Francisco Scheihing is a Biochemist with a master's degree in business administration. His experience lies in slurry mineral and tailings characterization for both long and short distance pipelines and he is an expert in rheology and pipeline corrosion. His recent research studied the application of reagents in hydrophobicity of tailings and biocorrosion.
Since joining Ausenco in 2019, Francisco has built the Santiago-based laboratory from the ground up, enabling our teams to conduct valuable physiochemical tests and make data-driven Pipeline design decisions for our clients.
As Lead Pipelines Laboratory, Francisco studies the properties of pulps, pastes and water to be pumped. He oversees sample studies and looks for ways to innovate and develop new technologies. Francisco performs tests for our global clients including several projects across Chile, Australia, Peru, Colombia and the United States. Working closely with our Pipelines team, Francisco aids in Pipeline design by conducting tests including: corrosion rates, biocorrosion, rheology, specific gravity, angle of repose, penetration and sedimentation tests.
In addition to lab-based testing, Francisco writes detailed reports and discusses the results with our design and operation engineers. He is available to answer any client questions and often travels to sites to supervise sample collection.
Francisco’s work can be felt on many projects including a 2019 research study at a major mining facility in Chile: “To overcome Chile’s rainwater deficit, we researched and studied how to get the optimum amount of water required for the processes. We developed a study of chemical cleaning for their pipelines and studied the corrosion rates for different sources of water in this project.”
Country experience:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Brazil
- Chile
- Colombia
- Peru
- United States