Blake Stapper

Blake Stapper leads an R&D team within Messer Americas' Applications Development group and is responsible for developing innovative solutions for the cost-effective utilisation of industrial gases in the chemistry, energy and environmental industries

Elmo Nasato

Elmo Nasato is a process engineer specializing in sulfur recovery, amine treating and sour water processing. He has 35 years' experience including design, retrofit, start-up and optimization, On-site field activities have included support of construction activities, turnaround assistance and operator training. Elmo graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada with a B.A.Sc. Chemical Engineering (1987) with an option in Management Science. He is the president of Nasato Consulting Ltd. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors for Alberta Sulphur Research, Technical Advisory Committee for the Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Conference, and the Brimstone Sulfur Symposium Technical Advisory Committee. He has eight patents for SRU operation, oxygen enrichment and sulfur degassing technologies, has published 42 papers and has made over 74 presentations at conferences worldwide.

Allison Belgard

Allison Belgard is BASF’s Technology Manager for sulfuric acid catalysts in North and South America. In her 11 years with BASF, she has focused primarily on catalysis and technical service. She has a chemical engineering degree from Louisiana State University and is based in Huntsville, Alabama in the US.

Ron Pitman

Ron Pitman is the Manager of Technology (SME) for Crude, Sulfur, Energy, and Utilities in Motiva’s corporate Technical Excellence group.   A Technical Leader with over 30 years of demonstrated success in process engineering management, operations management, technical support, and plant optimization that also includes 6 years of nuclear power experience in the US Navy.

Martin Alvarez

Martin Alvarez holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires. He joined Topsoe in February 2019, where he has worked as a Specialist within the Clean Air Catalyst department giving technical support to sulfuric acid clients worldwide. Before joining Topsoe, Martin worked as a Process Engineer for 5 years in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Steve Puricelli

Steve Puricelli is currently the Senior Technical Director at Saconix, a sulfuric acid logistics and marketing company. Over the course of his career, he has designed, started up and analyzed operating problems on a wide variety of sulfuric acid plants. He has also worked to bring several new technologies from the laboratory to commercial operation. Mr Puricelli also had P&L responsibility for several businesses and was a member of the MECS management team for many years. In the early days of his career, Mr Puricelli worked in a support and operating role at a manufacturing company that produced nitrogen fertilizers, flexible urethanes (Toluene diisocyanate) and sulfuric acid. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Missouri S&T and a Masters of Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Viviana Alvarado

Viviana Alvarado is a market analyst based in CRU’s London Office. She joined CRU in February 2023 as part of the sulphur and sulphuric fertilizer team. She has a background in Economics and holds an MSc (Distinction) in Development Economics from the University of Sussex. Before joining CRU, Viviana worked as an economic analyst at the tax administration of Colombia.

Peter Harrisson

Dr Harrisson has worked on CRU’s Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid analysis since joining the company in early 2011 and is Head of the Sulphur team. He also works across other nutrient areas, including both market and cost analysis. Prior to joining CRU, Dr Harrisson completed a PhD in Industrial Chemistry at Durham University.

Cal Lockert

Cal Lockert joined Ohio Lumex as Senior Program Director following their acquisition of the Breen Acid Dewpoint technology in 2023.

Prior to that, he was the President of Breen Energy, a supplier of technology and process knowledge for measurement and control of sulphur based condensable in process flue gas. He has over 30 years of experience in the development and commercialization of new technologies for environmental and efficiency improvement in heavy industrial applications. 

Mr Lockert has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and currently resides in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Angie Slavens

Angie has 28 years of experience working in the oil and gas business, primarily focused on sulphur recovery and sour gas treating. She has served as sulphur technology manager for two of the world’s leading sulphur technology licensing firms and has been involved in the delivery of several world-class projects. In 2014, Angie initiated an owner’s engineering focused consulting business, UniverSUL Consulting, based in Abu Dhabi, which has since been relocated to the USA.

Angie has published numerous papers, is a member of several international conference committees, and previously served on the Board of Directors for ASRL (2013-2023).  Angie received her BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1996 and MBA from Hult International Business School (Dubai, UAE) in 2018.  

