(154e) Light Tales from The Tower Doctor’s Casebook

“The Tower Doctor” is the honorary title bestowed upon the author in 2002 by Richard Darton, Professor of Engineering at Oxford University, and Chair of the European Distillation Network. “When a tower is not well, people call Henry to diagnose the illness and find a remedy. He arrives with his doctor’s bag, examines the patient-tower, measures its temperature and pulse, gets radiography to provide an inside look. Then comes his diagnosis and cure. Towers treated by Henry mostly get better very quickly”.

Like medical doctors, over the years a large number of stories accumulated in the author’s casebook. Some of them were stressful at the time, but turned into fun when one looks back. All of them teach valuable lessons in distillation troubleshooting. Startups provide fertile grounds for accumulating such stories. The author will present a few of the more entertaining startup tales from his casebook.