Alexander Derricott

Alex Derricott is currently the cost analyst in the fertilizer analysis team, working on a diverse range of fertilizer cost reports. Alex has also worked in the phosphate fertilizer team that produces the Phosphate Fertilizer Market Outlook, Phosphate Rock Market Outlook and the Phosphate Cost Report. He joined CRU in 2016 after previously working for IHS Markit and Curzon Capital. He has a Master’s degree in Energy Trade and Finance from the Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping at Cass Business School.

Robin Wright

Education

• Drexel University, BS and MS in Chemical Engineering

Areas of Specialization

• Cooling and boiler water treatment, condensate treatment, ion exchange and boiler makeup water pretreatment
• Hydrocarbon processing, chemical processing, agricultural chemicals, power generation, and steel production industries
• Special focus on high pressure boilers, boiler feedwater and condensate treatment chemistries, flow accelerated corrosion, and power and ammonia plant steam and water systems
• Current responsibilities include support of commercial team to resolve customer critical technical issues, optimize treatment programs, and deliver ROI to the Veolia customer base 

Background & Experience

• 40 Years of water treatment experience in various roles from Product Management, Product Applications, Account Manager, and most recently Technical Consultant
• Deep domain expertise for all water treatment disciplines, excellent problem-solving skills, project management, data analysis, and communication/ presentation skills

Achievements

• Winner of 2 Veolia Lion Awards, Best Paper Award at Caribbean Desalination Association Conference (2010), and Paul Cohen Award at the International Water Conference (2011)
• Authored and presented technical papers for the International Water Conference, International and Caribbean Desalination Associations, Electric Power Research Institute, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association, Chemical Processing, and International Society of Mathematics and Computing
• Authored and published technical articles in Power Plant Chemistry, Materials Performance, Iron and Steel Technology, and Modeling & Simulation in Engineering

   

Rafael Andrade

Rafael Andrade is an Engineering and Quality Manager at ENGEMASA in Brazil. He has a Ph.D. in Material Science and Engineering, with more than 15 years of experience in the metal industry. Specialized in the production, development, and characterization of stainless steel and special alloys for high-temperature applications, with papers published in well-known international magazines.

Christen Mancini

Christen was raised in the pump industry and is the third generation of her family to be working in pump systems. She started her career working for the family business of pump-focused engineering consulting, where she developed training tools, performed failure analysis, wrote specifications, and created strategic programs to support customers in increasing the reliability and efficiency of their pumping systems. Christen currently manages the marketing department at Hydro, Inc, where she helps promote Hydro’s mission of helping customers achieve operational excellence of their rotating equipment. 

Andrea Fini

Andrea Fini graduated as a Chemical Engineer at “Politecnico di Milano” University in 2010.He started working as Process Engineer in 2011 in Casale Syngas Process Department (Ammonia and Methanol).In 2014, he moved to Casale Sales Department as Proposal Engineer, as a reference for North and South America’s customers.In 2018, he has been promoted to Area Sales Manager for Americas. He is the focal point for customers in the area for all Casale technologies: Ammonia, Urea, Methanol, Nitrates&Phosphates, Melamine.

Rama Challa

Rama Challa is a registered professional engineer in The United States and Canada. Rama is experienced in engineering and management related to design and construction of facilities in greenfield and brownfield construction for hydrocarbon, chemical, LNG, Industrial and nuclear facilities. Rama is also a subject matter expert in design and detailing, estimating, planning, and scheduling of turnkey industrial facilities and steel plate structures.

Experience

Director of Projects & Business Unit Director, Atmospheric and Cryogenic Storage Business Unit, Matrix PDM, Tulsa, OK – Responsible for project development and delivery of Engineering Deliverables. Projects portfolio include API 650, 620 & 653 storage; LNG/LIN/LOX tanks; Refinery equipment and Chemical Plants. Direct Engineering Design, Construction, Project Engineering and Project Management towards Client Development and Construction Operations. Develop and maintain alliances and client relationships.