In her free time, Angie enjoys distance running; she completed the Abbot Marathon World Majors (Berlin, Boston, Chicago London, New York, Tokyo) in 2021.   

Pamela d'Anterroches

Pamela works as BP‘s central subject matter expert for Sulphur Recovery and Gas Treatment. She holds a BS in Environmental Engineering and an MSc in Process Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin. After several years working as a Project Manager, she joined BP in 2010 and worked in various technical roles. In 2018 she took on the role as Principal Engineer Treatments, providing support to BP and BP joint venture refineries globally. Her experience includes operations support, unit troubleshooting, project design support, turnaround inspections and training. In 2023 she became a member of the CRU Technical Committee.

Mark Ferra

Mr. Ferra is a Process Performance Manager for REXA and has worked at REXA for eleven years. REXA makes high performance electro-hydraulic actuators used in critical applications requiring precise positioning and reliability. REXA is recognized as a leading customer-centric solutions provider enabling end-users to optimize process efficiency and enhance safety. In his role, Mark creates marketing messaging highlighting the application ROI and/or safety improvements using REXA actuators. Previously Mr. Ferra worked seven years for Freeport McMoRan as a Chief Engineer in the Marketing Technical Services group. Mr. Ferra has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Arizona State University and lives with his family in Phoenix, Arizona.

Craig Jorgenson

Craig Jorgenson is a member of TSI's senior staff, serving as director of transportation, regulatory affairs and operations. Mr Jorgenson joined TSI after a 25-year career with the US military. Jorgenson brings to TSI vast experience in the intermodal transportation sector, past affiliation with non-profit associations, and global expertise in his field. During his career, he has led various teams focused on strategic planning and project management in aspects of logistics and supply chain operations. Mr Jorgenson holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Indiana University and the National Defense University.

Hannes Storch

Before joining Outotec in 2002 as a process engineer in Sulfuric Acid Technologies, Dr. Storch studied at the Technical University of Clausthal and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Dr. Storch holds a doctor degree in Chemical Engineering.  

In the course of his work for Metso Outotec, Dr. Storch held various positions, including several years in Chile. 

Today, he is on the management board of Metso Outotec's German subsidiary and heads the Metals and Chemical Processing business line.  

Dr. Storch is also a member of the board of the VDMA - AG Großanlagenbau (Large Plant Building Section).

Hanno Hintze

After his Ph.D. at the Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Hanno Hintze started working at the R&D department of Aurubis AG, Hamburg in 1999. From 2001 - 2015 he was Production Manager and since 2012 director of the sulphuric acid department of Aurubis Hamburg, being responsible for the copper smelter offgas and wastewater treatment. After being director of the Hamburg primary smelter Projects (2015-2018) in 2018 he took over responsiblility for the large acid and wastewater projects at Aurubis Group Technology. In 2006 Dr.-Ing. Hintze started leading the technical working group on sulphur within the German VCI, and he is a member of the IPPC technical working groups of the non ferrous metals BREF and the waste gas common BREF taking care of SO2 emissions off sulphuric acid plants.

Maria Garcia

Samuel Scherman Johansson

With an engineering masters' degree from Lund University in Sweden, Samuel has worked for Topsoe for 12 years within the clean air segment, focusing on sulfur recovery technology. He has spent 4 years working in China from the Topsoe Beijing office, and has since 2018 been the global proposal manager for Topsoe's clean air technologies based in the Copenhagen, Denmark headquarters of Topsoe A/S.

Steven M Puricelli

Steve Puricelli is currently the Senior Technical Director at InterAcid, a sulfuric acid logistics and marketing company. Over the course of his career, he has designed, started up and analyzed operating problems on a wide variety of sulfuric acid plants. He has also worked to bring several new technologies from the laboratory to commercial operation. Mr Puricelli also had P&L responsibility for several businesses and was a member of the MECS management team for many years. In the early days of his career, Mr Puricelli worked in a support and operating role at a manufacturing company that produced nitrogen fertilizers, flexible urethanes (Toluene diisocyanate) and sulfuric acid. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Missouri S&T and a Masters of Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Rene LeBlanc

Dr. Rene LeBlanc has over 20+ years of experience in a variety of development and production operations as well as commercial experience in supply chain development for the energy storage industry. He currently leads the growth and product development areas for Lithium Americas.Previous experience has been managing efforts to develop supplies of critical materials for Tesla Inc., and after a decade on lithium production projects for FMC Corporation’s Lithium Division.Rene earned his Bachelors and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.

