Vincent Patterson

Vince Patterson has 21 years of industry experience with various roles in Operations Department. He is currently serving as an Advanced Senior Operations Turnaround Specialist supporting all MPC refineries. He has successfully executed and led or supported 21 turnarounds and five major unit revamps within the past 10 years. He has extensive experience working with various decontamination vendors and collaborating to improve their services. Vince has a strong focus on turnaround planning, execution support and troubleshooting, and capture and knowledge share of lessons learned and best practices.

David Engel

Dr. Engel has more than 25 years of industrial experience in a variety of areas of chemical engineering, material science and chemistry. David is the inventor in more than 20 United States Invention Patents and author of over 100 technical and scientific papers, and conferences. David has worked in several technical and business capacities for companies such as Eastman Kodak, Eli Lilly, General Electric among others. David has recently specialized in process optimization, renewables and new technology development. Dr. Engel is the Managing Director of Nexo Solutions. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. David is 6-Sigrma certified and is member of several industrial committees and company board of directors.

Carson Hannah

Carson Hannah is from western North Carolina and received his Mechanical Engineering training at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has been with QMax Industries since 2014 and held multiple roles within the organization. Currently he is QMax’ Technical Director and QMax Project Development Team Leader, focusing on leading the technical growth of all QMax team members and departments.

Phillip Niccum

Phillip has a lengthy record of accomplishments in the fields of petroleum refining and petrochemicals encompassing chemical and mechanical engineering, business and operations, management and execution, training, technical service, process development as well operational and construction assistance in commercial FCC installations. At M.W Kellogg / KBR for 26 years among other roles Phillip served for 4 years as Director of FCC Technology and 8 years of Chief Technology Engineer. Immediately following graduation with a Chemical Engineering Degree in 1980, Phillip worked at Texaco for 4 years performing process design calculations and technical services for Texaco owned and licensed FCC units worldwide, followed by 6 years coordination and development of FCCU technology, catalyst and operations in six Texaco U.S.A. refineries. Phillip has been granted 17 U.S. Patents and authored/presented dozens of papers and publications at major industry conferences and trade journals.

Dave Dewees

Rob Shanahan

Rob Shanahan is the Field Technology Static Equipment Manager at Rotating Machinery Services (RMS). With over 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, Rob has built a strong foundation through a successful career at ExxonMobil. His expertise spans maintenance execution, planning and scheduling, project construction, and turnaround management.

Kannan Subramanian

Dr. Kannan Subramanian specializes in brittle fracture prevention, coke drum life cycle management, sulfuric acid systems, and high-pressure systems in the petrochemical industry. His area of expertise includes the life extension/fitness- for-service activities of nuclear and petrochemical pressure vessels, storage tanks, and piping components subjected to various damage mechanisms. He has taken leadership roles in large engineering projects, codes and standard committees, and technical division of conferences. He has developed simple to complicated user-friendly computational packages for continuum mechanics, heat transfer, and coupled field problems, He had carried out material testing at laboratories and interprets non-destructive (radiography, ultrasound, visual & liquid penetrant) inspection results for pressure systems. Dr. Subramanian is very knowledgeable in various international codes and standards and has performed numerous projects involving pressure vessel design, piping design and routing, pipe supports analyses.

Rick Torres

Tom Perry

Thomas W Perry is Mechanical Engineer from Clarkson University with over 25 years of experience in industrial process heating technologies.  He is the Founder and President of QMax Industries specializing in Steam Tracing and Tank Heating.  He is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of QMax Catalytic, LLC and President of Precise Thermal, LLC.   Tom holds several patents in the field of heat transfer and has many more innovations on the way.  He is from Upstate NY and now resides in Westport, CT with his wife and three children.

Stephen Forry

With more than a decade of experience with Emtrol-Buell, Steve has been involved in every aspect of FCC cyclone system design.In addition to cyclone design, he provides troubleshooting and inspection expertise for clients that are experiencing elevatedcatalyst losses or mechanical failures. Steve has been involved in the cyclone system design for the smallest and largest FCCU’sin world, and he enjoys working closely with clients to solve problems and improve FCC operation. Steve holds a BS inMechanical Engineering from Messiah College.

