COLLEGE STATION, Texas, March 23, 2009 – Providing enough fresh water for residents is an issue for Laredo, Texas, a city of 200,000 on the Texas-Mexico border. Laredo is almost at the limit of water it can draw from the Rio Grande River, and groundwater in the area is brackish, or salty.

As a result, the Laredo city council has agreed to spend $1.6 million to build a pilot plant that will field test a new method of desalinating brackish water developed by a Texas A&M University researcher and commercialized by Terrabon L.L.C.

“This is one step in securing and providing water in the future for not only Laredo, but the entire state, with the development of this pilot project,” said Laredo city council member Gene Belmares.

The desalination plant, which will produce 50,000 gallons of water a day, will test water desalination technology developed by Mark Holtzapple, a professor in Texas A&M’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.

“We desalinate using vapor compression, a method first employed on ships in World War II,” Holtzapple said. “We have updated this old approach using advanced technology such as high-capacity, non-fouling heat exchanger and a low-cost, high-efficiency StarRotor compressor.

“In addition we operated at higher pressures than is traditionally employed. Compared to traditional technology, these innovations lower both the capital cost and operating cost.”

The Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and The Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), a center within TEES, will act as the technology integrator and analyst for the project.

Additionally, Terrabon, L.L.C., of Houston, an energy and water treatment technology company, will design and construct the advanced vapor demonstration plant. The American Water’s Applied Water Management Inc., acting as a subcontractor for Terrabon will operate and monitor the demonstration plant.

The project will demonstrate the commercial viability of AdVeTM, a new technology that could reduce the capital and operating costs of water purification and provide a low-cost solution to Texas’ water problems. AdVeTM (advanced vapor-compression evaporation) uses low-cost, high-efficiency StarRotor compressors developed, by Holtzapple’s team and non-fouling heat exchangers to desalinate brackish and salty water at a cost that is significantly less expensive than desalination by reverse osmosis.

The Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering is part of the Dwight Look College of Engineering on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas.

The Texas Engineering Experiment Station is the engineering research agency of the State of Texas and a member of The Texas A&M University System.

Terrabon, L.L.C. was formed in 1995 to commercialize three technologies that share the same suite of patented intellectual property developed at Texas A&M University.

Story by Tim Schnettler, Engineering Communications

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Feb. 17, 2009 – A new $3 million research project at Texas A&M University at Qatar that will focus on liquefied natural gas (LNG) safety has been established thanks to an effort led by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, headquartered in Texas A&M’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.

The project, which establishes a top-tier LNG safety research program in collaboration with Qatar Petroleum and the Qatar Foundation, is based on a similar program at the Brayton Fire Training Field at Texas A&M, which was established under the guidance of the Mary Kay O’ Connor Safety Process Center.

Center director and Regents Professor M. Sam Mannan is overseeing the development of the Qatar LNG initiative through which a team of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students will work together, led by Simon Waldram, senior professor of chemical engineering, and Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, senior assistant professor of chemical engineering.

The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center will work closely with the new program, sending its graduate students and research staff to Qatar to participate in the research, Mannan said. In addition, staff and students from TAMUQ will travel to the center in College Station to observe the set up of LNG tests at the Brayton Fire School.

“I am pleased that the years of LNG research collaborations with BP and the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center has helped lead to this project with TAMU-Qatar,” said Mannan, an internationally recognized expert on process safety and risk assessment and an authority of LNG research.

Recently, Mannan spearheaded a collaboration of more than 40 experts from industry, academia and various regulatory agencies in an effort to develop models that can help predict the behavior of the intense fires resulting from a potential LNG tanker spill. The group’s findings are detailed in a white paper that was made available to a variety of private entities and regulatory agencies and can be downloaded at http://psc.tamu.edu/links/lng-white-paper-on-pool-fire-modeling.

