Szabolcs Biro Ph.D.

Experienced in bitumen and asphalt, downstream technologies and hydrocarbon processing.

Szabolcs Biro, Ph.D. is a chemical engineer with 14+ years of experience in bitumen and asphalt technologies. A visionary type of leader who oversees industrial trends and has experience in managing effectively and efficiently multiple and various sized projects at the same time. He has proven records of creative solutions to new problems (1 world patent, 1 US patent pending, 3 know-hows) as well.

Most recently Szabolcs is a principal engineering consultant at Bitumen Engineering where he is involved at the highest level of decision making and budgeting besides engineering activities such as equipment design or new product development. His personality consists of a good blend of leadership (not just managing) and technical expertise.

World patent and US patent pending

know-hows

peer reviewed journal papers

technical conference presentations

Prior to Bitumen Engineering, Szabolcs served STRATCO, Inc. as a senior chemical engineer (a petrochemical technology and equipment licensor (for bitumen and other technologies) in the USA, which is mostly known for its world class sulfuric acid alkylation technology).
In the USA, Szabolcs held an O-1 visa, which is given only to aliens with extraordinary abilities in the sciences etc.

Before joining STRATCO, Inc. Szabolcs worked at the Asphalt Rubber Technology Service (ARTS) research center in South Carolina, USA as a research engineer.

Representative accomplishments include:

•    He is the main inventor of the world patented chemically stabilized asphalt rubber material and technology (WO/2007/068990). The biggest Oil & Gas Company in Middle Europe (MOL Group) has constructed and been operating a new plant based on this invention.

•    Sold a $500,000.00 piece of STRATCO Contactor reactor for grease application within the shortest period of time in the company’s 82 years of history.

•    One of the main designer of a novel, portable, modified bitumen blending plant with an estimated commercial value of $7-800,000.00.

Before moving to the US, he was awarded one of the highest awards in chemical technology from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in his native country (granted for only one person each year under the age of 35).
He has been author to numerous technical papers and international presentations.

Holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from University of Veszprem (Hungary, Europe), a British IChemE accredited university with a concentration in bitumens / asphalts, hydrocarbon processing and petrochemistry. He graduated from the same university with a MEng is chemical engineering and a postgraduate degree in R&D engineering. During his engineering studies he completed two years of graduate economics studies as well.

Szabolcs lives in Budapest, Hungary with his wife and child. He leads a healthy and active lifestyle participating in healthy cooking, formulation of natural cosmetics besides various sport activities (he used to be the captain of the university’s soccer team for 4 years).

Recommendations

Experience & Achievements

Research Projects

Education and Awards

Publications

Recommendations

Here are a few lines as recommendations about my professional experience, work and attitude from various people around the world.


John S. Kay, P.E., CLGS

Vice President – Engineering, STRATCO, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
(part of Green card support letter)

Dr. Biro has in-depth experience in the field of high performance modified asphalts, which is a critical core competency in a key industry served by both STRATCO and its sister company, ECOPATH Industries LLC.  Dr. Biro gained commercial experience in this field and also graduate level training in the USA, including crumb rubber modified asphalt, which is a very specialized niche product in the modified asphalt industry.  He also has experience and knowledge in the use of modified asphalts used in the manufacture of asphalt roofing shingles, which is a specific target market of STRATCO.  Such expertise is very rare in the world, especially when coupled with extensive laboratory experience, which is crucial in developing these and related technologies.

Dr. Biro also has specialized training and experience in the manufacture of lubricating greases, which is the most prominent specialized offering of STRATCO throughout its 80+ year history.  Experts in this field are also in very limited supply in the world.

Khaldoun Shatanawi, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Dr. Biro is an experienced engineer with very practical thinking. His novel approaches, versatility and diverse base of knowledge related to the asphalt and hydrocarbon fields always resulted in high quality outcomes.
He knows how to get people involved and can effectively handle many different projects at the same time. It is a true delight to work with him.

 

Leonid Kolerov

Head of Business Development Unit, Koltech, Moscow, Russia

My experience working with Szabolcs has always been highly positive. He is result oriented, honest and hard working individual. He posses a high degree of technical knowledge and discipline necessary for complex problem solving tasks. I can recommend Szabolcs as a highly qualified chemical engineer and experienced project manager.

