Dr. John E. Sawyer
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.