Welcome to R2 Controls

 

Resume

Rick February 2023

 

 

Staff Resume of: Rick Rys P.E. – Principal – R2 Controls

CAREER EXPERIENCE

Expert engineer and consultant who has worked worldwide with control and safety systems on a wide range of complex and often hazardous industrial processes. Industries include: chemicals, natural gas, oil refining, nuclear power, fossil power, pharmaceutical, biochemical, utility transmission and distribution, wind and solar energy and net zero buildings. A technology innovator that played a key role to bring new software, control system hardware, manufacturing and environmental technology to the market. Rick has worked on many envrionmental control issues for solids, liquids, and gases, working on effluent water chemistry, stack gas scrubbing of acid gases, and many other environmental issues. A key player to deveop gasoline and diesel blending systems that could meet federal and California reformulation requirements. Seeing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. Designed and and in 2018 built an all electric net zero passive solar house and cut his hydrocarbon consumption by 95% and works as a light commissioner in Princeton MA to help his town meet the challenges of the energy transition. by electrification with clean power

Clients

In the past 5 years ARC is the primary client. In the past: Mirant Power, Genentech, Bayer, Foxboro, Invensys, Schnieder Electric, Valero, Tesoro, Factory Mutual Research, PharmaPlan, Parexel, Pfizer, Lonza Biologics, Verso paper, Cyro Chemicals, BASF Freeport, BP, Shell, Texaco, Equilon, Texaco Chemicals, Huntsman, Koch Oil, Amoco, Sonatrac, Allied Signal, PPG, Vulcan, GPM, Aramco, Sunoco Chemicals, Sincor, Windtest, and Amgen.

Technical and Leadership skills

    • DCS, PLC, and SCADA control system expert
    • Technical and software project management
    • Lead & project engineering
    • Regulatory validation & compliance consulting
    • Process design engineering
    • Chemical and Biological Reactor Engineering
    • Wind Power systems
    • Compressors, Distillation, and piping systems
    • Operational and technical training and documentation
    • Troubleshooting and facility startup
    • Economic benefit analysis
    • Advanced Control, simulation and optimization

EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

Occidental Chemicals – 1975-1977 Process engineering role at a major Chlor-Alkali facility in Niagara Falls, NY. Performed many process analysis and improvement projects for Brine purification, Electrolytic Cell, Hydrogen production, Caustic Soda processing, and Chlorine liquefaction areas.

Foxboro Company – 1977-1996
    • Various engineering and management positions, working with industry leading technologists, advanced control engineers, and DCS developers.
    • Experience with pharmaceutical validation/compliance, PAT, BIO reactors,
    • Experience with hardware, software, and systems, from the sensors to management information and planning systems.
    • Experienced with process design, troubleshooting, and startups with extensive worldwide field experience.
    • Expertise in controlling the most difficult processes like pH, exothermic reactors, distillation, and compressor surge controls.
    • Experience with many aspects of software, from programming languages, software development, software standards, software testing, web based applications and components, interfaces between different programs, devices, and operating systems.
R2 Controls – 1996 - Present

SUMMARY OF MAJOR PROJECTS

June 2010 – present - Working with Invensys to provide control systems for 8 PWR style Nuclear reactors to be located in Fuqing, Fangjiashan, and Hainan China. The projects total about 7300 MW of power. The main role has been to test the control system software and hardware. The control platform is a combination of IA systems, Triconex, and ATOS for the graphical user interface.
July 2009 – Jan 2012 Factory Mutual Research facility, Glocester, RI Consulting on the design of new processes and controls for the upgrade of 5 burn laboratories. This facility is the largest fire test facility in the US.

Nov 2009 Mirant Power, Morgantown, MD. Started up and tuned new Speed and Megawatt controls for a 600 Megawatt steam turbine. This project involved new hydraulic steam throttle valve controls.

Sept 2008 – July 2009 – Valero Delaware City refinery Provided engineering for advanced control projects, boiler house controls, and compressor controls. The result of this work improved refinery reliability, yield, and efficiency.

June 2007 – Sept 2008 - Tesoro, HI refinery DCS migration from Bailey to IA series. Defined and implemented all the complex control schemes in the refinery, assisted with implementation, testing, and commissioning at site. Significant improvement in refinery reliability, and operating efficiency.

