Shaping the future of on-purpose propylene production

Matt Pretz is a Principal Research Scientist and the technical leader for The Dow Chemical Company’s Fluidized Catalytic Dehydrogenation (FCDh) technology. He has designed, built and operated FCDh pilot plants. In addition, he is responsible for the design and scale-up of the reactor-regenerator system. Mr. Pretz also identifies and leads projects for other breakthrough technologies in the hydrocarbons processing area. He has 20 years of experience with Dow in research and development and manufacturing. He has worked in several Dow businesses, including hydrocarbons, epoxy, coatings and environmental operations. Mr. Pretz holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from Kansas State University and a Six Sigma Black Belt. He has two US patents and more than 25 patent applications pending, and has authored more than 60 internal and external articles.

Barry Fish is a Principal Research Scientist and a Chemical Engineer in hydrocarbons research and development at The Dow Chemical Company, based in Freeport, Texas. He has 29 years of experience in research and development with Union Carbide and Dow, starting in 1987 in South Charleston, West Virginia. Dr. Fish holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has worked in many different areas, including process development, plant support, catalyst development, new products, product scale-up and commercialization. He also holds 12 US patents.

Lin Luo is a Senior Research Scientist in the Commercial Technology Research and Development Group of Dow’s hydrocarbons business. She started her career in 2001 with Akzo Nobel Catalysts (later merged with Albemarle), working on refining catalysts. She joined Dow in 2006 and has worked on a broad spectrum of projects ranging from fundamental chemistry to commercial implementation. Dr. Luo is a co-inventor on 12 patents or patent applications, and a published author. She has also written more than 50 internal program reports for Dow. She holds an MS degree from the University of Chicago in physical chemistry and a PhD in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Brien A. Stears is the Associate R&D Director for Olefins, Alternatives and Aromatics at Dow. He directs research in propylene, alpha-olefins and alternative feedstocks, including commercialization of Dow’s PDH technology, new alpha-olefins technology and improvement of existing assets. He also focuses on programs in breakthroughs for shale gas utilization. Mr. Stears has 27 years of experience at Dow in research and development, strategic planning and manufacturing. He holds a ChemE degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is a Six Sigma Black Belt. He holds four US patents and has authored more than 60 internal and external papers.