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Refinery process engineer vs chemical engineer

The differences between refinery process engineers and chemical engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a chemical engineer has an average salary of $89,449, which is higher than the $84,248 average annual salary of a refinery process engineer.

The top three skills for a refinery process engineer include PSM, MOC and engineering support. The most important skills for a chemical engineer are chemistry, technical support, and co-op.

Refinery process engineer vs chemical engineer overview

Refinery Process EngineerChemical Engineer
Yearly salary$84,248$89,449
Hourly rate$40.50$43.00
Growth rate14%14%
Number of jobs24,59342,176
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 83%Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Average age4141
Years of experience--

Refinery process engineer vs chemical engineer salary

Refinery process engineers and chemical engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Refinery Process EngineerChemical Engineer
Average salary$84,248$89,449
Salary rangeBetween $65,000 And $108,000Between $67,000 And $119,000
Highest paying City-Sugar Land, TX
Highest paying state-Texas
Best paying company-BP America Inc
Best paying industry-Energy

Differences between refinery process engineer and chemical engineer education

There are a few differences between a refinery process engineer and a chemical engineer in terms of educational background:

Refinery Process EngineerChemical Engineer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 83%Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Most common majorChemical EngineeringChemical Engineering
Most common collegeStanford UniversityGeorgia Institute of Technology

Refinery process engineer vs chemical engineer demographics

Here are the differences between refinery process engineers' and chemical engineers' demographics:

Refinery Process EngineerChemical Engineer
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 92.3% Female, 7.7%Male, 74.1% Female, 25.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.2% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 10.8% Asian, 15.5% White, 63.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 3.6% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 21.3% White, 60.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage9%9%

Differences between refinery process engineer and chemical engineer duties and responsibilities

Refinery process engineer example responsibilities.

  • Design & manage small cap projects up to $500K involving fluid systems & heat exchange and PSM.
  • Lead and assist maintenance in resolving equipment malfunctions, troubleshoot process problems, and organize and implement preventative maintenance procedures.
  • Supervise and train operation personnel in the safe operation of 27,000 BPD oil refinery.
  • Determine most effective arrangement of operations such as mixing, crushing, heat transfer, distillation, and drying.
  • Optimize and troubleshoot various distillation columns.
  • Maintain responsibility for manufacturing large-scale inorganic chemical synthesis.
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Chemical engineer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and supervise projects on the production floor and QC department.
  • Lead small project teams of co-op students and interface effectively with plant operators.
  • Manage various cross functional teams to do the IQ, OQ, & PQ validation.
  • Accomplish extraction of heat and material balance data from HYSYS simulation and generating the relevant process flow diagram.
  • Work on windows server 2012 and SQL server 2008.
  • Modify FTIR optics for study of combusting flame.
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Refinery process engineer vs chemical engineer skills

Common refinery process engineer skills
  • PSM, 18%
  • MOC, 17%
  • Engineering Support, 13%
  • Process Design, 11%
  • Distillation, 11%
  • Process Engineering, 10%
Common chemical engineer skills
  • Chemistry, 10%
  • Technical Support, 5%
  • Co-Op, 4%
  • Chemical Process, 4%
  • Troubleshoot, 3%
  • Project Management, 3%

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