Sean Moran's Blog, page 11

Process Engineering International Training and Expert Witness Work

There seems to be an uptick in demand for training courses (online of course), and we are booking for the New Year now.

There's also lots of expert witness work in clean and dirty water and their associated sludge treatment plants. I'm going to be travelling overseas for one of those soon, under very tight controls.

I'm just glad to be busy, with all that is going on...

More Clean Water Engineering: Pumped Storage

I've picked up a new expert witness job looking at problems with a pumped storage system overseas. Everything is pretty big, even by water engineering's standards.

My report goes in today on an existing clean water expert witness job, and there are others on the books and in the pipeline. 

I also have an enquiry for a little report on one of those misbehaving domestic package plants I do quite a few of. 

It's going to be a busy approach to Xmas!  

Expert Witness Drinking Water Treatment and Distribution

I'm busy at the moment, working weekends on an expert witness report. I've got a couple of other expert witness jobs following hard on the heels of this one as well. May even be an overseas visit, tricky under pandemic conditions...

Nice to be busy under the circumstances, and nice to have a break from writing books and articles too. 

Expert Witness Clean Water and Sludge Treatment

I've had a lot of expert witness enquiries recently about clean water projects, which are as much a part of my engineering design practice as dirty water, though for some reason, dirty water seems to be where I have historically done more expert witness work. I've just made a start on one of them, and there may be another following hot on its heels. 

There are a few other expert witness jobs in dirty water, and a couple of proper engineering jobs too. I even had a promising enquiry for another paid writing assignment yesterday. 

I also get plenty of enquiries to work/write for free. I'm too busy with paid work to consider that unless the enquirer is some sort of worthy charity case, but they are almost always people who are themselves charging for a service, who'd like to sub it out to you unpaid. They must think I zip up the back!  

  

Utilities Expert Witness Trainer and Practitioner

I've had a mixed bag of enquiries recently, for expert witness work, training and proper engineering, UK and Europe. It's mostly expert witness work, but I'm just waiting to see what lands first, as I work on a "first come, first served" basis. It keeps it interesting.

In the meantime, I'm writing a couple of articles on process scaleup and reliability for Kirk Othmer, and have my Dictionary of Chemical Engineering on the backburner. 

Independent International Chemical Engineering Expert Witness

I spoke to a new company last week as a possible source of work on an associate basis. I'm not quite sure what to call these companies. I know a lot of other expert witnesses work through them. Some of them even work for them as staff members. 

There is one I have been working through for a while now and I have spoken to many others. This new one sounds OK, quite similar to the company I already have as a repeat business client. Many of their competitors seem to be looking for people who would really like to be employees, offering terms which such people consider to be benefits, but at best leave me cold. 

I'm a freelancer by choice. I stopped being an employee as soon as I became chartered, and haven't seriously considered a staff position since, other than stint in academia whilst I got my PhD).  

Hygienic Utilities

I'm being considered for some proper hygienic water engineering work abroad at the moment, and I'm waiting for various expert witness jobs to land. In the meantime I'm making progress with the dictionary. Its a nice level of business, but I'm ready for the next adventure....

Expert Witness / Practitioner Water Engineering

I spoke to the lawyers about the last two expert reports last week. Looks like one of them is going to turn into an engineering job, and the other proceed to negotiation between the sides. There may be more work there, but not for a while. 

One of these is an insurance funded job, and they tend to proceed rather slowly.. I've got another couple of expert witness jobs on the back burner which are pure insurance work, and they are going very slowly indeed. 

I've also got a couple of new enquiries for expert witness work in clean water treatment. Hopefully I'll be back to one of these, or some real engineering in the next few weeks. 

I've made good progress with the dictionary this week, but its not the kind of thing you want to do too much of at once. I've got a couple of Kirk-Othmer articles to write, and I've started blogging for Elsevier again, so I can take a break, even if it's still writing. It would however be nice to get through "M", which would put me halfway through on word count.

       

Expert Witness Advisory Reports And Technical Consultancy Water and Sewage

Having put out my last advisory report on the book last Sunday, I've had a steady week, with lots of progress with the dictionary. 

One of the last two expert witness engagements looks to have avoided proceeding to court, so I'm talking to the client next week about technical fixes. 

I've had a few more proper engineering enquiries, so it looks like a nice mix of work is in the offing.  

Expert Witness Water Sewage Effluent Treatment Engineer

 Another week of report writing, both of them being advisory reports broadly in line with CPR Part 19 and 35 guidelines, but not formally prepared for use in legal proceedings. 

One of them has a great deal in common with a case I worked on a year or so ago. The other is more novel, though as is often the case, involving a reassortment of parts I have seen many times before.

I'm quite an experienced expert witness nowadays, and I've had formal training in all aspect so the role, but I'm still primarily a practising engineer. I'm an expert engineer, rather than an expert in being an expert like too many other "experts" I meet.