Increasing worldwide demand for energy, Mannan explained, has resulted in greater utilization of LNG, which is natural gas that has been cooled to the point that it condenses to a liquid. That process reduces its volume by about 600 times, making it more economical to transport. For a fire or hazardous situation to occur, LNG must be ignited after first vaporizing and mixing with air in the proper proportions. That conversion can happen very quickly once a spill occurs, Mannan said. Furthermore, LNG fires can behave differently than other fires, he added, emphasizing the importance increased research in the area.

The experimental part of the LNG research at Texas A&M at Qatar will be conducted at the new facilities of the Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety Training College. Plans call for the study of highly instrumented, large-scale LNG spills, with dispersion and fires conducted under carefully controlled conditions. Data from these experiments will be modeled and interpreted using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software.

“The research program, the first of its kind in Qatar, also aims to provide a new opportunity for home grown graduates educated at the Qatar Foundation and seeking to develop their talents further through research and innovation while at the same time contributing to the science of safety in Qatar’s global LNG industry,” said Brian Hunter, country manager for BP in Qatar.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas Feb. 12, 2009 – Kay Kao, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been featured on iTunes U for her research on evolutionary adaptation, which was recently published in “Nature Genetics.”

iTunes U is a free hosted content distribution system from Apple that enables colleges and universities to make audio and video material from lectures, interviews, audio books and other sources available to students with the ease of the iTunes Store.

Kao’s research can be downloaded free of charge as part of the “Research Quick Briefs” program that is featured in the Texas A&M section of iTunes U. The program is an audio podcast produced by Texas A&M’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies. Once at the main page for Texas A&M’s iTunes U, users can find the program under the “news and information” tab.

To access Texas A&M iTunes U. visit: http://itunes.tamu.edu.

Working with yeast cells, Kao has provided the first direct evidence of aspects occurring during the evolutionary process, which up until now have remained mostly theory. The result, she says, is the most detailed picture of the evolutionary process to date.

iTunes U is used primarily by Texas A&M students, faculty and staff. However, the service is open to the public, including prospective and former students of Texas A&M. Users can download and listen to content on a personal computer or iPod through the iTunes application.

For questions about iTunes U and downloading content, visit http://itunes.tamu.edu/faq.html.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Jan. 13, 2009 – New evidence from a study of yeast cells has resulted in the most detailed picture of the evolutionary process to date, says a Texas A&M University chemical engineering professor whose findings provide the first direct evidence of aspects, which up until now have remained mostly theory.

Working with populations of yeast cells, which were color-coded by florescent markers, Katy Kao, assistant professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and Stanford University colleague Gavin Sherlock, were able to evolve the cells while maintaining a visual analysis of the entire process.

Their research, which appears in the December edition of “Nature Genetics,” shows the evolutionary process to be much more dynamic than initially thought, with multiple beneficial adaptations arising within a population. These adaptations, Kao explained, triggered a competition between these segments, known as “clonal interference.”

It’s the first direct experimental evidence of this phenomenon in eukaryotic cells, or cells with nuclei, and it contrasts the widely accepted classical model of evolution, which doesn’t account for simultaneously developing beneficial adaptations, she said. Instead that model adopts a linear approach, theorizing a population acquires such adaptations successively, one after another. Rather than a competition occurring, the model posits a complete replacement of one generation by another better-adapted generation.

That wasn’t the case in Kao’s sample.

Observing the color-coded yeast populations as they evolved to responded to their environment, Kao saw some colors expand while others contracted – a sign that adaptations were occurring. But rather than one segment of the population continuing to shrink until it was completely replaced, some segments were able to compete long enough to acquire further adaptations. When this happened, Kao explained, these populations of cells – once apparently less-fit – began to swell while once-dominant populations started to shrink. This constant reduction and burgeoning of populations signaled the development of multiple beneficial adaptations and a subsequent competition by the cells that acquired them, Kao said.

“Essentially, we were watching evolution in action,” Kao said. “We’re watching evolution in real time. We’re actually seeing a mutation that shows these things have adapted and seeing their population thrive and expand from this adaptation. This is how evolution works.