Norbert Vincze 

Drilling Fluids Engineer, AVA – Newpark Group, Hungary

I used the support of Szabolcs in solving various rheology related issues. I greatly appreciate his technical knowledge, practical approaches and nice personality.

Norman Kolb

Chemical Engineer, Strategy Engineering, Houston, Texas, USA

It is pretentious of me to judge individuals of Dr. Biro’s qualification, however I can say without hesitation that Dr. Biro is among the finest engineers that I have met.

Serji Amirkhanian, Ph.D. 

Director of Research and Development for Phoenix Industries of Las Vegas, USA

Dr. Biro joined my research team at Asphalt Rubber Technology Service (Clemson University) several years ago as a Post-Doctoral Research Scientist.  His responsibilities included performing research in the area of Rubberized Asphalt Concrete (RAC). Dr. Biro’s technical knowledge and his contributions to this field are making enormous improvements to the technology development and practical utilization of RAC, not only as a researcher, but also as a mentor to undergraduate, graduate students, researchers and practitioners.

Further, Dr. Biro has unique multidisciplinary scientific skill sets that are needed for frontier and in-depth asphalt technology and pavement materials research and field applications. Dr. Biro has contributed significantly to the field of rubberized asphalt and on the rheological and mechanical properties of asphalt rubber. Dr. Biro’s research projects conducted at Clemson University has contributed to the body of the knowledge in this area of science.  His work has been referenced in many scientific journal papers around the country.

He was involved, while at Clemson University, with cutting edge research activities.  In this area of research, Dr. Biro conducted very high caliber of work that sets him apart from many other researchers.

Experience & Achievements

Principal Engineering Consultant │ October 2011 - present

Principal Engineering Consultant   │   October 2011 – present
Bitumen Engineering, Budapest, Hungary

Bitumen Engineering is a technical consulting group, which provides custom designed technically advanced and economically viable solutions for various industries whom are utilizing bituminous materials.

•   Leading of a program to develop and introduce various asphalt rubber binder formulas and asphalts into Hungary.
•   Development of a brand new approach in modified bitumen formulation focusing of feasibility aspects.
•   Elaborating complete technology transfer projects in the bitumen area to open new markets.
•   Planning and implementing majority of future strategies of the company including marketing.
•   Meeting with clients and business partners.
•   Managing research and consulting projects, while responsible for budgeting and expense activities for certain projects.

Senior Chemical Engineer │ June 2008 - Sept. 2011

Senior Chemical Engineer   │   June 2008 – September 2011
STRATCO, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

Since 1928, STRATCO has been a leading provider of specialized blending and reaction equipment for grease, lubricants, bitumen / asphalt, reformulated gasoline, biodiesel, roofing materials and other hydrocarbon processing and petrochemical areas.

Targeted experience in the areas of bitumen/asphalt technologies and lubricating grease; areas of material, equipment and feasibility.

•   Involved in tender bids, technical proposal preparation, creating cost estimates, and quote projects.
•   Creating engineering studies that include economic analyses and process simulations.
•   Developing process flow diagrams (PFD), material specifications.
•   Managing various sized, mostly technology transfer projects.
•   Performing lab tests and preparing evaluations to correlate lab procedures to commercial scale operations and equipment.
•   Managing relationships with third party partners, represent the Company at conferences, trade association meetings and sales calls.
•   Serving as project manager for contracting subdivision of the Company when necessary; responsible for certain budgeting part in the given project as well.

Assistant Professor │ February 2005 - April 2006
Assistant Professor   │   February 2005 – April 2006
Department of Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing, University of Veszprem, Hungary

Department of Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing of the University of Veszprem is the number one source of specialized chemical engineers for the largest Oil & Gas Company in Hungary (MOL Group).

•   Lead a research group of eight people, whose goal was to solve various, existing industrial problems. Research required planning, execution and data analysis using lab, and pilot plant scale test units.
•   Acquired broad teaching experience and presentation skills by running tutorials and laboratory work on hydrocarbon processing, equipment design (e.g. heat exchangers) and rheology (2000-2006).
•   Primary focus on applied research and development projects for commercial companies.
•   Experience also includes refining technologies, hydrocarbon testing methods, design on process, equipment and experiments, technical reporting and literature review writing.

