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Contact: Jason Marton
jason.marton@tamuk.edu or 361-593-4143

Engineering-port industry consortium holds pump technology course

KINGSVILLE (November 21, 2005) — The Texas A&M University-Kingsville Engineering-Port Industry Consortium continued to pursue its objective of advancing the technical knowledge of local engineering practitioners in the field by holding the seminar “Pumps: Selection, Design and Operation” on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus Wednesday-Friday, Nov. 9-11.

Thirty-two engineering practitioners signed up for the course, including four employees of CITGO, two from Duke Energy, four from DuPont, seven from Celanese, nine from Flint Hills, two from Mustang Engineering and four from Valero.

John Dufour conducted the seminar. Retired from BP/Amoco after 40 years of experience working with all types of rotating equipment, Dufour is currently the president and owner of Dufour Consulting Services, a rotating equipment consulting firm located in Houston. He is the former chairman of the American Petroleum Institute’s Subcommittee on Mechanical Equipment, where he was responsible for developing and maintaining the API rotating equipment standards. Dufour is the author of numerous technical papers, training manuals, specifications and handbooks that have been published and used throughout the world, including the book Centrifugal Pump Sourcebook.

The consortium was formed in 2003 by Dr. Ali Pilehvari, professor and chairman of the chemical and natural gas engineering department at A&M-Kingsville, and George Frondorf, Strategic Planning Manager of CITGO Petroleum Corporation, to provide high quality, local technical courses to practicing engineers and to foster close cooperation between the Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering at A&M-Kingsville and local industry. Some additional objectives of the consortium included enhancing faculty interaction with industry and furthering the competency of the future workforce.

The consortium is run by a board that meets every three months to determine the

consortium activities. The board is made up of a representative from each member company, along with several faculty members from the College of Engineering. The current chairman of the board is Frondorf of CITGO. The group determines, through surveys and direct feedback, what industry topics need to be covered through training and which nationally-known expert will serve as a trainer.

Currently, there are 10 member companies of the consortium. They are Celanese, CITGO, Duke Energy, DuPont, Equistar, Flint Hills, Maverick Engineering, Mustang Engineering, the Port of Corpus Christi and Valero. According to Pilehvari, the A&M-Kingsville director of the consortium, several other companies are in the process of joining the consortium.

The consortium is open to any local industry of South Texas or support service industry, upon entering into a collaboration agreement with A&M-Kingsville and payment of an annual fee of $1,500.

Consortium non-members are able to attend future courses and workshops on a space-available basis.

For more information on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Engineering-Port Industry Consortium and upcoming workshops, call 361-593-2002.

This page last updated 28 November, 2005