Mr Con Manias B.App Sc (Applied Chemistry), GD Bus Admin
Managing Director, FCT Group of Companies

After completing his studies at Adelaide University Mr Manias started his career with Adelaide Fertiliser and Chemical Co in 1973 as a Development Chemist. In this organisation he was involved with several major projects including plant design and commissioning and also developed a new metallurgical process leading to patents.

In 1977 he joined Adelaide Brighton Cement as the Assistant Production Superintendent to Birkenhead Works, with responsibility for daily plant operation and shift operations. In 1982 he was appointed Production Manager at Birkenhead Works and in 1987 Group Technical Manager to the Adelaide Brighton Group which consisted of four fully integrated cement plants, two lime plants and several grinding plants in Australia and a fully integrated cement plant in Hawaii.

Responsibilities included technical support for operations, technical auditing, product quality standards, environmental standards, overall training and technical capability of the organisation, liaison with outside organisations and R&D.

In 1989, he took over all matters in relation to process design, major equipment selection, plant control system, refractories, training and commissioning and all related matters in a major plant expansion at Birkenhead. This was at the time the largest and technically most advanced cement kiln in the Southern Hemisphere. It included the first of the new generation coolers supplied by IKN. A complete coal firing system was designed for the Birkenhead plant, but not implemented.

From 1992 onwards he was involved in developing the Gyro-therm precessing jet technology with Adelaide University and then forming Advanced Cement Technologies (ACT) as a fully owned subsidiary of Adelaide Brighton Cement Ltd to commercialise the Gyro-Therm technology.

In 1995 ACT purchased and merged with Fuel and Combustion Technology Ltd (FCT) a UK combustion specialist company. The resulting company, now independent, has strong combustion and process expertise for improving cement, lime and other high temperature industrial operations. Mr Manias was General Manager of FCT (Aust.) Ltd. until 1998, as well as a Director of FCT in the UK and the US. He was appointed Chief Executive of the FCT group in 1998.

In addition to his combustion business activities, Mr Manias conceived, directed and has overseen the $9.0 million R&D Mastermind program for the development of an on-line continuous quality control system for cement production and other continuous process industries. Some of the technologies developed have now being commercialised through FCT-ACTech Pty Ltd.

Mr Manias has presented papers at many international conferences, including the VDZ in Germany, IEEE in the US, AFCM in Malaysia and Indonesia, GCL in Switzerland, IKA in the UK and Canada, International Clean Air Conference in Australia and PCA in Canada. He has also published articles widely in journals such as World Cement, ZKG, Global Cement and Lime, International Cement Review, Powder Diffraction.

David Retallack, B. Eng, MBA
GM Projects and Engineering

David spent 17 years in the cement industry with the Adelaide Brighton Cement group in Australia, before joining FCT in 1997.

David held many positions in the cement industry including Works Engineer and Manufacturing Manager on Adelaide Brighton Cement plants, and has an excellent understanding of cement plant operations and issues. He has experience with Preheater, Pre-calciner, long wet and Lepol kilns or cement manufacture, and also lime production in rotary kilns. David also worked in project management, maintenance management and capital works programs.

David is 44 years old, holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) and an MBA. He is based in Adelaide, South Australia.

David is a senior manager and director of the FCT. His role encompasses technical and engineering matters, as well as marketing and business development. He has directly led teams involved with several coal mill system projects, managed a $9m R&D program developing new instrumentation for the cement industry and played a leadership role in the design and supply of the combustion systems of the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic projects.

David is familiar with the needs of a capital project, including specifications, tender document preparation, tender evaluation and contract documentation.

Mr David Rapson, B Eng (Chem) MIEAust, CPEng
GM Technology

David completed his studies at The University of Adelaide in 1983 and commenced with Adelaide Brighton Cement at their Birkenhead Works as Process Engineer. After developing some specialised test equipment and assisting with the commissioning and operation of a cement mill David took the position of Works Chemist responsible for a team of analysts and product quality. David progressed into the role of Production Superintendent responsible for overall day to day management of the cement plant and then as Process Engineering Superintendent overseeing plant improvements and day to day problem solving.

In 1994 he was chosen to assist with the start up of Advanced Cement Technologies (ACTech) which was a fully owned subsidiary of Adelaide Brighton Ltd. (Later ACTech purchased and merged with FCT).

Over the past 8 years David has taken on a number of combustion related roles as the FCT business has grown. As General Manager Technology, David is responsible for a team of engineers who design, install and commission combustion solutions for large process industries such as cement, lime, alumina and glass manufacturers. His work includes combustion and process audits which provide solutions to the client that save fuel, increase production or reduce emissions.

David has carried out combustion projects in cement plants in countries such as China, Philippines, Canada, US, Chile, Australia and Malaysia. He also has extensive experience in risk analysis and control system design and implementation. He is an experienced site person, a senior staff member at FCT and a director of FCT.

Dr Peter Storer, B Sc (Physics), MAIP
Technical Manager, On-line Instrumentation

Peter completed his degree at The Flinders University of South Australia, followed by two years as a Researcher and Lecturer in physics.

With Scantech International Limited, Peter was instrumental in the development of a PGNAA on-belt analyser for raw material analysis in cement and other bulk material applications. Peter has calibrated and commissioned many PGNAA analysers in the cement and coal industries worldwide.

Peter joined FCT-ACTech in 2001, and has been responsible for the development of the FCT 'Cosma' Continuous On-line XRD Mineral Analyser, working closely with CSIRO to optimise the performance for cement and other minerals. Peter has commissioned and serviced FCT's Cosma analysers in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. He is actively working with the plants to utilize the mineral data to control continuous processes and develop predictive performance models.

Peter has authored many papers in scientific and industry journals, and has written and presented papers at many conferences of international standing.