Nicholas Braun Email & Phone Number

Houston, Texas, United States

Construction, commissioning, and start up of Lyondellbasell's new PO/TBA plant in Houston, TX.

Morris, Il

Lead a project to redesign the recirculation piping, pumps, control valves, and control scheme on a spent caustic neutralization reactor, which resulted in significant CO2 savings and safer, more reliable operation Co-lead an olefins process dryer outage to change out desiccant in three 2000 ft3 volume vessels. Finished ahead of schedule with GoalZero performance. Reduced dP in the vessels from 12 to 4 psid. Co-lead a Quench Water DOX (dispersed oil extraction) outage; coordinated vendors to decontaminate, clean, and replace filter media to improve dP and water quality in DOX system. Evaluated media loading diagrams to reduce dP. Process engineer role on a tertiary filter capital project for WWTP to reduce total suspended solids (TSS) in the outfall; reviewed P&IDs, 3D model, and lead AFD PHALead WWTP PHA HAZOP over 5 week period and presented findings and recommendations to management teamLead a WWTP contractor cleaning project for the following WWTP tanks: primary clarifiers, corrugated plate interceptors, aeration basins, and spent caustic storage tankExecuted an MOC to demo a recirculated activated sludge (RAS) tank at WWTP and directly couple the secondary clarifiers to RAS pumps, which improved sludge depth control in clarifiers and RAS pump control scheme

Tuscola, Il

Process Engineer at Lyondellbasell Tuscola, an intermediate and derivatives chemical manufacturing site (Synthetic ethanol, diethyl ether, and microthene polymer). Daily production responsibilities include water treatment, wastewater clarification, co-gen unit, and ethanol production.Assigned to a $30MM package boiler capital project team. Participated in final P&ID and PHA review and executed engineering design changes to ensure operational excellence and safety. Worked with several vendors/contactors on commissioning and starting-up packaged boilers as well as training engineers/operators on how to operate them. Qualified as an operator to manage sites water treatment plant and co-gen unit. Operated recirculating-solids water clarification unit as well as softener and reverse osmosis unit. Operated waste water clarification system.Financial responsibilities of tracking, reporting, and presenting utility variable costs and usages of site operations. Implemented water treatment reliability projects Process engineering turnaround support: Inspected drums, distillation towers, heat exchangersActively served on TeamSafe for coordinating Global Safety Day 2017 and promoting GoalZero safety standards.

Dayton, Ohio Area

WPAFB (Dayton, OH) - AFRL’s 711 HPW/RHDJ Toxicological Evaluation of Advanced Materials (TEAM): Engineered gold and silver nanorods at different aspect ratios via chemical reduction to tailor NPs physical properties• Proficient at operating lab instruments: UV-VIS Near IR analysis, TEM imaging, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Zeta Potential • Presented 3 technical papers & posters (i.e. Fine-Tuning Synthesis of Low Aspect Ratio GNRs via Silver Nitrate Addition)

Dayton, Ohio

Summer 2012 Wright Scholar Research Assistant with AFRL & Tech^Edge Summer at the Edge (SATE) Programs: Project Tricorder (Tech Works Circuitry Team) •Designed app allowing Android users to interface with a network of sensors connected to an Arduino chip•Team conducted testing and calibrations for various chemical and environmental sensors such as propane, CO, CO2, wind, light intensity, radiation, and breathalyzer •Environmental sensors were soldered to a PCB designed in Eagle CAD and wired to an Arduino Uno boardProject Panic Button •Designed an Android app that serves as an emergency button •App sends GPS location coordinates to authorities and automatically uploads pictures, video, and audio

Chemical Engineering, Chemical And Biomolecular Engineering, Senior

Activities and Societies: Buckeye Shale and Energy Organization (BSEO), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE), Intramural.

Bachelor Of Science (Bs) Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)