Officers

Chief Officers

Mr. Michael J. Frank Germany
President

Mr. Michael J. Frank President
Germany

Profile

Business Position: Independent Coach & Consultant
Company: Michael Frank Coaching & Consulting
Year of Birth: 1965
Years in Industry: 34
Nationality: German
Phone: +49 175 7245362
Email: [email protected]

Michael has acquired a great deal of experience in managing Engineering, Operational and Service businesses in challenging times of change; from M&A activities, restructuring and closing of operations to business process optimization/transformation and development of new business models.

He started his working life in Air Pollution Control technologies for some well reputed OEM companies like Walther & Cie AG, Lurgi Lentjes Bischoff and Rothemühle. These activities were ranging from commissioning, design, sales to contract execution mainly and have earned him a position in the Board of the International Society of Electrostatic Precipitation, which hosts the main and relevant competences in this field worldwide. Just recently Michael was elected to serve as the next President of the Society and to lead its transition into the broader fields of application of electrostatics and power electronics.
With joining the power utility company E.ON in 2003, his insight into the power generation business has been expanded and now also covers the full spectrum of process optimization, operational support and engineering support activities for the energy sector. Rounding off that service provider experience, he joined the operational side of business as Manager of the Power Plant Group West 1, comprising 6 hard-
coal fired units with a total installed capacity of approx. 2.200 MW and several industrial steam generators and district heating units.

After the spin-off of Uniper from E.ON, Michael moved to the UK based part of the Engineering business area of Uniper as the Managing Director for Uniper Technologies Limited and Director Asset Services of Uniper. With his return to Germany, Michael took the role of CEO of Uniper Anlagenservice GmbH, the Maintenance and Project Company of Uniper. There, his focus next to a substantial restructuring of the
company, was on driving the development of integrated business models for strategic maintenance services, connecting traditional skillsets in maintenance for energy systems with state-of-the-art IT- solutions and Big Data technologies.

In April 2020, Michael was appointed Director Sales & Product Development for the Uniper Engineering Group, developing and combining Uniper’s technical and commercial expertise into innovative solutions for decarbonizing its customers’ energy needs.

Recognizing the need to massively accelerate energy transition, Uniper took the strategic decision end of 2021 to exit the stand-alone engineering service business and to focus resources on the transformation of Unipers’ own and customers’ assets to climate-neutral generation with innovative solutions addressing the increasing complexity of our energy world. With that decision, Michael was appointed with a leading role in this internal transformation as SVP Engineering of Uniper.

With finalizing the transition project in Uniper, Michael decided to leave the corporate path and fully enjoy his passions: to share his experience in people leadership and technology under the umbrella of his own business as independent Coach and Consultant.

Until recently, Michael has held a mandate in the Executive Board of vgbe energy e.V., the German Association of Power Plant Operators and is a lecturer at the KWS PowerTech Training Centre on APC Technologies. He has also held a Board mandate of the VAIS (Verband für Anlagentechnik und
Industrieservice), the Association of Industrial Technology and Service Providers for several years. Michael is also a well-received speaker at various conferences in the energy sector, delivering key-note speeches and lectures on various aspects of the energy sector.

Prof. Dr. Herek Clack USA
Vice President

Prof. Dr. Herek Clack Vice President
USA

Profile

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Dr. Mark S. Berry USA
Secretary & Treasurer

Dr. Mark S. Berry Secretary & Treasurer
USA

Profile

Members

Mr. Chikayuki Nagata Japan

Profile

Business Position: Senior Manager
Company: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Power Environmental Solutions
Year of Birth: 1959
Years in Industry: 38
Nationality: Japanese
Phone: +81 80 2424 0827
Email: [email protected]

Mr. Chikayuki Nagata is a mechanical engineer and joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) in April 1985, after receiving his bachelor’s (1983) and master’s (1985) degrees in mechanical engineering from Nagoya University, and he was assigned to an environmental equipment division in Kobe, and there he was involved in many projects as a person responsible for the detailed design, basic planning and development of ESP.

As the detailed design engineer of the ESP, the most important project he was involved was the hot-side ESP, which was installed on the upstream side of the air pre-heater of a 1000 MW coal-fired power plant. It requires the selection of a material that can withstand use at high temperatures of 400 degrees Celsius, and a design that takes large thermal expansion into consideration.
One of the key projects he experienced as an ESP basic planner was the installation of a wet ESP in Austrian power station fueled with high sulfur contained heavy oil. In the gas quenching process of a wet desulfurization system to remove SO2 from power plant flue gas, partially oxidized SO3 combined with the water to create very fine sulfuric acid mists, and the mists were discharged from the stack as so-called bluish plume, causing visible smoke to become a problem. To remove the sulfuric acid mist, it was decided to install a wet ESP, which had already been proven in Japan. This was the first wet ESP installed in a boiler plant in Europe.

