SUDEEP DEBNATH, Ph.D

Mobile: +91-981*******, email: admvof@r.postjobfree.com

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Focus: Oil and Gas, Specialty Surfactants, Polymer additives, Lubricants & Oils, Metal Working Fluids, Refinery Specialty Chemicals/ Process Chemicals, Organo-metallic Complexes, Nano Materials Professional Overview

A scientific professional with 15 years of experience in the area of Chemical Research & Development focusing on Oil and Gas, Lubricants-formulated product development, Nanomaterials, Organo-Metallic complexes, process chemicals and polymer additives

& coatings. Recognized for creating technology road maps for emerging markets in line with business strategies. Consistently exceeded targets for product development & commercialization. To lead the technical support and product development team within the global line function. Proficient in analyzing and interpreting research results, technical data. Pivotal in handling and training of team members, literature search, synthesis, and characterization of various products. Proven track record of participating in various research projects with experience in planning, execution, application of methodologies, documentation and presentation of findings. Detail oriented with an analytical bent of mind and a positive attitude. An effective communicator with excellent relationship management skills, challenge oriented, problem solving & organizational abilities with expertise in coaching, mentoring and leading high-performance R&D team.

Personal Profile

Date of Birth: 21st Oct, 1981

Nationality: Indian

Academia

• Ph.D. in Chemistry from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA in 2009. Thesis: Surface/ Geochemistry of Iron and Manganese Oxide Nano Materials.

• Master of Science in Chemistry from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA in 2007.

• Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, University of Mumbai, Mumbai in 2003. Major Accountabilities

Ph.D. in Surface Chemistry.

Good understanding of structure -property relationship of additive surfactant chemistry.

Worked in USA for 6 years. Good understanding of multi-culture and diversity.

Worked in Oil & Gas, Auto lubricants and Industrial lubricants.

Expert in formulating lubricants, synthesizing molecules, customer trials and technical support.

Global technical and customer support to customers for the catalyst division. Application assessment, customer requirement follow ups and product recommendation for performance evaluation.

Successful execution of various cost optimizations, cost saving projects valued at $2 million that aligns & supports business of ~ $ 100 million (Specialty Oils, Surfactants and Lubricants division).

Leading Value engineering and capacity constraint release projects. Improving plant efficiency and releasing ~2 million liter additional production capacity.

Ensure quality and development of new products to cater the Lubricant Industry, downstream oil field chemical requirement, printing ink additives, corrosion protection, glass coatings etc.

Successful deployment of differentiated products by localization, provide marketing support, supply chain and technical sales support.

Successful execution of various cost optimizations, cost saving projects that aligns & supports business of multi million dollars (Specialty Oils, Surfactants and Lubricants division).

Work with Global team and share inputs on specific India market requirements during Product Development projects to ensure performance and local requirements are fulfilled.

Support supply chain with RM security of supply and work with IMTs during RM shortages and quality incidents.

Work with procurement for RM assessment, vendor management, RM portfolio consolidation and RFQs.

Liaising with third party labs for testing protocol set up and managing all the routine and specialized analysis requirement.

Setting up application testing laboratory and innovative test methods for new Organo-metallic formulations performance testing for Dorf Ketal Chemicals. Established lubricant research lab and its capabilities from scratch for APAR Industries. Worked in the core team to establish state of the art lab set up in Silvassa for Castrol India Limited.

Collaborative research for application development with potential partners under CDA, to evaluate the performance of the Titanate and Zirconate based organo-metallic complexes.

Successful completion of 6 month training at Dupont Technology center, USA, followed by technology transfer to India.

Application testing and project performance report documentation for monthly reviews with the process chemicals and Catalyst team.

Contributing to the development of financial budgeting for different projects under the catalyst division.

Patent searching and landscaping to understand prior art, technology gaps and future research potential.

Rendering training and assisting new scientific and technical personnel working on projects about operating procedures, protocol and project related technical information.

Scale up of products, making SOP for scale up, plant support, setting up quality specifications, setting up laboratory testing facility and test protocols.

Instrument Expertise

• Microscopic Techniques including AFM, SEM, EDS, TEM, STM

• Spectroscopic Techniques FTIR, UV-Vis, XPS, Ion Chromatography, AAS, DLS, NMR structural analysis

• Thermal analysis: TGA, DSC, TGA-MS

• Lubes Tribology- 4 Ball Weld Load, Wear Scar

• Chandler Viscometer, Spin Coating, Quartz Crystal Microbalance

• Freeze Drying of Biological Samples and Bradford Protein Assay Employment Recital

• Sep 2013- Present- Castrol- BP, Mumbai- Product Development & Technical Support Manager

• March 2012- Sep 2013- APAR Industries, Navi Mumbai as Senior Manager, Team Lead Product Development.

