Engineering Job call - Skill needs in energy industry - Significant decline in science, engineering and technical recruits

ref: ‘Skills needs in the energy industry’ report by the Energy Institute

"Energy skills shortage: a boardroom issue"

Future skills shortages and leadership development needs in the energy sector should be treated as strategic boardroom issues, according to the Energy Institute (EI).

This was one of the key recommendations drawn from surveys conducted by the EI in partnership with Deloitte , the management consultancy, and Norman Broadbent,an organisation dedicated to the search for executive talent in the energy sector, between 2005 and 2007.

A summary of the ‘Skills needs in the energy industry’ report was presented at International Petroleum Week, an annual four-day programme of major conferences and functions hosted in London by the EI.

According to EI, a significant decline in recruits, especially those with science, engineering and technical skills is reported.


For the first time, IP Week featured a seminar specifically dedicated to the issue of skills needs in the energy industry, during which delegates from 12 different oil and gas producing countries heard experts outline additional solutions.

The media report may be found at Energy Institute (EI)[link_pdf].

Other online resources from the Energy Institute are:


EI Publications online
Standard Test Methods
Modern Petroleum Technology
WPC Proceedings
Transport Fuels Technology Update Service
Hearts and Minds Toolkit
Safe staffing arrangements
Offshore technical guidance catalogue
Fuel and Energy Abstracts
Croner’s Energy Management
EI Yearbook



Source [link].

Nanoengineered concrete R & D to cut CO2 emissions

Nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions?

In a previous note on commercial or near commercial innovation, I recorded work on cement manufacturing at lower temperatures, thus saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions.

The MIT report (below_near the end of my entry) appeared to provide an opportunity to record both one high profile longer termed R&D work in Nanoengineering and the more mundane close to production, often overlooked by the main dailey press media.

Having recently received an invitation, among many others, to attend a 2 day conference, Global Fuels Conf. & Awards, held in London on 4-5 Feb. 08, [Link-html] reporting on Industrial progress and R&D work, many of which involved CO2 reduction in cement manufacturing, including it's use in steelmaking slags.

[Link-html]

The following entry "Nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions? " which was my initial motivation to weblog, appears to belong to the longer termed (LT) research category unless the financial backing from the french company Lafarge pushes forward the project and in doing so achieve quicker and improved ROI-Return on Investment.

Nanoengineered concrete could cut CO2 emissions?
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--While government leaders argue about the practicality of reducing world emissions of carbon dioxide, scientists and engineers are seeking ways to make it happen.
One group of engineers at MIT decided to focus its work on the nanostructure of concrete, the world's most widely used material. The production of cement, the primary component of concrete, accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions; the process is an important contributor to global warming.

In the January issue of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, the team reports that the source of concrete's strength and durability lies in the organization of its nanoparticles. The discovery could one day lead to a major reduction in carbon dioxide emissions during manufacturing.

Could be worth repeating that the above reported MIT research was funded in part by the Lafarge Group according to
Eurekalert[Link]

In guise of a conclusion:
WHAT IS PRETTY CERTAIN IS THAT MANY MORE E-MISSIONS WILL CUT CO2 EMISSIONS WITHOUT CUTTING JOBS!

May I take this opportunity to remind my readers that I travel for work missions only according to standard working request procedures, transportation mode being, of course, at the initiative of the requesting firm, however where distance is involved and when possible, rail travel is preferred. The latter is a considerable sacrifice, as I love flying!

Acknowledgements:

1. With thanks to Danish Nano & Nilt News letter who drew my attention to this MIT
work.

2. Global Fuels Awards

Four categories are open for nominations:

1 Outstanding alternative fuel project (cement or lime company)

2 Most innovative technology for alternative fuel use

3 Outstanding electrical energy efficiency project award (cement or lime company)

4 Most innovative technology for electrical energy efficiency

New Year - Engineering Live - NY Policy Resolution?

New year, still alive, much activity, little financial reward, high time I reviewed my job-activity strategy! A New Year Resolution? Most Certainly.

Before presenting my "annual report" let me introduce you to the European Engineering magazine [link] which has been brought to my attention only today (11 Jan 2008) together with their bi-annual publications in 5 or 6 engineering online disciplines. A commendable effort indeed.

My annual activity report?