“In one of our experiments we were able to see five independent population expansions. We had one adaptive mutation that allowed a population to expand, but before it was able to completely take over another un-mutated population of the same cells acquired a different mutation that allowed it to succeed and impede the expansion of the first population.”

In addition to determining if and when a population acquired an adaptation, Kao also identified the specific adaptations that were acquired. She accomplished this using a DNA-based technology that enabled her to determine the specific locations on the genes of the yeast cells that expressed beneficial adaptations.

What she found was that as populations rise and fall, some of these beneficial adaptations factor into the continued evolution of the organism; others don’t.

“Due to the possibility of this competition, beneficial mutations that have been lost during the evolution of an organism will not be identified from just the final generation of that organism,” Kao explained. “Indeed, we found that several of the mutations were nearly lost in the population by the end of the experiment due to this competition.”

In other words, as Mother Nature sorts things out, some adaptations go by the wayside, with the latest generation of an organism sometimes showing no traces of them.

“Think of this as another piece of the evolution puzzle, Kao said. We’re gaining a comprehensive understanding of the way a microorganism adapts to its environment as it fights to survive. We’re demonstrating that the evolutionary journey has many more ‘twists and turns’ than we once thought.”

The knowledge of those twists and turns ultimately could prove to be very important, Kao explained, because it helps paint a complete picture of an organism’s evolution. With that picture intact, scientists stand to gain a better understanding of the way certain highly resistant infections develop and progress.

One such infection, Kao noted, occurs within the bodies of people with weakened immune systems. In such cases, a fungus that is normally kept in check increases to dangerous infectious levels, prompting doctors to prescribe antifungal treatments.  Sometimes these treatments become ineffective, and Kao says that one of the reasons for that ineffectiveness is that the human body becomes a vessel for evolution, much like what occurred in her laboratory experiment.

“The fungus is being subjected to a selected pressure, in this instance drugs,” Kao said. “As it fights for its survival, mutations occur that help make this fungus resistant to the drug treatments. Most of the clinical studies of these patients isolate just one sample of the mutation at one point in time. But a recent study that isolated these samples from different periods in time suggested that some of the later ones were not derived from earlier ones.”

Understanding how this fungus evolves from its initial stages to its most recent stage could lead to the development of better treatments for it, Kao said.

The knowledge of an organism’s complete “adaptive landscape” also is likely to benefit the rapidly growing field of metabolic engineering, Kao noted.

As scientists attempt to enhance cells so that they perform such beneficial activities as producing energy or disposing of waste, they’ll need to know all of the particular pathways where genes are involved in the expression of a particular trait, Kao said.  This is especially important as scientists work to enhance microorganisms so that they possess a higher tolerance to the products they produce, Kao said.

For example, a microorganism might be genetically enhanced to produce butanol as a potential biofuel, she said. The problem however, Kao explained, is these microorganisms generally have a low tolerance to butanol, and at very low concentrations they will start to die from what they are producing.

One way to address this problem is to evolve these microorganisms into forms with a higher tolerance, Kao noted. By examining the entire evolutionary process of such a microorganism, scientists could discover a once-overlooked beneficial adaptation that arose somewhere along the way that would help enhance tolerance. That adaptation might otherwise not be apparent if only the current generation of the microorganism is examined, she said.

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Contact: Katy Kao, (979) 845-5571 or via email: Katy@chemail.tamu.edu or Ryan A. Garcia, (979) 845-9237 or via email: ryan.garcia99@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Dec. 1, 2008 – Imagine a self-powering cell phone that never needs to be charged because it converts sound waves produced by the user into the energy it needs to keep running. It’s not as fa-fetched as it may seem thanks to the recent work of Tahir Cagin, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Utilizing materials known in scientific circles as “piezoelectrics,” Cagin, whose research focuses on nanotechnology, has made a significant discovery in the area of power harvesting – a field that aims to develop self-powered devices that do not require replaceable power supplies, such as batteries.

