Intellex Acquires Expert by Big Village

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Expert Details

Gasification & Pyrolysis of Coal, Biomass and Wastes.

ID: 731111 Minnesota, USA

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Expert has 18 years of research supervision experience with the University of N.Dakota Energy Research center, dealing with lab scale to large pilot scale coal gasification. This dealt mainly with bituminous and subbituminous coals, and extension of same technology to wood and other biomass. Designed various items of material handling equipment related to gasification processes. Was in charge of large scale simulation of ash fouling behavior on boiler tumes for coal and biomass slurry combustion. This was followed by 14 years of intermittent consulting assignments, mostly dealing with evaluation of various biomass gasification processes. This has included overseas assignments in SriLanka, Italy, Malaysia and Mexico. Currently involved in major project for pyrolysis of waste tires to produce carbon black and diesel fuel.

He served for 5 years on a USDOE Committee that met annually to review DOE-funded projects for small scale hydrogen production, to determine which projects show enough promise to justify continued funding. Selection for this committee was based on his years of research in processed to produce hydrogen production from coal and biomass.In 2012, he spent 4 months as a Project Adviser to a major Environmental Engineering firm, to provide technical guidance in preparing a proposal for a large plant to gasify waste coal and conversion to diesel by FT conversion, based on a partially developed process for biomass gasification. He was selected for this assignment, based on his knowledge of gasification process fundamentals, hands-on pilot plant experience and familiarity with the process based on a technical evaluation of the same process in an earlier stage of development, 6 or 7 years previously.For the past 2 years, he is an as-needed consultant to a venture capital firm that is planning to build a plant in the US to convert waste tires to diesel fuel and carbon black, based on a pyrolysis process currently in commercial operation in Malaysia. This involves collection of operating and design data for preparation of reports to investors and request for proposals to US engineering contractors. This is an on-going project.In 1999 and 2000, he served as a consultant to UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and the Sri Lanka Ministry of Power, to review and quantify all sources of biomass and waste materials and available technologies for their conversion to electric power. This included both commercial and developmental options, and assessment of in-country facilities, infrastructure and organisaitonal capacity for implementation. He then prepared functional specifications for wood gasifiers and other recommendations.For a manufacturer of grinding and solids processing equipment, starting from a patent drawing, he designed a novel, proprietary hammer mill, then supervised fabrication and testing of a full-scale prototype. Selection for this project was based on his earlier research experience with a variety of solid processing equipment, and his skill in mechanical design using AutoCad.

Education

Year Degree Subject Institution
Year: 1958 Degree: BS Subject: Chemical Engineering Institution: University of California - Berkeley
Year: 1961 Degree: MS Subject: Mechanical Engineering Institution: University of California - Berkeley
Year: 1979 Degree: None Subject: First year of Law School. - preperation course for CA bar exam. (Then dropped out. Prefer Engineering) Institution: Western States University, Anaheim, CA.
Year: 1953 Degree: None Subject: International Developmengt & Economics. 2 quarters. Institution: Universidad de las Amefricas. Mexico DF

Work History

Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1998 to Present Employer: Undisclosed Title: Owner/Pres./CEO/Etc Department: (Undisclosed)
Responsibilities:
Independent, individual consulting assignments on contract basis for wide variety of technical areas and clients, primarily dealing primarily with independent evaluation of equipment and process for energy recovery from various wastes.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1980 to 1998 Employer: (Undisclosed) Title: Project Manager / Principal Investigator Department: Energy Reseatrch Center
Responsibilities:
In charge of various research projects - laboratory to large pilot scale process development for coal and biomass gasification and slurry fuel development. Design and testing of novel equipment for processing and material handling. Review and evaluation of various coal and biomass process concepts.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1973 to 1980 Employer: (Undisclosed) Title: Senior Engineer Department: Advanced technology Center (DATEC)
Responsibilities:
Evaluation of process and equipment - primarily energy-related - as candidates for acquisition, Reviewed patents. Preliminary process design and economic analysis. In volved in laboratory demonstration of proprietary process concepts.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1966 to 1973 Employer: (Undisclosed) Title: Project Engineer. Department: (Undisclosed)
Responsibilities:
Specification for misc. process equipment. Development of P&ID and general process design documentation, in petroleum, petrochemical and other areas.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1964 to 1968 Employer: (Undisclosed) Title: Project Manager Department: R&D
Responsibilities:
In charge of small pilot plant for continuous hydrogenation of vegetable oils (cotton and soybean).
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1958 to 1961 Employer: (Undisclosed) Title: Plant Engineer Department: Berkeley CA production plant.
Responsibilities:
All plant engineering for production of sodium silicate and Epsom salts. Developed process for pressure dissolution of silicate briquettes to liquid product.

Government Experience

Years Agency Role Description
Years: 2010 to Present Agency: FEMA Role: Project Specialist - Public Assestance. Description: He is an as-needed Reservist for FEMA, interviewing public agency Applicants for Federal disaster relief, inspecting damage, reviewing cost estimates and processing applications. (This function is in capacity as a Federal employee, rather than as a consultant.)

International Experience

Years Country / Region Summary
Years: 2012 to 2012 Country / Region: Malaysia Summary: He recently spent one month in Malaysia, at an operating plant to convert waste tires to diesel fuel and carbon black, analyzing operating data and collecting design information, to duplicate plant in a US location. Visited site briefly before and expect to return. This is an on-going project.
Years: 1999 to 1999 Country / Region: Sri Lanka Summary: He spent over 3 months in Sri Lanka, under contract to UNIDO, working with multiple Sri Lankan government agencies, collecting data to optimize selection of processes and equipment for conversion of nation's biomass and waste resources to electric power.
Years: 1993 to 1999 Country / Region: Italy Summary: For 6 years, he spent one month each year as a Visiting Professor at the Universitá di Messdina, participating in research to develop process to concert natural gas and hydrocarbons to hydrogen for use in fuel cells, as a compact, on-board automotive drive system, and of studies on how to covert refusefrom Messina (Sicilia) to electric power.
Years: 2000 to Present Country / Region: Mexico Summary: He briefly provided on-site consulting to a small, Mexican oilfield service company, for the development of a fluidized bed gasifier to recover fuel oil and process heat from oilfield wast pools of oil-water-sand slurries and drilling mud.

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
He is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE)
Licenses / Certifications
Professional Engineering License (PE)
Publications and Patents Summary
He has over 50 technical publications.

Additional Experience

Training / Seminars
He served as sole instructor for 1-day seminars, offered through Aurora Analytics. Course Title: "Pyrolysis and Gasification of Coal and Biomass - Principles and Applications.". Course certified to provide PDUs (Professional Development Units) for renewal of PE licensing in several states.
Vendor Selection
He has spend thousands of hours "Shopping" for equipment - all kinds - as part of essentially all of his jobs. Includes identifying and locating vendors and submitting specifications.
Other Relevant Experience
Detail design and drawings of process equipment. Semi-proficient in AutoCad.
Unique, reader-friendly interactive process flow sheets for presentation,

SKILLS: Basic computer skills (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) Proficient in AutoCad
Languages: Good Spanish. Passable Italian.

Language Skills

Language Proficiency
Spanish He speaks good, though not fluent Spaniah, but speaks and writes better than he understands. This skill has proven adequate for bjusiness and technical discussioln.
Italian He developed a fair mastering of Italian by month-long emersions in the language, but has not not spken it for 10 years, but could quickly recover this skill if needed.
German He once studied it in college, and can molre-or-less manage on tourist level.

Fields of Expertise

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