Prior Project Experience
Below is a listing of some specific projects I have personally worked on while operating as a chemical engineer prior to RCT:
- Bayer Corporation
- Pharmaceuticals expansion.
- Provided process design for precipitation and filtration technologies for the purification and isolation of APIs.
- Generated heat balances for all processes.
- Rigorously evaluated steady and unsteady state heating and cooling operations in agitated, jacketed vessels, including the calculation of heat transfer coefficients, wall temperatures, and the impact of impeller designs upon heat transfer efficiencies.
- Produced a dynamic analysis of the primary glycol loop in order to predict temperature response of the chiller and surge tank system during heat load spikes.
- Calculated hydraulics for all liquid and gas systems.
- Generated instrument process data for all control valves and in-line instruments.
- Wrote operations logic or “pseudo-code” to document, in a structured format, activities related to the operation of the batch plant.
- Pharmaceuticals expansion.
- Glaxo Wellcome
- Waste incinerator debottlenecking study.
- Reviewed the solids and liquid handling capabilities for an existing waste incinerator.
- Developed the conceptual process design for a liquid drum facility to handle hazardous chemical waste.
- Generated a building layout and cost estimate.
- Waste incinerator debottlenecking study.
- Allied Signal - Fibers Division
- Thermal oxidizer study.
- Studied the frequent plugging of a regenerative thermal oxidizer in an oil-water aerosol service.
- Conducted trials in the plant to determine the exact cause and nature of the problem.
- Produced report including cost estimates for the various options.
- High strength fiber expansion process design.
- Developed P&IDs for polymer mixing, extrusion, washing and drying operations.
- Conducted vapor-liquid equilibrium and heat and material balance calculations for an oil/solvent recovery system using distillation, evaporation and adsorption unit operations.
- Sized process equipment and produced a cost estimate.
- Debottlenecking and optimization study.
- Modeled existing multiple effect distillation columns for e-Caprolactam and Water separations using Aspen-Plus process simulator.
- Established baseline column performance by matching model to plant data.
- Rated shell and tube condensers and reboilers using B-JAC program.
- Thermal oxidizer study.
- General Nutrition Corporation
- Scrubber system design.
- Designed a 2-stage scrubber system for the removal of solvent vapors from a large volume air stream.
- Evaluated the vapor-liquid equilibrium characteristics of the solvent-water system and optimized the scrubber design using a process simulator program.
- Sized, specified and procured all process related equipment.
- Scrubber system design.
- Hydro Technologies
- Sodium hydrosulfite manufacturing feasibility study.
- Studied the manufacturing methods and costs associated with producing sodium hydrosulfite via the Zinc-SO2 route.
- Produced heat and material balances, sized equipment, and produced a ROM cost estimate.
- Sodium hydrosulfite manufacturing feasibility study.
- Amoco Chemical Company
- Purified Terephthalic acid plant expansion and emissions reduction projects.
- Provided detailed hydraulics calculations, including 2-phase flow, for low pressure vent gas treatment and anaerobic waste water treatment projects.
- Purified Terephthalic acid plant expansion and emissions reduction projects.
- Air Products & Chemicals
- Pressure sensitive adhesives plant expansion.
- Developed unique batch simulation program using Microsoft Excel to model the unsteady state stripping and condensing of hot latex emulsions consisting of water, solvent and polymer.
- The model accounted for variable liquid activity coefficients for VLE calculations, and was proven to be accurate and predictive based upon results of several plant trials.
- Conducted heat transfer evaluations for jacketed vessels to determine optimum overall heat transfer coefficients for various mixer impellers.
- Used Aspen process simulator and B-JAC heat transfer programs to size shell and tube heat exchangers and a 2-stage mechanical vacuum pump.
- Produced P&IDs, and specified, evaluated and procured process equipment.
- Pressure sensitive adhesives plant expansion.
- Allied Signal Corporation
- HAZOP for grassroots refrigerant plant.
- Facilitated the HAZOP analysis for fast-track project using software program.
- Produced full documentation for OSHA compliance.
- HAZOP for grassroots refrigerant plant.
- Hoechst Celanese Corporation
- Cellulose acetate dope pumping project.
- Generated hydraulic calculations for non-Newtonian flow of cellulose acetate dope solutions for purposes of estimating pressure requirements and developing scenarios for the sizing of pressure relief devices.
- Thermal oxidizer project.
- Developed P&IDs for the collection of multiple point source emissions arising from PET polymerization processes, and subsequent thermal destruction of the vapors in a regenerative thermal oxidizer.
- Continuous polymerization debottlenecking project.
- Developed P&IDs and comprehensive heat and material balances for PET (polyester) polymerization process.
- Unit operations included monomer formation, polymerization, distillation, gas absorption, complex condensation, and heat and material transfers.
- Sized and developed specifications for all process equipment including shell and tube heat exchangers, scraped surface coolers, distillation column internals, centrifugal pumps, vacuum pumps and filters.
- Proposed several innovative process modifications to improve equipment performance including the desuperheating of distillation feed vapors and reactor off-gases by direct contact spraying.
- Optimized thermal designs of shell and tube heat exchangers using B-JAC program.
- Cellulose acetate dope pumping project.
- Corning
- Optical waveguide fiber plant expansion.
- Generated P&IDs of several processes including HCl gas absorption and concentration, toxic gas scrubbing, and a polymer coating system.
- Developed a mass transfer simulation program to model HCl recovery in a sieve tray absorber.
- Produced heat and material balance calculations for the entire plant expansion.
- Wrote technical specifications and led procurement activities for process equipment including sieve tray and venturi scrubbers, reciprocating compressors, holding tanks and low dewpoint high-purity gas dryers.
- Optical waveguide fiber plant expansion.
- Tennessee Eastman Company
- Solvent extraction conceptual design.
- Developed a rigorous material balance computer simulation program to model the unsteady state extraction process.
- Analyzed customer laboratory mass transfer data and generated correlations for use in the simulation program.
- Calculated solvent emission rates from the process and sized a packed bed absorber.
- Produced complete P&IDs and cost estimate.
- Solvent extraction conceptual design.
- Westinghouse Electric Corporation
- Solar cell manufacturing facility conceptual design.
- Created process flow diagrams and comprehensive material balances for the process.
- Developed specifications and led equipment evaluation studies for highly customized photolithography, photoresist strip and electroplating systems.
- Solar cell manufacturing facility conceptual design.
- Praxis Biologics
- Human vaccine manufacturing facility preliminary design.
- Developed PFDs for several processes including fermentation, cell harvesting, and ultrafiltration.
- Human vaccine manufacturing facility preliminary design.
- Eastman Kodak Company
- Film sensitizing facility process design.
- Produced P&IDs for photographic emulsion preparation and blending operations and two high purity water systems used for Clean-In-Place (CIP) cleaning of equipment and piping.
- Conducted detailed hydraulic calculations for all pump loops, and developed a computer program to predict unsteady state heat transfer rates for agitated, jacketed vessels.
- Designed a vacuum degasser and heat transfer system for a critical high purity water recirculation loop.
- Manufacturing engineer.
- Provided technical support to the film production and batch chemical areas by solving manufacturing problems.
- Led quality and safety improvement programs and specified, purchased and installed equipment as required.
- Acted as safety representative and supervised hazardous waste removal operations.
- Purchased and supervised the installation of equipment aimed at quality improvements, including high speed mills for particle size reduction of carbon black, condensing coils, centrifugal pumps and an air knife heater.
- Coordinated project work for several refrigerated solvent condenser recovery systems.
- Film sensitizing facility process design.