What will the future of process design look like?

Computers have replaced abacuses, but accountants remain accountants. It’s still the same people who operate computers or abacuses; those who play games won’t become accountants just by using a computer

Hehe, the original poster needn’t worry about this issue. Chemical engineering design is a massive undertaking that involves many different aspects; it can’t be replaced by some simple procedure. No matter how advanced computers are, they still require humans to manufacture, produce, and maintain them ； Even if artificial intelligence eventually develops thinking abilities similar to those of humans, human control and guidance will still be necessary for engineering design; it’s just that certain tasks or steps will eliminate the need for humans to carry out repetitive and tedious work. Also, some basic data still requires human experiments to be obtained. Don’t worry, humans will always be in charge!

Agree with what was said above! ! ! :P

I agree with the views from above as well. It’s not that this profession will disappear or anything; rather, it’s hoped that people will discuss what new technologies might affect certain aspects of design work. For example, with CAD software such as ASPEN Plus and AutoCAD, the efficiency and accuracy of process development have **improved; what used to take a team of over a dozen people to accomplish can now be done by just one person. For today’s process engineers, it is very difficult to carry out process development without CAD software. For another example, with process development and integration platforms such as COMOS FEED, it’s much easier to generate data sheets; there’s no need to enter the data manually into Excel one by one, as the computer handles the creation of the tables automatically, ensuring consistency in the data.

Simulation can only replicate existing processes; as the chemical industry develops, new processes and products continue to emerge

Simulation is not limited to replicating traditional processes; with sufficient knowledge, modern simulation software can be used to carry out calculations for almost any idea or process in your mind. However, after the calculations are completed, it is necessary to provide a professional assessment of the simulation results, and ultimately these results must be verified through experiments or industrial application

Something innovative – artificial intelligence still can’t do it; human wisdom is still needed

The original poster is still thinking decades ahead; in fact, it’s better to take a longer-term perspective. . Throughout the development of human society, many professions have disappeared. For example, can one still find blacksmiths in today’s big cities? (Devout hand-crafted swordsmiths are excluded.) Can one still see those horseshoes? Not many people repair bicycles these days, right? Those who sharpen scissors and chopsticks with kitchen knives are gone too, right? ? Or maybe a draftsman at a design institute? ? The time it will take for these occupations to disappear is, in the near term, within a dozen years, and at most, a hundred years in the more distant future. Draftsmen were present in all major design institutes 20 years ago, but they have now disappeared; in fact, many people born in the 1990s don’t even know what this job entails. . . . What about in another 1,000 years, or 2,000 years? ? Process designers might no longer be needed; it could even be possible to build chemical plants by stacking blocks, the key being whether it is profitable. . . . . The disappearance of occupations such as blacksmithing is due to advances in productivity, which made it impossible for blacksmiths to make a living; since there was no profit to be made, such occupations naturally vanished. Perhaps there will still be process design in the future, but it might no longer be called chemical engineering; not all professionals in engineering fields will necessarily be called engineers either. With human education from childhood onward, it could become possible to replace years of study with the implantation of a small chip in the brain. . The Western gunboats that sailed in the Bohai Bay toward the end of the Qing dynasty made a group of high-ranking court officials exclaim that they were demons. . . . So, everything that will happen in the future will seem astonishing and unimaginable to people today, but it will indeed happen. .

Our generation is probably at an end; at most, there will be even greater levels of automation, with various specialties able to carry out design work entirely online, leading to overall automation.

I believe that with the development of computer-aided design software, fewer and fewer people will be needed for process design in the future. Moreover, since many engineering projects already follow standard layouts, engineering design will gradually come to be carried out by a small number of designers. More people need to turn to the research and development of new products and new processes.