Managed/managing projects ranging from equipment retrofit to full-scale fluidized bed reactor systems.● Managed design through construction of electrically-heated skid-mounted laboratory-scale Inconel 601 fluid bed reactor system for CVD at 980° C. Created original, aesthetic design of easily insertable reaction canister within open-bottom retort. Oversaw fabrication of process unit and specification/purchase of materials & instruments. Supervised assembly of skid & power panel and conducted successful commissioning of unit. Responsible for large after-market sale of additional reactor components. ● Led R&D work to develop a fluid bed dehydration process for a high-temperature coating compound that led to a full-scale process system purchase. Designed complete full-scale process system including 84” diameter x 27’ thermal fluid heated reactor vessel. Specified/procured all equipment including thermal fluid heating/circulation system and gas preheater, directed purchasing of equipment, instrumentation, and materials, and supervised fabrication of reactor, piping, and control system. Oversaw project through PLC programming and factory acceptance testing. Responsible for large after-market sale of piping system. ● Facilitated & negotiated buyback of reactor system to be retrofitted from former client for use in Procedyne's toll processing facility. Managing fabrication/manufacturing/assembly of 50-foot high processing facility containing 48” diameter fixed bed reactor for catalyst reduction and all piping/instrumentation and equipment such as air dryer, hydrogen recycling system, heat exchangers, cooling tower, filtration systems and loading/discharge system. ● Managing system design plus fabrication, manufacturing, and assembly of waste-to-energy prototype of full-scale facility for conversion of 800 metric tons per year of plastic waste to fuel oil. Responsible for design of fluid bed oil heater plus specification/procurement of offgas abatement system.

● Process System Design and Implementation: Designed and implemented various high-temperature process systems, predominantly fluidized bed reactor systems, including catalyst activator units for ~900° C activation of chromium catalyst in HDPE plants. Specific tasks included total system design with P&ID drafting, process calculations, control schematics, and equipment and instrument purchase. ● Equipment Design: Designed and directed the fabrication of process units such as fluidized bed and spouting bed reactors, scrubbers, spargers, saturators, heat exchangers, and agitators. Notably, generated original design for high-temperature helical coil gas-to-gas heat exchanger for use in Catalyst Activator Units due to licensor requirement to change from existing electrical gas preheater to energy-saving heat-exchange with burner flue gas. Designed, built, and tested pilot scale unit, derived heat transfer coefficient, and scaled up to full-scale process unit fabricated from Alloy 601. Currently, there are three such units running in the field. ● System Commissioning: Conducted system commissioning efforts in the following locations: Dahej, Gujarat, India (Catalyst Activation Unit); Cleveland, OH, (Fluidized Bed Tungsten Oxide Reduction Unit); Memphis, TN (Fluidized Bed Heat Treatment Unit); Philip, SD (Fluidized Bed Heat Treatment Unit).

Led teams of engineers and technicians to perform plant start-up and commissioning of Catalyst Activator Units in the following locations: SOCAR Petrochemical Complex, Sumgait, Azerbaijan; Zhongke Refining and Chemical Complex (Guangdong, China); Ningxia Baofeng Petrochemical Complex, Ningxia, China; HMEL Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, Bathinda, Punjab, India. Efforts included troubleshooting and start-up of Catalyst Activator and all ancillary equipment including gas-fired burner, air drying unit, material loading and discharge systems, filtration systems, heat exchangers, and numerous flow control and flow, level, pressure, temperature, weight, and gas concentration measuring instruments. Continued with follow-up troubleshooting from the control room/DCS including modification of control/interlock logic and performed PID tuning of heating system until the unit was fully operational. Led training of end-user in Catalyst Activator Unit prior to system handover.

Responsible for customer contact and on-site assistance for troubleshooting of problems that occur in our national and international installations. Some notable fixes:● Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico: Material had been bypassing the filtration system of a fluidized bed in a refinery due to inconsistent machining of female threads that held the filter elements. Designed and had machined a specialized adaptor that would retrofit on the filters and allow mating with all female threads in the cell plate, regardless of the variance in thread tolerances.● Orange, Texas. Blowback filtration system was not functioning properly due to insufficient blowback gas flow through filter elements. Designed and had machined a special venturi contained within a bushing that were retrofitted on the filters, resulting in increased gas flow. ● Cleveland, OH: Material was seeping through the distributor plate of a high-temperature fluidized bed reactor, causing pressure issues due to build-up of material in the reactor plenum. Designed and had fabricated and machined a multi-part reactor bottom with a removable plenum that was retro-fitted to the reactor to allow removal and cleaning of the plenum.

Designed, assembled, and directed numerous R&D bench-scale and pilot plant operations, including drying, calcining, incineration, metal oxide reduction, catalyst and carbon activation, and chemical vapor deposition. Worked extensively with clients from energy, recycling and CO2-capture sectors. Led pilot plant crew, including plant workers for fabrication and assembly of unit, and lab operators for loading and discharge of unit. Involved in pilot plant operation including process calculations, and control of process in pilot plant. Projects included:● SPOUTING BED CONTINUOUS RECYCLING UNIT: Incineration of paint and debris from bits of aluminum cans too small to be processed by facility’s recycling unit, resulting in total recovery of aluminum. ● FLUIDIZED BED CONTINUOUS CALCINATION UNIT: Calcination of calcium carbonate to calcium oxide in CO2 atmosphere for CO2 capture venture project.● FLUIDIZED BED BATCH DRYING UNIT: Drying of Ethanol from super-absorbent diaper material followed by steam re-hydration of material followed by further drying. ● FLUIDIZED BED BATCH CVD UNIT: Chemical Vapor Deposition of titanium dioxide on paint particles through decomposition of titanium tetrachloride. Constructed continuous scrubber for HCl removal.