DAVID H. VAHLSING, PE

David H. Vahlsing, PE, founder and president of Hydrocarbon Engineering Associates, Inc, which is now a division of Becht Engineering Company of Liberty Corner, NJ.  Dave is currently Director of the Becht Philadelphia office.

Dave joined Sun Company (Sunoco) directly after receiving his Chemical Engineering degree and worked in widely diverse areas from crude oil evaluation, Toledo Refinery Technical Services, Central Engineering Department (serving 7 refineries and Sun's pioneering  tar sands facility in Alberta, Canada.)  In Engineering, he prepared new and revamp process design packages, evaluated and selected licensed technology for Sun's use, supervised work done by contract engineers and helped in the field with startup of new facilities. He managed the Process Design function and also marketed Sun's engineering services to the petroleum industry. He later joined R&D where his team of engineers and technicians supported basic catalytic research and managed Sun's programs for providing top quality chemical products and refinery production reliability. He was also responsible for marketing and providing Sun's R&D services to agencies such as the USAF and process support to Sun's Canadian Company's Oil Sands Group in Alberta, Canada (now Suncor Energy). Areas of in depth technical competence include:

• Project Management
  Resided in Sarnia, Ontario as the field and owner/contractor office project engineer for a major gas recovery unit and HF Alkylation unit addition during design, construction, startup and troubleshooting periods..
  
  
• Process Technology Evaluation & Selection
  Evaluated a variety of licensed refinery product upgrading and olefins production related technologies for Sunoco including: Alkylation, hydrotreating, olefins production, aromatics extraction, butadiene extraction, Merox, electrostatic coalescing.
  
  
• Alkylation of Olefins
  Served as the Central Engineering expert in alkylation technology with emphasis on HF.  Negotiated licensing terms and performance guarantees. Oversaw the completion of UOP Schedule A packages for revamps of a variety of UOP technology units.
  
  
• Solid Superacid Alkylation Technology
  Managed an R&D team of chemists, engineers and technicians who developed the Zirconia based superacid catalysts including refinery pilot scale testing of this catalyst for isomerization of n-Butane drawn from an operating sulfuric acid alkylation unit. This technology was subsequently sold to UOP. Named on two of the patents issued to Sunoco for Zirconia based superacids. US 5019671, 5648590
  
  

Dave is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Chemical Engineer with graduate ChE credits at the University of Pennsylvania. He is registered as a professional engineer (by exam) in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and  the Chemical Consultants Network.