Senior Research And Development Engineer

Thiozen Inc.; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Benefits

Travel allowance

Job summary

Thiozen Inc., an MIT spinout, is building secure, affordable energy tech. We seek an engineer to connect lab, model, and field units in Pasadena, leading bench experiments and turning results into design bases for the next commercial unit.

You will travel to West Texas for pilot campaigns, contribute to grants and reports, and report to the CEO. MS/PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or a related field, with Aspen experience and willingness to travel, are required.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry or a related field.
• Strong wet chemistry skills: titrations, sample preparation, analytical instruments, and a notebook someone else can follow.
• You can build and run the process model that sizes the next unit: you have developed steady state process models in Aspen or an equivalent simulator, closed heat and material balances, and used them to size equipment or set a design basis.
• Practical experience with a pilot unit, lab scale process rig or field setting. You are comfortable with pumps, valves, gas cylinders and instruments, and you would rather fix a setup than wait for someone else to.

Responsibilities

• Design and run wet chemistry and small scale process experiments in our Pasadena lab.
• Build, maintain and run the process model (Aspen or equivalent) that sizes our units.
• Develop, validate and document the analytical methods used in the lab and at the units.
• Travel to the pilot unit for test campaigns: plan the campaign, run it with the field team, collect and analyze samples, and write up what was learned.
• Turn field observations into lab experiments and lab results into operating recommendations and design changes.
• Build and maintain the process data and sample records so that lab and field results can be compared and trusted.
• Keep the Pasadena lab safe and in order: chemical handling and storage, gas safety, waste, and the procedures that go with them.
• Contribute technical content to grants, reports and customer discussions, and present results to our board and partners as needed.

Skills

Wet chemistry

Process modeling

Laboratory experiments

Field campaigns

Technical writing

Education

MS or PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry

Tools

Aspen or equivalent simulator

Job description

Thiozen is an MIT spinout building secure, affordable, and clean energy. Our patented process turns hydrogen sulfide into value, and we have two products built on the same novel chemistry.

Our first product, Zen, is a modular liquid redox unit that oxidizes H2S to saleable elemental sulfur. It shuts down flares, turns sour gas into fuel for behind the meter power, and lets operators produce gas they cannot produce today. Our first commercial Zen units will treat the full gas stream of producing batteries in Alberta and the Permian Basin.

Our second product, ZenH2, takes the same chemistry one step further: hydrogen sulfide reforming that produces clean hydrogen and fertilizer at fossil fuel prices, with up to 95 percent fewer emissions than reforming natural gas. Our first ZenH2 deployment is in Alberta.

We ran our pilot unit on sour gas an hour west of Lubbock, Texas, taking H2S from percent levels to pipeline specification and producing high purity hydrogen and sulfur. We are backed by Eni Next and several hard tech venture capital firms, and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and Emissions Reduction Alberta.

About the role

You will be the engineer who connects our lab, our process model and our units. In Pasadena you will design and lead the bench and small scale experiments that answer the questions the field raises. You will own the process model that turns those results into the design basis for the next commercial unit. In West Texas you will join campaigns on the pilot unit, run the test program alongside our field engineers, and see for yourself whether the plant behaves the way the model and the bench said it would. You will report to the CEO.

What you will do

• Design and run wet chemistry and small scale process experiments in our Pasadena lab
• Build, maintain and run the process model (Aspen or equivalent) that sizes our units
• Develop, validate and document the analytical methods used in the lab and at the units
• Travel to the pilot unit for test campaigns: plan the campaign, run it with the field team, collect and analyze samples, and write up what was learned.
• Turn field observations into lab experiments and lab results into operating recommendations and design changes.
• Build and maintain the process data and sample records so that lab and field results can be compared and trusted.
• Keep the Pasadena lab safe and in order: chemical handling and storage, gas safety, waste, and the procedures that go with them.
• Contribute technical content to grants, reports and customer discussions, and present results to our board and partners as needed.

What we are looking for

• MS or PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry or a related field.
• Strong wet chemistry skills: titrations, sample preparation, analytical instruments, and a notebook someone else can follow. You have designed experiments, not only run them.
• You can build and run the process model that sizes the next unit: you have developed steady state process models in Aspen or an equivalent simulator, closed heat and material balances, and used them to size equipment or set a design basis. Required.
• Practical experience with a pilot unit, lab scale process rig or field setting. You are comfortable with pumps, valves, gas cylinders and instruments, and you would rather fix a setup than wait for someone else to.
• Comfortable working around sour gas and reactive chemicals. Willing to complete H2S and OSHA safety training before your first field campaign.
• Able to travel to West Texas for campaigns of a week or more, and occasionally to Alberta.
• Self directed, and able to lead a line of inquiry from a plant observation through experiment and model to a design decision.

Nice to have

• Experience with iodine, sulfur or halogen chemistry, liquid redox systems, or gas treating.
• Experience building small scale continuous rigs, or with kinetic and reactor modeling.
• Prior work with a technology developer, pilot program or scale up effort.

Compensation

$140k to $180k base depending on experience, plus equity, benefits, and travel allowance.

Thiozen is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a safe and respectful workplace.