The Experts Pushing the Envelope: Brent Thompson, Senior Advisory Engineer

Boston Metal is bringing specialists to the table to overcome challenges and pioneer innovation. Our team is made up of world-class scientists and metals industry veterans with deep technical expertise in metallurgy, electrochemistry, materials science, process engineering, systems modeling, thermodynamics and more. Get to know Brent Thompson, an innovator at Boston Metal who specializes in powdered metallurgy and process development.

After over 40 years of hands-on powdered metallurgy experience, Brent is applying his knowledge to Molten Oxide Electrolysis (MOE) alloy development and ensuring our Operations team has the support they need to bring our MOE technology to scale.

Brent began his career in the fabrication and processing of powdered metal products. His extensive experience with furnaces, hot isostatic presses (HIP) and sintering is an asset to the alloy development work at Boston Metal. Throughout his career, Brent has worked with several technical and leadership mentors, and after decades in the field he still enjoys seeing the work go from theory to reality.

“The work we are doing in alloy development is something that has never been done before and it can potentially decarbonize steelmaking. In our world today, this is incredibly important, and the innovation is exciting from both a scientific and environmental standpoint.“

In addition to his work in alloy development, Brent is advising on document standardization for our Operations team as part of the implementation of an Integrated Management System (IMS). He is well versed in guiding people though the process, and this will be the fifth time he has contributed to the deployment of an IMS system.

Building standardized documentation is crucial to streamline processes and improve efficiency across the organization. On a team like Operations where there are repeated tasks, consistency is key. The IMS system will centralize and standardize important processes and allow us to drive innovation faster and get results sooner and more consistently.

By focusing on continuous improvement and strengthening team connection and autonomy, Brent is building a team philosophy and workplace ethic based on people’s natural ability to improve their work and its efficiency.

Here’s how Brent views his work:

What motivates you to continue pushing the envelope in your field?

Going where no one has gone before. The work we are doing in alloy development is something that has never been done before and it can potentially decarbonize steelmaking. In our world today, this is incredibly important, and the innovation is exciting from both a scientific and environmental standpoint.

What do you enjoy most about your current role and the impact you have? 

I enjoy the variety of people I get to collaborate with and bringing them together to achieve the same goal. It is about the connection of being a part of a group that is doing this work for the world. It feels good to be a part of driving that innovation and driving people to perform better.

At Boston Metal, there is so much to learn. It has rejuvenated me later in my career to be more motivated, eager to learn and embrace the things that I do well.

If you were to describe the importance of the work you do, what would you say?

Being a part of making the world better is more exciting than I could have ever imagined. We could potentially decarbonize nearly 10% of the world’s CO₂, so it is worth every minute.

Learn more about the historic commissioning run of our multi-inert anode industrial demonstrator MOE green steel cell, made possible by the hard work of committed team members like Brent.