In a project in which dry ESPs were installed to existing power station in Chile, he was responsible for the basic planning and then worked as a technical coordinator at the site for about a year, getting experience in site management. Using that experience, he later worked as a project manager for several ESPs (or ESPs and ash handling units) for overseas large-scale coal-fired power plant projects.

Alongside working on these actual projects, he was also involved in research and development work. The development of high-velocity ESP (HV-ESP) is a typical example. The result was later realized in tunnel ESP with large air volume and high velocity flow, which was installed in automobile tunnels to remove particles such as unburned carbon emitted mainly by diesel vehicles.

For 2 years from 1998, he was the team leader of the construction planning department for environmental equipment, including ESP.

In 2000, he returned to ESP’s design and planning department, where he worked on technical negotiations with clients, mainly on projects for overseas markets. During this period, he also served as a lecturer in charge of ESP education in a project in which the Japanese government invited personnel from power plants in developing countries to Japan every year for education.

During the period from October 2006 to March 2009, as part of the personnel exchange program within MHI, he went to the power systems division in Nagasaki to work on improving the procurement capability of ESP as a boiler auxiliary. During this period, he also considered adopting a competitor’s ESP in three projects in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Indonesia before finally adopting an ESP from MHI’s environmental equipment division. This successfully created a win-win relationship for both the power systems and environmental equipment divisions. Then, in April 2009, he returned to the environmental equipment division in Kobe again.

Haramachi Thermal Power Station of the Tohoku Electric Power Company was the most severely damaged coal-fired power plant when the tsunami was caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean near Japan on March 11, 2011. The plant’s ESP was to remove and completely replace the existing equipment, and he was assigned as the project manager for the replacement of Unit 1’s ESP and ash handling equipment. It was a rush project to complete the ESP of the 1000 MW plant in 10 months, from the start of construction to the start of boiler firing, but the project was successfully completed without any accidents or disasters.

In October 2015, two of Japan’s leading ESP manufacturers, Mitsubishi and Hitachi, agreed to merge their operations, and a new company was established with headquarters in Yokohama. With the launch of the new company, he was involved in the integration of Mitsubishi and Hitachi ESP technologies at the Yokohama headquarters.

He returned to Kobe in May 2021 and now collects and analyzes technical information, including patents, on his own and other companies’ technologies related to ESP in general.

Mr. Mark Field UK

Profile

Mr. Pradip V Gurnani India

Profile

Prof. Keping Yan China

Profile

Dr. S Sekar India

Profile

Business Position: Retired Executive Director(Corporate
R&D division)
Company: Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, India
Year of Birth: 22nd Oct 1954
Years in Industry: 37
Nationality: Indian
Phone: 8886144441
Email: [email protected]

Sekar completed his graduation in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Madras, Chennai in 1976 and joined the public sector power company Bharat Heavy Electricals ltd, India in the year 1977. He was sponsored for research in the field of Electrostatic precipitation at the Institute of High Voltage Research at Uppsala University, Sweden in the year 1978. He completed his Doctorate in Engineering with HIgh Voltage Research in the year 1981. His thesis is on the subject of electrical energization of electrostatic precipitators.

On his return to India in 1982, he resumed his carrier in various capacities in Engineering and Research in Electrostatic Precipitators in BHEL. He was in charge of Engineering and R&D at the Boiler Auxiliaries Plant, BHEL, Ranipet, India producing ESP for power plants and industries, Fabric filters, FD and ID fans, Air pre-heaters and Flue gas de-sulphurisaion systems till Feb 2012 and subsequently till Oct 2014 he was in charge of Corporate R&D division of BHEL, the unit responsible for R&D support for all products of BHEL including Boilers, Turbines, Motors and Generators, Transformers, HV switching gears etc.

His was instrumental in establishing research and development facilities like current distribution testing in ESP, corona characteristics, spark erosion and flow model studies in ESP at BHEL, Ranipet plant. He has established facilities for ESP controls at the plant and as in charge of design, development and filed services of ESP, he has contributed to development of intermittent energisation of ESPs, pulse energisation, wider pitch precipitator and taller ESP designs.

His team has participated in various ICESP and contributed technical papers on ESP in the area of controls, wide pitch ESP systems and flow modelling.

On his retirement from BHEL, he served as part time Professor in Electrical Engineering at Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science wherein he was teaching and guiding research students in Electrical Engineering in the area of power converters and ESP supplies.

Dr Sekar was technical head of the ICESP at Bangalore, India during 2013 which well participated by ESP specialists from across the globe.

He is a fellow of ISESP and recipient of the ISESP Frederick G Cottrell Award in 2021.

