Workshops

Here is a brief summary of the Speakers and workshops we will be hosting.

The location of each workshop is given here.

Dave Litzen -  Litzen Process Consulting

   Time: 8a.m., 10a.m.

    – Innovation and the Chemical Engineer

Continued innovation is critical to sustaining economic growth, and chemical engineers have a unique position in the innovation process.  To promote the ‘flow’ of innovative thinking, chemical engineers possess the capability not only to understand thermodynamic fundamentals (i.e., first and second law efficiencies), but are also trained to evaluate economic scale and risk.  Today’s process simulation tools allow the easy integration of both important capabilities into a single environment, resulting in a speedy but accurate way to identify economic winners.  As a nation dependent on other countries for much of its energy, we have no greater need for innovation than in home-grown sustainable energy, and chemical engineers will play a key developmental role in this sector.

Byron Wolf - Dow Corning

    Time: 9a.m.,11a.m.

     -  Fascinating Silicone – Transforming Society in the 21^st Century and Beyond

Silicones are one of the most versatile groups of chemicals on the planet.  However, silicones are not one thing. They are many things!  They come in many forms – from pourable liquids to rock-hard solids – which enables designers and manufacturers to use them in all kinds of products and processes.  Silicones can be engineered to perform an amazing range of functions – from adhesives to release agents ... from antifoams to foam stabilizers … from insulators to conductors of heat and electricity.  Silicones share some common features that give them distinct advantages over other materials.  Silicones make existing materials work better, longer, and more reliably. They fuel our imaginations and make new products possible.

In a society that runs on performance and strives for sustainability, silicones are invaluable tools.  Come learn how silicones have helped transform many products you use every day and are positioned to help deliver innovative solutions to global megatrend issues today and well into the future.

Keith Flannegan – KL Energy

     Time: 9a.m.,11a.m.

- The Renewable Sugars Platform

Two major chemistry platforms are under development by various companies at demonstration scale for renewable fuels and chemicals from biomass: thermo-chemical and sugars. This presentation will first provide a technical review of the major commercial bioconversion strategies and then specifically discuss the business case for the renewable sugars platform to supply sustainable renewable fuels and chemicals.

Hank Kohlbrand – Dow Chemical Retiree

     Time: 8a.m., 10a.m.

- How Today’s Megatrends Will Change the Future of Chemical Engineering (

Energy, Climate Change, Food/nutrition, Infrastructure/transportation and Water are important issues today but these megatrends will drive tremendous change in the future.  Our capacity to understand these key trends will determine how we need to prepare ourselves personally and professionally to meet them.  The discipline of chemical engineering began over 100 years ago with a focus on unit operations and technology.  Over the years, its scope has expanded to include catalysis, materials science, and aspects of biology and product engineering.  The future of chemical engineering will continue to evolve to a focus on not only the technical but also the societal implications of technology development and application.  This presentation will explore the megatrends and the opportunities for chemical engineers that will result as we address them in a multidisciplinary fashion. 

About the speaker:

Henry T. (Hank) Kohlbrand is a management and engineering technology consultant.  He retired in 2010 as the Global R&D Director for Process & Manufacturing Technology at The Dow Chemical Company where he spent 36 years in a variety of technical and management positions. In addition to his process technology roles he was also the global director for New Business R&D and the global director of External Technology & Intellectual asset Management at Dow.  Hank has also served as President of AIChE (2010) and on the AIChE Board of Directors.

Dr. Patrick Gilcrease – SDSMT Chemical Engineering Department

     Time: 9a.m.,11a.m.

-  Putting your Fundamentals of Biochemical Engineering to use: CBE 484 meets HBW 101 (Homebrewing)

Enzyme-catalyzed reactions, aseptic technique, starter culture propagation, aerobic versus anaerobic metabolism, extraction, heat transfer, effects of contamination, and process scale-up; homebrewing has it all, and is an easy, fun way to get hands-on experience with microbial fermentations.  This workshop will outline the basic steps in beermaking, highlight relevant biochemical engineering concepts, and show you how to get started with your very own fermentation project!

Jim Whitlock – DUSEL

     Time: 10a.m., 11a.m.

