About the Workshop Leader: Dr Rafael L Espinoza and Prof Devinder Mahajan

Dr Espinoza has been involved in the field of GTL for most of his professional life.
He was director of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) R&D at ConocoPhillips (2000-2005) and responsible for the technical development of the FT and Hydroprocessing technologies, including catalyst development and preparation scale-up, modeling, process development, reactor technology and products.

At Sasol (1986-2000), he had the positions of Sasol Research Fellow, Manager of Basic Catalysis Research and Sections Leader for high and low temperature FT at the Process Development Dept. Some of the projects in which he was involved include the development of catalysts for Slurry, Fixed and Fluidized bed reactors, development of a Slurry bed reactor for FT (coordinator 1986-1989), commercial plants support, optimization of conceptual designs for new FT plants, optimization of the configuration of the Sasol plant in Sasolburg, etc.

Dr Espinoza was also Sr. Chief Research Officer at CSIR in South Africa where he worked on catalyst development in the fields of acid catalysis, supported transition metals and FT.

He has numerous refereed papers and 48 granted US patents in the field of synthetic fuels. In 2005 he started a consulting company (www.RafaelEspinoza.com).  He is also co-founder and Vice-President Technology for Emerging Fuels Technology, in Tulsa, OK.

Professor Devinder Mahajan holds one of the few joint appointments between Brookhaven National Laboratory and SUNY at Stony Brook. His research interests focus on Energy issues that includes a portfolio of projects on Methane hydrates, H2 production, Fuel Cells, Fischer-Tropsch, Methanol, and mixed alcohol synthesis using soluble (single-site) or slurried (nano heterogeneous or colloidal phase) based catalysts.

He has organized symposia and international workshops on issues such as Clean Fuels, Methane Hydrates, and Biomass and recently served as a Guest Editor of three special volumes: Topics In Catalysis (TIC), Journal of Petroleum Science & Engineering (JOPSE), and Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research (I&ECR).  He is the author of over 140 papers and abstracts, 9 patents, and presented over 50 invited lectures around the globe.

He serves on several national and international energy-related committees and consults and lectures on clean energy topics. In 2006, he was recognized with a membership to the prestigious Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS)-US Section and is a recipient of the RANS Crown and Eagle Medal of Honor for service to the field of “Petroleum Engineering”.