Refinery and Petrochemical Design, Simulation, and Operations Consultant

Expertise

• Petroleum plant and refiners design and operations in petrochemical and fine chemicals manufacturing plants and processes.
• Front-end engineering and design including process flow diagrams, P&IDs, heat and material balances and to analyze difficult chemical processing issues.
• Process simulation using Design II Winsim (Chemshare), Simsci's Process, Aspen, HYSYS and HYSIM.
• Process simulations experience: Petroleum refining - crude distillation, vacuum distillation, reforming, hydrotreating, lube oil fractionation; Ethylene ; feed preparation, quench, recovery and concentration; Fine chemicals - mercaptan, formaldehyde, dimethyl ether, chlorinated solvents, ethers, esters; Reforming processes - hydrogen, ammonia; Ethanol dehydration using azeotropic distillation; evaporation, molecular sieve; Gas processing - turbo-expander, JT, dehydration, compression, distillation.
• Prepare and certify air emissions inventory, wastewater permit applications and represent clients with EPA and state regulatory agencies.
• Manage entire engineering for project plants under $10 million; project change orders and negotiate overruns, (with a recent plant completion for producing ethanol).
• Develop process models of a variety of chemical processes by obtaining vapor-liquid-equilibrium data and then developing the thermodynamic information for predicting separation.
• Regulations pertaining to processing, storage and transportation of toxic chemicals.

Expert Witness Experience

Testimony and litigation support in cases involving petrochemical processing: Chemical and petrolatum plant design, contract negotiation, support related to vendor charges, second opinions, fault analysis and applying good engineering practices related to process designs.

Cases

• Refinery and Chemicals Tax Recovery.
• Industrial Accident.
• Bioethanol Plant Study.
• Intellectual property and chemical manufacturing.
• Oil and Gas Upstream Plant Analysis.
• Amine Unit Study.
• CO2 Cryo process plant revamp from ammonia plant.
• Process Analysis of Yeast Processing.
• New Methane plant design.
• Process study of a lube oil fractionating system.
• Engineering at plant manufacturing chloromethane, vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride.

Experience

Undisclosed Company, Consultant-Engineering Manager and Owner, 1980 - Present

• Chemical engineering service to 70 large U.S. and foreign chemical plants and oil refiners.
• Awarded a U.S. patent for the process to refine LPG for use as an aerosol propellant.
• Engineered a complete plant to produce aerosol propellant in Shanghai, China.

Completed Projects

• Expert Witness: Ethanol plants arbitration; glycol evaporation system technology.
• Process development and design to manufacture tertiary methyl ammonium chloride.
• Process design, process simulation and detailed design for small fuel ethanol plant.
• Gas flow assurance study for a major oil company's 34 natural gas producing wells including hydraulic study with Schlumberger's PIPESIM software.
• Process simulation of a turbo-expander system to recover liquids from natural gas.
• Process simulation of liquid feed to ethylene furnaces.
• Process study and process simulation to remove BTX from refinery stream.
• Process design of gas plant.
• Mechanical design of sulfuric acid system.
• Using PIPEPHASE developed a hydraulic analysis of 24 wells in equatorial Guinea.
• Detailed design of a de-propanizer system to recover propane from LPG in Ivory Coast
• Process simulation of amine plant for a gas plant.
• Formaldehyde plant modifications.
• Hydrogen plant simulation.
• Process simulation and vent header study with v-l-e data regression.
• Process study of a methyl mercaptan plant.
• Complete aerosol propellant plant design: Process design, mechanical design, equipment selection, purchasing and preparation for export of equipment.
• Process study of a lube oil fractionating system.
• Process design of a dimethyl ether plant.
• Process design and engineering at a mercaptan plant.
• Heat exchanger trouble shooting for a cryogenic plant.

Mt. Airy Refining Co., Mt. Airy, LA, Plant Engineering Manager, 1977 - 1979

• Manage small refinery's engineering needs: retain consultants, perform engineering on small modifications, environmental compliance - air water with State and Federal Regulatory agencies.
• Expansion studies, installation of new equipment.

Sid Richardson Carbon Company Addis, LA, Process Development Engineer, 1975 - 1977

• Improve product quality and reduce manufacturing costs.
• Research on adiabatic flame temperatures.

Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., Gramercy, LA, Process Engineer, 1974 - 1975

Guyana Bauxite Co., Linden, Guyana, South America, Process Engineer, 1973 - 1974

Suralco (ALCOA), Paranam, Surinam, South America, Process Engineer, 1971 - 1973

Honors & Publications

Credentials

• Professional Engineer Texas
• Chartered Engineer U. K.

Chemicals

• Acetone
• Alkyl Benzyl Sulfonates
• Alumina
• Butyl Alcohol
• Butadiene
• Carbon Black
• Carbon Tetrachloride
• Carbonyl Sulfide
• Dimethyl Ether
• Diethyl Ether
• Epoxy Resins
• Ethanol, gasohol, neutral spirits, brandy
• Ethylene
• Formaldehyde
• Hydroquinone
• Nitric Acid
• Nitrobenzene
• Polyethylene
• Polypropylene
• Propylene
• Urea
• Vinyl Acetate

Industrial Processes

• Gas Processing: Turbo expander, JT, Amine Treating, De Hy, Mol. Sieves
• Petroleum Refining:: Crude /Vacuum Distillation, Reforming, Hydro-treating, FCCU, TGTU
• Petrochemicals: Ethylene, Propylene Ethanol (Gasohol), Formaldehyde, De Hy. Sulfide, Methyl Mercaptan, Ethyl Mercaptan, DMS, Caustic Chlorine
• Other Processes: Hydrogen, Carbon Black, and Alumina. Electronic Chemicals & Etchants, Mixing and blending of high purity chemicals.

Languages

• Spanish
• Dutch

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Patents

• U. S. Patent: Refining petroleum - reducing odor, moisture, and side reactions.

Education

• B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of the West Indies, Trinidad
• Ch. E. Chemical Engineering, University of the West Indies, Trinidad