Expert Details
Chemical Process and Catalyst Technologies, Licensing, R&D, Engineering, General Management
ID: 728940
New York, USA
His work as a consultant has broadened his chemical industry knowledge so that today he is knowledgeable in virtually all of the chemical and petrochemical process technologies used in the global chemical industry. Some of his consulting work has involved doing market research on the possible markets for new catalysts and chemical products, or new ways to produce those catalysts and products.
Expert spent his industrial career first as a process and catalyst development engineer, and ending up as the president of two organizations, each involved in developing and licensing chemical processes and developing and selling heterogeneous catalysts to the global chemical industry. The second half of his industrial career was in general management of a catalyst development and production facility, and as president of Halcon International, where he was responsible for process and catalyst development, engineering, licensing, and sales to the world-wide petrochemical market. He gained substantial operating experience managing industrial catalyst manufacturing and starting up petrochemical plants. He served as an expert witness in a case involving process plant design, and contractual matters. He also led a team of experts using experimentation and mathematical modeling to explain a possible runaway polymerization leading to a fire and explosion on a container ship. He has also served as an expert, alone, or part of a team, investigating several poor performing catalytic reactors involving production of methanol and of ethylene oxide, respectively..
Expert spent his industrial career first as a process and catalyst development engineer, and ending up as the president of two organizations, each involved in developing and licensing chemical processes and developing and selling heterogeneous catalysts to the global chemical industry. In industry, he started up and ran a continuous pilot plant for ethylene oxide production, led the continous improvement of that process technology including conversion of the operation from air to oxygen feed operations. He led the start up of many ethylene oxide plants including the first two to be converted to the new oxygen process. He managed process develop for several other process technologies, and also led the R&D effort to develop improved ethylene oxide and maleic anhydride catalysts. As a consultant, he has assisted a number of organizations in small scale and pilot plant research, and advised some on their path to commercialization. Also as a consultant, he has reviewed proposals and R&D projects funded by the Department of Energy, in all areas of chemical technology, novel separations, novel reactor systems, etc. He gained substantial operating experience managing industrial catalyst manufacturing and starting up petrochemical plants. He served as an expert witness in a case involving process plant design and contractual matters.
Expert spent his industrial career first as a process and catalyst development engineer, and ending up as the president of two organizations, each involved in developing and licensing chemical processes and developing and selling heterogeneous catalysts to the global chemical industry. His work as a consultant has broadened his chemical industry knowledge so that today he is knowledgeable in virtually all of the chemical and petrochemical process technologies used in the global chemical industry. For the Department of Energy, he reviewed many of the process technologies being used by the US chemical industry, and evaluated the process areas of each which were responsible for high energy consumption. He also recommended process changes to reduce those energy usages.
He reviewed the status of R&D for a multinational energy company developing a petrochemical technology they intended to commercialize. His role was to advise what level of larger scale research was necessary before committing to investing in the commercial facility.He had several assignments where he reviewed the R&D status for start up companies, evaluating whether these technologies could be developed to economically viable processes, and how they might be implemented. This included both techical and economic valuations plus patent review.He and two other associates performed a large study of the possible production of bio-butanol culminating in a large report for a Spanish client. His personal role was economic modeling of the competitive petro-butanol technology, and developing production and pricing forecasts for propylene and oxo chemicals.He worked with a microchannel reactor startup and a major German chemical company on the possible production of a major petrochemical using the microchannel reactor concept. He also advised the startup company on their development program for using this type of reactor for Fischer-Tropsch production.He has served for the past 16 years as a reviewer and advisor to the US Department of Energy on their programs to reduce energy consumption of chemical production in the US by adopting new process technologies.
Education
Year | Degree | Subject | Institution |
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Year: 1978 | Degree: Master's in Business Policy | Subject: General Management | Institution: Columbia Business School |
Year: 1963 | Degree: D. Eng. Sci | Subject: Chemical Engineering | Institution: Columbia School of Engineering |
Year: 1958 | Degree: M.S. | Subject: Chemical Engineering | Institution: Columbia School of Engineering |
Year: 1956 | Degree: B.S. | Subject: Chemical Engineering | Institution: Columbia School of Engineering |
Year: 1955 | Degree: A.B. | Subject: Pre-engineering | Institution: Columbia College |
Work History
Years | Employer | Title | Department |
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Years: 2001 to Present | Employer: Undisclosed | Title: President and Principal | Department: |
Responsibilities:He is sole practitioner in a consultancy, for industrial and government clients, or as subcontractor to consultants, forensic consulting firms, and as an expert witness for the outside counsel of a major multinational chemical firm. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1988 to 2000 | Employer: SCIENTIFIC DESIGN COMPANY, INC. | Title: President and CEO | Department: |
Responsibilities:He was fully responsible for P&L and general management of the company, reporting to the parent company, Linde Engineering in Munich, Germany. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1987 to 1998 | Employer: CHEM SYSTEMS, INC. | Title: Director, Process Eval/Research Planning | Department: |
Responsibilities:Managed the company's largest multiclient program, including supervising preparation of technical reports, and chairing technical meetings with groups of clients worldwide |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1983 to 1987 | Employer: HALCON SD GROUP, INC. | Title: President | Department: |