Specifically, Cagin and his partners from the University of Houston have found that a certain type of piezoelectric material can covert energy at a 100 percent increase when manufactured at a very small size – in this case, around 21 nanometers in thickness.

What’s more, when materials are constructed bigger or smaller than this specific size they show a significant decrease in their energy-converting capacity, he said.

His findings, which are detailed in an article published this fall in “Physical Review B,” the scientific journal of the American Physical Society, could have potentially profound effects for low-powered electronic devices such as cell phones, laptops, personal communicators and a host of other computer-related devices used by everyone from the average consumer to law enforcement officers and even soldiers in the battlefield.

Many of these high-tech devices contain components that are measured in nanometers – a microscopic unit of measurement representing one-billionth of a meter. Atoms and molecules are measured in nanometers, and a human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.

Though Cagin’s subject matter is small, its impact could be huge. His discovery stands to advance an area of study that has grown increasingly popular due to consumer demand for compact portable and wireless devices with extended lifespans.

Battery life remains a major concern for popular mp3 players and cell phones that are required to perform an ever-expanding array of functions. But beyond mere consumer convenience, self-powering devices are of major interest to several federal agencies.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has investigated methods for soldiers in the field to generate power for their portable equipment through the energy harvested from simply walking. And sensors – such as those used to detect explosives – could greatly benefit from a self-powering technology that would reduce the need for the testing and replacing of batteries.

“Even the disturbances in the form of sound waves such as pressure waves in gases, liquids and solids may be harvested for powering nano- and micro devices of the future if these materials are processed and manufactured appropriately for this purpose,” Cagin said.

Key to this technology, Cagin explained, are piezoelectrics. Derived from the Greek word “piezein,” which means “to press,” piezoelectrics are materials (usually crystals or ceramics) that generate voltage when a form of mechanical stress is applied. Conversely, they demonstrate a change in their physical properties when an electric field is applied.

Discovered by French scientists in the 1880s, piezoelectrics aren’t a new concept. They were first used in sonar devices during World War I. Today they can be found in microphones and quartz watches. Cigarette lighters in automobiles also contain piezoelectrics. Pressing down the lighter button causes impact on a piezoelectric crystal that in turn produces enough voltage to create a spark and ignite the gas.

On a grander scale, some night clubs in Europe feature dance floors built with piezoelectrics that absorb and convert the energy from footsteps in order to help power lights in the club. And it’s been reported that a Hong Kong gym is using the technology to convert energy from exercisers to help power its lights and music.

While advances in those applications continue to progress, piezoelectric work at the nanoscale is a relatively new endeavor with different and complex aspects to consider, said Cagin.

For example, imagine going from working with a material the size and shape of a telephone post to dealing with that same material the size of a hair, he said. When such a significant change in scale occurs, materials react differently. In this case, something the size of a hair is much more pliable and susceptible to change from its surrounding environment, Cagin noted. These types of changes have to be taken into consideration when conducting research at this scale, he said.

“When materials are brought down to the nanoscale dimension, their properties for some performance characteristics dramatically change,” said Cagin who is a past recipient of the prestigious Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology. “One such example is with piezoelectric materials. We have demonstrated that when you go to a particular length scale – between 20 and 23 nanometers – you actually improve the energy-harvesting capacity by 100 percent.

“We’re studying basic laws of nature such as physics and we’re trying to apply that in terms of developing better engineering materials, better performing engineering materials. We’re looking at chemical constitutions and physical compositions. And then we’re looking at how to manipulate these structures so that we can improve the performance of these materials.”

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Contact: Tahir Cagin at (979) 862-1449 or via email: cagin@che.tamu.edu or Ryan A. Garcia at (979) 845-9237 or via email: ryan.garcia99@tamu.edu.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 18, 2008 – Tankers transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) have yet to experience a major accident but with more of the energy source being transported than ever before and in a post-Sept. 11 environment, preparing for a potential disaster is critical, says a Texas A&M University authority on disaster mitigation and process safety.