Jan 2006 – June 2007 - Foxboro Company (Invensys). Implemented several smaller control projects on hybrid Mesh/Nodebus/ATS translator mixed UNIX, NT, and XP systems. Clients included Verso paper, ME, Cyro Chemicals NH, BASF Freeport, TX, and multiple BP Gas plants in Texas.

March 2004 – Jan 2006. – Valero Delaware City Refinery Staff support for the refinery control systems group.

    • Designed and implemented new advanced controls for the PolyAlky Unit. Improved reactor conversion and yield of poly-gasoline.
    • Implemented new controls and several PLC ModBus interfaces for 2 large SO2 scrubber units at the FCC and Coker units. This project greatly reduced the refinery SO2 emissions.
    • Made control reliability improvements for unique coke powered 180 MW co-gen facilities (IGCC technology). Designed and implemented the surge and load controls of a large (42,000HP) N2 compressor used for NOx emission control.


Dec 2005 – Sincor Refinery Caracas, Venezuela Developed the scope-of-work and bid specification for an Oilfield production reporting and shareholder information management system. This project was for a new 2000+ well Oilfield and pipeline for Sincor in Venezuela.

July - October 2005 - Valicor (PharmaPlan) Reviewed and tested the developing Amgen control system for a new plant under construction in Puerto Rico. Successfully pre-tested Allen Bradley RSView and RSLogix control system at Flour Daniels in Greenville SC resulting in improved control system standards making future implementation and validation more efficient.

July2003 – Jan 2004. Invensys, London Implemented and tested Advanced Controls for a new Shell LNG plant being constructed in Nigeria. Implemented thorough simulation based test procedures that greatly reduced commissioning time at site.

June 2003. Genentech, San Francisco for Invensys (Foxboro) Lead engineer for 3 complex DCS pharmaceutical batch projects that included developing, documenting, and managing a group of 15 engineers to develop a highly automated process for cell culture and bacterial bioreactor based manufacturing. Managed DCS engineers and validation contractors to coordinate construction and validation of the control system consistent with the Genentech Master Plan.

Feb 2002. Sincor Oil refinery, Puerto La Cruz Venezuela Implemented and tested state of the art Coker sequence controls at the new grass roots refinery in Puerto La Cruz. Designed, built and tested new controls, displays, alarms, and safety interlocks for a Foster Wheeler designed Delayed Coker resulting in getting this critical control application off of the critical path for the initial startup of this new 250,000 B/D refinery.

Jan 2002 –Valicor/PharmaPlan Wrote and executed a detailed IQ and OQ for a new Delta V DCS system being installed at Rhodes Pharmaceuticals in Coventry RI. This work supported Rhodes to meet FDA validation requirements and get production operational.

Jan 1997- 2001 – Sunoco Chemicals Philadelphia, PA Working with research chemists, a steady state Aspen+ flowsheet kinetic reactor model for the Phenol/Acetone manufacturing plant was created. New optimization and visualization tools were developed to compute optimal plant operation. The predicted optimization results were completely unexpected and suggested the plant could operate in a new mode to improve yields. Designed and executed a comprehensive reactor “Design of Experiment” test to verify Aspen+ models and predicted optimization results. The experimental results confirmed the model calculations. Implemented 2 separate successful DMC multivariable control applications for Cumene and CHP Reactors that allowed the plant to operate against new more profitable (several $million per year) constraints.

1991 to 1995 - The Foxboro Company (Invensys), Foxboro, MA Managed, developed, and implemented the BOSS software package, an Oracle based multivariable and optimization system for refinery blending. Marketing and technical support was provided to grow the international Off-Sites business at Invensys/Foxboro. There are now more than 70 successful installations of Off-sites software packages on multiple different DCS systems. The BOSS and Off-Sites software allows refineries to meet the tough CARB, EPA, and European reformulated fuel requirements by managing the off sites unit. BOSS software is essential to making the most profitable products with the lowest cost blend components, but meeting all required product quality requirements. BOSS and Off-Sites software typically helps refineries save many $millions each year for each installation.

1996 1997 KMI Internal KMI standard IQ/OQ qualification procedures for DCS/PLC/SCADA systems were developed. This helped KMI to provide a uniform and efficient method for assisting clients with validation compliance.

