Chemical Engineer

Job Title: Chemical Engineer – R&D, Pilot-plant, Production Engineer.

Location: Rayong, Thailand

Company: Farmed Carbon

Industry: Renewable Energy, Pyrolysis Technology R&D

Farmed Carbon converts agricultural biomass (rice straw) into biochar, pyrolysis oil, and pyrolysis gas — and then turns each of those streams into a real product. We are not a research institute: everything we design gets built, run, broken, and improved in our own pilot factory, mostly with machines and parts we fabricate in-house.

We are looking for a Chemical Engineer who wants to own a process from a bench experiment all the way to a running pilot line — and eventually to industrial scale. You will spend part of your week in the lab with samples and data, and part of it on the factory floor with a drawing in your hand.

What you will work on

1. Pyrolysis process development

• Run and improve our biomass pyrolysis reactors: feeding, heating, residence time, temperature profile, vapour take-off, and condensation.
• Design and size the equipment around the reactor — heat exchangers, condensers, scrubbers, cyclones, gas handling — and integrate heat recovery between units.
• Build mass and energy balances for the whole plant, and use them to decide what to change next.

2. Product development across the carbon cascade

Biochar → Carbloc (carbon-negative construction material)

• Characterize biochar (fixed carbon, volatiles, ash, particle size, surface properties) and link those properties to product performance.
• Support mix design, curing, compressive-strength testing, and process scale-up of our biochar-enhanced geopolymer blocks.

Pyrolysis oil → light / heavy fractions → chemicals

• Design and operate separation of pyrolysis oil into light and heavy fractions (settling, distillation, extraction).
• Develop routes toward higher-value products: phenolic fractions for resin, bio-acetic acid, and other derivatives.
• Set up the analytical work needed to prove the product: water content, acid number, phenolic content, purity.

Pyrolysis gas → syngas → ethanol

• Gas cleanup and conditioning: tar and particulate removal, moisture control, gas composition monitoring.
• Support the syngas-to-ethanol route, including downstream concentration and separation using TVR.

3. Lab and experimental work

• Design experiments properly — one variable at a time where it matters, DOE where it pays off.
• Run bench and pilot trials, log data honestly, and turn it into conclusions the team can act on.
• Build and maintain the analytical methods and sample records that make our results defensible to customers and partners.

4. Process / Project engineering: pilot → industrial scale

• Work directly with our workshop (laser cutting, CNC, welding, fitting) to fabricate equipment in-house — you will be involved from drawing to installation.
• Source components, review supplier quotations, and manage small projects from concept to commissioning.
• Commission new systems, write the operating procedure, and train the operators who will run it.

5. Instrumentation, control and data

• Work with our electrical and automation engineers to specify and install thermocouples, pressure and flow instruments, gas analyzers, and control valves.
• Define control strategies for high-temperature and vacuum systems; set up data logging and use the data to troubleshoot.

---

Requirements

Essential

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 3+ years of relevant experience in process engineering, thermal processing, or chemical R&D. Outstanding fresh graduates with strong fundamentals and real hands-on projects will be considered.
• Solid grasp of the fundamentals: heat and mass transfer, reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, and separation processes (distillation, absorption, condensation, extraction).
• Practical laboratory skill — you are comfortable preparing samples, running your own analyses, and interpreting the results yourself.
• Able to read and produce engineering drawings and communicate clearly with fabricators and technicians.
• Willing to work on the factory floor, not only at a desk.
• Working proficiency in Thai and English (our technical documentation and partner communication are in English).

---

Who does well here

• You are a fast, self-directed learner. Much of what we do has no textbook chapter — you find the paper, run the test, and figure it out.
• You are comfortable in a startup: priorities shift, scope is not always defined, and you will wear several hats in the same week.
• You take ownership. When something you designed does not work, you are the one who finds out why.
• You are practical. A working unit today beats a perfect design next year.
• You enjoy working across disciplines — with mechanical and automation engineers, workshop fabricators, and operators.

---

What we offer

• Competitive salary based on experience and demonstrated capability.
• Real ownership of processes and products in a growing carbon-removal company.
• Hands-on work across the full chain: lab, pilot plant, fabrication, and commissioning.
• Direct exposure to scale-up decisions and to our technology and commercial partners.
• Career growth into Senior process, Project, or R&D leadership as the plant scales.