Spearheading a collaboration of more than 40 experts from industry, academia and various regulatory agencies, M. Sam Mannan, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, is working to develop models that can help predict the behavior of the intense fires resulting from a potential LNG tanker spill.

The group’s findings are detailed in a white paper developed by the Mary Kay O’Connor Safety Process Center, of which Mannan serves as director. The paper, which is the result of a workshop sponsored by the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas, is available to a variety of private entities and regulatory agencies and can be downloaded at http://psc.tamu.edu/links/lng-white-paper-on-pool-fire-modeling.

Liquefied natural gas is natural gas that has been cooled to the point that it condenses to a liquid. That process reduces its volume by about 600 times, making it more economical to transport. For a fire or hazardous situation to occur, LNG must be ignited after first vaporizing and mixing with air in the proper proportions. That conversion can happen very quickly once a spill occurs, Mannan said.

“With LNG, as soon as you release it into the environment it starts to evolve vapor because of its chemical properties,” Mannan explained. “That vapor is the problem, as it is what creates the fire.”

While the United States has federal regulations in place that address potential spills from land-based LNG facilities, regulations do not exist for LNG spills on water, despite the primary mode of transportation being sea-faring vessel, Mannan said.

He believes much of this can be attributed to the fact that large-scale transportation of LNG has not occurred until recently. Increased worldwide demand for energy has resulted in greater amounts of LNG being transported with greater frequency between continents, Mannan noted. In addition, little thought was given to the possibility of an intentionally caused catastrophic release of LNG from a tanker prior to Sept. 11, Mannan said.

The result has been a void of knowledge when it comes to understanding how these potential fires will react with their environment if they occur over water, he said. It’s a troubling scenario if the spill is intentionally caused in a populated coastal area. That’s why Mannan’s group went to work, producing detailed mathematical calculations that explain and project the behavior of these fires.

“I think it’s very important to have something like this laid out not only for the science discussed but to give people in industry and government a way of doing the right calculations for these fires,” Mannan said. “I think it sets the stage for not only people to understand what it is we can do today based on the available knowledge but also what future direction we need to take.

“I think it would irresponsible of us to wait for an incident to happen. We have to find the knowledge to understand these potential phenomena better.”

Working to develop a consensus approach in modeling these potential fires, Mannan said the group examined numerous factors, including the size of the spill, its dispersion in water and the intensity of the heat radiation generated from a fire if the spill is ignited.

These are all aspects of a pool-based LNG fire that will vary greatly from one that occurs over land, Mannan explained.

“The heat transfer characteristics are going to be different between a land-based spill and a spill on water,” he said. “The water itself, depending on the temperature, may cause the LNG to vaporize faster.”

Another difference, he said, is in the containment of such spills. Mannan pointed out that a LNG spill on land would most likely be from a storage tank built to engineering standards and also contained within a diked area that would limit the spill. However, a water-based spill wouldn’t be contained as easily since tankers obviously can’t be diked.

While the complexities of water-based LNG spills have been recognized by various groups in industry and government there has been little agreement on a systematic, structured approach for addressing such scenarios, Mannan said. He believes the findings and calculations provided by his group will help change that.

“If you have knowledge of how big a spill could be and what the consequences could be, then you can develop a prevention program to prevent that from happening in the first place,” Mannan said. “But more importantly, once we know the nature of the spill and the consequences then we can do planning with regard to response. Whether it’s intentional or unintentional, this could happen, and we want to know how to respond to it.”

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Contact: M. Sam Mannan at (979) 862-3985 or via email: mannan@tamu.edu or Ryan A. Garcia at (979) 845-9237 or via email: ryan.garcia99@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas Nov. 7, 2008 – A process developed by researchers at Texas A&M University that could result in more affordable gasoline is a step closer to reality now that a large-scale demonstration facility has been built to test the new technology.

The Advanced Biofuels Research Facility, which is located in Bryan, Texas, was today formally dedicated with a ceremony attended by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who lauded the potential of the facility and the technology known as the MixAlco process.

