Polymer Process Technology Expert, Specializing in Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)
Technical Consultant #1919
Expertise
- Technology management - global research and development, technology assessments and needs analysis, project prioritization.
- Polymer processes and manufacture.
- Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and vinyl acetate emulsion process development and scale-up.
- Industrial gases applications.
- Project portfolio management.
- Rheology investigations for quality coatings.
- Risk assessment of technical programs.
- Pilot plant design and operation.
- Stage gate process for new product development.
Experience
Independent Consultant, Present
- Serving the Portfolio Management and Research and Development industries.
Air Products and Chemical, Allentown, PA, 1978 - 2012
Director, Merchant Research and Development, 2001 - 2012
- Global responsibility for development of new applications to support the industrial gas business.
- Markets include food, glass, metals, pulp and paper, water and metals processing.
- Supervision of labs in U.S., Thailand, Great Britain, China and Spain.
- Broad range of technology areas - cryogenics, combustion, reactive atmospheres, water treatment.
Director, Solutions Process Technology, 2000 - 2001
- Global responsibility for process technology for all performance chemical products at Air Products (emulsions, epoxy hardeners, surfactants).
- Reorganized technology staff and realigned projects to better match the needs of the business.
Manage, Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVOH) Research and Development, 1991 - 2001
- New products developed to meet key market areas and integration of these products for manufacturing with minimal operational and environmental impacts.
- Major process improvements developed for capital and operating cost savings.
- Implemented improved control systems to improve product consistency.
- Developed plan to transfer technology to Far East joint venture.
- Technology lead for new plant start-up.
- Budget and personnel manager for research and development activities supporting the business.
Research Engineer, (Polyvinyl alcohol, Vinyl Acetate Emulsions, Solvent Refined Coal), 1978 - 1991
- Developed proprietary process to reduce residual methanol in PVA for improved quality and handling safety.
- Designed, constructed and supervised operation of two polymer pilot plants.
- Technical evaluations for plant expansions in the areas of polymerization, solids flow, rheology and dust explosively.
- Designed and optimized bench scale high pressure emulsion polymerization systems.
- Data directly moved to the plants for new product scale-up.
- Developed solid/liquid separation process for removing ash in the solvent refined coal (SRC-I) process.
E. I. DuPont de Nemours, Photo Products, Parlin, NJ, 1976 - 1978
- Developed methods to improve yields during coating of photographic emulsions. Investigated effects of rheology on coating quality.
Honors & Publications
Academic and Professional Affiliations
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers - AIChE
- Engineers Without Borders - President
- Tau Beta Pi
Publications and Patents
- Several external publications, many internal (APCI and DuPont) publications.
- Two chapters on manufacture of polyvinyl alcohol in polyvinyl alcohol - Developments.
- Invited speaker at ACS and AIChE meetings.
Education
- Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
- B.S. Chemical Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA