers are used to recover steam vapour in a dry fractionation plant to heat water. The project has saved 50% on steam heating costs.
Ir. Dr. Christina Phang, Chair of the IChemE Malaysia Board, welcomed everyone to the sixth Malaysia Awards. She said:
“Congratulations to all the winners of the IChemE Malaysia Awards 2018. Each year I’m encouraged by the growing support and interest from the chemical engineering community demonstrated by the high-quality entries we receive, the number of guests we host, and the generous support of our corporate sponsors.
“The IChemE Malaysia Awards provide a unique opportunity to celebrate the fantastic contribution of local chemical and process engineers, all who have demonstrated a commitment to the highest level of professional standards in their innovative and excellent work throughout Malaysia.
“This year we celebrate 12 years of IChemE in Malaysia and I thank all our members for being an integral part of our journey to this milestone. We are extremely honoured that Her Royal Highness Queen of Perak Darul Ridzuan, Tuanku Zara Salim has joined our celebrations and made them more special.”
For more information, please visit www.icheme.org/malaysiaawards.
Official winners of the IChemE Malaysia Awards 2018
Oil & Gas Award
Winner: NGL Tech Sdn Bhd and Vestigo Petroleum Sdn Bhd - Low Pressure Condensate Recovery System (LP-CRS)
Highly Commended: PETRONAS, Group Technical Solutions - Flow Assurance Challenges for Deepwater Decommissioning
Summary of winning entry:
LP-CRS is the only technology currently able to extract valuable hydrocarbon condensates effectively from a very low-pressure gas, including flare gas, in a compact, self-contained unit. This boosts revenue by increasing crude production that would otherwise be flared and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30%.
The technology received good recognition from many operators around the world and picked up the Spotlight on New Technology Small Business Award during the recent Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Asia 2018. The first commercial unit has been successfully installed and is currently operating on theMaMPU-1 floater in the Anjung Kecil Field.
Palm Oil Award
Winner: IOI Edible Oils Sdn Bhd - Heat Recovery Using Vent Economisers
Highly Commended: Sime Darby Plantation and Monash University Malaysia - Palm Oil Washing with Bio-based Solution
Summary of winning entry:
The project enables heat to be recovered in a dry fractionation plant. It uses a vent economiser to recover heat from steam vapour from a condensate recovery tank vent. This vapour is used to heat water, reducing steam consumption by 18%.
The same idea has been replicated in a palm kernel dry fractionation plant in the complex, yielding a staggering 50% savings in steam costs.
This was accomplished by replacing the steam heating by hot water and recovered condensate, as well as with the vented vapour. This reduces energy costs and also prolongs the lifespan of the heat exchanger.
Process Safety Award
Winner: PETRONAS Penapisan (Terengganu) Sdn Bhd - Plant Instrumentation Process Safety Management Excellence
Highly Commended: Synthomer Sdn Bhd - QP Styrene Bulk Storage
Summary of winning entry:
Non-compliance to IEC61511 Functional Safety – Safety Instrumented Systems for the Process Industry Sector can lead to process safety incidents.
History repeats itself. The high-profile Buncefield spill and explosion that occurred in the UK in 2005 was followed four years later by the Caribbean Petroleum Corporation oil refinery (CAPECO) explosion. Both were due to common issues: failure of the overfill protection system, which forms part of the important Safety Instrumented Function (SIF).
PETRONAS has established a SIF framework and SIL Study Roadmap that eliminates the possible dangerous failure on demand. This enables savings of US$100,000 to more than US$10m depending on the severity to people's safety, the environment and production loss.
Student Chapter Award
Winner: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP)
Highly Commended: Curtin University Malaysia
Summary of the winning entry:
UTP’s Chemical Engineering Student Society was established in 2000 and was rebranded and officially endorsed as UTP IChemE Student Chapter in 2002 - the first IChemE Student Chapter in Malaysia. UTP was established in 1997 and was the first and only private university to be awarded a six-star rating, the highest performance level in Malaysian Research Assessment (MyRA) for its research development and commercialisation programmes. The student chapter was recently crowned as Overall Grand Champion at the National Chemical Engineering Symposium 2018 and was the first-runner up in National Chem-E Car Competition 2017. UTP’s committed members are the foundation of its long history of success and its vision towards global prominence.