Steve Ayres

Steve is a Chemical Engineer with 15+ years’ experience in the oil and gas industry. He has supported projects all over the world providing onsite testing, troubleshooting, and training of amine systems, sour water strippers, amine and glycol reclamation units, gas dehydration systems, and liquids recovery systems. Steve has supported these areas with expertise in plant simulation, process design, operational troubleshooting, and start-up support. Steve has been involved in the advancement of chemical reclamation technologies through research and patent development, as well as co-authoring papers presented at various conferences.

Abdullah Alshemali

Experienced operation professional with 11.5 years in the oil & gas industry, specializing in DCU.

Ali Aldaihani

Ali Aldaihani works as the Sr. Mechanical Maintenance Engineer & Task Force Leader at DCU (U#136) & CHS (U#187) in KNPC MAA refinery. He has more than 12 years of experience within various divisions in refinery process units such as Gas plant, ARD & HP. He has worked on the mega and strategic Clean Fuels Project 2020 for equipment installation, commissioning & start-up for newly added process units. This project has been completed successfully despite severe challenges faced.  

Martin McCallister

Martin McCallister has been with Delta Controls for over 10 years, starting in instrumentation product design and now serving as General Manager. He holds a bioengineering degree from Louisiana State University.

Grzegorz Kamyszek

Grzegorz Kamyszek is a Senior Application Engineer for Sulzer Chemtech USA where he performs complex column revamps, designs of high-capacity trays, evaluates anti-fouling designs, works on packing and internals designs.He has more than 25 years of experience with Sulzer Chemtech, having held various positions including process design, mechanical design, packed towers, liquid distributor testing. He has been a member of FRI DPC committee since 2023. Grzegorz holds a M.S. and engineering degree in Chemical Technology and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Poznan University of Technology, Poland.

Susan Lee

Susan graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Penn State and is a registered Professional Engineer. Her 35+ year career in the chemical and energy industries includes individual contributor and leadership roles in manufacturing operations, logistics operations, process engineering, process technology, and health/environmental/safety. She is currently a Principal Process Safety Engineer with Marathon Petroleum Corporation focusing on HOP (Human and Organizational Performance) and incident learning.

Kraig Simpson

Kraig Simpson is the Vice President of Technology for Rotating Machinery Services (RMS). He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University. Prior to RMS, Kraig worked for ExxonMobil for 10 years. His professional experience has been primarily focused on turnaround, maintenance, and project support. Much of his experience is related to leveraging technology and innovative solutions to reinvent maintenance techniques for turbomachinery. He has applied the virtual assembly philosophy for numerous applications including turbomachinery overhauls and brownfield project execution.

Adrián Azpilicueta

Adrián Azpilicueta works for Nalco Water as Sr Industry Technical Consultant. He has over 37 years of experience in Refinery operations, both in Argentina and USA. He worked his first 26 years for ExxonMobil in Operations, Technical, Maintenance and Projects. The last 11 years he has been with Nalco Water, starting in the Sales organization and moving to Marketing 5 years ago as Sr Industry Technical Consultant with special focus on Process Operations. Adrian is also an active member of AFPM Hydroprocessing Committee where he presented several topics as well as in the AMPP (ex-NACE). He is a Chemical Engineer from the Universidad Nacional del Sur (Argentina) and has an M.B.A. from the Universidad Católica Argentina (Buenos Aires).

Modhi Sufyan Al-Duweesh

Chemical Engineer graduate. Joined KNPC in 2015 as a Process Engineer.

Duke Tran

Duke Tran is the Executive Vice President of Product Innovation and Technology at Velan Inc., with over 35 years of experience.He has served as Head of Engineering for five global valve companies and held executive roles in sales, marketing, businessdevelopment, and general manager. He hold a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA. Duke is a licensed ProfessionalEngineer in Alberta Canada and the USA with 39 US patents and publications on flow control technology.

Luc Vernhes

Luc joined Velan in 2003 and has held multiple positions over the years.He is now Director, Business Development.He holds a PhD in Engineering Physics and is a Mechanical Engineer.

Daniel Sack

Daniel Sack, P.E., is a Senior Engineering Advisor and Group Lead at Becht. Mr Sack has 20 years of structural and mechanical engineering experience in the field of petrochemical, refining, utility, and industrial power generation, with focus on structural design at elevated temperatures. He has extensive experience with the design of plate structures, utility, industrial boilers and environmental equipment.

