David P. Nesbitt, P.E.
President & Consulting Engineer
D. NESBITT ASSOCIATES
President & Consulting Engineer
D. NESBITT ASSOCIATES
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
David is currently the founder and President of D. Nesbitt Associates, a professional engineering consultancy company formed in March 1997, specializing in project/process engineering and project management for the worldwide industrial maintenance market. He is a world recognized expert in the inspection, analysis and removal of industrial corrosion or fouling related deposits, and on the use of chemicals, steam and air blowing techniques for cleaning superheat and reheat systems in all types of power generation and industrial process steam systems. He has dealt extensively with the design of chemicals and application removal techniques, commonly called chemical cleaning, as well as mechanical cleaning methods such as high pressure waterblasting for all types of worldwide industries, including nuclear, thermal and combined cycle power plants, chemical plants and refineries, pulp/paper mills and steel mills, and many others.
David is a recognized specialist in chemical cleaning and steam blowing of all types and manufacturers of boilers, from small package boilers in automobile plants to many manufacturers of Heat Recovery Steam Generators [HRSG] in combined cycle plants, from Foster Wheeler natural circulation power boilers to B&W black liquor recovery boilers to CE controlled circulation and supercritical boilers. David has engineered and managed many of the largest cleaning projects in the world, including domestic and international Ethylene plant precommissionings, the first foam cleaning of a nuclear BWR surface condenser, nuclear service water system cleanings, many offshore and onshore pipeline cleaning projects using mechanical pigs enhanced with gelled fluids, large refinery maintenance turnarounds using hydroblasting, chemical cleaning and degassing/decontamination techniques, extensive boiler and steam cycle chemical cleaning and steam/air blowing, multiple turbine lubrication oil flushing of steam, gas and process turbines, and large steel mill hydraulic system flushing.
Prior to founding D. Nesbitt Associates, David held many key roles with HydroChem Industrial Services, Inc. and its predecessor companies. David supported the precommissioning cleaning needs of engineering and construction companies as General Manager of HydroChem's Commissioning Services Unit [CSU], where he was responsible for re-engineering a (32) member US$ 5 million internationally focused organization from a 4% loss to over 10% sustained profit, including profitability management and overall market refocusing of international vs. domestic and precommissioning vs. post-operational cleaning business. Integrating synergistic business lines allowed David to manage the sales, engineering and operation departments into profitability within 12 months.
Prior to managing the CSU operation, David held the Regional Engineering Manager's role in the CSU organization, where he standardized and upgraded a staff of (5) Project Engineers providing unit design, system layout, detailed cleaning procedures and AutoCAD drawing support; this group became the envy of the HydroChem organization. It was here that David specialized his cleaning knowledge to support new construction projects, especially combined cycle power plants using HRSGs and steam/gas turbines, and enhanced his project engineering with comprehensive procedures, drawings and system modeling. David also refined and modeled the techniques used in enhancing steam and air blowing, turbine lubrication flushing, pre-operational chemical cleaning and general process system flushing.
After passing the General Manager's role to his former Operations Manager, David used his International Business Development Manager role to integrate a strategy of international market growth within HydroChem. His numerous around-the-world excursions focused on coordination and expansion of key regional alliances, direct marketing to major construction companies, and developing plans for potential permanent establishments internationally. Through his efforts David is a recognized cleaning expert in many countries of the Pacific Rim, the Subcontinent (India), Middle East and Western/Central Europe.
David continued the optimization of service to customers as Senior Contracts & Alliances Executive, where he trained and supervised field engineers in using maintenance benchmarking techniques and the science of continuous quality improvement [CQI] to enhance the financial and operational performance of routine cleaning services, such as refinery hydroblasting and vacuum truck services under annual contract. David became well versed in the use of both Total Quality Management [TQM] techniques and database design/queries used for maintenance benchmarking and continuous quality improvement.
David enhanced his reputation as a technical leader in the industrial cleaning field through his previous tenure as Senior Development Engineer with Dowell Schlumberger's R&D center in Tulsa Oklahoma (subsequently a division of HydroChem). In this role, David researched and developed state-of-art cleaning technology in chemical cleaning solvents, enhanced steam blowing, chelant recycle and waste treatment including reverse osmosis, pipeline gelled fluid development and enhancement, pipeline rehabilitation using polyethylene liners, removal of non-volatile salts from amine systems, among many others. Many of his ideas and enhancements are in practice in the industrial cleaning service today. David developed numerous software models of industrial cleaning techniques, and piloted/tested many cleaning enhancements in actual field conditions, including the design and construction of a portable, field rugged data acquisition system used in the field for cleaning process monitoring.
His first extensive international work experience came during his Project Engineering role with Atco Mission Industrial, Inc. (subsequently also a division of HydroChem). David was the lead engineer of a Saudi Arabian precommissioning project team for a new Ethylene-based complex built by Mobil Oil and Bechtel. It was here that David refined the enhanced steam blowing and two-phase flushing techniques used to clean plant process and steam systems, ultimately leading to (4) steam blow patents and (1) two-phase flushing equipment patent issued. During his employment with Atco-Mission, David also helped develop and implement the first process controlled utility regenerative air preheater hydroblasting tool, including equipment/software design and operations manual development. This system is in use throughout the world, and still considered the state of the art.