• Feb 2010- March 2012- Dorf Ketal Specialty Chemicals, Navi Mumbai as Assistant Manager, Team Lead Application Development.

Key Assignments / Research Conducted

Specialty Lubes and Oils- Metal Working Fluids, Industrial Lubricants: Castrol India Ltd.- British Petroleum Product Development & Technical Support Manager (Sep 2013- Present) Key Responsibilities:

• Formulation development for specialty oils, lubricants, metal working fluids (Soluble and Semi Synthetic), and development based on mineral oil and synthetic base stock, optimizing dosage, cost reduction and performance enhancement of specialty oil formulations.

• Development of specialty synthetic gear oils (High Performance Lubes), performance evaluation for Alternate energy sector. Coordinating for application trials and regular condition monitoring/ technical support to customers like Suzlon, GE, Vestas, ZF etc for Gear oil performance.

• Development of Industrial Cleaners and rust preventives, providing technical support to customers, training and product recommendations and trouble shooting.

• Working with supply chain for identification of raw material sources from local vendors for cost effectiveness and evaluation of various sources. Executed cost savings initiatives and delivered savings ~2 Million dollars across Industrial lubes product portfolio.

• Maintaining customer relations and providing prolonged customer support, Condition monitoring of products, trouble shooting and root cause analysis of customer complaints. Handling shop floor visits, customer expectations and work with product management to develop new products/ customers.

• Retained or captured new business worth millions by supporting entire India sales team by advance problems solving requests in the field of specialty lubricants.

• Developed and commercialized various global projects (cost effective green chemistry/ formulation) that led to proprietary products with peak 5 years sales revenue of US $ 5 million.

• Customer engagement for product proposition and working with sales team. Providing and implementing cost effective solutions to customers and sales team. Create solutions from initial stage all the way to completion.

• Evaluation of various surfactants/ components based on ethoxylate/ alkoxylate products, poly-ethers, synthetic poly-ol esters, complex phosphate esters, poly alkylene glycols, acrylate based polymers, and silicone based polymers.

• Development of formulations based on synthetic ester based EP additives with low odor and color for Industrial cutting oils.

• Providing technical and customer support to OEMS like FORD, SKF, BOSCH, TATA Cummins, MARUTI, FIAT, DELPHI, Federal Mougal, Bharat Forge, Fiat, John Deere, etc.

• Providing technical training to sales team and technical services team. Develop tools to enable effective product & technical training on metal working fluids/ industrial lubricants.

• Upgrading manufacturing process with plant and quality team. Adhering and implementing HSSE/ compliance norms as per company policies.

• Delivered plant efficiency and production capacity improvement projects. Additional capacity release of ~1.5 Million Liters. Improvement in existing process to reduce batch processing time. Specialty Industrial oils and Lubricants: APAR Industries (March 2012- Sep 2013) Team Lead Product Development: Leading Industrial products technology platform, Formulation development of high performance specialty oils and lubricants, metal working fluids, like soluble cutting oils, semi synthetic and synthetic cutting oils. Head 4 member team with focus on Industrial lubes formulation development and additives. Reported into VP of technology. Delivered ~$1 million in bottom line savings through low cost country sourcing and product formula optimization efforts. Worked on executing product development portfolio valued at >$50 million. Key Accomplishments:

• Mineral and synthetic based Soluble Cutting oil/ Neat Cutting Fluids, Self-Emulsifying properties using various ethoxylated and synthetic ester based products.

• Soluble oil formulation with good hard water and high working temperature emulsion stability.

• Thermic fluids and Quenching oils- Improving antioxidation and sludge dispersion properties by incorporating suitable dispersant/ anti-foulants and antioxidants.

• Aluminum drawing oils- Improvement of wear scar, oxidation properties, viscosity index and lubrication.

• Development of applications using nano-composites, organo-metallic complexes etc.

• Conning oil- Colorless/ odorless ethoxylate based product formulation for textiles industry.

• Synthesis of low odor, low color, sulfur crosslinked polymer- extreme pressure additives for neat cutting oils.

• Development of industrial cleaners and improving oil contamination tolerance. Providing technical support to customers.

