Senior Technical Consultant – Fuels and Lubricants 

• Provided high level consultancy and technical support to customers in a wide range of industries including marine engine fuel and lubricant analysis and consultancy, biofuels processing and analysis, process plant problem solving.
• Designed and ran training courses on fuels and lubricants analysis both as internal training and for third party clients.
• Reviewed, audited and improved methodology of standard methods used in laboratories, rewrote
  procedures and undertook problem solving and staff training.

• Technical Leader Special Products providing technical support to the MOD and to non-MOD customers on a wide range of products, including engine coolants, aircraft and runway de-icing materials, turbine engine cleaning fluids, detergents, solvents and general chemicals.
• Technical Leader/technical consultant for teams researching middle distillate fuel chemistry. Tasks included further work on the chemistry of middle distillate storage stability and also investigation of liquid/vapour composition of fuels at low temperatures.
• Technical Leader of teams investigating lubricant chemistry. Projects included analysis of thermal breakdown products of aviation lubricants, assessment of the impact of turbine lubricants on aircraft cabin air quality, investigation of causes of sudden oil filter blockage in aviation lubricants, and developing an analysis programme to fully characterise automotive lubricants.
• Liaised closely with customers to define and solve their problems.
• Planned, costed and co-coordinated work programmes, developed or adapted equipment to meet experimental requirements, interpreted and reported results.
• Directly involved in selling DERA services and giving presentations on work programmes
• Maintained, improved and expanded knowledge base and scope of testing/work programmes for these teams.

• Project Manager and Technical Head of Special Products Section giving technical support on a wide range of speciality and general chemicals.
• Liaised with customers, costed, planned and delivered work programmes. Developed new tests to evaluate runway de-icer performance.

• Technical leader for research into chemistry leading to the instability of middle distillate fuels.
• Technical supervision of 2 Extra Mural Research contracts.
• International technical liaison with chemists from Australia Canada and USA.
• 2 patents filed: Development of prototype test kit to measure storage stability. Assessment of novel additives to improve storage stability.
• Defect analysis on fuels.
• Presentation of research results and session chairman at international conferences.

• Research into chemistry leading to the instability of middle distillate fuels: development of analytical methods and equipment for monitoring required chemical species; techniques include electrochemical methods, chromatography and spectroscopic methods. Secretary of IP ST-G-2A subcommittee.

• Laboratory manager for analytical instrumentation which included AA, UV and IR spectrometry, various chromatographic techniques and titrimetry.
• Analysis of fuels, lubricants and pollution samples, using analytical techniques as required. Inspection of bulk fuel and lubricant storage on board ships and at shore installations. MOD representative on IP analytical subcommittees.

• Analysis of fuels, lubricants and associated products using a variety of analytical techniques.
• Inspection of bulk fuel and lubricant storage on board ships and at shore installations.

• Undertook large scale synthesis of novel compounds for pharmaceutical testing and intermediates. TLC, HPLC and GC analysis of these compounds.

• ‘Thin’ sandwich course; 6-month placements in various petroleum based projects including chemical and physical testing of a variety of products and some chemical engineering.