Dan Deaver

Dan’s 30+ years of worldwide heavy industrially focused engineering experience encompasses a wide range of industries and commodities.   For the past 13 years he has served as Vice President of Manufacturing for Georgia Gulf Sulfur improving systems, workforce and safety while ensuring the constant quality of manufacturing their ground, formed and liquid sulfur products.  He oversees all aspects of manufacturing throughout their 3 facilities including design/management of all projects, troubleshooting/continuous improvement, safety, and the ISO 9001 Program.   Dan and Robin have 2 kids (Chesley and Andrew), 3 cats and a dog.  Dan is very involved in Scouting America as a Council Commissioner and will be running the Mountain Biking Program at the 2026 National Jamboree.

Jay Davis

Jay is a Senior Sulfur Technology Leader for Chevron’s Refineries and Chemical Plants. After graduating from Mississippi State University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, Jay worked in various process engineering, process control, and capital project roles at Shell Oil and Chevron. He has been at the Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery since 1998, starting in the Process Engineering group. Jay serves as Task Group Chairman for API-565, Board of Directors for Alberta Sulfur Research Ltd, and Leader of the Amine Best Practices Group.

Andrea Vaccari

Andrew Nissan, Ph.D., P.E.

Aleksandr Benke

Aleksandr joined EuroChem in 2021 and has since led major strategic and business transformation initiatives in the Brazilian subsidiary and at the Group level. Most recently, he served as Strategy Director at EuroChem Brazil and Head of Commercial Strategy for EuroChem Group, spearheading projects across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Before that Aleksandr held key strategy roles at companies such as General Electric, Chelpipe Group, and Petrovax.   

Willis Thomas

Willis joined CRU in February 2017 with more than five years in metals sales, production, and procurement activities. As Head of CRU+ he is responsible for a team focused on efficiently delivering CRU data and custom reports which fall outside of the subscription or consultancy/advisory service offerings.Before moving to CRU+, he managed consulting projects across a wide range of mined commodities, metals and fertilizers. Willis has significant experience in ferroalloys (silicon, manganese, vanadium & niobium), steel metallics and raw materials, base & minor metals (zinc, tin, germanium), as well as broad coverage across fertilizer markets for nitrogen, phosphorus, potash and sulphur.Willis holds a Masters in Finance from Colorado State University and a BA in Political Science from Washington & Jefferson College. Willis is based in CRU's Pittsburgh office.

Christopher Larson

Christopher Larson leads Global Operations for Lithium Americas Corporation (LAC) with a focus on improving and expanding operations as well as developing new opportunities utilizing LAC’s technology in the Lithium Market. Prior to joining LAC, he was the Vice President of Supply Chain and Operations for Arysta LifeScience. He has held several other roles in the Specialty Chemical and Consumer Products industry in his 30+ year career focused on Process Technology, Chemicals/Specialty Chemicals, Mining, Operations, Product Development, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Corporate Strategy and Analysis. He has also worked for Dow Chemical and L’Oreal. He holds an MS from Columbia University and Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Rustin Heflin

Rustin Heflin is a Lead Applications Engineer in Zeeco's Thermal Oxidation and Combustion Systems group. He joined Zeeco in 2014 and brings over 20 years of in-depth expertise in the hydrocarbon processing industry and a wide range of applications. Rustin holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and is from Hollis, Oklahoma.

Peter Harrisson

Dr Harrisson has worked on CRU’s Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid analysis since joining the company in early 2011 and is Head of the Sulphur team. He also works across other nutrient areas, including both market and cost analysis. Prior to joining CRU, Dr Harrisson completed a PhD in Industrial Chemistry at Durham University.