• Rust preventives, Corrosion Inhibitor: Formulation of oil based formulation for rust preventive applications with improved salt spray and acid fumes resistance performance. Process Chemicals: Dorf Ketal Chemicals (Feb 2010- March 2012) Team Lead Application Development: Application testing, data acquisition and report documentation of test results for various additives performance evaluation focusing on refinery process and exploring new routes for synthesis of chemical additives. Head 7 member team with focus on refinery & petrochemical additives. Reported into Director of technology. Contributed to pipeline of product portfolio valued at ~ US $100 million for demulsifier, corrosion inhibitor, fouling inhibition & flow improver applications and Titanates- specialty catalyst division. Delivered productivity savings US $ 1.5 million cost savings. Demulsification:

• Modification and evaluation of the performance of ethoxylated polymer additives with varying source of crude oil PED systems for demulsification performance.

• Exploring the potential of using different demulsifying polymeric agents as mixed systems towards increasing the water separation efficiency. Optimization of dosages varying the ratios and order of addition. Antifoulants/ Dispersants:

• Process modification of Polyisobutylene based polymeric antifoulant additives.

• Chelating ligand attachment to PIBSA based polymers for better dispersion properties.

• Development of acrylate based polymer backbone for novel antifouling dispersants. Corrosion Inhibition:

• Synthesis, modification and performance evaluation of polymeric additives as corrosion inhibitor against systems containing naphthenic acid and sulfur with standard alloy coupons.

• Performance evaluation of anticorrosive polymeric additives using autoclave under static and dynamic systems.

• SEM and EDS characterization of the corroded coupons. Fuel Oil PPD and Dewaxing aid:

• Performance evaluation of polymeric additives to lower the crystallization temperature of the wax present in oil; to lower its pour point.

• DSC characterization of the wax crystal formation onset temperature and the additive effect.

• Synthesis of higher alcohol-acid polymeric derivatives as dewaxing agent (comb-like polymers) and characterization using GC-MS.

Titanium based Lubricant additives:

• Synthesis of next generation novel oligomeric-Titanium and silicone based lubricant additives exhibiting better anti- wear/ anti-scar properties.

• Development of new multifunctional Titanium lubricants providing anticorrosive properties, dispersion properties, hyper- dispersing (comb-like polymers) properties etc.

Titanates and Zirconates Oragno-Metallic Complexes, Catalyst Division- Dorf Ketal Chemicals Goal: Successful completion of Technology transfer from ‘DUPONT ‘, transfer SOP’s, fundamental formulation understanding and development of new formulations to fill the technology gaps, with continual global technical customer support. Anticorrosion Metal Coatings:

• Titanates with higher hydrolysis stability for prolonged bath stability.

• Exploring the performance of water based Titanates for corrosion coatings.

• Exploring mixed polymeric titanates and silane system for corrosion protection. Flexogravure Ink additives:

• Development of new chelated Titanates as adhesion promoters for flexible substrate ink formulations.

• Environmental friendly chelated Titanate complexes especially for food packaging.

• Glycol based water soluble fast curing cross linkers for water based inks.

• Titanate crosslinkers for UV-curable polymer ink compositions. Oil Field Fracturing Fluids:

• Development of new cross linker formulations for Guar based fracturing fluids.

• Application testing for fracturing fluid rheology modification and evaluation using Chandler Rheometer.

• TGA-MS study of chelate stability and activation temperature.

• New routes to Zirconium based cross linkers starting with cheap raw materials.

• Development of aqueous and environmental friendly cross linkers as rheology modifiers. Glass coating:

• Development of new Titanium Nitride based compounds for solar glass coating applications.

• New route for Titanium nitride Ti-N synthesis, high vacuum distillation for high purity product.

• Development of Silane-Titanate mixed system for glass coatings. Organometallic Coupling Agents:

• Proficient in development of special titanate and zirconate based coupling agents for different inorganic minerals, organic fillers and pigments like calcium carbonate, talc, clay, carbon black, iron oxides etc.

• Synthesis and characterization of special solvent based and aqueous based coupling agents for different treatment methods.

• Tailoring the coupling agents with special functional groups to make them compatible with different resin systems for reinforcement.

• Increasing the filler loadings to decrease the overall cost of composites without sacrificing the desired properties. Aug’03 to May’09 with Temple University, Philadelphia as Research Assistant in Department of Chemistry Key Assignments / Research Conducted

Inorganic Interface Chemistry at the Nano-Material Surface Goal: The surface chemistry of nano-materials has environmental significance as well as biological significance especially as drug delivery agents.

