By John Dobberstein, Editor
Zeeco, a leading designer and maker of advanced combustion and environmental solutions, threw a big party Monday at its Tulsa headquarters for employees as the company celebrated its 45th anniversary.
Zeeco was founded by Jack Zink in a small machine shop in north Tulsa in 1979 and has grown to be the world leader in developing advanced combustion and environmental solutions. Zeeco now operates more than 30 global locations and employs more than 2,500 people.
Zeeco recently announced a strategic alliance with ExxonMobil for industrial process burners that can fire 100% hydrogen as a fuel and don’t require cost-prohibitive changes to furnaces.
Of course, much of Zeeco’s history happened in Broken Arrow. Although Zeeco chose to move its headquarters to Tulsa recently, Broken Arrow still hosts Zeeco’s Global Technology Center that sits on a 250-acre campus.
Zeeco President and CEO Darton Zink shared his thoughts with the Sentinel about the company’s founding, how its alliance with ExxonMobil is progressing, and what changes have been made at the Broken Arrow facility with the extra space afforded with the relocation of headquarters to Tulsa.
BAS: Tell me what it’s like standing here with hundreds of employees celebrating 45 years from the time Jack founded the company? What’s going through your mind?
Darton: It’s just been an incredible journey and we’ve grown up into being the leader in our industry. And what strikes me is that I’m most grateful for the people. Thousands of people have worked at Zeeco over the years, and it’s through their determination, grit, hard work and passion that we’ve gotten here. And on top of that, the people here are just delightful to work with.
BAS: What are some of the principles that helped make the company successful in your industry over the years?
Darton: I think our willingness to innovate and push boundaries technically to take on tough problems for our customers and solve them. And not being scared to take calculated risks. And it’s also the type of people that gravitate towards Zeeco who share those ideals. We tend to attract people who are doers and innovators and enjoy the challenge that comes with a business like ours.
BAS: How is the alliance you signed last year with ExxonMobil progressing?
Darton: ExxonMobil is a fantastic partner for us. We’ve worked with them as a supplier for a long, long time. They’re an incredibly supportive partner in just about everything that we’ve done, and they’ve helped us innovate and get better.
ExxonMobil has always been at the forefront of technology and they invest heavily in it. And they will see something that we’re doing that might have applicability to their future plans.
Hydrogen firing is one of those things. So we were able to work with them closely to develop a new technology that can operate on conventional fuels all the way up to 100% hydrogen, which ultimately will let them decarbonize the largest industrial complex in their portfolio in North America.
BAS: What are some of the changes Zeeco made at the Broken Arrow facility after the headquarters moved to Tulsa?
Darton: Broken Arrow has been our home since the beginning and has been such an incredibly supportive community, not only for the people and employees, but the government as well. Moving some of our employees to this location allowed us to make some additional investments in our Broken Arrow campus that will deliver some really interesting results.
All our hydrogen fuel development happened at the Broken Arrow campus. If you go there today, you’ll see investment underway. Dirt is moving for the expansion of our main fabrication plant, and also the building of additional research facilities that we think will help develop a number of really promising technologies that will help make the world a better place.
The Broken Arrow campus offers so much flexibility. It’s not only a place where we build products, but it’s really our main innovation and research location globally.
BAS: Looking toward the next five years toward your 50th year in business, what other initiatives are you working on?
Darton: We’re currently working to develop some technologies in coordination with some partners for things that have never really been attempted before — for example, working to decarbonize a coal-fired power plant, and help existing power generation facilities to adopt cleaner burning fuels and more environmentally responsible operations — while at the same time not breaking the bank and keeping the investment to do those types of things reasonable.
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