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Showing posts from January, 2012

My Ina and process engineering

I am a kampung girl, with paddy planters feet, I grew up in the kampung but learned a lot of process engineering from my Ina. Process engineering is one of the career options of a chemical engineering graduate. It deals with making raw materials reach it's customers in the product form that it is required. The raw materials can be fossil fuel, biomass, oleochemicals, minerals etc. The products can be in the form of chips, electrical gadgets, food, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, fuel etc.  As a kid I used to read a lot and there is three words that I came across which reverberated through my life. It was, "making rocket fuel". Thirty years ago, I used to be cared for by my grandmother who I lovingly know as "Ina". Part of the fun activities were feeding the farm animals, making "nonsoom" (fermented food) of either fruits, fish or meat, as well as my favorite, making rocket fuel. Back then I did not know that I was helping my grandmother turn biomass i...