Manufacturing environments often rely on harmful chemicals that require careful handling to protect workers and facilities from potential safety risks.
For Vishakaa Satheeshkumar (ChemE MEng 2T5), addressing those risks became the focus of her MEng project. Working with a leading food and beverage manufacturer, she investigated safer processes for managing inkjet cleaning waste through the ChemE MEng program’s industry-sourced project component.
The experience allowed her to apply classroom knowledge to a real-world engineering challenge while collaborating with both industry professionals and faculty supervisors.
Satheeshkumar’s project, Hazardous Waste Management: Safe Handling and Disposal of Volatile Inkjet Cleaning Solution in a Consumer Goods Manufacturing Facility, focused on improving workplace safety practices surrounding hazardous cleaning solutions used in industrial inkjet printing systems.
“In the food and beverage industry, ink is used to mark critical information, such as product date codes, batch number and more,” explained Satheeshkumar. “The cleaning solutions used to remove debris from the inkjets are hazardous and volatile, which pose potential safety risks due to the high flammability nature of butanone, the main chemical involved.”
Her project examined ways to reduce vapour emissions and improve workplace safety through hazard identification, dispersion modelling and mitigation strategies for accidental release. It also explored the use of non-sparking and explosion-proof equipment.
“This project aimed to review industry best practices and identify optimal processes to be utilized in the use and handling of ink and waste products,” she said.
Satheeshkumar learned about the opportunity through a fellow classmate and later worked with her workplace management team to identify an operational hazard that could benefit from engineering assessment.
Her day-to-day work included researching methyl ethyl ketone used in continuous inkjet printing processes and monitoring vapour emissions through data collection and analysis.
“I used a TVOC meter to monitor vapour emissions both with and without engineering controls in place and compared it against industry standards and best practices through data modelling and analysis,” she said.
Throughout the project, Satheeshkumar received guidance from both academic and industry mentors. She credited her industry co-supervisor and management team for their expertise and support, as well as her academic co-supervisor, Professor Charles Jia, for helping connect chemical engineering principles to food and beverage manufacturing applications.
Through the project, Satheeshkumar gained experience working at the intersection of engineering research, workplace safety and industrial operations — an opportunity that allowed her to apply technical concepts in a professional setting while building industry experience.
Reflecting on her experience in the MEng program, Satheeshkumar said the opportunity to work on an industry-based project helped strengthen her understanding of how engineering theory is applied in professional settings while exposing her to real-world operational challenges.
“The industry-sourced project enhanced my learning by helping me understand the challenges involved in applying theoretical findings and data modelling to industry settings,” she said. “Several design assumptions and calculations had to be modified to ensure the proposed process aligned with the research and operational requirements, while promoting a safer and more effective approach.”
Following the completion of her MEng degree in Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry in 2025, Satheeshkumar plans to continue building her professional experience toward obtaining her P.Eng designation. She will also begin pursuing her MBA at the Rotman School of Management in August 2026.