I am 67 years old and in the last five years I have asked myself if I have used my knowledge to make a difference in the world. As a result, one of the key goals I have set for myself is to leave behind to this and future generations things that I have learned in the many years of working in the unique world of specialty compressed gases. I try to do this by continuing to mentor engineers and scientist in Taiwan, Korea, China and Singapore, writing safety articles, teaching safety and participating in industry/fire standards development. I have been happy donating 25% of my time and money by participating in NFPA, CGA, ISO and SESHA committees.

I would hate to think that someone was injured or died because they were not aware of lessons we learned in the last 40+ years. One sad fact is that many professionals with my background have been early retired and their knowledge and expertise is lost forever. When I started as a Chemical Engineer many years ago, there was an old timer down the hallway that would listen to my interesting ideas, chuckle and then proceed to tell me why he wouldn’t do what I proposed. That support is no longer available, where does a young professional go for guidance? An extreme example of this knowledge loss was when the UN Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) in 2005 was updating the cylinder fill limits for compressed gases. They were not aware of the incidents involving germane (1984), stibine and nitric oxide (1968). These incidents caused a fatality or significant damage. As a result the gas industry lowered the fill limits of these cylinders so that they would contain the sudden overpressure if a reaction occurred. This reduction has saved the industry from at least 5 cylinder ruptures that I am aware of. Ignorant of this fact they were going to increase the fill limits based on other criteria that made sense.

I have been very fortunate during my 40+ years in the compressed gas industry to have learned from some of the best in first generation, Al Mossman, President of Matheson (Author of Matheson Gas Data Book, Compressed Gas Medical Treatment) Herb Gill, founder of Precision Gas Products, Bill Kalaskie, Superior Valve, etc. During these years I was exposed to a wide assortment of specialty gases throughout their lifecycle, R&D, manufacturing, purification, QA, emergency response, waste disposal, all with handson experience. I have been making the metal hydride gases such as arsine, diborane, germane and phosphine since 1972 at locations around the world. I was also lucky to have had the staff, company support and resources to experiment with many of the exotic gases to better understand their properties and release behavior these include chlorine trifluoride, silane, trimethylaluminum, hydrogen selenide and fluorine. Very few engineers actual get to build or operate systems. I have been a principal in the investigation of numerous compressed gas incidents including the largest release of arsine (65 lbs) in 2001 and the U of Hawaii explosion 2016. I have been given a “gift” in life. People actually pay me to do things I want to do plus pay my expenses and research. Does this get any better?

I have also on a part time basis, teaching and advising public and private HazMat teams around the world on compressed gas emergency response since 1990. This proved to be of value in the U of Hawaii investigation as I had trained HazMat 1, Honolulu FD exactly a year before. They made entry into the lab after the explosion and were able to share with us their initial assessments, pictures and reports. I can reach out to many HazMat teams in the US and get an immediate answer to a problem.

Chemically Speaking LLC is celebrating 10 Years on Feb 1, 2019!  A milestone! I have had many compliments on the name but I can’t take credit for this, Courtney said Dad you can’t have a boring name how about this? It fits! I am now 67 and could easily retire but yet here I am with a full schedule!

During these 10 years I have been having great fun! I have never had to advertise, yet people find me. 2019 is already booked through April with lots of interesting projects on some cutting edge research or University Research projects that will change our lives. Of course. I’m still looking at blowing some things up in the interest of science! Hope to recreate events leading up to 4 fatal accidents with organometallic materials.

Am also looking at buying a small technology company with many patents for a client. What’s nice is I’m at the point where I can tell someone to stuff it. Did that twice in 2018! Felt good!

Travelled just under 2 million miles to exciting places around the world. I continue to do research on chemical safety and plan to do more in 2019. It’s nice to have a sense of purpose in life. Put together and chaired a seminar in April that had 70+ people worldwide pay $450 to attend on a highly reactive chemical that killed 5 in 2014 and destroyed a manufacturing plant in the US. Will do another seminar this year based on another year of research paid for by 2 customers.

One patent, 5 peer reviewed articles plus 6 non peer reviewed articles. Convinced 12 companies to chip in $500,000 of money and equipment to do 4 days of testing in New Mexico. Got them to fund some more testing a year later. Trained or presented to over 8,000 Firefighters or University employees.

Investigated 5 serious explosions and determined root causes of these during this time. In many the damage was so severe that it was a challenge to determine what might have happened.

There is nothing more rewarding than to pass on or discover new items that can help to protect people. I see many students from classes 10+ years ago that are still very eager to learn. Donate 20% of my time plus $20,000 every year to train this generation.

Getting paid a lot of money to do all this is icing on top! I would do most of this for nothing because its so interesting.

I am a very lucky guy!