Taylor Sulmonetti

Dr. Sulmonetti is a chemical engineer whose areas of expertise include reaction and chemical process engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, environmental catalysis, emissions abatement technology, solid adsorbates, alternative energy processes materials characterization, and fire/explosion investigation. He applies the fundamentals of chemical engineering, chemistry, and material science to investigate failures or performance issues related to and chemical and catalytic processes. 

Additionally, Dr. Sulmonetti conducts investigations involving fires, explosions, and chemical releases to aid in root cause analysis and improve process safety.

PROCESS DESIGN, ENGINEERING, AND SAFETY

Dr. Sulmonetti utilizes fundamental chemical engineering principles to evaluate a variety of technical challenges within the chemical processing industry. He has been involved in multiple large-scale disputes/arbitrations, both in the US and abroad, involving chemical processing plants. His analysis focuses on key components of chemical processes including reactor technology, raw material handling, piping, process control, and process safety equipment. Specifically, he has performed analyses and calculations to evaluate the proper scale-up of equipment from the pilot to the industry scale and to assess the performance of a specific process equipment. Finally, he has applied his experience in incident investigation to analyze equipment-specific and plant-wide process safety measures to reduce risk for his clients.

FIRES, EXPLOSIONS, AND CHEMICAL REACTIVITY

Dr. Sulmonetti is a Certified Fire and Explosions Investigator through NAFI and has also completed training in hazardous materials handling. From these trainings and knowledge garnered as a chemical engineer, he applies the fundamentals of chemistry and engineering science to conduct calculations and design laboratory experiments that test working hypotheses in relation to fires, explosions, and chemical releases. Dr. Sulmonetti has analyzed hazardous chemical exposure and releases that involved chemicals such as toxic gases, asphyxiants, corrosives, and oxidizers. Through his analysis, he has developed and opined as to probably root cause of industrial incidents and has applied these insights to improve future process safety. Additionally, he has conducted investigations to determine origin and cause of fires and explosions as the result of alleged propane releases.

REACTION ENGINEERING AND CATALYSIS

Dr. Sulmonetti has drawn upon his experience in reaction engineering to conduct failure analysis on numerous catalytic reaction systems. He applies the fundamental principles of reactor design, kinetic analysis, and surface chemistry to evaluate reaction processes, including the formulation, performance, and deactivation of catalytic materials. He has significant experience in designing, constructing, and operating lab-scale catalytic reactors that can be utilized to evaluate performance and/or deactivation of catalysts. Most notably, his work has involved evaluating emissions abatement technologies including diesel emissions after-treatment systems and catalysts. He has extensive experience in analyzing selective catalytic reduction (SCR) processes, oxidation catalysts, and zeolites. Additionally, Dr. Sulmonetti's research involves catalytic material characterization which can elucidate structure-to-reactivity relationships which are critical in root cause analysis of catalytic performance and deactivation.

As a Graduate Research Assistant at Georgia Tech, Dr. Sulmonetti synthesized, characterized, and analyzed non-precious, multi-metal catalysts utilized in the conversion of key biomass platform molecules into renewable fuel additives and plastic precursors. He gained extensive experience in reaction engineering including designing and testing lab-scale batch reactors and vapor phase flow reactors, along with product analysis through gas chromatography (GC). Additionally, he has significant experience with material characterization techniques including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). All these experiences have been used to assist clients in evaluating their catalytic systems ranging from the nanoscale to the industrial scale.