AIChE Minutes
ChE 015
October 25, 2012
An AIChE meeting was held for assembly credit in DU 1107 at 1:30 p.m. some announcements were:
 A community service opportunity was announced, we will be doing a “Fall Clean” in triangle park
near Aggieville
 Intramural volleyball is on Sunday evenings at 6 p.m.and everyone is invited to play
 Some officers will be gone over the weekend in Pittsburgh, PA for AIChE nationals
Michael Lawhon and Alan Toloza from Cargill gave a presentation “Cargill: Who Are We?” some main
points were:
 Cargill has 142,000 employees in 65 countries
 They had 133.9 billion dollars in sales and revenues in 2012
 They have 1.18 billion dollars in earnings from continuous operations
 They have 5 platforms (Agricultural Services, Food Ingredients, Origination and Processing, Risk
Management & Financial, and Industrial)
 They have 63 business units
 Some consumer brands are:
o Truvia
o Diamond Crystal
o Honeysuckle White
o Rumba
o Sterling Sivler
o Shady Brook Farms
 Some ingredient brands are:
o Sunny Fresh
o Progressive Baker
o Maize Wise
o Clear Valley
 Animal nutrition brands are:
o Nutrena
o Sportsman’s Choice
o Loyall
 Alan Toloza went more into depth on his job in Horizon Milling in San Bernadino, CA
o He works for a milling company but still uses his chemical engineering knowledge working
with flows and processes
o Horizon Milling is the largest flour mill in California
o Some customers are Ramen Noodles, Sara Lee, and multiple cookie brands
o A brief explanation of the process is taking wheat in, cleaning it, grinding the wheat down,
and selling the finished products
o New hires go through a MIT (Miller in Training) program
o In this program you will learn about:
 Environmental, Health, and Safety (Audits)
 Technical Competencies (Plant Processes and Shift Training)
 Supervisory (Management Training)
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Next, Michael Lawhon talked about his experience in a refinery in Blair, NE
o He talked about designing things to make it easy for the people in the field to check
equipment
o They take corn, break it up to starch, then take the starch and react it to form dextrose
o The refinery has several other plants around it which are Cargill’s consistent customers that
take products from Cargill’s refinery and make something else with it
o He has had a lot of opportunity to use his degree building models and designing tanks but he
has also done a variety of other things that he never dreamed of doing like picking out the
furniture for the control room, this comes from going through a project from start to finish
Cargill is stressing co-ops over internships because in co-ops you are able to start and finish a
project instead of just doing a couple steps of a project
There are many opportunities to travel (in the US or overseas) and there is also plenty of
opportunity to stay in a set location