“I want Texas to be the epicenter of alternative fuel development in the world, not just in the United States,” Gov. Perry said. “This project and what Terrabon is doing is very much in line with that.

“What’s good for America is right here on this piece of property – becoming independent in our energy production.”

The MixAlco process, developed by Professor Mark T. Holtzapple and Research Engineer Cesar B. Granda, both in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M, is capable of producing renewable gasoline from biomass – any feedstock including, trees, grass, manure, sewage sludge, garbage, agricultural residues and energy crops.

It does this by converting the biomass into mixed alcohols that can be blended into gasoline. Using additional steps, the alcohols can be converted into gasoline that is nearly identical to that which is derived from crude oil, Holtzapple explained.

Holtzapple said the new process should serve as significant step in helping relieve the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, which accounts for 73 percent of the oil used by the nation.

“Mark, I want to say thank you for loving your country enough to spend the time that you have in the development of this technology, Gov. Perry said. “If everything goes as planned here at Terrabon, we’re going to be making a difference in the world.”

For more than three years, testing has been underway at a smaller pilot plant in College Station. The pilot plant can process up to 100 pounds per day of biomass feedstocks, such as paper wastes and even chicken manure. The tests, Holtzapple said, have been so successful that the process is now ready to be validated at a larger scale.

The new demonstration plant, which was formally named “Energy Independence I,” will test the commercial feasibility of the technology, using sorghum as the primary feedstock for the conversion process.

The demonstration plant will have a loading capacity of 400 tons of biomass, which equates to a digestion rate of five tons per day, Holtzapple said. Plans call for the process to run in 80-day cycles. The plant has the potential to produce about 300 gallons of gasoline per day, he said.

In the process, biomass feedstock is treated with lime and then fermented using microorganisms in soil to form organic salts. Water is then removed by a process similar to that used to desalinate sea water, and the mixture is heated to form ketones – which are commonly used solvents, such as nail polish remover.

“All of this is kind of modeled after a cow,” Holtzapple explained. “The way a cow works is that it eats grass. The grass is dirty, and the rumen of the cow – that first stomach – acts as fermentor, converting that grass into vinegar.

“What we are doing is essentially scaling up a cow.”

Later at an oil refinery, Holtzapple explained, hydrogen is added to the ketones to form mixed alcohols, which are then combined with existing gasoline before being transported. Unlike ethanol, which cannot be transported through pipelines because of its tendency to absorb water, mixed alcohol can be transported via existing pipelines to gas stations throughout the country, he noted.

A key aspect of the MixAlco process that differentiates it from more costly alternatives is its ability to rely on naturally occurring soil organisms to digest the biomass, Holtzapple said. This means that the MixAlco process doesn’t require the often costly sterile environments needed by other methods that utilize genetically engineered organisms, he explained.

In addition, the alcohol-based fuels produced from the crops used by the MixAlco process are more productive in terms of net energy per acre than the well-publicized method that involves utilizing corn to produce ethanol, Holtzapple said. This means less land is required to grow feedstocks. Per acre, farmers can grow two to 10 times more energy crops than if they were growing corn, he said.

Just as important, Holtzapple said, this process is environmentally friendly. The combustion of biofuels is clean-burning and doesn’t contribute to global warming because no net carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, he explained. Any carbon dioxide that is released is recycled through photosynthesis, unlike what occurs during combustion of fossil fuels.

What’s more, there is less potential to damage ground water because less waste is being stored in landfills. In addition, the energy crops that the process uses require less fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides than do traditional crops such as corn, Holtzapple added.

“It’s thanks to the innovation by these researchers at Texas A&M that we’re going to be able to be turning this non-food biomass into fuel,” Gov. Perry said. “This facility represents the future.”

The MixAlco technology is licensed to Terrabon, LLC. Terrabon was organized in 1995 to commercialize three technologies that share the same suite of patented intellectual property developed at Texas A&M.