David subsequently fulfilled many field project and sales roles for Halliburton's Industrial Services Division (subsequently also a division of HydroChem) and HydroChem throughout the US, solving many industrial cleaning problems through professional engineering design, methodical service execution, and thorough post-service evaluation. Here David worked in various industrial plants, from refinery and petrochemical, automobile and pulp/paper, from steel mills to power plants.
David has actively supported the agenda of the industrial cleaning market in key technical and professional societies since 1984, including membership in the National Association of Corrosion Engineers International [NACE], the American Institute of Chemical Engineers [AIChE], and the National Society of Professional Engineers [NSPE]. Under David's chairmanship of the NACE T-3M technical committee on Chemical and Mechanical Cleaning from 1992 to 1996, NACE finalized the TM0193-93 standard on Laboratory Corrosion Testing of Metals in Static Chemical Cleaning Solutions at Temperatures below 93 degC, as well as organized and sponsored three symposia on industrial cleaning services. In addition to his section chair role, David personally vice chaired a 1991 symposium on "Mechanical Cleaning Technology", and in 1992 he chaired NACE's 50 year anniversary symposium for T-3M on "Past, Present and Future Technology in Industrial Cleaning", with over 14 authors from over 6 different countries, including a planetary lecture by the world renown cleaning expert, A. David Nesbitt, P.E., on A History of Chemical Cleaning as a Business.
In addition, David has actively served at the local level of these associations, as past editor and chairman-elect of the Tulsa Oklahoma section of AIChE. In 1992 the national AIChE organization recognized him with the Marx Isaacs award for outstanding section newsletter. He continues to be active at the local level, as a NACE Houston Section Fellowship Contributor for 1997-1998, and past presenter at the NACE Houston Section Gulf Coast Corrosion Seminar.
David has spoken before numerous groups around the world on the various technologies of the industrial cleaning business, and continues to champion the cause of using unbiased, qualified, experienced, licensed professional engineers for designing and implementing industrial cleaning solutions.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
D. Nesbitt Associates, Engineering Consultants Worldwide, March 1997 to present
......President & Consulting Engineer, Missouri City (Houston) Texas
HydroChem Industrial Services, Inc., April 1983 to February 1997
(successor to the businesses of Dowell Schlumberger Inc. Industrial Services Division, Halliburton Services' Industrial Services Division and Atco Mission Industrial Incorporated)
Senior Contracts & Alliances Executive, Houston Texas
International Business Development Manager, Houston Texas
Regional Manager, International, Project Services Region, Houston Texas
Regional Engineering Manager, Project Services Region, Houston Texas
Senior Research Engineer, Dowell Schlumberger, Inc.,Tulsa Oklahoma
Sales Engineer, Special Services, Dowell Schlumberger, Inc., Plaquemine Louisiana
Sales Engineer, Halliburton Services, Inc. , Monroe Michigan
Project Engineer, Atco Mission Industrial, Inc., Saudi Arabia & Houston Texas
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, 1982
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan
Registered as a Professional Engineer in Chemical Engineering,
The State of Louisiana in 1988
The State of Oklahoma in 1990
The State of Texas in 1998
AFFLILIATIONS
National Association of Corrosion Engineers International [NACE], member from 1984-2004
Chairman, T-3M Unit Committee "Chemical & Mechanical Cleaning", 1992 to 1996
American Institute of Chemical Engineers [AIChE], member from 1984-1997
Editor, Tulsa Section, 1992
Chairman-Elect, Tulsa Section, 1993
National Society of Professional Engineers [NSPE], member in 1988
HONORS
William J. Branstrom Prize for Academic Excellence, University of Michigan 1979.
AIChE Marx Issacs Award for Outstanding Local AIChE Section Newsletter, 1992.
Vice-Chairman of NACE Symposium on "Mechanical Cleaning Technology", 1992
Chairman of 50 year NACE Anniversary Symposium on "Past, Present and Future Technology in Industrial Cleaning", 1993
Co-Chairman of NACE Gulf Coast Corrosion Control Seminar on "Risk Assessment and Management", 1998 & 1999
President, Board of Directors, Professional Disc Golf Association, 2010-2012
PUBLICATIONS
Nesbitt, D.P.; "Comparison of SILENTSTEAM Blowing to Conventional Steam Cycle Cleaning Methods"; IWC 96-3, International Water Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, 1996.
Hansen, J.T., Harris, D., and Nesbitt, D.P.; "Commissioning of the OPPD North Omaha Station Retrofit Modifications Using an Enhanced Steam Blowing Technique"; PowerGen '93, Dallas, TX, Nov 1993.
Nesbitt, D.P.; "The Use of Gelly Pig Technology for Removal of Stuck Mechanical Pigs"; OTC 6772, Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, TX, 1991.
Nesbitt, D.P.; "Gelly Pig Technology", NACE South Central Region Conference, Houston, TX, May 1990.