Lautaro Cascino

Lautaro Cascino is a Chemical Engineer from ITBA in Buenos Aires, with a specialization in Process and Polymers from IFP School in France. At Axens' Digital Services Factory, Lautaro develops digital solutions for the refining and petrochemical industries, integrating advanced analytics and machine learning.

Eddie Knight III

Eddie Knight III is the Director of the Project Support Group. Eddie oversees planning and mechanical support groups for the operations team. Eddie is an experienced chemical engineer and joined ZymeFlow in 2021. Prior to joining ZymeFlow, Eddie worked as an Engineering Manager and Director of Chemical Cleaning. He trained and led a team of engineers planning refinery decontamination and created industry leading engineering and planning packages. Eddie received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston.

Ben Davis

Ben Davis is the Director of Decontamination Services at ZymeFlow. He is involved in all aspects of decon operations and oversees the successful execution of countless projects throughout the world. Ben joined ZymeFlow in 2012 and has experience in refinery, petrochemical, and offshore. Prior to joining ZymeFlow, he worked as the General Manager of Production for Epco Carbon Dioxide and as a Facility Manager for Praxair. In these roles he oversaw the production, budget, and coordination of major projects. Ben has received thorough trainings including university, numerous trade schools, including a specialization in pumps and hydraulics, in addition to receiving a UL Certification and Six Sigma.

Dhari Alnkhailan

Dhari Alnkhailan is a Senior Instrument Maintenance Engineer with 18 years of experience in Automation systems and field instrumentation. He holds a B.E. in Electrical Engineering (2005 - USA) and an MBA (2006 - UK). Currently, he handles instrumentation maintenance at the Coker Plant as part of the Clean Fuels Plant at Mina Ahmadi Refinery. Passionate about Automation, he excels in troubleshooting and problem-solving.

Cem Deniz

Cem Deniz graduated from Middle East Technical University in 2019. He is the DCU Production Chief Engineer at Socar Turkey for 4 years. He participated in the first Turnaround of the DCU unit and DCU revamp activities in 2024.

Kaan Yaman

Kaan Yaman is the DCU Production Lead Engineer at SOCAR Turkey. Since joining the company in 2017, he has been actively involved in key projects, including the P&ID review, HAZOP studies, and commissioning and start-up activities at SOCAR Turkey. Prior to his role at SOCAR Turkey, he contributed to the commissioning and start-up of water treatment plants, including the Tüpraş New Water Treatment Plant (NWTP).

Vishal Suri

Vishal Suri is the Vice President of Insights and Advisory practice of Evalueserve.  He leads a team of consultants and engagement managers advising clients on business questions linked to strategy, capital planning, scenario modeling, business plans and business models.  His team is adept at solving deep implementation questions for running the business sustainably and profitably.  He has led programs for clients for transforming their processes, strategy, commercial excellence, and capital investment decisions.  For refining and petrochemical clients, he has helped companies redefine their product portfolio, assess the appropriate feedstock sourcing and product pricing, plant configuration, supply chain analysis, and carbon offsets planning.  Before joining Evalueserve, Vishal was a process engineer with Lummus and Technip.  He has executed basic design, detailed engineering, and commissioning of green-field and brown-field Delayed Coking units, Visbreaking units, and FCC units in India and the US.  Vishal is a chemical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, and an MBA Finance from Indian School of Business.

Antonio Seijas

Antonio is an ASME Fellow with over 35 years in the oil industry. He has been an active ASME and API committee member for more than 24 years.

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.

Gianluca Tanda

Gianluca Tanda is the Applications Engineering Manager and the Global Director of Business Development Incinerators. Gianluca joined Zeeco in 2020 after leaving the John Zink Company, where he was a Sales Director for Incinerators. He is from Lecco, Italy, and attended Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan), where he earned a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Gary Reisen

Gary holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University. He works for 30+ years in refining/engineering and 8+ years with P66. 

Emiro Guignan

Operations Engineer for Phillips 66 (Lake Charles) with 12+ years of experience within oil & gas industry with focus on Delayed Coking.

Larraine J. Doon-Daep

Larraine has 12 years of refinery experience encompassing combustion engineering, utilities and power plant engineering, operations engineering, and refinery processes. As a process control specialist/panel operator for DCU since 2019, she has gained valuable experience in DCS panel operations and control improvement, and has contributed and initiated strategies and projects related to DCU quenching, gas plant reboilers control, level control, antifoam optimization, and zero downtime. She holds a BS Chemical Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, graduating as magna cum laude, and is a licensed chemical engineer.

