University student saves chemical giant thousands

A LEEDS University student has saved a chemical company more than £27,000
in energy bills.

While on a year long placement with INEOS ChlorVinyls as part of the Year IN Industry (YINI) scheme, 19-year-old Claire Dillon looked at reducing costs on a number of cooling tower systems by identifying options for combining cooling tower units, isolating pumping capacity no longer required and reducing pump impeller sizes to reduce power consumption.

The student personally re-designed the system to reduce its energy usage by more than 25% and revised a critical safety fire deluge system.

Aspects of her final proposals have now been implemented at the firm’s Runcorn site.

INEOS ChlorVinyls’ bosses were so impressed with her work that they are sponsoring her through her chemical engineering degree at Leeds University.
 
Miss Dillon said: “As a female I was always dissuaded from following a career in chemical engineering so to be able to get the experience of working at INEOS ChlorVinyls before going to university was amazing.

“My placement was a fantastic learning experience. I was given the chance to work independently on a number of projects that a process engineer would be expected to do. I thoroughly enjoyed my year with INEOS ChlorVinyls and it was really rewarding to know my recommendations were being accepted by the company.”

Nigel Browning, a senior process engineer at INEOS ChlorVinyls, said: “One of the key benefits that Claire brought to the company was her questioning approach, which was free from the preconceptions that can develop after years of work.

“Giving youngsters the chance to experience engineering before university is important in that it helps them to understand, and put into context, the practical implications of the theory they will learn later.

“British industry needs good quality students to study and practice engineering and a YINI is an ideal way of doing this.”