Recent Projects

Good work achieves excellent results. The entries below detail some of Colleen's recent projects -- it’s had huge benefits for the companies she’s been working with, whether helping a firm meet targets, or making huge jumps in productivity and profit.

Colleen’s skills were not acquired solely by reading and carrying out theoretical work. Since she graduated from the university, she has worked with several engineering companies.

Most of her work involves research and development and computer modeling, which have helped many companies to achieve more efficient production and therefore, higher profit margins. However, this is not her only field of work; Colleen also has skills in proposal writing. Two samples of this work are shown below.

Sample SBIR text

“Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC) are predicted to be the choice power source for future portable applications. The low-cost of methanol, high energy density, and inherent safety explain the immense interest in this power source.

One of the major technical challenges of the DMFC is the development of a methanol feed subsystem. Current DMFC’s have relatively dilute methanol (2 to 3 molar, or 6.41% to 9.61% methanol by volume) at the anode, which requires carrying a large volume of dilution water.

Dilute methanol is currently used instead of pure methanol because of “methanol crossover” from the anode to the cathode across the membrane separator. A direct methanol fuel cell needs to be developed with pure methanol to avoid the logistics burden of carrying a large quantity of dilution water.”

Sample BAA text

“Achieving these objectives will require cost-effective and energy efficient hydrogen production technology in order to have widespread use of hydrogen for transportation and stationary power.

The vision is an ultra-lightweight, rugged fuel cell stack that will produce zero emmisions, and will be able to provide the required power output. Fuel cells will be able to fulfill this power need for as long as hydrogen are supplied to them.

PEM fuel cells require the development of high quality, inexpensive bipolar plates for planar fuel cell stacks.”

Engineering Experience

All of Colleen Spiegel’s major professional work with various companies across the country is briefly detailed below in chronological order. The work for Lynntech, which is top of the list, is her most recent, getting progressively older further down.

Lynntech, College Station, Texas
Created mathematical model for mass and heat transfer, and pressure change in Lynntech’s GEN5 fuel cell stack. The final result of over 2000 lines of code predicted the possibility of several occurrences in the stack.

BCC Research, Norwalk, Connecticut
Wrote a paper entitled ‘Commercial Amino Acids’, describing the amino acid products that are used commercially, including market trends and predicted growth in the sector. The paper also identifies possible avenues for expansion of the industry in the form of promising new amino acid technology.

Elsevier Science, New York
Wrote ‘PEM Fuel Cell Modeling and Simulation Using MATLAB’, which was published by Elsevier science, and covers all of the subjects relating to fuel cell modeling. The book also talks about fuel cell stacks and the fuel cell plant among other topics, and makes use of MATLAB code examples throughout.

BCC Research, Norwalk, Connecticut
Wrote a paper entitled ‘World Electronics: High Growth Sectors and New Electronics Markets’, containing detailed analysis of various types of electronics products and technologies, and the market conditions under which they are sold.

Constellation Technology Corporation
Used MATLAB to create a mathematical model showing the growth of iodide crystals. Recommendations were provided for crystal growth temperatures, ampoule orientation and the aspect ratio, allowing the company to meet its annual DTRA goals.

McGraw-Hill, New York
Wrote ‘Designing and Building Fuel Cells’, published by McGraw- Hill, a book which gives a step by step example of how to construct a fuel cell, as well as giving guidance on various topics related to fuel cells, such as thermodynamics, electrochemistry and energy balances.

BCC Research, Norwalk, Connecticut
Was responsible for doing research on the coal-related product industry, ultimately writing a paper entitled ‘Opportunities for Coal- Based Products: Clean Coal and Coal Processing Technologies’. This paper focused on the US market, reviewing the current situation, looking at various patents, and predicting developments up to 2011.

DJA & Associates, Washington D.C.
Completed a technical writing project on the companies who used Navy SBIRs to achieve success, interviewing company presidents and scientists to obtain concise summaries of technology, and translating the features of these technologies into readable text.

Constellation Technology Corporation, Largo, Florida
Used MATLAB to construct a detailed mathematical model of mercuric iodide thin film growth, and wrote a detailed report of the findings. The report included recommendations on temperature for future growth, on the types of encapsulants to use with mercuric iodide, and contained detailed statistical analysis of current mercuric iodide production.

Constellation Technology Corporation, Largo, Florida
Managed the process for manufacturing mercuric iodide, and studied several new procedures for purification, crystal growth, fabrication and testing of the mercuric iodide detectors. Colleen also optimized the production process of mercuric iodide detectors, and produced reports/presentations on the process for the government (DTRA).

Baush & Lomb Pharmaceuticals, Tampa, Florida As a process engineer, Colleen wrote over fifty documents on the companys' production processes, successfully improving the plant’ s efficiency. After the plant’s most profitable line had been down for nearly a month, Colleen managed to get it back up to producing thousands of units per day, and received an award for her work.

Custom Manufacturing & Engineering, St. Petersburg, Florida Completed research and development work, ultimately proposing a PEM fuel cell program to the company president, which encompassed the project timeline, materials, and costs. This project also included the writing of ‘Power and Power Management Study’ for CECOM, which summarized all the existing technology on battery, solar and fuel cell power.

Colleen Spiegel
1737 Prince Phillip St Clearwater, FL 33755
Toll Free: (866) 738-3970
Phone: (727) 230-1981
Fax: (727) 230-9035