Bingfeng Gu

Bingfeng Gu has over 18 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, 15 of those years were spent on Fluid Cokers. He holds a master's degree in chemical engineering from Dalhousie University.  In his current role, Bingfeng is the fluid coking technical authority for Suncor Energy.

Brandon Forbes

Brandon Forbes has worked in the process heating and sulfur industry for over 16 years with a focus on product development and engineering design. He has helped develop and support CSI’s most successful products including the bolt-on heating product suite and the SxSeal above-ground sulfur sealing device.

Bruce Thacker

Bruce Thacker has over 17 years of experience in the process heating and sulfur industry assisting clients with troubleshooting, heating technology selection, and system optimization.

Sunil Umare

Refinery professional with 18 years of experience in operations, commissioning and turnaround across key refinery units, including the  Delayed Coker unit ,Hydrotreating Unit, Hydrogen Generation Unit, and Suflur Recovery Unit. Currently serving as a Chief Manager in the Operations Department at HPCL Mumbai Refinery , India. He has played a pivotal role in optimizing refinery performance, ensuring operational excellence, and troubleshooting complex process challenges. Their expertise extends to troubleshooting and process optimization in the Sulfur Recovery and Hydrotreating Units, demonstrating a strong technical acumen and problem-solving approach. He has commissioning experience of the Delayed Coker Unit at BPCL Bina Refinery prior to joining HPCL.

Jose Albarracin

Jose Albarracin is a static equipment engineer with ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering (EMtech). With about 12 years in the Oil & Gas industry, he has built his experience through multiple manufacturing roles spanning from reliability, risk management, equipment design and troubleshooting, and maintenance/turnarounds, of equipment in FCCU and HF Alkylation technologies. Currently supporting the maintenance of existing fluid solids equipment in the fleet, he is focused in partnering with specialized contractors to develop and the deploy virtual assembly methods that can support the efficient execution of construction, maintenance, and troubleshooting activities in static equipment. 

Juan Sansiviero

Juan Sansiviero has more than 28 years of process engineering experience and has been Technical Service Manager at Wood (legacy Amec Foster Wheeler) for more than 8 years, providing technical and operational support to Refineries, especially the Foster Wheeler SYDEC Coking units. During the last 10 years, Juan has provided support to the commissioning, start-up and completion test of six new coker units, and has participated in several expansion projects and debottlenecking studies. Juan joined Foster Wheeler in 2006 and has coordinated many Delayed Coker Projects including grass roots and revamps, comprising technical proposals, feasibility studies, site audits, process simulations, basic engineering, front end engineering design (FEED), detail engineering, project management consulting (PMC). Additionally, Juan has wide experience in crude distillation unit (CDU), vacuum distillation unit (VDU), gas plants (SGP, UGP), amine regeneration unit (ARU), sour water stripping (SWS), and utilities, achieved in Foster Wheeler and during his six first years working at Cardon Refinery, in Venezuela, as Distillation Process Engineer.  Juan received a cum-laude Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Simon Bolivar University of Venezuela, followed by a Master’s degree in Process Engineering from Francisco de Miranda University.

Iain Downie

Coker Operations Superintendent at BP Whiting Refinery from 2021-2024.Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Dan Fornaciari

Daniel Fornaciari is an experienced Project Engineer at Mott Corporation, the leader in porous metal filtration. With over five years of industry experience, Daniel partners with clients across a wide range of sectors to develop innovative, custom filtration solutions tailored to their unique challenges. His previous role as an Application Scientist, conducting filter feasibility tests, has enriched his practical understanding of separation technologies and the complexities involved in commercial liquid and gas filtration.

Prashanth Sundaravadivelu

Process Engineer with 10 years of experience in gas processing, sulfur and amin plants, utilities system. atmospheric & vacuum distillation & delayed coking.

