Hello good people!!!
My name is Donald Zinsou and I’m with JUZEN CHEMICALS for almost a year now.

I joined as a member of the R&D department, but I am presently in the production department for one-year internship.The reason is that our company wants freshmen researchers to experience the production plants and understand the facilities in order to be more efficient in designing commercial processes and troubleshooting.

The production process in chemistry goes generally from addition of reagents in the reactors → reaction → concentration → crystallization → filtration → drying. This is a non-exhaustive list but most of chemical processes include these operations. It is therefore necessary to understand the key-points of each operation. For example, factors like temperature changes can influence the progression of the target reaction or increase the by-products. So, by understanding the range of temperature, pressure and the time of reaction, we can set the appropriate control program for monitoring and managing temperature and pressure. Each program consists in complex parameters such as open and shut of valves (to control the pressure), transfer of heating or cooling liquid in the jacket of reactors (to control the temperature), etc. In the beginning, I felt a little bit disoriented because of the new environment and all the new technical Japanese terms but thanks to my supportive colleagues and bosses, I’m becoming familiar to the work. Thanks to the current training, I become able to understand the capacity and limits of our facilities in the plant. I still have a lot to learn but I believe that at the end of my training, I will become able to help efficiently in designing production process with my R&D colleagues and I also believe it will definitely be an excellent springboard for my career.

Recently, English is becoming important in our company. Some of my bosses only speak to me in English and I enjoy it. It shows how open-minded, supportive and heartwarming people are in JUZEN. After work, sometimes we go fishing,dinner and drink together.

During my free time, I like to meet and discuss with people. So I use to participate to the International exchange festival of Toyama every year where I introduce my country and culture and I also learn new cultures and different way to think.