I tackled a number of price tagged, "winner takes all" challenges posted on the web. If I learned a lot, an aweful lot, I won none.... (details upon specific request to identified persons only)

Pushed into my last entrenchment, I renewed my offer to review a book for my materials Institute in UK, to be published in Materials World in Feb. or March this year (2008). Not much help in the face of known inflation (francs to euros) with more inflation expected by all authorities, OCDE, EU-ECB, UK-BoE...

So if any of my readers have work to offer, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

(PS. I do not act as an intermediary in funds transfer or act as a fraudulent inheritance figure, so please cut out the SPAM ).

Plastic Stronger than Steel ?

New plastic is claimed to be as strong as steel, lighter and transparent from PhysOrg.com

By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.

[...]

HBR's Conversation Starters

I am glad Harvard Business Online (HBR online) got in touch.

I have not explicitly chatted about management for some time, although many of my posts imply, more or less calling upon "Corporate Social Responsibility" (CSR).

The "Conversation Starter" for HBR's new online approach (global by definition labelled "GlobalBus" on their web link string) thought I might be interested by their leader post "Why Robert Reich Is Wrong About Corporate Social Responsibility", by Mike Kramer.

By some coincidence this theme appeared to me, to be related to my post "Healthy Steel? Smart Steel. " earlier this week 13/09/2007 on these blog pages.

Without any further ado, I whole heartedly recommend reading M. Kramer's "conversation starter" , its links and ensuing discussion. [Link]


I further recommend even to those deprived of the full review paper(s) to follow the excellent summary and links to related papers.

Action: Change the title of my post from "Healthy Steel? Smart Steel to "Healthy steel is smart steel" & its corrollary "Smart steel is Healthy steel".

Many thanks Harvard, Kramer, The Economist and "The numerous conversation contributers".

Ref: Theodore Zelden's essay "On Conversation"

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MATERIAL CHEMISTRY DEFINED

An important step forward, to define Materials Chemistry, was taken by The Royal Society for Chemistry (RSC) at the Sept 12, 2006, workshop. The workshop brought together almost 50 delegates, leading experts in the field and published online 5 pre-workshop presentations, free to download making a valuable ebook on the subject. The practising experts, renowned Chemists, Materials Scientists, Technologists and Engineers confronted with the problems arising within the materials and chemical sciences, technologies and engineering drew up key questions and attempted to provide adequate answers.

The rational and the thought processes which arose during the meeting are in themselves highly instructive and educational.

-Questions such as why focus on Materials Chemistry?
-What distinguishes Materials Chemistry from simple chemical substances?
-Define materials chemistry in a few words
and give some examples of areas of research that should be included.
-Should there be a distinction between functional and structural materials in the definition?
-Does materials chemistry cover both?
-What is the difference between materials chemistry and materials science?
-What isn’t materials chemistry?
-What should not be included in the definition.

Unfortunately the "ebook" is nolonger available online via the RSC site as far as I can tell. I do not believe this is e-mateial is highly sensitive!

The RSC Workshop ebook may be downloaded at the following links, nolonger:

Why focus on Materials Chemistry?
Within the broad family of chemical sciences, it transpires that an increasingly high percentage of publications are classified as Materials Chemistry (cf. Leonard V. Interrante's presentation, Link in Pdf format)
laying claim to the stature of a distinct discipline, in practice involving multi-disciplinary or interdisciplinary skills.

The need for a definition.

The inherent complexity involved makes the task of defining the subject equally complex and therefore even more necessary in order to express the ideas, concepts and science involved as succinctly as possible, to further the recognition of the discipline in itself and so provide assistance to publishers and funding agencies.

In the words of Peter Day who asks rhetorically,

“Why bother about definitions? “
And gives the following reply
“- For clarity: a new cross-cutting discipline
-To give materials chemistry a place in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) "
Cf. P. Day’s presentation, Link in Pdf format



NB. IUPAC Link Compendium of Chemical Terminology




Material Chemistry Defined?

To date the discipline has developed organically and to a large extent, the common idea of what constitutes materials chemistry is circularly linked to the type of work done by “materials chemists”.

Typical areas in which materials chemist work are as follows:
-application can be a prime element in motivation
-Areas of application cover:
-structural or functional
-designing and processing materials
-Characterisation and analysis

What is a Material?

It emerged that “The Key to progress in the defining of materials chemistry was to define what constitutes a material in contrast to just a chemical.

In the words of Paul O’Brien

‘So when does chemistry become materials chemistry?
Materials chemistry must, pedantically, have something to do with a material as
opposed to a chemical.’

