STARS is currently led by five individuals, all of whom are former employees of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
None of STARS’ five principals receive a salary from STARS.
“Engineers use science and technology to solve economic problems. Our efforts to create improved energy and chemical process systems will lead to widespread use and societal benefit if they are economical solutions to current world problems.”
Robert S Wegeng, President and Chief Technology Officer
Personal message from Bob Wegeng
Paraphrasing Helen Keller: “Life is nothing if not an adventure!” In my career, I’ve been incredibly fortunate in that I’ve repeatedly found myself in the company of highly talented scientists and engineers. I had the chance to pursue my most creative ideas and, having found some of them to be worthwhile, to lead others in exciting projects. This has included work supporting the electric and natural gas industries on the ground and NASA in space.
For myself, STARS is a capstone opportunity to pursue the maturation and commercial deployment of advanced process systems that – I hope – will aid our society in transitioning to an enduring, sustainable future.
Bob’s Resume
Formerly a technology developer at PNNL, Bob Wegeng is now leading STARS Technology Corporation (STARS) in the commercialization of compact hydrogen generators based on microchannel process technology.
While at PNNL, Bob served as project manager and principal investigator for several projects with funding from the Department of Energy, NASA, DOD and industry. Bob’s efforts have been recognized through R&D 100 Awards, a Federal R&D Award from the DOE Hydrogen Program, a Federal Laboratory Consortium Tech Transfer Award as well as being named a Distinguished Inventor by Battelle Memorial Institute.
Bob is an inventor on over 180 patents (USA and foreign) with others still pending.
Bob was the original investigator for work — starting in 1991 — that ultimately led to the development of PNNL’s microchannel process technology platform, including microchannel reactors, heat exchangers and separators. Microchannel process technology is now recognized worldwide as highly efficient, process-intensive hardware. Bob’s projects demonstrated that, combined with an additional energy source (e.g., solar energy) to run endothermic chemical reactions and/or separations, microchannel process technology provides a unique architectural advantage that enables highly efficient, distributed processing in compact units that can be mass-produced.
Bob has also been a leader in communicating information about microchannel process technology including organizing multiple international conferences in Europe and the USA.
“I’m here because we need the hydrogen economy. We need it now. I want to help make it happen.”
Dennis Walters, Chief of Staff
Personal Message from Dennis Walters
I had my first introduction to hydrogen in a Chemistry 101 class where we were challenged to understand how a fuel cell made electricity. In my second encounter I attended a presentation by researchers at the Idaho National Environmental Laboratory who talked about the benefits of a hydrogen energy economy and how their project was trying to solve the hydrogen dilemma: “What comes first the infrastructure or the demand.” I knew then that the hydrogen economy should be our goal.
I couldn’t see any solution to this problem until I met Bob Wegeng. He described his approach to making low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen in a distributive system. I knew then that this was the solution to the hydrogen dilemma. STARS is converting the natural gas grid to the hydrogen grid. We have an opportunity to change the world. I want to be part of that. I have the skills and experience needed to contribute to this exciting effort. I can’t think of a better way to spend my days.
Dennis’ Resume
Dennis’ Chief of Staff duties include supporting the President of STARS on management initiatives, from helping plan, design, and manage the assembly of the first every commercial microchannel hydrogen generator, the STARS-165, to developing presentations, solving technical challenges that accompany the development of never-before-seen technology and working with potential customers and investors to help STARS successfully navigate through its startup.
Dennis Walters is a strategic thinker with over 40 years of organizational management, electrical engineering, consulting, and operations experience. He has held a wide variety of positions including operations management, engineering management, operations management, safety management, and materials management. He created a small, successful advertising business and has supported strategic planning for industry, government and non-profit organizations.
Dennis’ broad range of experience enables him to look any problem from multiple perspectives. He valuable experience contributes to the success of the STARS Corporation by apply what has been learned over a long career that included the following activities:
Investigation of major chemical accident for the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, the U.S. Department of Energy, and PEMEX, the Mexican oil company.
Support to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Business Planning Strategic Development.