Sustainability Award
Winner: PETRONAS Research Sdn Bhd - PN2 Membrane for Fuel Gas Conditioning
Highly Commended: MLNG Group of Companies – Sustainability - Novel Approach in Waste Reduction
Summary of winning entry:
PETRONAS has developed the PN2 Membrane for fuel gas conditioning. Fluctuation in fuel gas quality severely affects the operation of a dual-fuel power generation system, resulting in higher diesel consumption until fuel gas meets its GHV for a safe switch-over.
Alternatively, the PN2 Membrane separates the associated gas into a hydrocarbon-rich stream (product stream) and CO2-rich stream (permeate stream) in a simpler operation with higher process reliability, resulting in less maintenance and lower OPEX.
The product stream from the system generates value in the product chain while the permeate stream is used for gas lifting and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Training & Development Award
Winner: PETRONAS Chemicals Ammonia Sdn Bhd - PCASB Process Safety 3Sixty (PS3Sixty)
Highly Commended: Synthomer Sdn Bhd - SynGP Programme
Summary of the winning entry:
Realising that process safety culture is important to a safe and reliable plant operation, an all-around programme called Process Safety 3Sixty (PS3Sixty) was introduced in 2015 to enhance process safety culture in PETRONAS Chemicals Ammonia Sdn Bhd (PCASB).
PS3Sixty comprises of several programmes that require the involvement of various departments in the company, including the non-technical team, contractors and neighbouring communities.
Several engagement sessions and workshops to educate the contractors on process safety has helped them to understand and appreciate the importance process safety. The PS3Sixty programme has improved process safety culture and safety performance across the company.
Young Industrialist Award
Winner: Sime Darby Plantation - Chew Chien Lye (Mervin)
Highly Commended: PETRONAS, Group Technical Solutions (GTS) - Upenthiran Ganeson
Summary of the winning entry:
Chew Chien Lye (Mervin) is an outstanding senior engineer at Sime Darby Research with a double degree in mechanical engineering. His work focusses on process improvement, and specifically on quality enhancement and efficiency optimisation. Trained with technical engineering skills in oil milling process along with research background, he possesses the ability to not only improvise with, and improve upon, existing processes, but also develop new processes that are applicable to the industry.
To date, he has filed four patents on mill process improvement that have potentially generated additional revenue, and reduced energy consumption and wastewater generation. His enthusiasm and his broad knowledge make him a distinguished engineer who is destined for significant accomplishment.
Young Researcher Award
Winner: Xiamen University Malaysia - Ong Wee Jun
Highly Commended: PETRONAS Research Sdn Bhd - Ahmad Syukri Na'im Bin Mohd Hanafiah
Summary of winning entry:
Dr Ong Wee Jun received his BEng and PhD (chemical engineering) from Monash University in 2012 and 2016, respectively. In 2016, he joined the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering at Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) as staff scientist. Since 2018, he has worked as assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University Malaysia. His research includes designing two-dimensional-based nanohybrids (e.g. graphene, graphitic carbon nitride, MXene) for artificial photosynthesis. His research’s breakthrough is the successful engineering of photocatalysts for efficient utilisation of solar light for splitting water and reducing CO2 into energy-rich fuels to mimic natural photosynthesis in plants.
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For more information please contact:
Tara Wilson, Head of Communications, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534454
e: twilson@icheme.org
Rachael Fraser, PR and Communications Executive, IChemE
t: +44 (0) 1788 534435
e: rfraser@icheme.org
What is chemical engineering?
Chemical, biochemical and process engineering is the application of science, maths and economics in the process of turning raw materials into everyday, and more specialist, products. Professional chemical engineers design, construct and manage process operations all over the world. Oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, food and drink, synthetic fibres and clean drinking water are just some of the products where chemical engineering plays a central role.
With an international membership exceeding 40,000 in around 100 countries, the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) aims to be the organisation of choice for chemical engineers. It promotes competence and a commitment to best practice, advances the discipline for the benefit of society and supports the professional development of its members.
IChemE is the only organisation to award Chartered Chemical Engineer and Professional Process Safety Engineer status.
