Pete Cowley

cowley@polysty.com
Pete Cowley

Personal Resume

2001 to Present - POLYSTY, Inc.

  • Co-Lead Process Designer for Shaw Stone & Webster / POLYSTY license PS plants
  • Co-Developer of POLYSTY DV-Plus model, pilot development, commercial process development, co-author of patent
  • Co-Developer of POLYSTY C-Star Plus GPPS process and model
  • Co-designer, project manager of POLYSTY DV-Plus commercial devol unit for (Concern Stirol, Ukraine)
  • Trained operating personnel and lead startup of 100 kTA GPPS/HIPS line in Taiwan
  • Started up pilot plant for Polystyrene and copolymers
  • Led startup of Nova license 100 kTA GPPS/HIPS line in Taiwan, trained operating personnel
  • Led process corrosion study for 2 different clients
  • Due diligence technical evaluation of major PS site for sale
  • Viscous heat exchanger model
  • PS debottlenecking studies for several clients

1994 - 2000 Nova Chemicals, Inc. - Principal Engineer

  • Technology representative on team selling $50M License packages (business analysis, client proposals / presentations, direction of engineering resources)
  • Lead engineer for Licensed Basic Engineering Package, directing activities of contract engineering personnel
  • Developed and sold concept of new $4M pilot plant line to upper management. Managed process design, accountable for budget and schedule, managed construction and startup. Project exceeded all expectations and became mainstay of PS pilot development within first year of operation
  • Key resource in development of technically challenging new product, now produced at 30 M lbs annually, and growing
  • Initiated and led successful commercial catalyst development program
  • Consultation sought regularly by peers and leadership for process design, personnel development, equipment spec and mechanical design, product development, process scale-up, market intelligence, project management, safety, hazard identification methods, product quality issues, unit operations analysis

1990 - 1993 Novacor Chemicals, Inc. Process Technology Group Leader

  • Process development for $300M Polystyrene business unit
  • Led group of five engineers, 10 pilot plant operating technicians; also led other technical and business personnel on numerous projects
  • Coordinated startup on $40M new process line
  • Led development of impact Polystyrene production at new plant

1985 - 1988 Polysar Chemicals, Inc.

High Impact Polystyrene Development Program Leader

  • Led team of six chemists and engineers in development of new grades which matched leading competitor’s grade; this involved coordination of several steps of multi-year plant process development, catalyst development, test development, design and implementation of continuous pilot plant
  • Initiated and led generation of HIPS Technical manual
  • Technical evaluation of PS business acquisition and plant purchase

1978 - 1985 Polysar Inc.

Process Engineer, promoted to Level II, Senior, and Associate

  • Unit operations expertise in heat transfer, fluid flow, mixing, vacuum systems
  • Lead process/ project engineer on plant expansion, directing contract engineering team, coordinated activities with plant management and technical personnel
  • Lead process engineer on $2M plant expansion, directing activities of E/C
  • Project engineer for projects in Ohio, Mass., N. Carolina, Ontario, Quebec
  • Design engineer, startup coverage for new $20M plant in MA plant
  • Process equipment design and specification (all areas of PS plants, for example pressure vessels, agitation, pumps, vacuum systems, heat exchangers, instrumentation, piping, solids systems, etc)
  • Mechanical liaison and inspection with equipment fabricators
  • Production process engineer
  • Process safety evaluations
  • Process kinetic simulations

1975 - 1978 Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation

Process engineer, promoted to Associate engineer

  • Ethylene plant unit operation design and analysis
  • Coal liquefaction and gasification process studies
  • Naphtha gasification plant startup

Education

BS Chemical Engineering, Lowell Technological Institute, Summa Cum Laude, 1975