Overview

Xanthan Gum is a very stable, polysaccharide, aqueous thickening agent, derived from bacteria and used in many foods and industrial products. It is produced by fermentation of sugar under sterile conditions. A continuous process was developed by Tate and Lyle and a new plant built on Merseyside. The process plant requires rigorous sterilisation by medium pressure steam to avoid contamination. It was just after this sterilisation procedure that a major disaster occurred as the plant was being restarted.

Disastrous Dinners is a series of talks focusing on an accident or disaster and what can be learnt from it. After the presentation will be a social dinner and drinks along with lots of time to continue the discussion.

Speaker

Ron Dalton - Ron has worked in R&D, Production, Process Design and General management for several major chemical and engineering companies over several countries. His experience includes ICI; Synthetic Rubber and Petrochemicals (England), Lycra (DuPont - USA), Xanthan Gum (Tate & Lyle - England), Lubricants, Transonic Wind Tunnel, Hydrocarbons and Pharmaceuticals (Foster Wheeler - England, Scotland, Japan, South Korea, Germany and South Africa). 

Ron is a Fellow of IChemE which he joined in 1958 and has seen quite a few disasters during his impressive career!