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Contact: Mark T. Holtzapple at (979) 845–9708 or via email: m-holtzapple@tamu.edu or Ryan A. Garcia, (979) 845-9237 or via email: ryan.garcia99@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Nov. 6, 2008 – R.A. Mentzer, a distinguished engineer who served more than 28 years with ExxonMobil in a variety of capacities, including that of safety, health and environment manager for ExxonMobil Development Company (EMDC), has joined the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center and the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

Mentzer, who retired from EMDC this month, will conduct research at the center in a number of areas, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fire and consequence modeling. In addition, he is scheduled to teach a safety engineering course beginning this spring.

“We have been very fortunate to attract someone of Dr. Ray Mentzer’s caliber to the center,” said M. Sam Mannan, professor and director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center. “The center’s program will benefit greatly with his addition.”

Throughout his career, Mentzer has been involved in developing and teaching various company training courses and served on numerous domestic and international industry committees, most recently as chair of the technical committee of the Center for LNG.

Mentzer joined Exxon Production Research Company (EPRCo) in 1980 as a Research Engineer in the Production Operations Division in Houston. With EPRCo, he progressed through numerous technical research assignments until 1984 when he transferred to the Eastern Production Division of Exxon Company USA (EUSA) in New Orleans where he served the operating units of EUSA in technical, planning and supervisory assignments within the engineering and environmental/regulatory disciplines.

In 1993 Mentzer transferred to Houston as an adviser in EUSA’s Public Affairs Department, and three years later was named compliance manager for the downtown production organization. In 2000 he was appointed environmental and safety manager in London for Europe & African affiliates of ExxonMobil Production Company.

A decade later, Mentzer would return to Houston as the LNG regulatory manager for EMDC, responsible for the permitting of several LNG terminals. He was appointed manager of EMDC’s Safety, Health and Environment organization in 2006.

Mentzer completed his undergraduate career at the University of Illinois in 1974 and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from Purdue University in 1976 and 1980, respectively.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 29, 2008 – Chemical processing plants throughout the nation will likely be subjected to increased government regulation in the coming years as efforts are made to foster a reliability within the industry on par with that of the aviation and nuclear power industries, said John S. Bresland, chairman/ chief executive officer of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), at a Texas A&M-sponsored symposium held this week.

“Certainly, I think we’re going to see more oversight,” Bresland said. “Regardless of who wins the election, I think you are going to see a change in attitude, especially on regulation – more oversight from OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration], more oversight from Congress.”

Bresland’s comments came as part of a presentation on the CSB, which he delivered at a two-day symposium aimed at making the process industry a safer place. The event was sponsored by Texas A&M’s Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, which is housed in the university’s Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.

Bresland said issues of Congressional authorization remain a challenge to the CSB and that his organization is engaged in efforts to clarify certain issues that currently inhibit CSB operations.

“Just as one example, when we get to the scene of the accident, there are some issues around the appropriate retaining of the equipment that was involved,” Bresland noted. “We don’t have the authority to say, ‘Leave that there. It should not be touched.’”

Bresland was appointed by President George W. Bush as chairman and chief executive officer of the CSB in 2008 after previously serving as a CSB board member from 2002-2007. Before joining the board, Bresland was a staff consultant to the Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, working as a project manager on two committees and writing books on dust explosions and the management of reactive chemical hazards.

At the CSB, which became operational in 1998, Bresland leads an entity responsible for investigating the numerous chemical-related accidents that occur each year throughout the nation. He estimates that the CSB collects information on 800-900 chemical-release incidents annually, but because of budget, manpower and the intensive time required to effectively investigate each incident, Bresland said only eight to 12 major accidents are examined. Bresland said he would like to increase that number in future while still being selective about the incidents investigated.

Over the course of his career, Bresland has investigated fatal accidents resulting from explosions at a sugar refinery, an ink processing plant and even a convenience store that didn’t properly evacuate after encountering a propane leak. His organization’s mission, he said, is about much more than simply determining what went wrong at a specific site; it’s about education and prevention. That’s why in addition to issuing recommendations to a facility, the CSB has adopted an active role in communicating its findings through published reports, educational videos and press conferences.