O’Brian goes on to illustrate this by quoting from the eminent Metallurgist Robert W. Cahn’s book ‘The Coming of Materials Science’, (p253) Ed. Pergammon, Oxford, 2001.

“The key to understanding the formation of p and n type semiconducting material came from careful work in which metallurgists correlated properties with traces of dopants. One of the key features of the properties of semiconductors is that conventionally chemically and crystallographically identical samples can have different properties because of traces of group 3 or 5 dopants." R. W. Cahn.

The dictionary defines a material as “a physical substance from which things can be made from”, quite unsuitable for the aims of such a workshop whose members represent the material chemistry community, whose practise today involves long years of study and practice, whose responsibility involves publishing, peer reviewing, advising on and facilitating access to funding, defining the fields within the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry. A more technical and profound definition was obviously called for.

Should there be a distinction between functional and structural materials in our definition?

The experts considered the following

Concepts Essential to Define Materials “chemistry”
-Structure & properties
-Functionality
-Application
-Design ( refers to design at the atomic or molecular level)

For example:
A material has properties which give it a particular useful application,
either
structural, as with a building material,
or
functional, as with materials used to make devices.
(Electronic, optical or magnetic)

Duncan W. Bruce gave examples of liquid crystal materials chemistry including markets, basic molecular structures and the functions for which these materials are used. Link_Pdf format


Properties

A material is generally thought of as an organised phase where interactions between particles play a large role, although clearly there are cases where amorphous phases are also crucial..

Material versus Chemical Substance
The properties of a material emerge from the way these sub-units are put together:
-Whilst a single molecule will have properties related to its chemical
structure which remain constant, the properties of a material are dependent on how its sub-units are assembled.

Properties can, and as in Metallurgy, often, arise from structural defects (materials made of the same chemical sub-units can have different properties e.g. the properties of polymers for example depend on their supramolecular and meso/morphological structure.

The relationship between structure and property could be used to define a material and differentiate it from a chemical.

Compare for example:
-a material would be a nano-tube, whose properties will vary depending on its structure.
whereas
-a molecule of benzoic acid, which is a chemical whose properties are related only to its chemical make-up.

The difference between materials science and materials chemistry

There are areas of contention when trying to define the sub-discipline materials chemistry.

Would catalysis be considered part of the field?

Homogeneous catalysis would certainly not fit the definition but would heterogeneous catalysis? The synthesis of certain types of novel catalyst materials could fit parameters by which materials chemistry has been described.

Materials chemistry does share some (many?) common elements with Materials Science with perhaps differences in scale?

But often the scale of elements studied differ, with materials chemistry being concerned with a molecular understanding of materials, whilst materials science looking at a larger scale.

Materials chemistry can be concerned with properties up to the micron scale.

It must be recognised that there is a big overlap and many materials scientists will be working to the same end as many materials chemists. Materials chemistry certainly requires an understanding of the principles of both chemistry and materials science and sometimes physics and biology.

The interdisciplinary nature of the work is an important element that may differentiate materials chemistry from general chemistry but strengthens its relationship with material science.

What isn’t materials chemistry:

Synthesising any material was not materials chemistry but
just chemical synthesis. Synthesis is a major part of what chemists do.

The sub-discipline materials chemistry must include an element of
application, function or novel design that is beyond the simple chemical reactivity of
the species in question.

Design:

Design refers to design at the atomic or molecular level, design at a greater length scale becomes Materials Science and Engineering. Work on novel materials that may show potential applications must be included as materials chemistry as chemists may generate new types of materials with previously unknown properties leading to unimagined applications


Conceptual maps [Link TBD]

The following conceptual map outlines are
-Chemistry subject map
-Materials chemistry subject map
Link



Some working definitions of materials chemistry

“Chemistry related to the preparation, processing and analysis of materials”*

• Preparation: The synthesis of new materials; development of improved routes to known materials
• Processing: modifying materials to enhance their utility (e.g., dying, coating, nanoparticle
generation, etc. )
• Analysis: everything from characterization of structure at multiple length scales to the
theoretical interpretation of behaviour
*L.V. Interrante, “Materials Chem, a New Sub-discipline”, MRS Bulletin, Jan., 1992, p. 4.

