Member Spotlight: Meet Alan Paine

Retirement has not slowed the pace of Alan Paine’s active lifestyle. In addition to being a Division volunteer, he also contributes to AOCS short courses, offering guidance and education on oilseed processing. He now explores a variety of creative pursuits.

Since 2017, Paine has published science fiction short stories, including one in the anthology Nine Streams of Consciousness. In 2022, he signed with a publisher to write a science fiction novel projected for release in 2023.

Participating in amateur theater is another favorite pastime. During the pandemic he navigated the shuffling of players and parts in a production of “Red Riding Hood” when actors came down with COVID-19. This year he was glad to experience a more normal production schedule for the play “My Cousin Rachel.”

Paine lives in Horncastle, England, with his wife Jane, their three children and three grandchildren.

What do you wish you had known when you first started?

Working in engineering involves a lot more than what you learn in the classroom!

What is the biggest change you have seen in oilseeds?

The size of refineries. When I first started working in the industry 100 tons per day was a very common size for a refinery and I remember discussing with a colleague whether a 1,000 tons per day refinery would be possible and who would want one. Today, there are palm oil refineries of several thousands of tons per day.

What was the most challenging issue that you personally faced in oilseeds?

It is hard to pick one. Often, very challenging issues can have very simple explanations.

• High free fatty acid in deodorized oil — after much investigation — turned out to be caused by analytical errors. The unit was removing the fatty acid perfectly but we did not know it.
• A vessel that was leak tight when cold, but showed a poor vacuum when heated, was due to the vessel expanding which forced the pressure transmitter against a beam.

Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is hiding in plain sight, but you need to look from another direction.

What is the biggest challenge you see in oilseeds today?

Making the industry genuinely carbon neutral. If we can do it then proving that we have achieved the goal will be a big part of the challenge.