Chemical Engineering Consultant: Phosphate Processing and Phosphate Derivatives and Lithium Metal and Compounds

Consultant #1152

Process Engineering: Flowsheet development from pilot plant and/or bench scale data. Mass and energy balances. Equipment sizing and specifications. Materials selection. Piping and Instrumentation diagrams. Piping calculations. Plant layout. Economic analyses (capital estimates and manufacturing costs). Standard operating procedures.
Process Development: Scale-up of chemical processes from bench scale data to commercial size. Pilot plant design and specification. Block diagram development. Experimental plan development. Development of raw materials and product specifications.
Process Research: Collection of physico-chemical data (from public sources such technical papers and patents). Estimation of physico-chemical data. Investigation of manufacturing technology. Design of Experiments using Statistics. Experimental data analysis. Development of Technology Transfer Packages. Technical report writing.

Specific Experience

Manufacturing of: Lithium metal and lithium compounds, alkyl and aryl organophosphate esters, phosphoric acid, phosphate salts, sulfuric acid, Merchant Grade phosphoric acid fertilizer via wet process from phosphate rock and sulfuric acid, process water, purified water, water steam, white phosphorus, Sodium Tri-Poly Phosphate (STPP), granulated superphosphate fertilizer, sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP), Mono- and Di-ethylene glycols, Mono-, Di-, and Tri-ethylene amines.
Chemical Engineering Unit Operations: heat transfer, liquid extraction, reaction engineering, distillation, reverse osmosis, filtration, clarification, centrifugation, absorption, adsorption, solid size reduction, flow of fluids, fluid dynamics, mixing.

Independent Consultant, 2004 - Present

Project cost estimation - fertilizer complex, phosphate rock mining.
New technology research - potassium chlorate.
Expert witness - phosphate fertilizer manufacturing.
Financial analysis and investment banking - market, technology, and engineering issues.

Akzo Nobel Chemicals Inc., Dobbs Ferry, NY, Central R&D Center, 2000 - 2004

Optimization of alkyl phosphates manufacturing by pilot-plant experimentation and process modeling. Mass and energy balances of optimized operation transferred to plant.
Front-end Engineering Design (FEED) - Project inception, justification, cost estimation, processing equipment design and selection, and project execution.
Business and technology intelligence for existing flame retardants, plasticizes, and specialty chemicals.

FMC Corporation, Princeton, NJ, Chemical R&D Center, 1995 - 2000

Engineering and process design, mass and energy balances, equipment sizing, equipment selection, and cost estimation for a processing plant to manufacture a solid catalyst for chemical adsorption.
Engineering of a chemical processing unit to mine lithium chloride from salar geological brines.
Process development and engineering design of a solvent extraction plant to purify merchant grade phosphoric acid.
Process research and development of melt crystallization to purify Food Grade phosphoric acid to ultra-pure specifications.
Engineering support to white phosphorus manufacturing plant.

IBM Corporation, Endicott Technology Laboratory, Endicott, NY, 1983 - 1994

Engineering, design, project justification, cost estimation, procurement, installation, and commissioning of copper plating units to manufacture printed wiring boards.
Process research, development, and design for the recycling of chemical compounds used in the manufacturing of printed wiring boards.
Process research of tank mixing using Laser Doppler Velocimetry, electrochemical techniques, and computational fluid dynamics modeling.

Fertilizantes Fosfatados Mexicanos, S. A. de C. V., Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, 1973 - 1976

Process engineering support of manufacturing operations of water for steam, sulfuric acid, merchant grade phosphoric acid, granulated super-phosphate fertilizer, and food grade phosphoric acid.
Support for chemical engineering unit operations including air drying with sulfuric acid, reaction in a porous bed reactor of sulfur dioxide to trioxide, absorption-reaction of sulfur trioxide to fuming sulfuric acid, phosphate rock milling and screening, reaction of phosphate rock and sulfuric acid in a cascade of continuous stirred tank reactors, settling, centrifugation, filtration, evaporation, liquid extraction.

Academic and Professional Affiliations

Foreign Languages

Publications and Patents