Robert M. Scates Email & Phone Number

Houston, Texas

Assignments involving fires, explosions, and implosions have included cause and origin analysis using site assessments and CFD modeling of flammable gases, and post-incident equipment assessment including on-shore/off-shore installations and laboratories. They have included project oversight and cost assessment for an extensive plant rebuild. They have further included cause and origin analysis of systems with elevated oxygen concentrations and incidents of spontaneous combustion. Gas release assignments have included investigations of employee workplace and off-site chemical exposures. These potential impacts have been assessed using air dispersion modeling and root cause analysis.Chemical plant and refinery assignments have included process failure analysis, damaged equipment cost analysis, transient flow analysis in a piping network for a hydraulic hammer, compact heat exchanger failure analysis, process capital cost and return on investment analysis, chemical plant start-up analysis, process scale-up feasibility assessment, fuel octane blending analysis, heat exchanger tube failure analysis, business interruption analysis, chemical plant process safety analysis, the implications of OSHA regulations on chemical plant and refinery accident investigations, confined space analysis, flare system analysis, oil spill cause and origin, and feedstock and product contamination jobs. Polymer related assignments have included composite tank failure analysis, determination of the cause of multilayer plastics delamination, polymer and dye incompatibility assessments, determination of the potential impact of contaminants on polymers manufactured for medical applications, elastomeric coatings failure, premature mechanical failure, chemical/container incompatibility analysis, determination of the root causes of a run-away polymerization with recommended process changes, and determination of the cause of a polymeric coating failure.

Houston, Texas

Providing Expert Witness Services Including: Technical environmental evaluations, characterization of emission sources (industrial, mining, agricultural, residential), modeling of chemical transport in the environment via all media. Workplace environmental assessments.  Environmental sampling. Document acquisition including crafting of Requests for Production, Interrogatories, and technical document review.  Technical research and document acquisition from public sources including internet-based research, university libraries, and federal, state, and local regulatory agencies. Technical presentation preparation for hearings, settlement negotiations, and trial.  Technical document management, including scanning, OCR, and database construction.  Expert witness management including scope of work and deliverables determination, document supply, scheduling, deposition preparation, and draft report review.  Assessment of flood control and hurricane protection systems.  Medical and chemical literature research and health-effects causation determination.  Patent research.  Settlement structuring.

Research engineering support for Polystyrene, Styrene Monomer, Polyethylene, and Polypropylene. Focused on advancements in reaction kinetics and catalysis, reactor design, non-ideal vapor liquid equilibrium, heat transfer, and non-newtonian fluid dynamics.  Constructed first multi-component, comprehensive energy and material balance model within the company for a HIPS plant yielding heat exchanger sizing, proper reactor characterization and productivity, polymer conversions and molecular weight profiles, and control valve sizing.  Constructed predictive model for polypropylene melt index as a function of reactor operating parameters and feed characterization.  Designed novel polystyrene devolatilization heat exchanger and polymer distributor to minimize product polydispersity and volatiles using research in the literature, competitor patent analysis, and pilot plant testing. Awarded U.S. patent #5,540,813  Worked with a team that improved product color uniformity and unit color performance.  Worked with a team that improved Environmental Stress Crack Resistance (ESCR) of HIPS through formulation and unit changes.  Determined residence time distribution for polymer reactor train for proper reactor modeling.  Performed modeling analysis for debottleneck of a styrene monomer plant including stream relocating and investigation of tower retraying/structured packing.  Designed equipment for polymer/monomer/diluent separation in a polyethylene unit.  Provided solo, on-site engineering support for a polystyrene plant startup in China.  Worked with a team that performed licensing bid package preparation for equipment sizing, cost estimates, and scheduling for several overseas polystyrene plants.

Provided technical support for intermediate chemical processing of uranium for the Naval Nuclear Program. Included troubleshooting, equipment and operating modifications, system performance tracking, and safety oversight

Phd, Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: member American Institute of Chemical EngineersResearch focused on elucidating the reduction process.

Bs, Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: Tau Beta Pi - Engineering Honor Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Phi Eta Sigma - Freshman.