Hannah Howard has a master鈥檚 in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham.
Unlike many graduates, Hannah Howard was in the lucky position of already knowing where she would work by the time she embarked on her final year of university. The summer before, she had spent eight weeks on a placement at 贰虫虫辞苍惭辞产颈濒鈥檚 . She made a good enough impression that the company told her they would have a job for her when she graduated.
As part of three year graduate training programme, Howard has been on both internal and external courses, some run by the London Business School. She says the wide variety of courses available has given her an insight into the different technical fields within the refinery plant, and into the management and financial side of the oil and gas industry.
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Howard spent her first two years with the plant鈥檚 design team, developing projects to improve the performance of the refinery. During the past year, she has been the hydrofining development engineer within the Catalytic Cracking team.
Hydrofining refers to a method of purifying crude oil using hydrogen and a catalyst. After boiling separates out the lighter hydrocarbons in the crude oil, heavy residues made up of long-hydrocarbon chains are left behind. The Catalytic Cracking team oversees the removal of contaminants such as sulphur from these chains and 鈥渃racks鈥� them into shorter, useful molecules such as petrol and diesel.
鈥淚 really enjoy working in the team,鈥� says Howard. While she doesn鈥檛 have any immediate plans to change positions, she says that she鈥檇 like to take on a supervisory role sometime in the future. The company provides plenty of career inspiration, she says, putting on talks about opportunities and career paths taken by others 鈥� both geographically and through the company鈥檚 departments. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to move around 鈥� see a bit more of what the company has to offer,鈥� she says.
As well as her engineering work, Howard is kept busy studying for further technical qualifications 鈥� she hopes to attain chartered status with the in a year鈥檚 time, through 贰虫虫辞苍惭辞产颈濒鈥檚 training programme.
A day in the life鈥�
As a hydrofining engineer, Howard鈥檚 day-to-day work is varied but here鈥檚 a peek into a typical schedule:
7:45 am 鈥� Arrive at the office
鈥淚鈥檒l check my emails, have a look at the real time visualisation of all the purification units and check they are operating as I expect,鈥� says Howard.
8:45 am 鈥� Attend the daily technical team meeting
The status of all the equipment is discussed and the team go over safety standards relevant to the day鈥檚 work.
9:30 am 鈥� Work on improvement projects
Howard is currently preparing to install a control valve on one of the units. After some planning in her office, she cycles down to the control room to discuss the project with the operator.
12:00 pm 鈥� Lunch聽聽聽聽聽
Howard gets some fresh air, running in the nearby New Forest.
1:00 pm 鈥� Attend meeting to prepare for a scheduled catalyst replacement on one of the units
Howard represents the technical team at a multi-disciplinary group meeting planning the event. Afterwards, she inspects the replacement catalysts which have arrived.
3:00 pm 鈥� Attend monthly unit monitoring meeting
Howard discusses the performance of components such as the catalysts and furnaces with the rest of the technical team. She returns to her desk to do some calculations on a safety valve, checking that it is suitable for a proposed operation.
5:30 pm 鈥� Howard heads home聽聽聽聽聽