Alina Green

Alina Green is the Market Segment Manager at WIKA, a leading industrial process instrumentation manufacturer. She has a degree in Chemical Engineering and has been in the industry for over ten years in various roles, from operations to project management. Through her experience, she has developed a comprehensive understanding of the market demands and needed products for the industry’s challenging applications. Alina is an active member of industry associations such as API and AIChE and supports customers in the chemical and petrochemical markets.

Carmen Perez

Carmen Pérez obtained a MSc. in Chemical Engineering in 2016 from the  University of Castilla–La Mancha (Spain). After the completion of her studies, she got an internship as a simulation engineer at Volvo GTT (France) where she focused on Diesel Engine Aftertreatment. She started her professional career by obtaining a PDEng. (Professional Doctorate in Engineering) in Process and Product Design in 2019 from Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands). From 2018 to 2019, she worked as a process engineer at the Research & Development department of KT-Kinetics Technology in Italy. In 2019, she joined Stamicarbon and became part of the nitric acid team. Currently, she is one of the process engineers in charge of the development of nitric acid production technologies.

Satish Baliga

Satish Baliga is a Chief Technical Advisor for KBR’s Technology-Led Industrial Solutions (TLIS). He is a practicing Chemical Engineer with a PhD in this field and in his current role he manages KBR’s plant performance monitoring and advisory service program globally. Satish’s responsibilities include leading a team of technical experts who deploy cutting-edge technologies such as first-principles models, predictive analytics, and machine learning for evaluating and optimizing the performance of operating plants across several process industry verticals.

Prior to joining KBR, Satish worked over twenty years at ABB and was an accomplished process automation expert with hands-on experience in leading process control and optimization projects.

Satish is the author of multiple technical publications, seasoned communicator, and a frequent speaker at technical conferences and tradeshows.

Lisa Krumpholz

Lisa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Münster.

She started her career with Süd-Chemie in 2011 and worked as Product Manager for Clariant’s oxidation catalysts from 2013, managing the catalyst portfolio strategically and supporting customers globally with the operation and optimization of catalyst performance in their operations.

Since 2019, she is leading the sales and marketing activities at Navigance, a Clariant founded digital solutions provider based in Munich, Germany. In her role she consults customers and partners to successfully manage the digital transformation of their chemical plant operations and to take full advantage of advanced data analytics for process optimization and monitoring.

Thomas Lu

Thomas is currently residing in Houston and holding the global management role of Digital Solutions with Global Chemical Division of Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company. An experience and proven Digital Transformation leader that led the digital vision & strategy, design, development, and deployment of multiple major digital projects in Ecolab. Thomas has been with Ecolab for 23+ years and exposed to various roles in the company. He has in depth knowledge and experience in Marketing, Sales, Corporate Sales, Project Management, and effectively working thru multi-cultural and complex cross-functional environment. Also, skilled & experience in Industry segment of Chemical, Refining, and Water Treatment. Thomas speaks 6 languages and a strong marketing professional with an Executive Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from National University of Singapore.

Danish Parbtani

Danish Parbtani is a Senior Technical Service Engineer at Johnson Matthey based in Houston, TX. He has over 7 years of experience in the Syngas industry and has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Georgia Tech. Danish joined Johnson Matthey in 2019 and is currently part of the technical service team responsible for North American Syngas customers. 

Steve Lancaster

Steve Lancaster is the Chief Engineer at BD Energy Systems, responsible for steam methane furnace technology, in particular the thermal and process design.  He has worked with fired heaters in general, and steam methane reformers in particular, for 38 years, including at Kellogg/KBR for over thirty years, and IHI E&C (former Davy/Kvaerner).

BD Energy Systems, located in Houston, Texas, USA is a world leader in plant revamps and modernizations, specialized in executing turnkey projects, revamps, modernizations, and supply of engineered process equipment, including furnaces for ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, and gas-to-liquids (GTL).

Grant Jacobson

Grant Jacobson is a Chemical Engineer with expertise in process engineering and operations management and he is a member of API SCHTE (subcommittee on Heat Transfer Equipment) Grant has experience in design, operation, optimization of process equipment and operations management of cross-functional teams. Prior to joining Becht, he was at Valero Energy, where 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. He has supported or operated every major refinery process unit across his years of industry experience which he leverages to support holistic solutions for solving the most challenging problems on Fired Equipment. Grant received his Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska.

