Francesca Cibotti

Renewables Focus

• Led R&D efforts to evaluate bio fuels and other renewable feedstocks' effects on equipment reliability.
• Designed and executed corrosion and fouling tests to determine which renewable feedstocks' could be co-processed in the refineries at which concentrations.
• Tested several different types and grades of renewable feedstocks and also evaluated the efficacy of antioxidants in preventing oxidation of feed.
• These efforts led to successfully co-processing soybean oil in the Chevron El Segundo Refinery in 2021. The first refinery to co-process bio fuels in a fluid catalytic cracking plant to make gasoline, jet, and diesel.
• Currently expanding the analysis to encompass blends of bio fuels and the possibility of using melted plastic as a feedstock.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of surface treatments in preventing corrosion and fouling in bio fuels service.
• In parallel, Chevron's recent focus on hydrogen has prompted research regarding infrastructure and materials requirements for equipment reliability in hydrogen service.
• Aligned with the development of internal standards regarding material grades, welding requirements, and damage mechanisms in hydrogen service.

Protective Coating Focus

• Developed relationships with several protective coating providers and evaluated their technologies through experiment design and execution.
• Evaluation of coatings in numerous services led to deployment of coatings on equipment like heat exchangers and furnaces that were most affected by fouling.
• Developed a self-healing coating for corrosion protection of offshore assets and other equipment in corrosive environments in collaboration with notable paint vendors.

• Project Manager responsible for leading a cross-organizational (4 companies) team of engineers and scientists to develop and deploy a “self-healing” coating technology capable of autonomously repairing mechanical damage for corrosion prevention of offshore assets.
• Worked with several paint and coating manufacturers before vetting a technology to meet Chevron Engineering Standards
• Designed and executed validation testing, developed industry’s first test methodology for evaluating self-healing materials
• Project Manager responsible for leading a multidisciplinary engineering team on a project aimed to improve non-destructive examination (NDE) techniques for detecting High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) in steel for maintaining equipment reliability in hydrogen service.
• Project Lead responsible for testing and evaluating reliability of equipment after exposure to: polymers, produced and synthetic water, bio fuels, high temperature crude oil; Project Lead responsible for designing and executing tests to validate coating technologies to prevent fouling/scaling in heat exchangers
• Validated and deployed 10+ technologies in 2018.

• Managed all of Chevron’s downstream failure analysis requests
• Carried out 70+ failure analyses of hardware ranging from heat exchangers and rotating equipment to nonmetallic materials and high reliability investigations requested from other oil companies
• Managed and prioritized work coming into the Chevron Materials Lab and delegated failure analysis projects to the appropriate engineers or self
• Supported capital expenditure projects and lab improvement initiatives for lab equipment upgrades to optimize technical service and increase R&D capability
• Trained new materials engineers hired in ETC and the refineries on the principles and process of conducting a failure analysis
• This included qualitative and metallographic analysis as well as investigation into the process streams and equipment functionality to come to a comprehensive root cause and solution for the customer
• Provide failure analysis expertise, corrosion modeling, and general materials consulting for Joint Ventures such as BAPCO, CLG, Caltex
• Notably conducted two analyses of BAPCO’s VBU and Crude Unit failures that resulted in a fire and a plant shut down, respectively
• Authored the update of the FCC Chevron Engineering Standard to reflect recent studies and failure data for corrosion prevention
• Promoted to next pay scale grade with management responsibilities 5 months after starting at the company.

• Supported the Subsea Production System (SPS) team on a technology project to design subsea equipment that can withstand up to 20ksi of pressure and 350F temperatures in order to explore ultra-deepwater reservoirs
• Conducted a valve fatigue study to exhibit how 20ksi mudline pressures would affect the fatigue life of individual SPS gate valves during operation to serve as a basis of design that accommodates recent revisions to API 17TR8, HPHT Design Guidelines