Gasification Licensing Team

Frank Maupay

Executive Director
Equipment Sales & Plant Support, Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: Industrial gas separations. Licensing and technology acquisitions. Mutually beneficial license agreement development.

Frank joined Air Products in 2017 and has global responsibility for large plant sale of equipment, standard plants, and plant support sales for third-party customers, as well as gasification licensing. Prior to joining Air Products, he was employed by Linde Engineering, where he held a variety of management positions, including operations, plant support and sales, as well as product manager for LNG (liquefied natural gas) regasification systems. 

Frank holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University and an MBA from Holy Family University. He is a professional engineer registered in Pennsylvania.  

Jerry Kassman

Commercial Director
Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: All feed types (gas, liquid, solid), products and unusual applications. Identifying the right Air Products gasification technology for a customer’s project success. 

Jerry has spent over 30 years in gasification, starting in 1987 at Texaco’s Montebello, Calif. pilot plant. After eight years running a wide variety of commercial and experimental feedstocks through semiworks gasifiers, he moved into technical services and commercial plant operations roles. Jerry was plant engineer for Texaco’s first joint venture (JV) equity plant and later executive director of the JV, along with managing all of Texaco’s equity gasification activities. After Chevron acquired Texaco, he moved to process engineering management. Following GE’s acquisition of the technology, Jerry managed gasification R&D in addition to process engineering. He also led standard offerings development and air separation unit integration for IGCC. Jerry then became accountable for gasification equipment and services, with oversight in quality and operations management, and eventually oversaw licensing for all gasification activities outside China. He was responsible for overall gasification business operations when GE gasification was acquired by Air Products.   

Jerry received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of eight patents and numerous technical publications. 

Susan Xiang

Product Director
Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: Coal slurry, residue and POX gasification products and solutions. 

Susan has 15 years of experience in gasification for both dry and slurry feed business development. 

Prior to Air Products’ acquisition of GE’s technology, Susan was GE’s gasification China sales director. She led GE’s gasification China sales and marketing initiatives, customer relationships and new product launches. Susan has a broad understanding of and deep relationships in the coal chemical, petroleum refineries, petrochemical and power industries in China. She currently has product line leadership accountability for new product innovation and market launch from the legacy GE technology base. Susan is also responsible for Air Products’ technical solution strategy for its gasification and sale of gas business.

Susan received a B.S. degree in thermal engineering from the University of Petroleum, and an MBA from Tsinghua University. 

Rob van den Berg

Technology Director
Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: Gasification and CO2 capture and sequestration. Hydrogen, refinery processes, and energy and efficiency.

Rob worked at Shell for 30 years and in gasification for the last 25 years prior to joining Air Products in 2018. His experience in gasification ranges from developing new technology to new business development, and from designing new gasification plants to starting them up. Rob was project leader for four of Shell’s coal gasification plants in China. For several years, he also supported Shell’s hydrogen manufacturing units based on steam methane reforming. Rob led the development and deployment of the dry-feed bottom-quench coal gasification technology, which was successfully commercialised in 2013-2014 at the Wison Clean Coal Energy plant in Nanjing, China. He also set up and led Shell’s coal gasification technology team in Beijing from 2012-2016. 

Rob received an M.S. degree and PhD in physics from Leiden University in the Netherlands, with post-doctoral work at the Chemistry Department of the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of more than 20 patents and more than 50 publications. 

Catherine Cao

Senior Business Manager
Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: Slurry, residue and POx gasification technology and applications. 

Catherine has 15 years of professional experience in business development, operations and project management for portfolio projects in the power and chemical industries. Her licensing experience includes intellectual property, equipment licensing and related technical services. Catherine also has experience in consulting and power plant project management.

Catherine began her career with GE and worked in the gasification area for eight years. She joined Air Products from GE Power in 2019. Catherine has broad experience with China state-owned companies in the power and chemical industries and works across internal matrix organisations to deliver significant size projects. 

Catherine received an M.S. degree in international business from the University of International Business & Economics, Beijing. She currently resides in Beijing, China. 

Chen Qiu

Senior Manager
Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: Dry feed gasification (former Shell technology). 

Qiu joined Air Products in 2018 when the company acquired Shell’s gasification technology. While at Shell, he gained 27 years of professional experience in sales management, business development, and mergers and acquisitions in the oil & gas and coal chemical industries. Qiu was also responsible for key account management of EPCs and industry associations for Shell in China. 

Qiu received a B.S. degree from the University of Science & Technology, Beijing. He also received an MBA from Xiamen University.

Juliana Yu

Licensing Manager
Gasification Licensing

Focus Areas: Dry feed gasification (former Shell Technology). 

Juliana has 12 years of commercial experience in licensing and business development of Shell’s dry feed gasification and Cansolv® process technology (desulfurisation and CO2 capture). She was accountable for licensing customers in the oil & gas, coal chemical, power, non-ferrous metals and steel industries. Juliana also has five years of procurement experience of key electronic components from overseas for the China domestic electronics industry. She establishes strong working relationships with key stakeholders to build winning solutions for her customers.  

Juliana graduated from Hubei Polytechnic University majoring in international trade. She is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province in China.