Placement Student — Chemical Engineering

CPI helps make great ideas and inventions areality. We’re ateam of intelligent people using advances in science and technology to solve the biggest global challenges in healthcare and sustainability.

Through our incredible people and innovation infrastructure, we collaborate with our partners in industry, academia, government, and the investment community to accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative products.

From health technologies and pharmaceuticals to sustainable food and materials innovations, we turn the entrepreneurial spirit and radical thinking of our people and partners into incredible impact that makes our world abetter place.

CPI is delighted to be recruiting for two placement opportunities for individuals who will join the established and growing Process Engineering function within the Materials Team based at Sedgefield and Wilton. The team comprises seventeen Chemical Engineers who work collaboratively to develop viable novel technologies and processes. This involves solving new and complex challenges and continually finding creative ways of working.

Placement students who join the Process Engineering team will gain first-hand experience of developing and optimising laboratory, pilot and demonstration scale processes and will be using these results to support the design of full-scale commercial plants. They will also contribute to arange of desktop studies including scalability studies, preliminary Front End Engineering design (Pre-FEED), Life Cycle Assessment ( LCA ), Techno-Economic Analyses ( TEA ), mass and energy balances, flow sheeting and equipment sizing.

Our aim is to provide placement students with abroad and diverse experience, working across awide variety of technologies, industries and project types. Upon joining the team, you will be assigned asupportive mentor and given the opportunities to shadow experienced team members across multiple projects, all while undertaking meaningful work aligned with your interests, strengths, and career aspirations. You will make valuable contribution to real commercial and collaborative projects and will become an important member of theteam.

Process Engineering placement students in the past have worked on projects which include:

• Converting alab-scale batch process into alab-scale continuous process
• Visiting client sites to troubleshoot and improve their existing process
• Altering and optimising alab-based pilot plant to demonstrate the viability of anew technology
• Using lab results to inform the flow sheeting and preliminary design of apilot-scale plant
• Using client information to produce Preliminary Front-End Engineering Design for afirst-in-world recycling plant
• Assessing the commercial viability of anew process
• Validating plant cell biotechnology to unlock sustainable protein and ingredient production
• Testing manufacturing configurations for the next generation of nuclear energy
• Scaling up e‑waste recycling through disruptive deeptech
• Turning rags to riches through repolymerisation

The Role

As aChemical Engineering Placement Student, you will support the process engineering function within CPI ’s Materials Team. You’ll assist with day-to-day engineering activities and plant operations, gaining hands-on experience in projects involving new designs, plant modifications, and operational support. This role offers aunique opportunity to apply your chemical engineering knowledge in areal-world setting and develop skills essential for acareer in process engineering.

You will be studying towards (or have recently completed adegree in Chemical Engineering or arelated field, with agood understanding of chemical engineering fundamentals, with experience applying them through university projects.

You will be proficient in IT packages such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio and Outlook.

It would be desirable for you to understand process manufacturing facilities, engineering design, or pilot-scale operations, whether through industrial experience through placements or similar.

Experience with process modelling, simulation, or CFD .

Applicants should be enthusiastic, have…