Responsibilities:P&L and general management responsibility for a 600 person R&D and engineering organization, reporting to the owner, Texas Eastern Corporation in Houston,TX. |
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Years | Employer | Title | Department |
Years: 1960 to 1983 | Employer: HALCON SD GROUP, INC. | Title: Development Engineer to VP Technology | Department: Various |
Responsibilities:Development of process technology for ethylene oxide and other process technologies, ran pilot plant for EO, managed commercialization of process improvements, managed triannual EO Licensees' meetings worldwide, started up many EO plants, investigated several plant problems and accidents. |
Government Experience
Years | Agency | Role | Description |
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Years: 2001 to 2018 | Agency: US Department of Energy | Role: Reviewer | Description: He participated in many peer reviews and managed two such reviews for chemicals and Forest Products |
Years: 2003 to 2012 | Agency: US Department of Energy | Role: He carried out studies | Description: He participated or led several multi-year projects to develop software or information to aid DOE in evaluating proposed R&D projects |
Years: 2007 to 2007 | Agency: IRS | Role: R&D expert support | Description: He supported the expert witness as a subcontractor to a forensic consulting firm in a dispute involving R&D investment tax credits |
International Experience
Years | Country / Region | Summary |
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Years: 1964 to 1964 | Country / Region: Japan and Australia | Summary: He advised two scientific design ethylene oxide licensees on the start up of their new plants, and he led the start up team in the commissioning of an EO plant for a new licensee.He spent several weeks in Sydney, Australia advixing anothre EO licensee concerning chemical cleaning and passivation of process equipment |
Years: 1970 to 1970 | Country / Region: Sweden | Summary: He managed startup team at startup of licensee's EO plant that had been expanded and converted to use of pure oxygen feed. |
Years: 1970 to 1970 | Country / Region: Japan | Summary: He managed startup team at start up of licensee's EO plant that had been expanded and convereted to use of pure oxygen feed. |
Years: 1988 to 2000 | Country / Region: Germany | Summary: He was president of US subsidiary of large German engineering firm, and spent up to weeks at a time in Munich during his presidency, reporting to a senior German executive. |
Years: 2003 to 2003 | Country / Region: South Africa | Summary: Advised SASOL on development of process to produce chemical intermediate |
Years: 2013 to 2014 | Country / Region: China | Summary: Advised US Technology company and Chinese client regarding acetic acid expansion project |
Career Accomplishments
Associations / Societies |
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AIChE - Past Director, Past Chair Management Division, Fellow, Management Division Award, Management Division Service Award ACC&CE - Past President; Societe de Chimie Industrialle, Past VP Finance. |
Awards / Recognition |
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Ford Foundation Scholarship, Columbia College Monsanto Fellowship, Columbia Engineering School |
Publications and Patents Summary |
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He has two patents in many countries in the ethylene oxide field. He has four publications on work he has done for DOE on their Industiral Technologies Program website. |
Additional Experience
Expert Witness Experience |
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He has performed one expert witness task, covering several years, and including analyzing discovery items, writing expert report, reviewing and critiquing opposing expert report, rebutting comments on own report, deposition before opponent's lawyers, and expert testimony in the Southern District Federal Court in New York City. He has worked for several forensic consulting firms, supporting the development of expert witness reports, covering technical and business issues involving multinational chemical and utilities companies, government agencies, etc. |
Training / Seminars |
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He has developed a training course for US DOE for a software product that he had developed to compare expected performance of new technology against current technology. He has presented seminars on consulting, on managing a technology company, and on hydrocarbon vapor flammability testing. He presented a seminar on the global energy balance history and future. |
Marketing Experience |
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He has developed strong insights on the operation of the US and global chemical industry. He has also developed a strong knowledge of the global history, status and potential future of fuels, feedstocks, and energy consumptions in various sectors. He is very familiar with the technologies being used by chemical producers and other process industry producers around the world, and the cost drivers associated with these. |
Language Skills
Language | Proficiency |
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Italian | He is fluent |
French | He can read, but in writing and speaking, vocabulary is somewhat limited. |
German | He can read technical German |
Spanish | He can read Spanish |
Fields of Expertise
supported noble metal catalyst, supported catalyst, petrochemical catalysis, oxidation catalyst, industrial catalysis, hydrogenation catalyst, catalysis, catalytic hydrogenation, catalytic distillation, catalytic oxidation, heterogeneous catalysis, Fischer-Tropsch reaction, oxo process, formaldehyde, butanol, isopropyl alcohol, propyl alcohol, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, styrene, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide production, maleic anhydride production, methanol, methanol production, chemical plant design, chemical process development, batch process design, synthesis gas, nitrogen, oxygen production, chemical-process flow chart, accident investigation, chemical technology, petrochemical process plant designing, petrochemical reactor, petrochemical-related design, process engineering, process technology, chemical marketing, chemical plant operation, bioprocess engineering, McCabe-Thiele diagram, fractionating column, entrainment, distillation equipment, chemical process equipment, chemical plant management, new chemical process operations, chemical process troubleshooting, process-engineering safety, petrochemical process-engineering equipment, process engineering equipment, biotechnology process engineering, chemical transformation, biomass, coal-fired boiler, chemical plant troubleshooting, operating cost analysis, operating cost, cost analysis, chemical plant explosion, chemical plant, process-engineering filtration, process-engineering extraction, process-engineering distillation, process-engineered separation, design engineering, petroleum refinery, gas separation, fractionation, continuous distillation, coal gasification, chemical reactor