Elco Hollander Ph.D., P.Eng.
Senior Scientist
Dr. Hollander received his MSc in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Over his 25+ year career, Elco held positions at both Shell and Suncor Energy Ltd., varying from technology and front-end business development to field pilot execution and operations management. In his most recent roles, Elco worked on a range of projects covering the key operational areas of oil sands mining, extraction, water and tailings management, focusing on innovative environmental and business performance improvement opportunities in these areas.
Elco has on multiple occasions been able to develop new technologies from initial proof of concept to commercial design and operation. This experience has provided a broad perspective on the definition of viability of a new concept. In practice, technical rigour and robust process scale-up are of equal importance as the ultimate environmental, social, economical, and operational performance of a technology. His expertise enables him to incorporate de-risking of the non-technical aspects in parallel with a technology development scope, substantially increasing the probability of successful deployment of a concept.
In his career, Elco has applied his knowledge to developing bench scale and pilot plant project scopes varying in financial commitment from tens of thousands to over one hundred million dollars. A key part of this is defining the right scale for de-risking of the technical gaps: one can often get information faster and at lower cost with properly scaled-down experimental setups than with large-scale field pilots. He has further been deeply involved in the analysis, data interpretation and modeling of oil sands processing aspects varying from bitumen production impacts and regional air quality assessments to long-term site reclamation considerations.
Dr. Hollander’s extensive career includes dozens of presentations, publications, technical reports and articles spanning over two decades of public engagements, as well as fifteen Canadian and international Patents, related to the treatment of oil sands tailings, hydrocarbon recovery, bitumen froth treatment and hydrocarbon logistics.
Elco joined the Coanda team in 2023 and is based at our Calgary location. He has been a registered Professional Engineer with APEGA since 2012.