Experienced EHS and Process Safety Leadership for Complex Industrial Operations

Brian Carr

Founder and Principal Consultant

Appalachian EHS & Process Safety Consulting is led by Brian Carr, an EHS and Process Safety professional with more than 20 years of experience in military, aerospace, chemical manufacturing, heavy industry, port operations, industrial startups, and commissioning support. Brian’s experience is not limited to advising organizations from the outside. He has owned EHS, PSM, and environmental management programs and has been accountable for making them work in operating facilities.

Brian has built regulator-tested EHS and PSM programs from the ground up, established management of change, pre-startup safety review, and mechanical integrity and quality assurance systems, developed action-tracking processes, and integrated robust tools into reliability programs. He has developed RAGAGEP libraries incorporating API, ASME, NBIC, NFPA, CGA, OSHA, and other applicable requirements.

His programs have been tested through audits and inspections by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard, WVDEP, federal OSHA, and North Carolina OSHA, including unscheduled OSHA PSM inspections.

His leadership experience includes applying behavior-based safety and Human and Organizational Performance principles to strengthen employee participation, operational learning and management accountability.

Brian does not believe that handing a client a binder is the same as building a program. Effective programs must be technically sound, understandable to the people responsible for using them, and integrated into daily operations. Appalachian EHS focuses on clear ownership, practical procedures, disciplined action closure, measurable performance, and systems that continue working after the engagement ends.

Qualifications

• ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems Auditor

• ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems Auditor

• ISO 19011 Management Systems Auditor

• ISO 45001 OH&S Management Systems Auditor

• EHS and PSM program leadership in high-hazard operations

• Certified Machinery Safety Expert (CMSE)

• OSHA Authorized Outreach Trainer

• EPA Method 9 Visible Emissions

• RC14001 and management-system implementation experience

• Internal, second-party, and third-party auditor experience

• ABS Group Root Cause Analysis and Incident Investigation training

• TWIC

John Sawyer, PhD

Principal Chemical Engineering Consultant

John Sawyer is a chemical engineer with more than four decades of experience spanning chemical manufacturing, process engineering, technology development, scale-up, commercialization, plant operations, and technical leadership. His career includes specialty and fine chemicals, heterogeneous catalysis, polymers, environmental technologies, water treatment, fluorine chemistry, and industrial process development.

John has extensive experience taking chemical processes from concept through commercial production. His work has included process development and scale-up, equipment selection and design, capital project execution, startup and commissioning, process troubleshooting, and the development of proprietary technologies. In his current work, he has supported the startup of more than 20 new products from concept to commercial production and evaluated more than 100 additional potential products.

Throughout his career, John has served in senior technical and operational roles including Principal Process Engineer, Director of Process Engineering, Plant Manager/General Manager, Pilot Plant Manager, and university professor. His experience includes managing chemical manufacturing facilities and engineering organizations, leading multidisciplinary technical teams, executing major equipment installations and capacity expansions, and supporting complex industrial projects.

John brings particular expertise in process development, chemical reaction engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, process scale-up, equipment and process design, troubleshooting, and technology commercialization. His experience also includes process safety and regulatory compliance, including Process Hazard Analyses for hazardous chemical processes and work within ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 management systems.

His career combines engineering depth with practical plant leadership. As a chemical plant manager, John led substantial improvements in production, quality, environmental performance, safety, and operating cost, including increasing production output by 500%, reducing total plant costs by 20%, and reducing work-related injuries by more than 75% at one operation.

John is also an inventor and published technical author. He is a named inventor on multiple U.S. and international patents involving catalyst technology, chemical processes, contaminant removal, bio-based acrylic acid production, and water-treatment technologies. His technical publications have addressed reaction engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, polymerization, catalytic oxidation, emissions control, and environmental technology. He has also presented technical work through organizations including ACS, AIChE, and SAE.

Education

PhD, Chemical Engineering — University of Tulsa
Master of Engineering, Chemical Engineering — University of Tulsa
Master of Business Administration (MBA) — University of Tulsa
Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (BChE) — Georgia Institute of Technology

Patents & Publications

John's patented technologies span chemical processing, catalysis, environmental remediation, and water treatment. Selected patents include:

• Treatment of Diesel Exhaust Gas Using Zeolite Catalyst — U.S. Patent 5,849,255

• Diesel Engine Exhaust Gas Purification Catalyst — European Patent EP0831961

• Apparatus and Method for Contaminant Removal from Aqueous Solution — U.S. Patent 8,668,831

• Acrylic Acid from Lactide and Process — U.S. Patent 9,012,686

• Acrylic Acid from Lactide and Process — U.S. Patent 9,290,430

• Acrylic Acid and Acrylate Ester from Lactide and Process — U.S. Patent 9,573,874

• Mollusk Repellent and Methods of Water Treatment — U.S. Patent 9,527,758

• Mollusk Repellent and Methods of Water Treatment — U.S. Patent 10,647,599

Technical publications include:

• “Pilot Plant Study on the Polymerization of Isobutene Using Silica-Supported Methylaluminoxane” — Kevin Elkins, John Sawyer, Stewart P. Lewis, and Parashuram Jadhav; Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research

• Experiencing Science — Laub and Sawyer, 2006

• “Reaction Pathways During the Oxidation of Ethyl Acetate on a Platinum-Alumina Catalyst” — J. E. Sawyer and M. A. Abraham; Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 1994

• “Reaction Selectivity Modeling for the Catalytic Combustion of n-Hexane and Benzene Mixtures” — J. Papa, Y. T. Shah, A. C. Frost, and J. E. Sawyer; La Rivista dei Combustibili, 1993

• Catalytic Control of Air Pollution: Mobile and Stationary Sources — R. G. Silver, J. E. Sawyer, and J. C. Summers, Editors; ACS Symposium Series 495, 1992

• “Role of Support Structure on Kinetic Parameter Estimations in a Shell Catalyst” — J. Papa, Y. T. Shah, A. C. Frost, and J. E. Sawyer; Chemical Engineering Communications, 1991

• “Kinetics and Transport Parameters for the Fixed-Bed Catalytic Incineration of Volatile Organic Compounds” — A. C. Frost, J. E. Sawyer, J. C. Summers, Y. T. Shah, and C. G. Dassori; Environmental Science & Technology, 1991

John has also delivered multiple technical presentations through ACS, AIChE, and SAE and served on the committee that developed the 2008 ACS Organic Chemistry Standardized Exam.