Research Engineer │ May 2006 - December 2007

Research Engineer   │   May 2006 – December 2007
Asphalt Rubber Technology Service (ARTS), Department of Civil Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA

Asphalt Rubber Technology Service promotes the practical utilization of scrap tires in hot mix asphalt as well as other civil engineering applications through research, training, education, and technology transfer.

•   Research on stabilization methods, flow property improvers for modified bitumen, warm asphalts and mixtures.

Graduate Research Assistant │ Sept. 2000 - Jan. 2005
Graduate Research Assistant   │   September 2000 – January 2005
Department of Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing, University of Veszprem, Hungary

At the Department recipient of an industrial scholarship funded by the Hungarian Oil and Gas PLC, which required to work on practical, real life problems instead of theoretical research.

•   Supervised 13 graduate students during their scientific research (2002-2005). Worked on experimental design, data analysis, report writing and technical presentations.
•   Performed applied research on various hydrocarbon related fields for the MOL group, the leading O&G Company in Middle Europe.

Education and Awards

  Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering │ 2005

Department of Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing, University of Veszprem (lately renamed to University of Pannonia), Hungary

•   Graduated with summa cum laude.
•   Recipient of an industrial scholarship funded by the Hungarian Oil and Gas PLC, which aimed to work on practical, real life problems instead of perform purely scientific research.
•   Research topic: polymer modified bitumens and asphalt │ hydrocarbon processing.

  Postgraduate degree* in Research and Development Engineering

Department of Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing, University of Veszprem, Hungary

•   Major in hydrocarbon processing │ bitumens and asphalt │ rheology │ 2005

* Postgraduate degree hierarchically lies between MEng and Ph.D. To start the course MEng studies have to be completed.

  MEng in Chemical Engineering (accredited by the British IChemE)

Department of Physical Chemistry and Department of Hydrocarbon and Coal Processing, University of Veszprem, Hungary │2000

•   Major in corrosion protection │ downstream technologies │ hydrocarbon processing

  Studies of Economics │ 2000-2002

Department of Applied Economics, University of Veszprem, Hungary

  AWARDS / SCHOLARSHIPS

•  Researcher of the Year Award   │   2005

Granted to only one person annually in the entire country by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for contributions in chemical technology.

•  Best Presentation Award   │   2004
First place in a national competition granted by the Hungarian Oil and Gas PLC (MOL group).

•   Eotvos State Scholarship   │   2006
Granted to only 4 people in entire Hungary each year.

List of Publications

Complete and up to date list of peer reviewed journals and other papers.

Research Projects

MAJOR RELEVANT RESEARCH PROJECTS, September 2000 – Present

In almost all projects responsible for: group leading, literature review, experiment design, problem solving, test method development, economical calculations, involved in sample testing, data collection, result analysis, technical report / feasibility study / patent writing.

  • Viscosity decreasing additive and its application method to reduce viscosity of modified bitumens on a new, economically efficient way (US patent application was submitted (serial: 61/097,992 – main inventor)).
  • Warm asphalt like additive with activated surface to reduce asphalt mixing temperature.
  • Chemically stabilized rubber bitumens and their production methods to decrease industrial production cost, improve performance. Applications include road construction for the Hungarian Oil and Gas PLC (patented (WO/2007/068990) – main inventor).
  • Rheology-based measurement technique aiming to determine phase viscosity for crude oil – water emulsions.
  • Bitumen aging model to estimate changes of flow properties of polymer modified bitumens caused by heat and oxygen hardening (applied by Danube Refinery of Hungarian Oil and Gas (MOL) Group).
  • Modified bitumen-water emulsion for sealer (patent in preparation).
  • Development of high performance hybridized modified bitumens for paving.
  • Storage stability improver additives for modified bitumens using pure and waste polymers (3 know-hows obtained).
  • Polymer modified bitumen to improve the high temperature performance of roofing bitumen in an economically feasible way.
  • Solvent based sealer for building industrial applications, containing SBS, SIS and CRM.
  • Development of a viscosity decreasing method for an existing commercial sealer (served as a technical consultant).
  • Develop modified bitumen standard for Colorado Department of Transportation, USA for a new type of modified bitumen.

Curriculum Vitae of Szabolcs Biro

Before you start reading my CV please note that this is just a general CV. As a person who strongly believes that `one size fits none` I always create custom designed resumes for every ocassion. If you would like to get an updated / custom designed one for a given purpose please contact me.

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