KX2 Development » About Us

Process Engineering, Scale-up And Commercialization

Our team is one of the best in the world for conceptual process design, piloting and commercialization. Effective process development from initial stages of R&D through piloting and scale-up requires systematic effort in identifying key areas of work and overcoming process challenges early during the development phase.

Our Services

Making the right decisions early in the project is critical as those can have a significant impact on the overall project cost. Fixing a problem at the commercialization stage can cost 1000 times more than fixing the same problem at the process development stage. We use cross-disciplinary teams involving chemists and engineers to benchmark and then improve existing process technology. We have demonstrated significant CAPEX and OPEX improvements for existing technologies as well as new technologies. Our scale-up team can help clients quickly move their ideas from R&D bench scale to pilot scale. We offer fully integrated skid-mounted pilot plants for installation at the client facility. We also have significant pilot plant operations infrastructure where we can construct and operate custom designed pilot plants for clients with 24×7 operations and state-of-the-art analytics.

We also offer skid-mounted commercial scale systems that include reactors, heat exchangers, extraction columns, distillation columns and other equipment that are in a self-contained system with customized control architecture that can be integrated with the overall plant. Our goal is to reduce CAPEX and OPEX by at least 30% and provide skid-mounted pilot plants and skid-mounted commercial systems at an expedited schedule with substantial cost savings for our clients compared to other options.

Our Leadership

Sagar Gadewar

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Sagar Gadewar is the Chief Executive Officer of KX2 Development. Dr. Gadewar was President & CEO at Greenyug, LLC and Prairie Catalytic, LLC, where he invented, scaled-up and commercialized novel production technologies of green chemicals. Prior to that he was Director of Engineering at GRT, managed development of GRT’s proprietary natural gas to gasoline (GTL) conversion technology. During his career, Dr. Gadewar has helped several Fortune 500 companies in the chemical, pharmaceutical and consumer products sector to develop new production technologies. Dr. Gadewar has substantial industrial experience in managing technology development for new products and process engineering for capital and operating costs reduction. He holds twenty patents and has published over 15 technical papers. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Shrinivas Hake

MD, India Operations

Shrinivas Hake is responsible for KX2’s scale-up operations in India including the process development and piloting facility. He was most recently a VP of India Operations for Greenyug Specialty Chemicals and Senior Project Manager at Patni Computers in India. His experience includes business development and project management. He has substantial experience in managing teams for pilot and commercial operations including permitting, procurement and construction. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI and MBA from JBIMS Mumbai, India.

Luca Zullo

VP Business Development

Luca Zullo is Vice President of Business Development and Commercialization at KX2 Development. He has worked extensively with the biomass and biofuels industry. Dr. Zullo started his career at Shell Research in The Netherlands where he was involved in the design and automation of novel petrochemical and oil processes. At Cargill, he focused on biofuels and bio-energy in plant operations with an emphasis on waste-to-energy and 2G biofuels. He also lead a group that developed both domestic and international methane capture projects in agricultural operations to harvest renewable energy and carbon credits. Dr. Zullo holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Padua, Italy and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London, United Kingdom.

Vivek Julka

VP Engineering

Dr. Vivek Julka is Vice President of Engineering at KX2 Development. Most recently, Dr. Julka was Vice President of Engineering at GRT, Inc. Dr. Julka was previously employed as a Technology & Product Manager by Aspen Technology, Inc. and Staff Engineer by Union Carbide Corp. Dr. Julka is a world expert in the field of distillation system design and optimization. He has helped Fortune 500 companies in design and development of novel separation systems for improved financial and operating performance. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.