Thulani Molefi

• Appointed to technical support team for water treatment plant at SASOL, specializing in ion exchange and water softening technology. Responsible for daily plant monitoring, equipment and process troubleshooting, and optimization.
• Developed automated tool for ion-exchange plant to calculate production volume losses and track overall equipment efficiency and health, focusing on equipment availability and sustained volume production.
• Executed lead project engineering role and provided support from ideation to commissioning, including MFD redlining and reviewing, HAZOP execution, and equipment sizing ( R70 million capital project).
• Conducted equipment audits (primarily on sand filters) to evaluate current production baseline and identifying production optimization opportunities. Opportunities recommended forecasted 9% increase in production throughput once implemented (approx. +R56 000 p/h production gain).
• Implemented non-capital solution to mitigate for low temperature feed water issues at reverse osmosis plant during winter, which maintained feed temperatures within design limit for plant throughout entire winter with no production cut-backs. Non-capital solution achieved approximately R2.9 million in capital savings to plant.
• Led annual plant shutdown as lead process engineer, supervising junior engineers in daily equipment inspections, pre-commissioning checks, and fault-finding throughout shutdown duration.

Formed part of technical support team for ion exchange water treatment plant. Performed daily plant monitoring, equipment troubleshooting and fault-finding.

• Conducted comprehensive data analysis project encompassing data collection, cleaning, processing, and visualization. Analysis results informed operations management with recommended way-forward to implement and control risk f planned step-change in feed water quality to upstream boiler equipment. Potential production saving from changed feed water quality approximated to saving of R225 600 per/h as of FY23.
• Executed problem investigation and root cause analysis for operational and hydraulic issues (cavitation, trips and mechanical seal failure) faced with booster pumps on plant. Investigation findings resolved operational issues by alleviating root cause of cavitation and frequent seal failures. Pump reliability improved significantly thereafter.
• Developed monitoring tools for equipment forming part of responsible unit and transferred tools to operations, enhancing their ability to independently conduct efficient troubleshooting and fault finding.
• Led and provided process engineering support during annual shutdown of water treatment plant. This included executing process investigations, fault finding, equipment inspections, and commissioning support.
• Gained experience in stakeholder engagement and facilitation by leading compilation of contracts and service level agreements with external downstream customers. Contractual service level agreement laid foundation for product and feed quality specifications at boundaries of both plants.

• Formed part of solutions study portfolio team, responsible for FEL (Front End Loading) project execution stages of ongoing projects as well as technical operational support work assignments.
• Executed operational support work assignment for water treatment and production plant. Gained experience in hydraulic system modelling with AFT Fathom for eductor systems. Hydraulic model developed substantiated partial commissioning and operation of redundant eductor system ( approximate potential R10 million asset gain).
• Supported annual plant shutdown as process engineer. Gained experience in equipment commissioning and decommissioning process, equipment inspection, equipment failure analysis and troubleshooting.
• Gained experience in the application of the B&ID project model for project execution from ideation to commissioning.
• Performed project tier classification based on cost and project complexity.
• Gained experience in project scheduling, resource allocation and Gannt charts.
• Partook in risk reviews and gained experience in risk classification based on risk impact and probability.

• Formed part of plant support technical team for reverse osmosis water treatment plant. As part of technical plant support team, was responsible for overall plant health monitoring, equipment evaluation and troubleshooting.
• Participated in root cause analyses (RCAs) for plant equipment failures, gaining expertise in processes, procedures, and methodologies of RCAs.
• Performed investigation on effectiveness of chemicals utilized for routine membrane cleaning on ultra-filtration membrane trains. Investigation findings highlighted potential OPEX savings in chemical utilization during membrane cleaning (above R100 000 OPEX saving).
• Developed equipment health monitoring tool and performance prediction tool for reverse osmosis system using Microsoft EXCEL and VBA macros. Tool enabled plant operators to conduct more efficient and precise equipment troubleshooting and maintenance on reverse osmosis membranes, reducing equipment inefficiency and unavailability due to irregular maintenance.
• Acquired experience in technical report writing for multidisciplinary stakeholders and management, as well as delivering effective presentations and feedback to them.