experience / industrial activities

1983 r&d department head at W.C.Heraeus in Hanau
chemical reaction engineering
precious metal chemistry and technology; process design
responsable for R&D precious metal recycling
classical gold and silver refining; electrowinning ; several patents
classical and enhanced platinum and palladium refining from catalyst recycling
precious metal chemicals and plating compounds
solvent extration process development for the separation of platinum group metals
electrochemical engineering for the recovery of precious metals from spent liquors
electrowinning of precious metals
recycling of spent autocat and electronic scrap
environmental process technologies

fine chemicals development
synthesis of precious metal compounds for the chemical industry
synthesis of cytostatic precursor material
synthesis of rare metal chemicals for the semiconductor industry
synthesis of organometallic chemicals for homogeneous catalysis and for wear resistive coatings in pilot plant scale

1989 Prokurist (senior manager) at W.C.Heraeus in Hanau
manager engineering and r&d
development and performance of several large sized engineering projects , 30 to 100 Mio DM
technical and commercial negotiations on an international level
process and plant engineering, procurement and maintanance
project management; technical controlling
costs structure analysis and optimization

1994 - 1995 production head of a platinum group metals refinery and associated engineering and research and development departments at W.C.Heraeus in Hanau

1995 foundation of HEV (Halwachs Edelmetallchemie und Verfahrenstechnik)
consulting precious metal refining and engineering
consulting on chemical reaction engineering
emphasis on solvent extraction and precious metal chemistry and technology
production of chemical specialities


engineering projects

1985-88 conception of production technology, plant lay-out and engineering of the ARGOR HERAEUS plant in Mendrisio/Switzerland, one of the most modern and efficient gold and silver refineries in the world in cooperation with the Union Bank of Switzerland

1988-92 pgm refinery concept, development of process technology, basic and detail engineering and erection of the most modern (till 1995) platinum group metals refinery in the world at the W.C.Heraeus site in Hanau .
The process separates and refines platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, gold and silver from primary pgm ore concentrates and secondary industrial sources comprising state-of-the-art environmental technology .
budgeting, rentability calculations, realization

1988-95 development and delivery of basic and detail engineering of a green field platinum group metals refinery for Gold Fields of South Africa in the Republic of South Africa comprising gold-, silver-, and pgm-refining technology as well as all necessary support systems.