Frank Nikolic

Frank has over two decades of experience in the mining industry, holding senior leadership roles across strategy, market intelligence, metallurgy, digital transformation, and global commercial operations. During his time at Vale Base Metals, Frank led initiatives that improved Vale Base Metals’ commercial operations, including overseeing global logistics, optimizing contract management, and implementing digital transformation projects that enhanced operational efficiency and provided valuable strategic insights.

In his strategic planning and market intelligence roles, Frank helped shape Vale Base Metals’ approach to commodities such as nickel, copper, and cobalt, supporting the company's involvement in the energy transition and electric vehicle markets. His expertise guided commercial strategies and engaged investors and stakeholders through clear, forward-looking narratives about the future of these commodities.

Now serving as Vice President for Base and Battery Metals in North America at CRU, Frank focuses on providing thought leadership and strategic guidance to support the commodity value chain as it adapts to meet the demands of a sustainable energy future. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mineral Processing from the University of Toronto and an MBA specializing in Strategic Planning and Industrial Relations from York University. Frank’s extensive background in both the technical and strategic aspects of the industry makes him well-positioned to address the opportunities and challenges in the evolving mining and metals landscape.

Jenny Hedenblad

Jenny started her carrier at TOPSOE in 2002, when she took up a position as process engineer for TOPSOE’s Wet gas Sulfuric Acid (WSA) technology for SO2 abatement. Between 2010 and 2023 she worked as a Project Manager executing engineering and supply projects, mainly within the WSA technology. In 2023 she took up the position as Project Director for Clean Air technologies, including the WSA technology. In 2024 she transferred to TOPSOE’s commercial department, taking up the position she currently holds as Senior Licensing Manager for Clean Air technologies in Europe and North America.

Marco van Son

Marco van Son received a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands and a second Masters degree in Refining, Gas Processing and Engineering from ENSPM in France. He started his career with Air Liquide in France developing a burner for high oxygen enrichment in sulfur recovery units, and emigrated to Canada after doing the test runs of the burner with ASRL at their mini furnace near Calgary. He is currently the Global Technology Manager for Comprimo, which is part of the Worley organization. He has over 25 years of experience designing, commissioning and troubleshooting sulfur recovery units, amine units and sour water strippers. He is the current president and chairman of the board of directors of ASRL, was a sub-task group leader for the development of the API-565 Standard for SRU Thermal Reactors and has authored a number of industry publications. He is a professional engineer in Alberta, Canada.

Stuart Hinze

Engineering Manager for the Mining & Manufacturing division of Simplot which is focused on the production of phosphate fertilizers. Much of his time at Simplot is spent supporting the five sulfuric acid plants. Stuart previously worked at Chemetics as a Senior Process Engineer, Commissioning Manager, & Proposal Manager specializing in greenfield sulfuric acid plants.

Ganesh Gujar

G M Patel

Ghanshyam Patel is a chemical engineer with 45 years of operating cum technical experience in M/s GSFC Ltd from1970 and retired as Executive Director having rich experience in all areas of diverse functional departments at apex management level like enhancing productivity in true sense by continual improvement in energy, cost reduction, environment issues, safety, quality control, fire fighting, IMS cell for GSFC. Mr Patel is on panel of RC logo auditors in ICC. At present he is Technical Director in CIFC Pvt Ltd (Rahimtula Group) since December 2010. Mr Patel has presented many technical papers in FAI, IFA, SYMPHOS and AFA conferences. He is active member in Technical Advisory and Environment committees and annual award selection committee of FAI.

Guy Cooper

A professional process engineer with 30 years experience in sulfuric acid

Mathijs Sijpkes

Mathijs Sijpkes is a project engineer from the Netherlands. After finalizing his studies in Chemical Engineering in 2018 he started working for Sulphurnet in the field of sulphur melting and purification.  Mathijs specializes in process design and has been working on numerous liquid sulphur melting and filtration projects with different capacity’s starting from 86 MTPD up to 1400 MTPD. During these projects the focus was to provide the clients with a process that is completely tailor made to help them achieve their goals.