FOUNDING STORY

The history of OLI Systems

In 1971, Marshall Rafal, a chemical engineering doctorate holder and former Esso (ExxonMobil today) employee, embarked on a journey to establish OLI. With a deep-seated enthusiasm for process modeling and simulation, Marshall initially concentrated on devising adaptable solution methodologies for basic mathematical models. OLI soon evolved to encompass activity coefficients, simple electrolyte models and ultimately predictive electrolyte modeling, bolstered by the development of comprehensive property databanks tailored to meet the expanding needs of various industrial applications.

Marshall’s visionary leadership, established a company that, for over 50 years, maintains a unique dedication to advancing electrolyte science while delivering practical solutions through commercial software. Marshall continues to actively work with OLI’s Board of Directors.

Marshall’s contributions include co-authoring the OLI Aqueous Thermodynamic Framework and taking the lead authorship on the book “Handbook of Aqueous Electrolyte Thermodynamics: Theory and Application.” He also played a crucial role as the principal author of the numerical algorithms for the OLI Engine and Tower solvers.

OLI at 50

5 decades of R&D, software innovation and client success

From pioneering electrolyte science research and breakthrough software products tackling the understanding of complex chemistry behavior to address sustainability and operations efficiency challenges for 1000s of industrial applications across 500+ global clients to fueling the emerging industrial digital transformation.

COMPANY PROFILE

Advancing chemistry, sustainability and digital transformation

Based on a rigorous understanding of the chemistry of industrial processes, OLI develops comprehensive solutions that enable clients realize valuable business outcomes that drive growth, profitability and competitive differentiation. With a DNA steeped in sustainability and multiple decades of research innovation to address environmental challenges, OLI is a critical partner to make industrial chemical processes more sustainable. With a brand new cloud platform and operations excellence competencies, OLI is well positioned to deliver it trusted design insights to real-time operations environments to enable step function changes in productivity, efficiency and sustainability through the industrial digital transformation of people, processes and tools.

Chemistry matters

The behavior of electrolytes and water chemistry governs the performance of numerous industrial chemical applications making their understanding critical for effective and efficient equipment design and process operations

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Focused on sustainability

Chemistry insights enhance air, water quality, improve metal recycling and recovery efficiency, reduce the carbon footprint, minimize energy consumption and accelerate energy storage

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Driving digital transformation

Boost operations excellence by democratizing electrolyte technology and enabling all classes of enterprises, users and applications with simple, easy and automated access to electrolyte chemistry insights

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