Grant Jacobson

Grant Jacobson has experience in design, operation, optimization of process equipment and operations management of cross-functional teams. At Valero Energy, he led multiple operational practices improvement focusing on equipment preparation and troubleshooting as well as building toolsets and polices to facilitate continued operational excellence. With ExxonMobil while supporting refinery units as a process engineer, he helped develop and lead strategic, quick payback projects to help reinforce refinery profitability during poor market conditions. He has extensive process engineering experience coupled with hands on, in the field, operational know how to drive elegant and practical solutions. Mr. Jacobson has supported or operated every major refinery process unit throughout his years of industry experience. Since 2020 at Becht, he has focused on holistic troubleshooting and improvement initiatives on fired equipment and energy optimization. He is a thermography subject matter expert with extensive experience with IR cameras/pyrometers as well as contact pyrometers (Goldcup).

Keith Magdoza

Keith Magdoza is a Delayed Coking Process Engineer at Chevron Lummus Global with 12 years of experiencein the energy industry. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.In his current role, Keith is responsible for process design and engineering, specializing in delayed coking technologies.

Alex Berry

Alex has over 15 years of experience in petrochemicals & oil refining, with significant hands-on field experience in the design, fabrication, maintenance and repair of pressure equipment. Alex’s main areas of expertise are Fitness-for-Service assessments, design & troubleshooting of bolted flanged joints, coke drum integrity management and repair of ageing plant. Alex has expertise in welding and materials engineering, completing his diploma with The Welding Institute. Alex is the author/co-author of several papers & technical presentations in the field of coke drums and bolted flanged joints. A Chartered Engineer with the IMechE, he drives improvements in mechanical integrity through speaking at conferences and developing younger engineers.

Omar Alkandari

Omar Alkandari is the Rotating Maintenance Engineer at Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery. He has been with the company for four years, primarily working on the Clean Fuel Project (CFP). His experience spans across various units, including utilities, sulfur handling, vacuum residue processing, and is currently assigned to the Delayed Coker unit. Additionally, Omar has participated in major operational milestones, including the gas plant shutdown (GPS) and the comprehensive shutdown of the Clean Fuel Project (CFP).

Sam Lordo

Sam is a recognized industry expert and has over 45 years' experience in refinery process chemistry/chemical treatments, opportunity crude processing and crude desalting. During his 45+ years of corrosion / refining / petrochemical experience, he has been involved in all aspects of managing risk due changing crude slates and process conditions; including corrosion prevention, fouling prevention and control, failure analysis, crude desalting, and new product and program  development

Ashutosh Garg

Thomas Bradley

Process Engineer in training with 3 years of experience in atmospheric and vacuum distillation as well as delayed coking. 

Zeynep Erpolat

From 2015 to 2017, Zeynep Erpolat worked as an R&D engineer in a white-good company. After that she worked in a different refinery as a SRU/ARU/LPG-Kero Merox process chief engineer for 5 years. For the past 1.5 years she has been working  in SOCAR as a DCU process chief engineer. 

Virgil Guzman

Virgil Guzman is a Mechanical Engineer from the Universidad Technologica del Centro in Venezuela. With over 15 years of experience working with FCC and other critical valve applications, he has supported projects across North and South America.

Sim Romero

Sim Romero has over 40 years of domestic and international refining experience in process engineering, design, optimization, and modeling of heavy oil upgrading and delayed coker processes. Sim has extensive Coking and Heavy Oil experience. His projects have touched every part of the Coker including profit improvement, cutting water, coke handling, drum thermal stress, heater fouling, incident response and restart, reaction kinetic modeling, coke morphology and more.

Maddy Casabat

Maddy Casabat is currently a process engineer at PBF Energy – Chalmette Refinery. She has been there for almost 4 years and started out as the process engineer of the treating units for ~2.5 years where she got experience in hydrotreating, amine stripping, sour water stripping, sulfur recovery, benzene recovery, LPG recovery, and waste gas recovery. She then transitioned to the process engineer for the cokers in March of 2024 and has been there since. She has also worked many turnarounds where she was able to gain experience in crude units, FCC, HF Alky, reformers, as well as some aromatics units. Maddy graduated from LSU in May of 2021with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Business Administration. Maddy enjoys spending her time outside of work doing Pilates, trying new restaurants, and she just completed her first half marathon!

Nasser Abukhdeir

Dr. Abukhdeir is the President of Continuum Engineering Inc. and an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, cross-appointed in Physics and Astronomy, at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada). He completed his BS and MChE at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA) and his PhD at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) under the supervision of Prof. Alejandro Rey. His research and professional practice is focused computational fluid dynamics and computational multiphysics simulations of processes involving both single and multiphase flows, reaction, heat and mass transport. 

