Mr Robert Peeling
Britest
Rob Peeling obtained a BSc in Chemical Engineering from UMIST in 1983. This included two industrial placements in the chemical laboratories at Monsanto and at Shell Carrington. He spent a year at the Shirley Institute in Manchester developing approaches for conserving energy in the textile dyeing and finishing sector. Moving to Tioxide in the north-east of England, Rob developed high power thermal plasma heaters for titanium pigment manufacture followed by periods in process development and design before moving to plant operations. In parallel, Rob developed skill and experience in process safety and as a hazard study leader.
In 1997, he moved to ICI Katalco leading a small group providing technical support for catalyst sales before a period developing oxo-alcohol processes followed by a move to ICI Vertec producing organo-titanates and zirconates. This was his first contact with Britest methodology which he employed in a project which doubled the throughput of the titanate reactors by simply rearranging reactant additions. He was the operations manager for the site until its closure in 2010.
Rob moved to Johnson Matthey’s Technology Centre at Sonning Common to lead a team researching new processes for the refining of platinum group metals. During this time, he developed strong links with Britest. In 2016, he took early retirement from Johnson Matthey and was invited to join Britest, where he is the Technical Services Director, delivering process understanding training and facilitation to clients.