-  Mining for Dark Matter

A history of the legendary Homestake Mine, along with environmental issues, and the development of the award winning biological wastewater treatment plant.  Following closure of the mine and subsequent flooding, begins the transformation from one of the world’s largest underground mines to an underground state of the art physics laboratory.  The Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) now contains the Large Underground Xenon detector (LUX) experiment, poised to become the world’s most sensitive instrument to look for “dark matter”, which is theorized to make up about 80% of all matter in the universe.

John Davies – Dow Chemical Retiree

     Time: 8a.m., 10a.m.

-  Shaping Your Future

Most companies have abandoned defined benefit pension plans and have replaced those plans with 401k savings plans.  The employee is responsible for saving and investing for their long term financial well being and independence.  This presentation and discussion will illustrate the importance of repaying student loans and establishing a long term savings plan early in your career.

About the Speaker

John Davies received BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  He was employed by Montana Dakota Utilities as a student engineer while attending college.  After graduation he continued working for MDU as a gas engineer in Rapid City, SD and results engineer at a power plant in Sidney, MT.  In 1974 he accepted a research engineering position developing processes to refine coal liquids into hydrocarbon feedstocks at The Dow Chemical Company in Midland, MI.  That position was followed by production engineer and technical supervisor positions in a manufacturing plant at Dow.  In 1978 he accepted a position in energy planning for the Michigan Operations of Dow.  The position expanded to planning and economic evaluation responsibilities for energy and several manufacturing facilities in MI.  This was followed by positions of business analyst for several North American and global Dow businesses.  He became director of economic evaluation within the Strategic Planning group for The Dow Chemical Company in 1997 and held that position until retiring in 2006.

Kevin Christenson – Department of Environmental Natural Resources

    Time: 8a.m., 9a.m.

-  An Overview of Hazardous Waste Regulations

Chemical Engineers work in a wide variety of occupations and use chemicals in research, manufacturing, production, healthcare, construction, and many other applications.  Those uses often result in generating wastes regulated as hazardous waste.  Federal and state regulations impose stringent requirements on the management and disposal of hazardous wastes.  Therefore, it is important to understand the types of wastes regulated as hazardous waste and the requirements applicable to managing those wastes. 

Mr. Christensen will provide an overview of the requirements for hazardous waste generation and management.  Topics will include a brief history of hazardous waste regulations; a summary of wastes types regulated as hazardous waste; and review of differing requirements applicable to the generation, storage, transport, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes.  Mr. Christensen will also answer audience questions.

Dr. Todd Menkhaus - SDSMT Chemical Engineering Department

     Time: 9a.m., 11a.m.

-  Advance separations for the Biopharmaceutical and Biorenewable Products Industries

Biopharmaceuticals manufacturing (e.g., monoclonal antibodies, antibody fragments, nucleic acids and viruses for human therapeutics) and the production of biorenewable fuels and chemicals are two relatively “young” industries that are expected to see continued growth over the coming decades.  Within these industries there are several opportunities for chemical engineers to have a major impact on improving process efficiencies.  In particular, many of the separations operations currently used in these industries have been implemented from other applications, and are not ideally suited for biopharmaceutical or biorenewable processes.  This presentation will provide numerous examples of advanced separation technologies that are currently being developed specifically for purifications when handling the unique streams encountered in bio-processing.  Background will be provided describing the biopharmaceutical and biorenewable products processes.  Along with this, specific case studies will be explored analyzing purification of a monoclonal antibody product and separations within a lignocellulosic processing plant for renewable fuels and chemicals.

Dr. Kenneth Benjamin - SDSMT Chemical Engineering Department

     Time: 8a.m., 10a.m.

-   Molecular Modeling and Simulation: Effective Tools for Chemical Engineering Design

There exists a direct connection between the macroscopic behavior of an engineered system and the fundamental chemical and/or physical forces at the molecular level.  Ideally, chemical engineers would be able to exploit this molecular level information in their design, control, and optimization of macroscopic process performance.  Molecular modeling and simulation provides a mathematical and computational framework in which to make first-principles predictions on material properties and basic chemical/physical mechanisms.  This talk will focus on the basics of molecular modeling and simulation, and present applications of these computational techniques towards chemical engineering problems in bioenergy.