Cynthia "Cindy" Harvey is the Accounts Receivable Specialist, responsible for the preparation of, communications to, and recording remittance of payments from MATRIC customers. She joined MATRIC in 2014. Prior to joining MATRIC, Ms. Harvey worked as the Assistant Audit Manager at City Holding Company. Ms. Harvey received a bachelor of science degree in accounting from [...]
Stephen “Arlo” Cook is an operations technician, responsible for building Pilot Plant Operational Units, specializing in fixing mechanical equipment, operating Pilot Plants, and optimizing Pilot Plant operations based on data. He joined MATRIC in 2018. Mr. Cook is a First Lieutenant and Aerospace Educator for the West Virginia Civil Air Patrol/Air Force, an FAA Drone [...]
Mike Burgess is a principal engineer, responsible for reaction engineering, statistics, and project management. He joined MATRIC in 2018. Before joining MATRIC, his entire career was with Union Carbide / Dow. He began his career in the Separations and Process Fundamentals Skill Center and from there moved to the Reaction Engineering Skill Center. After leaving [...]
Sara Bailey is an Accounts Payable and Payroll Specialist II, responsible for anything related to accounts payable and everything that relates to payroll. She joined MATRIC in 2012. She has an extensive background in accounting working for her family business handling all accounting, payroll, human resources, and office management functions for more than 15 years. [...]
Christine Aubry-Cochran is a Senior Laboratory Technician, responsible for supporting the team and the customer in the laboratory. She joined MATRIC in 2008. Since then, she has served on the safety team and she is presently on the wellness team. Prior to working at MATRIC, she worked with GAF, Azon Corp., and Union Carbide, OSI [...]
MATRIC was approached by a customer who wanted to design and test a novel process concept for a thermal reaction that required pumping a viscous fluid at quite high temperatures under pressure. MATRIC reviewed the requirements for the specialized pump, identified a suitable design, and worked with a vendor to have the unit delivered. Meanwhile, [...]
MATRIC was recently featured in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology about Ethylene Oxide. The Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology is a leading publisher of scholarly articles on key chemicals—including their properties, manufacturing, and uses, all written by prominent scholars from industry, academia, and research institutions. It also focuses on industrial processes and unit operations [...]
MATRIC undertook a project to test the performance of novel catalysts for an alkylation process at pilot scale. A fixed bed catalytic reaction system was designed and constructed, with full automation and safeguards for operating with highly hazardous materials. The unit was safely started up and operated to prove the performance of the catalysts. Multiple [...]
An equilibrium-limited reaction was identified as a candidate for reactive distillation, which would potentially offer substantially reduced investment and operating costs. The separations were modeled with Aspen Plus, which helped identify several process options for reactive distillation. However, kinetic information on the rates of the catalyzed reactions involved were not known. Laboratory experiments were design [...]
The patent literature described a catalyst for a carbonylation reaction of potential interest to a customer. MATRIC set up a stirred pressure reactor capable of carrying out the reaction under CO pressure. The unit was designed for semi-continuous operation, which allowed product to be removed and catalyst to be added during operation. An experimental program [...]