Oakwood Consulting, Inc.

Consultants for Polyolefin Catalysts, Processes, and Marketing

Oakwood Consulting, Inc. (OCI) incorporated in April 1995 and teamed with several colleagues to offer  services to the petrochemical industry.   Our colleagues constitute a unique team that has the appropriate skills and experience to perform technical consulting services and market analyses in polyolefins, in process, product, and catalyst related areas.  As a team, we have accumulated 138 man-years of experience in the petrochemical industry, most of it in PP with one of the largest PP producers.  As a team project, one of the leading PP high-activity supported Ziegler-Natta catalysts was developed and patented during this period and continues in use.  Those available, either as individuals or in combination, are described in the following biographical sketches.

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Our Services

With this team, we are able to provide advice, critique, process design, process simulation, polymerization reactor modeling, licensing evaluation, market analysis, and cost estimation in the petrochemical field, especially polyolefins and their catalysts.

    Bench-scale continuous polyolefin pilot plant design (collaboration with Xytel Corporation for marketing and construction worldwide)

    New catalyst development, pilot plant design, and scale-up to production

    Process design and modernization, process simulation, and polymerization reactor modeling

    Market analysis and cost estimation

    Client-commissioned customized studies

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Our Biographies of Experts

   Dr. Gregory Arzoumanidis (PhD Chem, U. of Stuttgart, Germany, 1964; MIT postdoc 1964-66), has been a polyolefin catalyst chemist for the last 25 years. He has considerable experience with a major catalyst manufacturing company and has been doing PP catalyst research for a leading PP producer, Amoco Chemical. Greg is a co-inventor of the supported Amoco CD high activity catalyst for polypropylene, has 25 U.S. patents, and has published and presented many seminars in this field. Recently, Greg has been consulting privately in polyolefins technology and presenting short courses in metallocenes.

    Mr. Norman Stein, a chemical engineer (M.S., U. of Wisconsin, 1950), has 40 years of R&D experience, serving during the last 23 years as Director of Polyolefins and Catalyst Research and then as Senior Consulting Engineer for Amoco Chemical. In the latter position, his projects included the evaluation of selected polyolefin business opportunities. He continues in private practice as a consultant to the petrochemical industry.

    Mr. Robert W. Unterreiner (M.E., Brooklyn Poly, 1948) has over 40 years’ experience with three major petrochemical companies in polymer product development, market development, and market research. His work in these areas has focused on three aspects: capital investment for new plants, capital development on existing projects, and acquisitions. Bob continues to do market analyses and business planning in his own practice as a polymer consultant. He has also presented several papers at SPE and CMRA meetings in the U.S.

   Dr. Norman F. Brockmeier (PhD, MIT, 1966), is a chemical engineer and president of Oakwood Consulting, Inc., serving many petrochemical companies since its formation in 1995. His special focus is polyolefin process design and economics, recently in the field of metallocene catalysis, with many publications in these areas. A registered professional engineer, he was codesigner of the first Amoco gas-phase manufacturing process for homopolymer PP resin, and part of the design team for a new gas-phase ethylene-propylene copolymer plant in Texas. He has served as a member of the team assembled to promote and license this new PP technology. He has taught the capstone senior design course at The Ohio State University, and much earlier, taught for five years at the University of Texas--Austin. Norm has over 30 years of industrial experience. He also works in the Process Evaluation Section of the Energy Systems Division at Argonne National Lab, where he has a major responsibility in computer process simulation.

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Our Recent Assignments

    1. "Polyolefins from Single Site Metallocene Catalyst", Processes, Catalyst, Polymer Products, Patents and Licensing, Super Memorandum for Teltech and a major oil company.

      2. "Ziegler-Natta Catalysts for Polypropylene", Catalysts, Products, and Process Economics and Future Volumes, Memorandum for a major oil company.

      3. "EPDM Rubber from Metallocene Catalyst", Memorandum for a major rubber company.

    4. "Impact Polypropylene Copolymer", Catalysts, Processes and Polymer Properties, Memorandum for a Marketing Consulting Group.

    5. "Polystyrene, Bulk Continuous Process for Impact and Crystal Grades", Consulting for a major petrochemical company.

    6. "High Activity Supported Catalyst Manufacturing Process (for Polyethylene)", Design and Economics Scoping Study for a major company.

    7. "Polyolefin Ziegler-Natta Catalysts -- Components, Prices, Recipes, and Productivities", Memorandum for a Marketing Consulting Group.

    8. "Care and Feeding of Polyolefin Catalysts", Article published in Chemical Engineering, Sept., 1996.

    9. Evaluated the leading eight Polypropylene Licensor’s brochures; submitted evaluation to a foreign polymer processing company contemplating construction of a PP plant. A memorandum evaluating licensor’s process, product, economics, and licensing fees. Rated licensors ordinally, recommended two best choices.

    10. "Polyolefin Comonomers--World Markets 1995 - 2005", a detailed report projecting the effects of factors such as business alliances, patents, catalysts, processes, and products on the polyolefins market opportunities for alpha-olefins.

    11. "Facilities Design for the Manufacture of Supported High Activity Ziegler-Natta Catalysts for Polyolefins", assistance in the design of facilities for a major chemical company.

    12. "Polyolefin Resins as a Key Component of Industrial Roofing", commissioned study for a vendor client.

    13. "Polypropylene Homopolymer and Random Copolymer Reactor Simulation Models", Computer models for either Aspen Plus^R or stand-alone PC platforms.

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Oakwood Consulting

Phone  630.942.8750    Fax  630.469.7545

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