Chemical Plant and System Operators

What Does a Chemical Plant and System Operators Do?

Control or operate entire chemical processes or system of machines.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• 1Monitor recording instruments, flowmeters, panel lights, or other indicators and listen for warning signals to verify conformity of process conditions.
• 2Regulate or shut down equipment during emergency situations, as directed by supervisory personnel.
• 3Control or operate chemical processes or systems of machines, using panelboards, control boards, or semi-automatic equipment.
• 4Move control settings to make necessary adjustments on equipment units affecting speeds of chemical reactions, quality, or yields.
• 5Inspect operating units, such as towers, soap-spray storage tanks, scrubbers, collectors, or driers to ensure that all are functioning and to maintain maximum efficiency.
• 6Draw samples of products and conduct quality control tests to monitor processing and to ensure that standards are met.
• 7Record operating data, such as process conditions, test results, or instrument readings.
• 8Patrol work areas to ensure that solutions in tanks or troughs are not in danger of overflowing.

Required Skills

• Operations Monitoring
• Operation and Control
• Monitoring
• Quality Control Analysis
• Critical Thinking
• Alarm management system software
• Coordinated incident management system CIMS software
• Distributed control system DCS
• Interlock shutdown systems
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Office software
• Microsoft Word