Chemistry of Advanced Materials - Ch 1: Introductory Terms and Concepts
The definition of materials as “substances having properties which
make them useful in machinery, structures, devices and products*”, connects materials with function and through that function, utility
*M. Cohen, Ed., Mats. Sci. & Eng.: Its Evolution, Practice and Prospects; Mater. Sci. Eng. 37(1) (1974); M.B. Bever, Encyclopedia of Mats. Sci. & Eng., Vol. 1,(1986)


Selected Results from a Google Search for Materials Chemistry

• Univ. Wisconsin Chemistry website
– Materials Chemistry can be defined as the branch of chemistry aimed at the preparation,
characterization, and understanding of substances/systems that have some specific useful function (or potentially useful function)
• Washington Univ. Chemistry website
– Materials chemistry involves the synthesis and study of materials that have interesting and potentially useful electronic, magnetic, optical, and mechanical
properties
• Univ. of Oregon Chemistry website
– Materials chemistry is a relatively new discipline centered on the rational synthesis of novel functional materials using a large array of existing and new synthetic methods

Summary of working definition of materials chemistry as suggested at the workshop.

Materials Chemistry is:

- the chemistry of the design, synthesis and characterisation of assemblies of molecules whose properties arise from interactions between them.

- is the understanding, synthesis, processing and exploitation of compounds or substances in their assembled form.

- is the synthesis, processing, characterisation, understanding and exploitation of compounds that have useful or potentially useful properties and applications.





The RSC Workshop ebook may be downloaded at the following links:

THESE LINKS ARE NOLONGER AVAILABLE VIA RSC SITE -My Apologies.

Material Chemistry Maps (Paul O’Brian)Link Pdf format

Why bother about definitions? (Peter Day)Link Pdf format

Liquid Crystals by Duncan W.Bruce, Link Pdf format

IUPAC's role by Tony West, Link Pdf format

Statistics, References to Materials Chemistry... by Leonard V. Interrante, Link Pdf format




Metallurgy, Materials Science,Applied Science

Material Innovations- Healthy Steel? - Smart Steel. "Healthy steel is smart steel" and it's corrollory

A "smart" steel with built-in antibacterial protection.

My initial interest in "healthy steel" and healthy steelmaking goes back quite a bit, in fact to my work as a process metallurgist in special steelmaking. My initial education as a graduate metallurgist, processes and products (integrity) provided me with a firm grounding for my early career much of it as a process R&D metallurgist and materials scientist and engineer. My encounter with the inherently dangerous environment of "liquid steels and special alloys, at temperatures where metal vapours abound and to which one must, literally, add powder chemical fluxing agents, exothermic powders, which give off heat at during and/or after the casting process made me more and more aware of the need to improve my knowledge of health issues and increase my expertise in what I see as "worthwhile and responsible application of science".

I recorded in a ChemWeb posting (pre-blog days) some work on sanitary surfaced steel obtained by very thin, plasma deposited, layers of silver(Ag).

Much more recently, early this year 2007, in fact, I submitted a rough ideas outline for lower coast processes for sanitary surfaced steel currently stainless steel is the preferred material. (Innocentive)[Link html]. Unfortunately I did not win but gained some feed-back on the known weaknesses of my ideas. I discovered in the the Innocentive Challenge search process just what a back seat I had taken on these specialisms for too long!

Innovation-A smart steel with built-in antibacterial protection.

While optimising reading and exploitation of my Institute [Link html] house journal, "Materials World", I came across this "Healthy Steel" report in the news section.

Let me share with you, the innovative steel formulation below and encourage readers not to hesitate to make further comments on this approach, make suggestions or supply further information.

A world first in plating strip steel according to the manufacture [Link html].

Known as Hybrel (TM), [Link html], the new product mixes various particles with a metal coating – such as tin, nickel and copper - so forming hybrid coatings that combine the properties of both the metal and the particles.

These hybrid coatings are produced electrochemically. Particles, such as plastics, ceramics, glass beads, lubricants, and even colours, scents, and micro-encapsulated luminescent materials, combine at the metal surface at the same time as the metal coating is formed and are incorporated into the metal layer. It is also possible to simultaneously deposit two different types of particles into the same layer.

The particles and metal combine to create a variety of surface properties. For example, metal strip with a water or dirt repellent surface that is also highly conductive to heat and electricity.

Some potential applications include self-lubricating bearings and vibration-resistant engine gaskets.

Nota Bene: I decided to be more directive in my title following Harvard Business Online's email bringing clarification to the "Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR" theme.

"Healthy steel is smart steel" and its corollary "Smart steel is healthy steel".

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Metallurgy, Materials Science,Applied Science