“I don’t want to see any more combustible dust explosions,” he said. “I was at the Imperial Sugar facility, and it was a terrible tragedy. People were not only killed, they spent months and months in comas and suffered terrible burns before ultimately dying. These are so preventable. They should not happen. We need to get that message out.”

That’s just one of many messages that are part of an overall mission, described by Bresland, as moving companies in the chemical processing industry to be high-reliability organizations.

Realizing that goal, he explained, begins with awareness by those in the process industries of the numerous safety challenges posed by their operations – operations that are vital to the nation but ones in which the focus must be on both process safety and personnel safety.

In addition, efforts to address these safety issues must begin at the upper levels of each company, he added, noting a growing expectation for increased executive leadership on process safety.

“Part of what [company executives] do needs to come with an understanding of the fact that they’re dealing with large, complex, potentially hazardous operations,” he said.

“My message is run it safely, keep your plants running and keep your people safe,” Bresland said.

The symposium “Beyond Regulatory Compliance, Making Safety Second Nature” featured a wide variety of safety-related lectures and presentations, including incident surveillance and safety performance, equipment integrity, facility design, risk analysis, management for process safety and engineering ethics. In addition, the symposium featured exhibits from companies looking to demonstrate products, technology and software related to process safety.

Established in 1995, the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center is dedicated to enhancing safety in the chemical process industry. The center conducts various educational endeavors aimed at “making safety second nature” to everyone in the industry. In addition, center researchers work to develop safer processes, equipment, procedures and management strategies to minimize losses.

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Contact: Ryan A. Garcia at (979) 845-9237 or via email: ryan.garcia99@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Oct. 13, 2008 – The full funding of three endowed scholarships and a laboratory fund for the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center highlight a strong level of support this past year for the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, said Department Head and Charles D. Holland ’53 Professor Michael V. Pishko at the department’s Endowed Donor Banquet, which was held this month.

The annual banquet provides an opportunity for a select group of chemical engineering students and the donors of their scholarships to meet and be recognized.

This year, Nancy M. and Brock D. Nelson, a 1990 graduate of Texas A&M; Emily and Oliver Osborn, a 1938 graduate of Texas A&M; and Donna and Norman J. Tetlow, a 1966 graduate of Texas A&M were recognized for completing funding for their respective gifts for endowed scholarships. The scholarships were established through the department’s C.D. Holland Scholars Program. This was the Nelsons and Tetlows second such gift.

In addition, T. Michael and Olive E. O’Connor established a fund in support of the activities by the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center, which was established by O’Connor in 1995 and is housed in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering. The laboratory fund will provide support for maintenance, supplies and equipment that performs dispersion testing, calorimetry, chemical detection and explosion and flammability testing.

“This fulfillment of your initial pledges is a testament to your belief in this department and your commitment to investing in the future of this state and nation,” Pishko said, addressing the group of donors.

Pishko lauded the efforts of all of the department’s supporters as well, citing the awarding of more than $220,000 in scholarships to 120 students during this past academic year as evidence of their generosity. The investment of the department’s supporters in both dollars and energy, he said, is critical to enabling promising students and recruiting and retaining faculty members.

Pishko also noted that the department recently received pledges for two new scholarships. One scholarship will be funded by the children of William James Miller as a gift to their father, a 1950 graduate of Texas A&M. Miller is dedicating this scholarship to the memory of his former professor, J.D. Lindsay. A second scholarship pledge was made by Brent Myrick and Commonwealth Engineering and Construction and will establish the “John Bradford Myrick ’87 Scholarship.”

As part of the ceremonies, students in the C.D. Holland and J.D. Lindsay Scholars Program were recognized as well as those students who have received industry and individual scholarships and fellowships through the department. More than 40 of those students were new scholarship recipients for 2008-’09.