Any ideas for EPQ title for chemical engineering?

Original post by alygirl

Possibly, I take it you are too? :biggrin:

Whereabouts are you looking?

Ah cool (: I think so, not certain though.

Manchester, Nottingham, Surrey, Birmingham and Bath :biggrin:

You?
I love the look of Leeds and Sheffield too but they don't do industrial years out :frown:

Reply 5

Original post by SebMurphy

Something to do with energy efficiency would relate very well to chem eng. Improving efficiency is one of the best things a chemenger can do to reduce costs.

You could go from the safety aspect, and talk about something that has gone very wrong. Chernobyl is overused, I would go for something like Deepwater Horizon.
Plant safety is an important part of chem eng. It's all very well inventing cold fusion, but if your plant explodes when you turn it on you would look a bit silly.

So, analysis into what went wrong over in the gulf of mexico would be my choice.

I'm really liking that idea, although do you really think there's enough information/sources to write a 5000 word essay?
I'm a little cautious of running out of ideas to explore :/

Reply 6

Muppet Science

14

Graphene or nano-particals could be interesting to look at.

Reply 7

AspiringGenius

15

Have any of you considered writing about Graphene and it's potential applications? I thought it might interest people who want ot go into Chemical Engineering :smile:

Reply 8

Original post by x-Sophie-x

I'm really liking that idea, although do you really think there's enough information/sources to write a 5000 word essay?
I'm a little cautious of running out of ideas to explore :/

There are loads of extensively covered chem eng disasters :wink:

(some of them not as well known to general public):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_%28BP%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flixborough_disaster
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/texas-explosion-fertiliser-plant-crime-scene

Reply 9

SebMurphy

17

Original post by x-Sophie-x

I'm really liking that idea, although do you really think there's enough information/sources to write a 5000 word essay?
I'm a little cautious of running out of ideas to explore :/

The BP website is a good place to start. There is loads of info there.

Also the enormous national commission report is www.oilspillcommission.gov/final-report and that's going to have just about everything you can possibly need.

You can then link it to other disasters (and non disasters) and compare and contrast.

That could easily become a 5000 word essay. In fact, I think i know someone who was deciding between that and something else for their dissertation for uni.

Reply 10

Original post by Voland

There are loads of extensively covered chem eng disasters :wink:

(some of them not as well known to general public):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_%28BP%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flixborough_disaster
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/18/texas-explosion-fertiliser-plant-crime-scene

Of course there are! :P Hadn't heard of some of them :redface:

I just don't see how there'd be enough to base an EPQ on if I'm just researching one particular disaster though.

Reply 11

Original post by SebMurphy

The BP website is a good place to start. There is loads of info there.

Also the enormous national commission report is www.oilspillcommission.gov/final-report and that's going to have just about everything you can possibly need.

You can then link it to other disasters (and non disasters) and compare and contrast.

That could easily become a 5000 word essay. In fact, I think i know someone who was deciding between that and something else for their dissertation for uni.

You have a point.

I actually really like this chemical disaster idea. Thanks, will have to further investigate this (:
Much better than what I'm currently doing, anyway.

Reply 12

Original post by x-Sophie-x

Of course there are! :P Hadn't heard of some of them :redface:

I just don't see how there'd be enough to base an EPQ on if I'm just researching one particular disaster though.

Why don't you research an entire sector, e.g. oil and gas. Then you could talk about safety in the past (or overview of the sector), talk about a few disasters, lessons learned, and the current level of safety. Nowadays oil and gas is very safe. Apparently it's safer to work on an oil rig than to drive around with an estate agent. I can send you an article on that from the tce (the chemical engineer - ichem's magazine for people in the chem eng sector).

Reply 13

Original post by Voland

Why don't you research an entire sector, e.g. oil and gas. Then you could talk about safety in the past (or overview of the sector), talk about a few disasters, lessons learned, and the current level of safety. Nowadays oil and gas is very safe. Apparently it's safer to work on an oil rig than to drive around with an estate agent. I can send you an article on that from the tce (the chemical engineer - ichem's magazine for people in the chem eng sector).

That sounds like a really interesting topic to research, thank you for suggesting it!
That would be great thanks! :biggrin:

Are you currently a chemical engineering student or..?

Reply 14

Original post by x-Sophie-x

That sounds like a really interesting topic to research, thank you for suggesting it!
That would be great thanks! :biggrin:

Are you currently a chemical engineering student or..?

Yeah, finished third year, still two years left because I'm doing MEng at a Scottish university. Chem eng is a really good topic to write about, because of the multi-disciplinary nature of the course. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask :wink:

.

Original post by x-Sophie-x

I'm really liking that idea, although do you really think there's enough information/sources to write a 5000 word essay?
I'm a little cautious of running out of ideas to explore :/

I had to do an exam question on DWH as part of a module on safety and there was loads of information about it - it's one of the biggest and most well known disasters to hit the industry. As well as the safety aspect you'll also have to learn a bit about how oil wells work, which is a bit of fluids for you so should add some technical content (how much technical content does the essay require? hell, I don't even know what EPQ is!).

Reply 16

Original post by Voland

Yeah, finished third year, still two years left because I'm doing MEng at a Scottish university. Chem eng is a really good topic to write about, because of the multi-disciplinary nature of the course. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask :wink:

.

Oh wow. So you're doing the industrial year too I take it?

What's the course like in general?

Thank you, its much appreciated (:

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Reply 17

Original post by Smack

I had to do an exam question on DWH as part of a module on safety and there was loads of information about it - it's one of the biggest and most well known disasters to hit the industry. As well as the safety aspect you'll also have to learn a bit about how oil wells work, which is a bit of fluids for you so should add some technical content (how much technical content does the essay require? hell, I don't even know what EPQ is!).

Oh really, well that's reassuring! (:
Thank you!

The Extended Project Qualification is equivalent to an AS Level and is basically just a dissertation on a chosen topic so it could include anything, it doesn't have to include technical info.

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Reply 18

Original post by x-Sophie-x

Oh wow. So you're doing the industrial year too I take it?

What's the course like in general?

Thank you, its much appreciated (:

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Yeah, I'm doing a placement year too :wink:

. I think the course is not bad if you're consistent. People usually struggle if they fail to grasp the basic concepts in first year. Didn't like lab reports, because I found them so boring. Design projects are quite interesting, because you use your entire academic knowledge to achieve a goal.

Reply 19