Susan P. Harris

·   B.S. Biochemistry, Texas A&M University 
·   MBA, University of Houston
·   Daniel Industries-GC lab test manager.
·   Zellweger Analytics- sales specialist for liquid analysis- pH, conductivity and various H2O quality analyzers
·   Servomex – regional sales manager for oxygen systems and emissions monitoring
·   PAC- product manager for total sulfur and physical properties on-line analyzers for refineries.
·   ThermoFisher Scientific- product manager for total sulfur analyzers
·   Endress+Hauser, Inc.- product business manager for Optical Analysis (spectroscopy solutions)-includes TDLAS and
    Raman systems. I’ve been at Endress for 8 years helping to promote the gas analyzer solutions for downstream 
    processing plant applications. 

Ken Wohlgeschaffen

Ken Wohlgeschaffen has been with Chevron for 18 years, based at their Richmond Refinery, in various roles in the Technical and Operations Departments. He is currently the Team Leader for Hydrogen Plants supporting the safe, reliable, and efficient operation of the plants located in Chevron's North American and overseas refineries, including operated and non-operated joint venture refineries. Prior to joining Chevron, Ken spent 7 years at the Exxon Chemical Canada (now Nutrien) Redwater fertilizer complex. And 8 years with FMC (now Evonik), a major hydrogen peroxide producer. Ken received his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary in 1989.

Joe Moreno

Joe Moreno is the President and Technical Director for FlexElement Couplings in Houston, Texas.  He is a 1989 graduate (BSME) of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.  He worked as an end-user in refining and petrochemical industries in several roles including the manager of the corporation’s global machinery engineering department as well as the manager of maintenance, reliability and turnarounds for a world scale chemical site and for the company’s largest refinery.  In 2019, he joined FlexElement, a company that has been in business since 1991.  He is an active member of the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Advisory Committee, ASME Apollo Subchapter in Houston and API 671. 

Patrick Molloy

Patrick is a Manager with the Climate-Aligned Industries Program at RMI, where he leads workstreams focused on ammonia and fertilizer, and hydrogen innovation. In these streams he leads work focused on deployment potential and system design, as well as market evolutions and potential for disruption to occur in next generation traded markets. Patrick has been widely cited on topics such as, applications for hydrogen in the industrial space. Previously at RMI, he worked with the Business Renewables Center where he focused on tax equity structures and PPA deal structures. As part of RMI's Mining team, he led work on mine site remediation of on-site renewable resource development. 

Andreas Bachmeier

Andreas Bachmeier is Head of Business Development and Energy Transition at Clariant's Catalyst Business Unit.

A chemist by training, he did his undergraduate work at University of Erlangen, Germany. He conducted his Master's research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) and holds a PhD in inorganic chemistry from Oxford University (UK), focusing on (electro-)catalytic hydrogen production and CO2 conversion.

Since joining Clariant in 2015, Andreas held various roles in catalyst sales and technical service, commercial excellence, and corporate strategy. In 2023, assumed his current position. His responsibilities include Clariant's global fuel cell catalyst business and his group drives Clariant's catalyst efforts towards sustainable methanol, green ammonia production and cracking, as well as sustainable aviation fuels.

Mark Ferra

Mark Ferra is an Industry Analysis Manager for REXA and has worked at REXA for ten years. REXA makes high performance electro-hydraulic actuators used in critical applications requiring precise positioning and reliability. Previously Mr Ferra worked seven years for Freeport McMoRan as a Chief Engineer in the Marketing Technical Services group focused on the development and manufacturing of molybdenum metal powders. Mr Ferra also worked nine years at Novellus in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry, contributing to various key roles including Senior Technology Manager. Mr Ferra has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Arizona State University and lives with his family in Phoenix, Arizona.  

