LAWRENCE H. FINKEL, PE

Lawrence H. (Larry) Finkel has broad experience in the petroleum and chemical industries. He has managed and carried out comprehensive process design and scaleup projects involving both licensed and novel (in-house developed) technology. Larry has special expertise in the application of computer resources to the design and evaluation of processes. These include PRO-II (Simulation Sciences, Inc.), Questimate (Icarus, Inc), LP models, and a variety of financial models.

As a senior process engineer, Larry has carried out process designs and evaluations of refining and chemical processes including fuels, alcohol and ether oxygenates, octane blending strategies, coal conversion, shale oil refining, flue gas treating, hydrogen and syngas manufacture, lubes, and perfluorocarbons. He has developed process design specifications, flow schematics, and heat and material balances. Larry has in-depth knowledge of chemical equilibria, heat integration, and corrosion prevention in hot carbonate units including Catacarb and Benfield. He has conducted investment analyses, estimated production and capital costs, and conducted trade-off studies evaluating alternate process strategies to define the process steps which most economically achieve required product rates and qualities. Larry has held the position of Adjunct Professor at Widener University, teaching engineering economics to senior engineering undergrads.

Refining Projects:

• Process engineering of a Catacarb system at a major Caribbean refinery.
• Retrofit of existing MTBE plant for ETBE/mixed ether manufacture.
• FCC revamp for gasoline quality improvement.
• Simulation and analysis of Crude Tower operations to improve light naphtha end point.
• Specify changes required to provide for new heavy naphtha sidedraw from FCC main fractionator (Syn-tower).
• Develop operating control strategies for depentanizer to reduce VOC potential of catalytic gasoline, for blending into reformulated gasoline (RFG).
• Manager of refinery-wide energy conservation projects.

Selected Chemicals Projects:

• Propylene monomer. Recovery from refinery light ends; P-P distillation (superfractionation); high-purity treating systems for production of polymer-grade product.
• Isopropanol. Development, evaluation, design of a novel process for manufacture of isopropanol from propylene.
• Aromatics. Process and economics studies of expansions and new installations for production of paraxylene and ethylbenzene.
• Butane isomerization. Development of a process for isomerization of n-butane to i-butane, using a proprietary solid superacid catalyst.
• Cumene. Process and economic evaluation of proposed project for manufacture of cumene, including assessment of phenol and acetone markets.
• Polymers. Principal engineer for development of KYNAR, a novel fluorocarbon elastomer.

Larry holds an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BS ChE from Drexel University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania.

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