The Acetyls Business Unit is one of the world's leading manufacturers of acetic acid and its derivatives, and owns & deploys its leading technology in Europe, Asia and US.
INEOS Hull Site is the European manufacturing facility for the Acetyls Business Unit and is of significant strategic importance to the Global Business, with a focus on Manufacturing Petrochemicals as well as Research & Technology. Our core product range is Acetic Acid and Acetic-Anhydride.
The asset is located at the Hull, UK site which sits within a wider chemicals park operation.
The A5 Development and Manufacturing Support Chemist is accountable for identifying and supporting the application of process chemistry changes to reduce variable cost, de-bottleneck plant capacity and improve reliability as required by business needs and detailed in the A5 Asset Improvement Road Map. A key part of this role will be the delivery of regular A5 chemistry "health" reports to help maintain safe, efficient and reliable operation within the existing asset capability. The role works closely with the asset engineers and Technology Support Team to ensure alignment, support delivery and lead deployment onto the asset of the A5 technology development programme outputs.
The A5 plant is part of the INEOS Acetyls business. Year on year improvement in safety, reliability, efficiency and production capability are key measures of asset performance that need to be achieved to ensure business requirements are met.
Accountabilities:
- Uphold the “INEOS 20 BEHAVIOURAL & PROCESS SAFETY PRINCIPLES” & “Life Saving Rules” in all activities undertaken.
- Responsible for the delivery of the A5 chemistry elements (which form a significant part) of the asset improvement roadmap covering reliability, variable cost and production growth.
- Responsible for the chemistry aspects of day-to-day optimisation of the asset for minimum variable cost, maximum production volume and reliable operations. This includes producing regular chemistry “health” reports analysing for trends in catalyst performance, resin performance, catalyst recovery process optimisation, by-product generation rates, process fouling rates and process additives usage.
- Provide day-to-day support with respect to asset development activities such as plant optimisation and production rate trials.
- Responsible for management of the rhodium catalyst cycle to ensure stable inventory and that recovery and refining match plant catalyst demand.
- Responsible for providing technical support and assurance on all chemistry related plant issues and proposed plant changes.
- Responsible for interfacing with the Technology Support Team to ensure awareness of global best practice, formulate improvement opportunities and align the technology development programme with the asset objectives. Lead deployment of the portfolio of A5 technology chemistry improvements on to the asset.
- Support upkeep of the A5 plant chemistry manual.
- Participate in audits and support incident investigations as required.
Level of Education & experience:
- Degree (or higher) in Chemistry.
- 5+ years industrial experience.
- Experience of the application of process chemistry knowledge and skills in the optimisation of industrial manufacturing process, technology developments and project delivery.
- Experience in acetyls and syngas process technology would be an advantage.
Technical Skills:
- Strong understanding of chemistry, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis and distillation fundamentals. Able to demonstrate analysis of plant process data within this environment, from either practical or theoretical experience in the workplace or studies.
- Detailed knowledge and understanding of A5 anhydride/acid co-production process technology and the fundamentals of the carbonylation process and by-products chemistry.
- Knowledge of the partial oxidation syngas technologies and A5 manufacturing plant operations.
- Appreciation of reliability engineering concepts including root cause failure analysis.
- Effective economic evaluation skills including the development of economic models to support project option screening and technology evaluation.
- Appreciation of intellectual property value and protection, knowledge of patents and freedom to operate requirements.
- Appreciation of process, mechanical, materials and ICE engineering disciplines and experience of working in multidiscipline teams.
- Strong business and commercial acumen.
Behavioural Skills:
- Strong interpersonal skills, ability to operate across all levels in the organisation and to influence senior stakeholders without formal authority.
- Proven ability to communicate complex technical information to audiences at all levels of the business, including those without a technical background.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including technical presentation ability.
- Effective networking and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to work with little direct supervision, exercise initiative and take responsibility for achieving technical targets and delivering results.
- Asset annual safety, reliability, efficiency and overall production targets.
- Delivery of roadmap projects in line with improvement targets.
- Improved asset performance KPI's versus currently installed asset capability.