Jeffrey N. Phillips, BA Mathematics, BSc., MSc., Mechanical Engineering, PhD, ASME – Senior Consultant Project Engineer
Jeffrey is employed as a Project Engineer at Fern Engineering, Inc., and is a process development specialist with solid technical understanding of both mechanical and chemical engineering topics. Jeffrey has experience in both power plant and chemical process plant operations, and participated in three first-of-a kind start ups. He has in-depth knowledge of coal, oil, and waste gasification and IGCC power plants. Jeffrey’s expertise also extends to aerodynamics and system analysis, advanced power cycle analysis, and software development for monitoring and modeling performance of power plants. He has extensive knowledge in design, analysis and troubleshooting of solids handling systems, spray dryers, heat exchangers, high temperature particle filters, acid gas removal, and sulfur recovery systems. Jeffrey specialises in feasibility studies pertaining to the use of non-conventional fuels in gas turbine based power plants, and in troubleshooting existing non-conventional, gas turbine fuel applications.
Included among his professional posts, Jeffrey provided technical support for the start up of a 2000 ton/day coal gasification plant for Shell Oil, which plant was part of an integrated 250 MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant. His duties included pre-operational testing and debugging of equipment and control systems, final review of safeguarding systems, operator training, writing operator manuals, and evaluating initial performance. Jeffrey also developed a computer model for the Electric Power Research Institute, for the steady state operation of an IGCC power plant using ASPEN flow-sheet simulation software package as a framework. He created models in FORTRAN for various sections of the plant including a numerical finite differencing scheme to evaluate radiant heat transfer in syngas coolers. The model was used to investigate the total system performance under a variety of conditions. Jeffrey has held senior engineering posts at Molten Metal Technology, Inc., Shell Chemical Co., Shell International Petroleum, The Netherlands, Shell Development Co., and as a Research Associate at Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering Department, High Temperature Gas Dynamics Lab.
Jeffrey was awarded a Ph.D. and an M.S degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and holds a BS. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University, and a BA degree in Mathematics from Austin College. He is a member of ASME International Gas Turbine Committee on Coal, Biomass, and Alternative Fuels, and is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Fellowship. Jeffrey has published more than 10 Technical Papers on various subjects relating to his area of expertise, with an emphasis on Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle Power Plants.