I am a father of two great boys. I have a passion for working with my hands and a lifelong love of learning.
I currently hold two Associates degrees from Southeast Community College in Milford, Nebraska.
As part of the SCC class of 2012 I graduated with an A.A.S in Energy Generation Operations with a focus in Biofuels Production. This degree gave me knowledge about the power generation industry as a whole with classes in topics like Electrical Power Theory, Instrumentation and Process Controls, Boiler and Steam Turbine Theory. The Biofuels focus included classes in Distillation, Process Plant Chemistry and Microbiology. This degree prepared me for my first career as a Process Operator at Green Plains Renewable Energy in Central City, Nebraska. GPRE is an ethanol production plant with an annual production capacity of 100 million gallons of ethanol. The plant takes in harvested corn and through a series of processes from milling to grain cooking to fermentation to distillation creates high quality ethanol with a purity of 99.9% which is to be blended with petroleum gasoline for use as a motor vehicle fuel.
After I left Green Plains I started work with a small startup company named Green Energy Products which was based in Sedgwick, Kansas. The goal of operations at GEP was to take one of the biproducts of ethanol production, corn oil, and create a sustainable form of biodiesel via two seperate paths.
The first path was a variation of the standard, time tested recipe for biodiesel called transesterification. Traditionally someone would take used cooking oil, add methanol and sodium hydroxide and after letting the mixture settle a layer of glycerin develops. Once you drain off the glycerin you are left with biodiesel that can then be washed with water to further purify it before using it as a motor vehicle fuel. We at GEP worked to develop a process using enzymes rather than harmful chemicals.
The second path to biodisel we perfected took a page from the book of the Oil & Gas industry, catalyst hydrocracking and fractional distillation. In traditional crude oil processing raw oil is mixed with pure hydrogen and drawn over a bed of catalyst material at extremely high temperatures and pressures which through a complex chemical process splits the hydrocarbon chains into shorter chains like diesel or gasoline. Those shorter chains are then ran through a fractional distillation column and the various products are siphoned off.
At Green Energy Products we found a way to do this process with the corn oil biproduct from ethanol production. The further goal of GEP was to design, build, and implement a complete processing plant to be added onto existing ethanol production facilities. My job was to assist in research, construction, and operation at the main plant in Sedgwick, KS as well as travel to the facilities we build in places like Iowa and Illinois and conduct training of plant operations to the operators and supervisors at the facility as well as performing initial startup of the plant to ensure proper function of all equipment such as pumps and valves as well as process instrumentation such as flow meters and temperature/pressure gages.
I parted ways with Green Energy Products in 2016 after the company ran into financial issues.
After I left GEP I decided to pursue a career in the Machine Tool industry by earning my second degree from Southeast Community College. In 2018 i graduated with an A.A.S in Machine Tool Technology. This degree included courses in bluprint reading, materials science, metrology, applied engineering, CAD/CAM programing, automation applications, and machine building.
During my time at SCC I toured a machine shop named Zermatt Tool and knew it was where I wanted to end up. I made connections with the owner and I have been there ever since.