Jacob Rodden

Background

About Jacob Rodden

I graduated from the University of Arkansas in May of 2021 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. During my time as a student, I interned at Brunner & Lay, inc with a metallurgical engineer. While working as an intern, I managed testing and documenting heat-treated steel samples for critical parameters, such as: chemical composition, hardness, hardness penetration, etc. before being shipped to end user. Throughout my time at Brunner, I learned about how important engineer-operator relationships and communication is to run a productive process area successfully. My last semester at the University, I participated in a capstone course design competition at New Mexico State University's WERC spring event. Several industry sponsors write problem statements every year for students across the nation to attempt to solve. My team created a mobile water treatment plant for produced water created by the hydraulic fracturing industry. We consulted several businesses that had first-hand knowledge of the scale and challenges of the industry when treating water. My team developed several ideas through reading academic research papers to separate suspended solids and emulsified oils at a flowrate of barrels per day. In doing our own testing, we discovered a combination of coagulation, flocculation, and dissolved air flotation could be used to create a process that was mobile and cheaper for fracking companies to use when compared to deep well injection for disposal. We placed 1st out of 28 teams. After graduation, I accepted a position as a Process Engineer with The Chemours Company in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My main responsibility was to act as the chemical engineering resource for my process areas. As operators in my process area needed technical advice, I oversaw leading investigations, implementing solutions, monitoring process performance, general process troubleshooting, and developing new improvements to procedures and processing methods through Test Authorizations. Our plant specialized in the production of fluorocarbon monomer and polymer chemical products. I lead dozens of projects in various scopes and sizes up to $500k in size, dealing with capacity improvements, cost reduction, and incident related safety actions. I also lead, and took part in, several Process Hazard Analysis’ and Process Failure Modes and Effects Analysis’ in my areas to drive continuous improvements in safety and cost reduction. Throughout my time at The Chemours Company, I learned how important and impactful changes can be in process despite how small they may seem.