BIOGRAPHY

Scott Kafesjian is currently the Director of Sulphur Technologies for Wood, formerly Amec Foster Wheeler. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in the technology, design, commissioning, startup, troubleshooting, and revamp of sulphur recovery and related units worldwide.  He has been with Wood since 2010.  Along with his sulphur experience, he has a diverse background encompassing crude oil distillation, hydrotreating, gas plant revamps, gas compressor stations, and other industrial processes.  He is also the Manager of Process Engineering for the Salt Lake City office of Wood.   Scott has a Bachelor of Science from University of California Los Angeles, with ME and PhD degrees (all in Chemical Engineering) from the University of Utah. 

Sulfur Hall

Presentation: Design Modifications to Overcome Operating Challenges at Very Low Turndown Rates

BIOGRAPHY

Mitch graduated from Princeton University in 1979 with a BSc in Chemical Engineering and is a registered PE in Texas. He worked with ExxonMobil for 40 years, retiring in 2019. He has worked as a consultant with Becht for over three years as a process engineering and resid upgrading specialist.  He has been married to his wife Laura for 41 years, has two children in their 30’s and 2 grandchildren.  He started his career at Bayway Refinery in NJ, then joined the resid upgrading world in 1989, and has focused on delayed coking, visbreaking and resid upgrading for 34 years. Highlights were serving as the process start-up lead for the Venezuelan Cerro Negro Upgrader in 2001 and the Antwerp DCU in Belgium in 2018.  He enjoys delayed coking, languages (Spanish, Dutch, French), art, sports and Belgian beers, not necessarily in that order.

Coking Hall

Presentation: Coke Fines - The Bane of Delayed Coking & Coke Calcining

BIOGRAPHY

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

Sulfur Hall

BIOGRAPHY

CatCracking Hall

Presentation: Slide Valve Degradation and Preventative Maintenance

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Mahmod Samman is the president of Houston Engineering Solutions. He has thirty years of industry experience mostly in damage assessment, repair, and life extension of coke drums. His state-of-the-art techniques in this field are utilized around the world. A licensed professional engineer in Texas, he has a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Duke University, he has published writing in numerous publications, and holds four issued and pending patents. He is a member of ASME and ASCE and a committee member of API 579/ASME FFS, API 934G and API 934J.

Coking Hall

Presentation: A New Technology for Quality Assurance of Weld Overlay Repair of Coke Drums