Management of Operations at a 42-megawatt municipal solid waste to energy plant
Problem solving and troubleshooting, technical and managerial systems
Preparing budgets and business proposals for technology related projects
Dennis has been recognized by Vice President Al Gore for contributions to increase management effectiveness through leadership training conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Richland Washington.
Chris Klasen, STARS’ Chief Operating Officer
Personal message from Chris Klasen
I have a deep passion for commercializing hard science technologies, it has been a pleasure to work with the team from the incubation stages of this technology in PNNL to deploying the technology with world leading industrial companies.
Chris’s Resume
Chris currently operates as the Chief Operations Officer of STARS supporting the execution of all STARS daily functions, executing monitoring and controlling activities to help ensure STARS success.
In conjunction to supporting STARS, Chris serves as a Program Manager at IP Group and sits on several boards of various startup companies in multiple sectors.
Before joining the Company, Chris spent eight years at Pacific Northwest National Lab managing renewable energy and commercialization projects. He started his career in the U.S. Navy as an Operations Specialist and a Search and Rescue Swimmer.
He holds a B.A. in Marketing from Old Dominion University, his M.B.A. from Colorado State University and he holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute
Daryl Brown, STARS’ Chief Engineer
Daryl’s Resume
Daryl Brown was a Senior Staff Engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he worked for 37 years before retiring in 2016. His experience was focused on the evaluation of advanced energy technologies, with the results of his work documented in more than 200 publications. Mr. Brown specializes in cost estimating and life-cycle costing for all types of technologies and has conducted many preliminary engineering feasibility studies. His formal education includes a B.S. in chemical engineering from Oregon State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington.
Since 2005, Mr. Brown has worked with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) on the development and application of the Hydrogen Delivery Scenario Analysis Model (HDSAM). HDSAM is an Excel-based model for calculating the levelized cost of hydrogen delivery including transportation from a central production facility to a hydrogen fueling station and all equipment at the fueling station. Mr. Brown has continued in this role since his retirement from PNNL via his own engineering firm.
During the last four years of his PNNL career, Mr. Brown began working with Bob Wegeng on the solar-powered version of the STARS steam-methane reformer (SMR). His principal duties were preparing conceptual designs for all system components other than the SMR and high-temperature recuperator, preparing cost estimates for all components, and calculating system economics. His current role with STARS involves similar duties. Since the production cost of hydrogen is a key metric for STARS’ efforts, Daryl’s technoeconomic assessments inform critical component and process design decisions.
“I’m here because of the potential for microchannel processing technology to improve distributed hydrogen production efficiency to the point where fuel cell technology can provide an economically feasible alternative to batteries and conventional combustion engines.”
Bruce Harrer, STARS’ Chief Financial Officer and IP Manager
Personal Message from Bruce Harrer
I became familiar with microchannel processing technology in my previous position as a Commercialization Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). As I interacted with Robert Wegeng, I learned about the potential for the technology to solve the difficult but critically important problem of providing an economically competitive source of hydrogen for distributed applications, such as fuel cell vehicle fueling stations. When I retired from PNNL, Mr. Wegeng offered me a position with STARS Technology to help demonstrate and commercialize microchannel processing technology for use in hydrogen production, and I gladly accepted. Although more futuristic production technologies may eventually prove feasible, I believe that using microchannel technology in steam methane reforming represents the only currently economically practical method for distributed hydrogen production.
Bruce’s Resume
Bruce’s duties include managing all of the finances for STARS, including investments and payments. He also manages the legal and contracting processes for the company. Along with Mr. Wegeng he oversees the intellection property portfolio for STARS, which includes in-licensed patents from PNNL and early stage patents from STARS.
Bruce’s previous experience as an interface between technical, business and legal interests at PNNL makes him an ideal candidate to perform the same functions for STARS. Previous interactions with start-up companies provides him with an understanding of the challenges of sufficiently maturing a technology to the point that third party investors or other entities will make the larger investments necessary for commercialization. He is also aware of the important of intellection property in providing a differentiating competitive advantage for a company in its early stages.
In his previous career at PNNL, Bruce participated in the successful commercialization of a broad range of technologies developed by scientists and engineers at the Laboratory, including technologies that revolutionized the mass spectrometry industry and technology for improving security at airports and other points of entry using millimeter wave inspection technology.