Mechanical Process Engineer
About the role
Kunin Technologies is revolutionizing the critical mineral supply chain by implementing advanced separation technologies to capture value from overlooked resources. Metals are everywhere, in solar panels, smartphones, electric vehicles, but as ore grades plummet globally, traditional extraction methods are failing. China dominates critical minerals markets by developing superior separation technologies that extract value from materials American mines discard as waste. Utilizing Kunin Technologies' breakthrough performance, ion-exchange media significantly more value can be produced from each resource, reducing waste, and unlocking metal abundance. To achieve metal abundance, humanity must bring separation science down its own Moore’s Law: fix the idiot cost index for micro and nano scale separation materials. This requires mass manufacturing novel ion-exchange media form factors which previously struggled from high costs.
The role involves designing, guaranteeing and commissioning a group 14 metal chlorination plant overseas for an industrial partner. Metal-bearing feeds from the partner's own process are converted by chlorination, purification and hydrolysis to an electronic-grade metal product, with Kunin's proprietary ion-exchange media recovering the metal from the dilute process liquors. Bench and mini-pilot process development runs in Chattanooga from December 2026 to May 2027, basic engineering issues in May 2027, the plant is built from modular skids in parallel with civil works, and commercial operation is targeted for the first quarter of 2028. The plant is built and operated by our partner; Kunin owns the process, the design package, the performance guarantee and the training of the operating team. You own the equipment and the skids. From the basic engineering datasheets you specify every mechanical item in the plant: chlorination reactors, phase separators, distillation columns and internals, condensers and reboilers, hydrolysis vessels, filters, dryer and calciner, HCl recovery, chlorine supply and scrubbing, product polishing and filling, pumps, piping and valves in HCl, chlorine and metal chloride service. You select materials of construction with the Senior Process Engineer, develop the modular skid layouts with the fabricator so