Iron oxide and Manganese oxide Nano Materials surface chemistry

• Ferrihydrite nanoparticles were treated with ascorbic acid. Nanoparticles surface was modified by organic compound adsorption via hydroxyl and phosphate groups and characterized by FTIR spectroscopy.

• Lipid layers were self-assembled on the ferrihydrite surface for biocompatibility and stability under low pH reducing conditions.

• In-situ redox chemistry was studied using AFM and FTIR.

• FTIR study of catalytic oxidation of SO2 to sulfite and sulfate on the ferrihydrite surface.

• Novel method of stabilizing nano materials on polymer substrate was studied by preparing Thin PMMA polymer film by spin coating to study the dissolution kinetics using in-situ AFM.

• Manganese oxide nano materials interacting with arsenic species in solution.

• Manganese oxide nano materials were treated with arsenic species and characterized with AFM and FTIR spectroscopy.

• AFM images show the growth of a secondary layer as evidenced by phase imaging in tapping mode.

• XPS (Photoelectron Spectroscopy) reveals the reduction of Mn (IV) to Mn (II) and Mn (III) and adsorption and oxidation of As (III) to As (V) on the particle surface.

• Ion chromatography study reveals the presence of Mn (II) and As (III) and As (V) in solution. Polymer Composites

The characteristics of the interfacial region between matrix and the reinforcing filler material are important for composites and better coupling, results in good stress transfer at the interface.

• Silica beads were Silanated using 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS) in acetone.

• MMA monomer was used as resin and polymerized with silica/MPS to make composites to study the grafting of PMMA on the silica surface for better composite strength and modulus.

• Silica samples treated with MPS and PMMA grafted to silica via MPS coupling were analyzed with Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA).

• Silica silanated with MPS characterization with FTIR.

• The silanol density on the silica surface was varied by heat treatment up to 800 C. PMMA adsorption decreased as a result of loss of silanol by heat treatment as evidenced by TGA. Publications

• Sudeep Debnath, Dr. D. Strongin; Reductive Dissolution of ferrihydrite by ascorbic acid and the inhibiting effect of phospholipid, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Volume 341, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 215-223.

• Sudeep Debnath, Gang Liu, Dr. D. Strongin; Reactivity and Characterization of Bioengineered metal oxide Nanoparticles. Biomolecular Catalysis 2006, pg 144.

• Gang Liu, Sudeep Debnath, Dr. D. Strongin; Charaterization and Surface Reactivity of Ferrihydrite Nanoparticles assembled in Ferritin, Langmuir 2006, 22, 9313.

• F. Marc Michel, Sudeep Debnath et.al.; Reactivity of ferritin and the structure of ferritin-derived ferrihydrite, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects, Volume 1800, Issue 8, August 2010, 871-885

• Sudeep Debnath, Don Putzig et.al; Anti Corrosion Properties of Titanium Dioxide Coating Using Titanate Organo Metallic Complexes, ‘CORCON’-2010, NACE International Gateway, India Section, Goa. Presentations (Posters / Oral) Delivered

• AFM study of reductive dissolution of Manganese oxide in the presence of arsenite: Evidence of precipitate on mineral surface, ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, (04/08).

• Dissolution Kinetics of single particles of Nano size Ferrihydrite using AFM as an analytical tool, ACS National meeting, New Orleans, (04/08).

• Reductive Dissolution of Birnessite by Arsenite: Evidence from In-Situ AFM. ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA (08/07).

• An AFM study of Interaction of Ascorbic acid and Phospholipid with Iron oxide nanoparticles. ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA (08/07).

• In Vivo Imaging and Tracking of Bio-Conjugated Nanoparticles using High Field (7T) Magnetic Resonance Imaging, International Symposium on Microelectronic, San Jose, CA, (11/07).

• Surface reactivity of ferrihydrite nanoparticles toward gaseous SO2. ACS National Meeting San Francisco, CA (09/06).

• Ferrihydrite dissolution and reaction in the presence of Ascorbic acid and adsorbed Phospholipid. Geochemical society of America, Philadelphia Annual meting, (10/06).

• Ferritin as an environmentally relevant nanosystem, ACS National meeting, Washington DC (08/05).

• Synthesis and Characterization of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Derived from Ferritin. 37th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting, ACS, New Brunswick, NJ, (05/ 05).

• Size-reactivity relationship of iron and cobalt oxyhydroxide nanoparticles assembled within ferritin protein. ACS National meeting, San Diego, CA, (03 / 05).

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