Process Engineer

SUMMARY PROCESS ENGINEER (Feb ** - Present)

Renmatix Inc, Kennesaw, GA

• Working under the operations team to run the 100 kg/day Bio-fractionation pilot plant.

• Pilot plant consists of 3 skids – Fractionation, Cellulose Hydrolysis and Acid Hydrolysis skids.

• Design & execute bench-scale setup to characterize manufacturing processes to scale up for Pilot Scale testing.

• Identify critical process parameters & determine acceptable ranges to control the processes & optimize performance using JMP 8 DOE (Design of Experiment) software.

• Analyze data, developing standard operating procedures (SOP’s), present plans and results to project team. Perform Mass and Energy Balance calculations.

• Developing piping and instrumentation diagrams (PID) and process flow diagrams (PFD) and perform safety reviews. Perform mass and energy balances.

• Provide technical assistance to manufacturing to resolve process-related issues under stringent deadlines. Analyzes production data to identify root cause for process failure

• Purification using chemical methods such as activated carbon, ion exchange and chromatography.

• Separations using solvents, membrane technology such as reverse osmosis, nano filtration, ultra filtration, and supercritical gas expanded liquids.

• Interact cross functionally from business development, legal, QA, QC & manufacturing to accomplish company objectives.

• Participate in process incident investigations and assist with follow up action items.

• Identify problems and opportunities in the operating units with the goal of improved production, efficiency, cost and environmental performance.

• Aid in operator training on process.

• Provide process engineering support and troubleshooting during plant start-ups, planned shutdowns, upsets and turnarounds.

WORK GRADUATE ENGINEERING TRAINEE (June 06 - July 07)

EXPERIENCE GEA Process Engineering (India) Ltd. (Formerly known as Larsen & Toubro Niro Ltd.)

• Worked in various departments of the company such as Proposal Engineering, Process Engineering, Sales, Supply Chain Management, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

• Carried out the entire Costing of two Chemical Plants, two Brewery Plants and one Dairy Plant.

• Performed basic Thermal Design and Mechanical Design of a Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger, Fluidized Bed Dryer and various Process Equipments.

• Prepared Process Flow Diagrams (PFD), Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID) and Technical Specification Sheets.

• Acquired Training in Plant Design with Mass and Energy Balance Calculations & Design of Process Equipments along with fluid flow and heat transfer calculations.

• Prepared Technical and Commercial Offers in the Sales Department. Also prepared Presentations for Customers to be reviewed by the Senior Management.

• Worked in the Supply Chain Management Dept for the Erection and Commissioning of Food Processing Plants.

• Prepared Purchase Requests and Purchase Orders on SAP.

• Acquired offers of different Process equipments from different vendors, equipment manufacturers and installation contractors for execution of various Food Processing plants.

• Gained knowledge about Quality Control and Quality Assurance while working with the Supply Chain Management Department.

• Was deployed as a Field Engineer for 3 months in a Dairy plant (Mother Dairy, Gandhinagar, India).

• Effectively communicated with all team members and other groups within the company to improve Performance of the Design Team.

IN-PLANT TRAINING (Dec 04 - Jan 05)

Indian Farmer’s Fertilizer Co-operative Limited (IFFCO)

• Training Area: Ammonia Plant, Urea Plant, Offsite, Utility and Bagging & Product Handling Sections and laboratories of each plant.

• Developed a strong understanding of the urea and ammonia manufacturing process.

• Assisted in Process Optimization and Operations Management.

• Analyzed the plants’ Mass and Energy Balance, Process Instrumentation for efficiency improvement and cost reduction.

CERTIFIACTION ENGINEER IN TRAINING (EIT) (Oct 10)

EDUCATION MASTER OF SCIENCE, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING (Aug 07 - Dec 09)

• Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, IL

• Overall GPA - 3.41 / 4.0

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING (Aug 02 - June 06)

• L.D. College of Engineering, Gujarat University, India

• Overall GPA – 3.8 / 4.0

PROJECTS PRODUCTION, EXTRACTION & RECOVERY OF FURFURAL (Mar 09 – Mar 10)

• Manufacture of Furfural from Pentose Sugars with reaction time <30 sec and yield > 85%.

• Extraction and Recovery of Furfural using Supercritical Gas Expanded Liquid.

• Developed Cost Based Production Model for Manufacture of Furfural.

PRODUCTION OF XYLITOL FROM PENTOSE SUGARS (Mar 10 – May 10)

• Bench Scale Catalyzed Production of Xylitol from Pentose Sugars.

• Recovery of catalyst and obtaining yields >80%.

PURIFICATION OF SUGARS (May 10 – July 10)

• Purification of Sugars using Activated Carbon, Ion Exchange and Chromatography.

• Removal of Acetic Acid using Membrane Technology to increase fermentability.

PRETREATMENT OF FEEDSTOCK USING SOLVENTS & LIGNIN PRECIPITATION

(Jul 10 – Oct 10)

• Study of various feedstock like wood chips, wood flour and green wood chips.

• Precipitation of Lignin using Supercritical gas expanded Liquid as an antisolvent at high pressure and high temperature.

• Liquid-liquid extraction of sugars after lignin precipitation of lignin.

TECHNICAL Design Tools: ASPEN Hysys, AUTOCAD

SKILLS Statistical Tools: Minitab, R statistical Computing

Mathematical Tools: Matlab, Mathematica, Mathcad

Office Tools: Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, DBMS, C

Analytical: HPLC, GCMS, YSI, UV.

REFERENCES References available upon request

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