Dr. Per Ranstad Sweden

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Mr. Karsten Poulsen Denmark

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Dr. Gianluca Bacchiega Italy

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Prof. Akinori Zukeran Japan

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Prof. Jerzy Mizeraczyk Poland

Profile

Mr. Jose Sanchez USA

Profile

Business Position: Principal Technical Leader
Company: EPRI
Years in Industry: 25
Nationality: USA
Phone: 650-855-2143
Email: [email protected]

Jose Sanchez is a Chemical Engineer with 23+ years of professional experience in the Combustion, Performance, and Environmental Controls Research Group at EPRI. During his tenure, Jose has worked under various roles. In early years, Jose worked as a Data Analyst and Project Engineer supporting studies for Combustion and NOx control. Jose also worked extensively with Computational Fluid Dynamics model development and analysis on various parts of the combustion process train.

In later years, Jose supported efforts as Project Manager for numerous R&D projects encompassing solutions for fossil-fired electrical generating units with respect to pulverized coal flow distribution, coal preparation, pulverization, and two-phase flow. In 2011, Jose brought the two-phase flow expertise to the particulate matter control area with a focus on Electrostatic Precipitator Performance. More recently Jose has also engaged in studies with wet flue gas desulfurization systems.

With the onset of additional computational power and algorithm breakthroughs, Jose has also focused on the application of artificial intelligence tools to enhance and troubleshoot the complex interactions affecting the combustion and environmental control systems mentioned earlier, including ESPs.

He achieved a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from California State University at San Jose (SJSU). In addition to serving in the International Society for Electrostatic Precipitation Board of Directors, Jose is also a member of AIChE, ASME and ACS.

Prof. Istvan Kiss Hungary

Profile

Business Position: Associate Professor
Company: Budapest University of Technology and
Economics
Year of Birth: 1972
Years in Industry: 28 (cooperation with industrial partners)
Nationality: Hungarian
Phone: +36 1 463 2904
Email: [email protected]

Istvan Kiss was graduated in 1995 as an electrical engineer in 1995 at the Technical University of Budapest. His MSc thesis was connected to the numerical calculation of the distribution of electric field in the presence of space charge. Although it was used for several purposes in insulation engineering, it was clear that modelling of space charge is vital in case of electrostatic precipitators. In cooperation with the Department of Fluid Mechanics, a new ESP model was created which was the basis of his PhD thesis.

As a young researcher with PhD degree, he was involved in the works of the Department High Voltage Engineering and Equipment led by Prof. Istvan Berta. Dr. Kiss was involved in several industrial projects and connecting research works, mainly upgrading ESP-s because of the change of the technology producing the gas to be cleaned. In these works, application of the ESP model was very useful.

He also took part with his software development and numerical modelling skills in electrothermal and magnetohydrodynamic analysis of aluminium smelters in the USA.

As a member of the Working Party “Static Electricity in the Process Industries” he was deeply involved into the analysis of risks arising from electrostatic charging and discharges. Ha was one of the pioneers using soft computing methods in this field. Results obtained here inspired him to analyse similar risks in electrostatic precipitators. Normally no explosive atmosphere is allowed in EPS-s because breakdowns are permanently present, but in some very rear cases fire or explosion can happen. To reduce such risk below the tolerable was also an important field of his interest.

Numerical and laboratory analysis of electrical discharges is also a connection between two important fields of his interest: electrostatic precipitation and lightning protection. He is the member of the Scientific Committee of Int. Conf. on Lightning Protection (ICLP).

Dr. Alain Bill Switzerland

Profile

Business Position: Vice President Sales & Buss. Dev.
Company: ANDRITZ AG
Year of Birth: 1968
Years in Industry: 25
Nationality: Swiss / Venezuelan
Phone: +41 79 765 48 11
Email: [email protected]

Alain has been working in various roles in air pollution control since the beginning of professional career. After completing his Chemical Engineering studies (1994) with a PhD in heterogeneous catalysis (1997) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, Alain joined ABB Corporate Laboratories in Baden-Dättwil (Switzerland). As young research engineer, Alain work on different techniques, including dielectric barrier discharge, to tranform carbon dioxide into valuable products (methanol, …).

Once graduated (2002) from the W. E. Simon Graduate Scholl of Business Administration at the University of Rochester (NY, USA), Alain took the responsibilities of the marketing activities for the EMEA region with Alstom Power Environmental Control Systems (ECS) segment. After some years (2006), he took again a more technical role by leading the R&D program and its execution for the Air Quality Control Systems business of Alstom Power Services. He led the global team of research engineers in the US, India and Sweden, including the power laboratory in Växjö. The subsequent role of Global AQCS Product Manager (2011) enabled him to launch the 4th generation of the Switched Integrated Rectifier (SIR) to energize the ESP.

Alain also gained operational experience by leading (2014-2017) the local service centers in the Northern part of Latin America. With the GE acquisition (2017), Alain took again the role of Global AQCS Product Manager, covering all technologies from dedusting, DeSOx, DeNOx and other techniques to abate emissions from industrial installations.

In 2022, Alain joined the ANDRITZ Group1) where he leads the Global Sales and Business Development activities for the Air Pollution Control division.