Timothy Hill

Tim Hill is a registered Professional Engineer and a Principal Consulting Engineer for Quest Integrity with 30 plus years of experience.  He has extensive experience in evaluation of thermal processes, fired heater operation and maintenance, risk assessment, root cause failure analysis, and life assessment for fired equipment in the petrochemical, refining, syngas and power generation sectors.  For 10 years, Tim was responsible for the performance and reliability of all heaters in a major refinery in the USA.  During this period, he developed and implemented effective integrity optimization tools covering operation, maintenance, and risk assessment.

Vishal Lagad

Vishal Lagad works at Vysus Group (previously Lloyd's Register) as the Operations Director for the Americas region. He has a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, and over 20 years of experience. He currently leads a versatile group of subject matter experts that focus on RBI, asset integrity, asset management, life assessments, solution consulting and risk management for the chemical, petrochemical, and fertilizer industry.In this talk he aims to share experiences that can help aging fertilizer and nitrogen plants, start with quick-wins, and then progress along the journey, of moving from a traditional reactive RBI program, to a connected and efficient asset management future.

Maximilian Helmle

Maximilian Helmle is the Head of HyCO Solution Development at the HyCO Product Line at Air Liquide Engineering & Construction. Maximilian has graduated from Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen and holds a German Diploma for Chemical Engineering. He started his career as a Process Engineer for Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide and Ammonia technologies in 2012 and joined Air Liquide in 2019. After various assignments as Process and Commissioning Engineer, Maximilian and his team were recently leading the concept development and evaluation of many low-carbon Hydrogen and energy transition projects. Currently he is located in Frankfurt, Germany and manages the Solution Development Team for SMR based Hydrogen and Syngas Technologies.

Davide Carrara

Davide got his master’s degree in chemical engineering in Politecnico of Milan in 2010. Right after that, he started working in Casale in syngas process department. In the last 13 years he gained experience in ammonia and methanol field, performing a wide range of activities, from technical proposals to revamping projects, from basic engineering to EPC projects. Since 2017 he carried out the role of Ammonia Technology Leader, with responsibilities involving creation, development and promotion of proprietary products and technologies.

Jean-Francois Fournier

 Jean-Francois has 28 years of experience in process engineering and technology development at Technip Energies. Since 2019 he manages the process team in the Claremont CA office. He supervises process execution of projects & proposals across several Energy Transition business lines, including  Blue and Green Hydrogen production, Decarbonization of Ethylene production, Renewable Fuels and CO2 Capture & Utilization. Jean-Francois holds a master’s degree in chemical and process engineering from ENSIC Nancy, France.

Jill Caskey

Jill joined Solex in 2011, with 10 years technical inside sales experience in applications, thermal modeling, and equipment design prior to moving into her current role as Global Sales Director.  Jill provides support to customers in the fertilizer, chemicals, plastics and sugar markets in the Americas.

Rishika Chatterjee

Rishika Chatterjee has 10+ years of experience in chemical industry. She joined Topsoe in 2016, and currently works as the Solution Specialist for Ammonia synthesis, Methanol synthesis and Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) catalysts. She is primarily involved in commercialization of new catalysts and global technical support to Ammonia, Methanol and SNG customers. Prior to Topsoe, she worked for KBR, where she worked on Olefins technology. She holds an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Technical University of Denmark.

Prasad Kalakodimi

Prasad Kalakodimi received his Ph.D. in Electrochemistry at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore India in 2003. Dr. Kalakodimi is currently the Director of Product Strategy/Applied Technology for ChemTreat, Inc. in Glen Allen, VA. His specialties are the development of innovative products and solutions for Industrial Water Treatment for various industry verticals such as Fertilizers, Refining, Petrochemical, Steel, Power, C&I etc. Prior to joining ChemTreat, Dr. Kalakodimi served as the Engineering Technical Leader at the GE India Technology Centre in Bangalore and as Product Manager for Chemicals and Monitoring Solutions for GE Water. He has over 25 patent filing, 20 international publications and various conference presentations.

Christian Chanel

Aaron Bridge

 Aaron Bridge graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2017. He worked at a plant for about 4 years prior to joining REXA last fall. He enjoys challenging retrofit projects with space constraints on older equipment. He is especially passionate about 3D design work and recently brought laser scanning technology to REXA. So far, it has proven to be a valuable tool for both design work and customer communication.