James R. Valentine

James R. Valentine

Mr. Valentine, a Vice President of ChemicaLogic Corporation, consults to the chemical and allied industries. His extensive experience in many areas of industrial chemical technology is accumulated over 35 years of technical practice, of which 25 years was associated with Arthur D. Little, Inc. Mr. Valentine focuses his consulting activities on development of chemical products and manufacturing processes - from bench to pilot and production scales, investigation of technical feasibility and competitiveness of new industrial processes and trouble-shooting existing chemical production systems for improvement in productivity, quality and environmental compatibility.

Some of his expertise in areas of industrial chemistry and production processes in the inorganic chemicals and metals areas are exemplified in the following projects:

• In projects at Arthur D. Little and at Leach & Garner, he investigated a wide variety of chemical and electrochemical processes for the preparation and purification of metallic and salt forms of non-ferrous and precious metals. Several of these processes have been used for the production of commercial quantities of high purity metals and salts from copper, nickel, gold, silver, and platinum group elements.
• As a chemical technologist, Mr. Valentine has applied new chemical process technologies to upgrade production facilities of a variety of inorganic specialty and commodity materials that range from rare-earth oxides and phosphors to zinc oxide and calcium carbonate. Implementation of these upgrades in mixing, solids separation, and thermal conversion areas have resulted in significant improvement in product quality and cost savings in many of these projects.
• Mr. Valentine has evaluated competitive pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes at bench and pilot levels for extraction of metal values from several types of precious and other non-ferrous feedstocks including sulfide and oxide ores, reprocessed tailings, intermediate smelter product streams, and electrolytic anode slimes.
• In programs for clients, he developed several processes for treating solid wastes and wastewater streams from mining or manufacturing operations in the metals industry (e.g. electroplating, anodizing, and pickling sources) to detoxify the wastes and to recover economic values by conversion to usable metal and salt products where possible.
• He has been involved in extensive investigations of the chemical properties and reactions of lime and limestone with sulfate/carbonate solutions and with ash particulates as part of several programs to develop scrubbing processes for coal-fired power generation boilers. These programs lead to development and installation of several full-scale systems in the U.S.
• In programs for the US EPA, he investigated chemical interactions and processes which involve careful control of the solubility of inorganic compounds, including: carbonate/sulfide precipitation processes for removal of metals from dilute wastewater streams; plugging and deterioration of liner systems used in waste storage cells and drains; leaching and transport of trace metals from coal combustion wastes disposed in ponds and similar wet storage locations.

Mr. Valentine spent his initial years with American Cyanamid in process improvement and process control research, and with General Electric in fuel cell power areas. He joined Arthur D. Little, Inc. in 1967, working in the areas of chemical measurement and process control. In subsequent years, his scope of interest and activities expanded into the process chemistry of processing inorganic and metal-containing materials. Many of his projects have a significant environmental orientation toward waste minimization, product recovery, or pollution control.

From 1983 to 1988, he served as Director of Chemical Development at Leach & Garner Company, a major US precious metals refiner and fabricator. In that position, he led a group of chemists and engineers in developing several hydrometallurgical processes for recovering and refining precious metals. In 1988, he rejoined Arthur D. Little, Inc. as a Senior Consultant in the Applied Chemistry and Materials Section and Manager of the Process Chemistry Laboratory, providing facilities and professional guidance for a wide range of experimental programs.

He has continued his professional interests and practice in the application of chemical and instrumental measurements for monitoring and control of chemical production systems. He developed monitoring systems for several commercial processes in non-ferrous hydrometallurgy and inorganic salts using combinations of electrochemical, "wet" chemical and separations techniques and apparatus tailored to the specific process needs.

Mr. Valentine is a co-inventor of several US patents for chemical processes:

• US Patent 4,261,738 for recovery of precious metals from industry scrap; currently under active license and use in a major precious metals refinery.
• US Patent 3,994,649 and 4,021,202 for multistage processes for removal of sulfur oxides from fossil fuel combustion effluents.

In addition to numerous reports for commercial clients and government agency sponsors, Mr. Valentine has authored several publications including chapters on "Dissolution" and "Ion Exchange" in "Unit Operations for Treatment of Hazardous Industrial Wastes", J.B. Berkowitz, et al., (Noyes Data Corporation, 1978).

Mr. Valentine received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts and has taken graduate level studies in chemistry, engineering and management areas. He is a member of the American Chemical Society.