2001 King and Spaulding Consulted and reviewed validation master plan procedures for Stryker Osteonics. Made several specific recommendations to reduce risk.

1996 – 2006. KMI / Parexel Provided project support and consulting services on numerous team projects with KMI/Parexel. These projects developed and executed IQ and OQ qualifications for clients Genetics Institute, North Andover, MA, Bayer, Clayton, NC, Bayer, Berkeley, CA , Warner Lambert, Lititz, PA, Lonza Biologics, NH and others.

COMPUTER/SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE
Operating Systems: Windows, DOS, Unix, Venix, Solaris, some Linux, Some Apple OS, Embedded systems.

Software: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, Access; Visual Basic/Macros, MathCad, Axum, Vissim, ChemCad, Aspen+, BJAC, DMC/DMI, EditPad, Various DCS/PLC/SCADA software, Web applications for communications, conferencing and social networking.

DCS/PLC: Foxboro I/A series, Foxboro Spectrum, Some Taylor Mod300, Bailey, Fisher Delta V, Allen Bradley PLC, GE Mark5. With strong fundamentals, adaptation to other control system is not a difficult.

Controllers: Foxboro 761/762/743, Moore/Siemens micro 352, Spec200, Spec200 Micro, Pneumatic & Electronic analog, Spectrum UCM, I/A series control processors, some HVAC controls. Adaptation to custom and embedded systems is often easily handled.

GENERAL EXPERIENCE
Designed, developed, licensed, marketed, manufactured, and maintained successful software application packages that included digital blender, blend management system, BOSS (Blend Optimization and Supervisory System), TIS (Tank Information System), R-Batch, Octane engine, distillation consultant and distillation simulator. This role has required the merging of process expertise, computer programming, and systems engineering. Many of these software applications required collaborating with global cross functional groups. Designed control strategies for more than 100 distillation columns with extensive experience in the implementation and startup of distillation advanced controls. These controls improved product recovery and reduced energy costs.

Designed and implemented control systems for many different chemical and biochemical reactor systems. Successfully designed and implemented over 30 pH control systems. By molding the chemistry and physics of reactors into the control systems, the benefits have been increased yield, reduced waste, reduced reagents, and enhanced operational safety.

Lead Foxboro's business segment in compressor control including managing the Foxboro/Triconex successful multimillion dollar compressor control project at Aramco's Shedgum and Uthmaniyah Saudi Arabian gas plants (26 5-10,000 HP machines each).

Consultant for process operation, process design/modification, various control technologies including multivariable control, feedforward control, adaptive control, expert systems, modeling, simulation, optimization, and systems integration with MIS/MES systems.

EDUCATION

1972 AS Electrical Engineering - Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA
1975 BS Chemical Engineering – University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Continuous additional classes, seminars, training, and technical conferences are attended to stay up to date with emerging technology. Recent educational events include the Fall 2008 TIMBR Cellulosic Biofuels Conference, Oct 2009 Renewable Building Energy Systems for Builidng Professionals, and Numerous conference sessions at the Oct 2009 ISA EXPO associated mostly with SMART GRID.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

ISA Associate member

IEEE Member

Registered Professional engineer in Chemical Engineering in Massachusetts PE# 30342

American Solar Energy Society, WGBH, Union of Concerned Scientists, BMW MOA, Public Citizen, and many others.

PERSONAL

6'0" height, 210 lb., Excellent Health, Wife Claudia, Children Jonathan, Jeremy, and Erika. Enjoy Hiking, Golf, Alternative energy, Adventure motorcycling, Space and Ocean Science, Science and Technology of sustainable living, and Solar Home design.

PUBLICATIONS

Performance of Simple Multivariable Control Systems, "Fall ISA Conference, October 1981.

Advanced Control Methods Chemical Engineering Magazine 1984

Advanced Control Techniques for Distillation Columns Chemical Engineering Magazine 1984

Using a relational database as a foundation for advanced control of Gasoline Blend Optimization - Hydrocarbon Processing Magazine September 1994.

Improved Control Performance of Centrifugal Compressors Hydrocarbon Processing August 1998.

The Future of Advanced Process Control in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Pharmaceutical Manufacturing March 2006

 

 

 

Send mail to rys@R2Controls.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 18 August 2023