Tutor Biographies

Robert A. Ludolph

Bob Ludolph has over 32 years of experience in fuels and lubricating oil processes. Currently he is the FCC Process Technologist and is recognized as the company subject matter expert at Sunoco, a large independent U. S. petroleum refining company. He has served as the primary technical resource in the catalytic cracking process area since 1985. Bob has held various technical positions in the Research & Development, Refinery, and Refining Staff departments, supporting eight company facility locations. Chief customers have been Refinery Technical Service, Operations, Business Planning, Environmental, as well as refining management and senior company leadership.

Bob approaches technology implementation and optimization from a refiner perspective. He applies his specialized technical knowledge and incorporates the experience gathered through his extensive industry network. Technical and business opportunities are developed and/or high impact problems solved through the application of one or several disciplines and/or expertise. He has led or supported the process assessment and implementation of equipment and catalyst technologies for reliability improvement, yield optimization or air emissions control. He conducts economic evaluations of alternative processing options, plant re-configurations, feedstocks, crudes, and technology enhancements. Applied process modeling is also conducted to support Linear Program optimizer development work. On-site process support is provided for inspections, repair strategies, adding or replacing equipment during scheduled and unscheduled FCC shutdowns.

Bob has extensive experience in leading teams for troubleshooting and optimizing the plants. He leads a best practice team which facilitates the application, transfer, and evaluation of process technology and know-how for all company catalytic cracking processes. Bob mentors developing process engineers through remote and face-to-face interactions. He has also managed process specialists, student process engineers and technicians throughout his career.

Bob actively participates or leads committees and events for the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association. For the Cat Cracking Seminar he has served as a Program Committee member, Workshop Presider, and Q&A Panelist. For the Technology Q&A he has served as a Screening Committee member, Principles & Practices Workshop presider and presenter. Bob is also an active member of the FCC EPA Consenters Group, representing his company in the sharing of know-how for implementing equipment and catalyst technologies to meet refiner Consent Decree emission requirements. Bob holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, is a registered Professional Engineer, and a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.