Redjhay Jess M. Anog

> Chief Control Engineer with over 12 years of experience in refinery control and safety systems, 9 years with DCU

> Have broad technical skills and knowledge related to Chemical Engineering, Process Control and Automation, Programming, and Refining Processes

> Handled several DCU automation improvement including steam-out automated ramping and transition to quenching, sludge processing logic forquenching, antifoam optimization and foolproofing, blowdown tower optimization, switch valve upgrade and foolproofing, and dual LIC control among others

Nik Faul

Nik is a Static Equipment Engineer at ExxonMobil, with six years of industry experience. For the past three years, Nik has been exclusively assigned to the Delayed Coker Unit (DCU) network at ExxonMobil, where he focuses on enhancing unit reliability and advancing valve technologies.

David Williams

David Williams is the driving force behind Berthold Technologies' global business development, specializing in the specialized field of radiometric measurement solutions. His extensive 25-year career has taken him around the world, working in refineries and chemical plants to improve operations with radiometric technology. Starting as a startup and applications engineer before moving into sales, David now serves as the key advisor on using radiometric devices. Holding a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering, David's knowledge is both deep and practical, making him a vital asset in the Oil & Gas industry's measurement technology area. At Berthold Technologies, David is more than just a manager; he's an innovator and a strategist, championing the adoption of advanced nuclear instrumentation technologies. His efforts have been crucial in enhancing operational efficiencies and leading the industry forward, cementing Berthold Technologies' position as a market leader.

Mel Larson

Mel Larson is the Strategic Consulting Manager at Becht, with over 40 years of experience as a Chemical Engineer. His responsibilities include specialty consulting in FCC, serving as Project Manager on various Becht projects. He specializes in assisting companies in analyzing an array of options to meet the Strategic objective for sustainability and revenue growth.  Mel’s experience in includes process troubleshooting and gap assessment analysis in the FCC, Unsaturates Gas Plant, Alkylation and Naphtha Reformer areas. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and his hobbies include music, exercise, fine wine, bourbon, and scotch,

David Gibson

David Gibson, an industry veteran with 27 years of experience, currently works at ExxonMobil as a static equipment engineer and serves as the EMTec Manufacturing Principal Engineer. With a strong focus on the industry, he has dedicated 17 years to Delayed Coking Units (DCU). His field of expertise includes ensuring the mechanical integrity of coke drums and managing the structural integrity of coker cranes. Additionally, David excels in fire damage assessment and the implementation of tankage integrity programs.

Richard Grove

Richard Grove is an FCC BIN Leader / Subject Matter Expert with the Chevron Global Manufacturing Process Technology Team (31 wonderful years covering FCC units, reviewed operation in 61 units over the years). Richard received B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide). Prior to assuming his current position at Chevron in 2007 Richard worked as the West Coast Regional Manager for GRACE Davison. Richard worked as the FCC Process Engineer at Chevron Pascagoula refinery before his employment at GRACE Davison. Richard has given many presentations on the wonderful aspects of FCC Units and loves bringing new people into the FCC family. Co-author on multiple U.S. Patents for processing bio-oils and waste plastics through the FCC unit.

Evan Hyde

Evan Hyde is the Director of Field Operations for Coking.com Inc. Formerly he was president of Telaxe, a coker consulting firm. He previously was president of C2 Nano Technology where they researched surface treatments to combat fouling and corrosion issues in cokers and other petrochemical process units. He was a Senior Engineering Advisor for Becht Engineering Co., Inc. New Jersey. He has consulted on processing improvement and reliability initiatives for delayed coking clients around the world. He also participated in onsite peer assessments of Coker Units at eight refineries which included improvements in maintenance work practices, process enhancements, and turnaround scope optimization. Prior to joining Becht, Evan worked for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, as a process engineer, with assignments in research, and troubleshooting for heavy oil upgrading equipment. He holds a B.S. of Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.

Mitch Moloney

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.

Elmo Nasato

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.

Dr. Mahmod Samman

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. Dr. Samman has numerous publications and holds six patents. He is a member of ASME and a committee member of API 579/ASME FFS, API 934G and API 934J.