Charles Lea, P.E.

Director, Minneapolis Office Lead

Mr. Lea oversees our Minneapolis office with significant experience in pressure relief and flare system design and analysis for petrochemical and chemical companies in the U.S. and overseas. He directs a number of large technical projects across multiple offices and is also responsible for all project management in our Minneapolis office. Prior to joining ioMosaic, Mr. Lea worked in the biomedical industry.

Mr. Lea specializes in pressure relief flare systems (PRFS) and effluent handling projects. He is experienced in performing complex emergency relief systems (ERS), flare, and depressurizing calculations for an array of scenarios and in the development of kinetic models from calorimetry data. Additionally, he is skilled in using chemical reactivity data and thermal analysis to complete PRFS designs for reactive systems.

Project Sampling

Analyzes pressure relief requirements using simulation software, designs relief effluent handling systems, and generates relief systems documentation.

Performed dynamic relief requirements using SuperChems™ for an alumina processing facility to determine the effects of an overpressure scenario in multiple pieces of equipment.

Evaluated risk of atmospheric dispersion for polystyrene plant. Mr. Lea helped the client design a flare header using existing equipment and High-Integrity Pressure-Protections Systems while providing a cost estimate to augment the existing equipment.

Performed ERS, flare and emergency depressuring calculations for multiple trains of a LNG company. Helped identify any overpressure concerns including locating areas of high acoustically induced vibration and knock-out drum analysis.

Analyzed dynamic relief requirements such as tube rupture, runaway reaction, and external fire cases where it was desired to calculated the wall temperature history.

Experience in development of kinetic models from calorimetry data.

Used chemical reactivity data and thermal analysis to complete PRFS designs for reactive systems.

Education

Professional Engineering (PE), Minnesota 

University of Minnesota
B.S. Chemical Engineering