ImmersaEngineering / Who we are
A review is only as good as the person who signs it.
An independent opinion carries the weight of the person who wrote it, so this page sets out who we are. What distinguishes ImmersaEngineering is that we get involved personally. Our priority is to bring senior expertise directly to every project we take on, from the first conversation through to the signed report, and we choose the work where that experience counts.
Principal
Dr Xandra van Wyk
Co-founder · Chemical engineer
Separation technology · Research and development
- 2019PhD Chemical Engineering, University of Pretoria
- 2015MEng Chemical Engineering, cum laude, University of Pretoria
- 2014BEng (Hons) Chemical Engineering, University of Pretoria
- 2012BEng Chemical Engineering, University of Pretoria
Xandra has spent eleven years in research, industrial commercialisation and executive management. Until August 2026 she was Head of Research and Development at a separation-technology company, where she ran a thirty-person team of engineers, chemists and physicists, from BSc to PhD level, and sat on the executive committee.
Her career has covered the distance from first-principles theory to commercial production. At the separation company she owned proprietary processes end to end: theoretical modelling, prototype manufacture, experimental validation, then deployment at commercial scale. She started an analytical chemistry function where none existed, staffed it, and made it the basis for product quality and regulatory compliance. She introduced computational fluid dynamics as a working capability, which shortened the design iteration cycle for mass transfer and separation equipment. From January 2026 she added oversight of manufacturing and fabrication at ultra-low micron tolerances, worked out where the throughput constraints were, and started a capital equipment programme to clear them.
Before that she was general manager of a biomedical manufacturer, carrying profit-and-loss responsibility across procurement, manufacturing, sales, research, logistics, finance and HR. Her first seven years were academic: a post-doctoral fellowship and a part-time senior lectureship in chemical engineering, teaching mass transfer, laboratory practice and carbon material science, and supervising postgraduate research.
She co-founded Immersa Hub (Pty) Ltd, ImmersaEngineering’s parent company, in June 2026, and is its Commercial and Financial Director.
Specialist ground
- Separation technology and mass transfer
- Computational fluid dynamics for separation system design
- Technology lifecycle, first principles to commercial scale
- Analytical chemistry, laboratory through to production scale
- Precision manufacture at ultra-low tolerance
- Research programme design and multidisciplinary team leadership
- Bottleneck, throughput and efficiency analysis
- Analytical instrumentation — TILDAS, GC-TOF-MS, ICP-MS, MC-ICP-MS, quadrupole MS
Peer-reviewed publications
Published under the name X. van Heerden.
- Manyala, N., Kitenge, V., Oyedotun, K.O., Fasakin, O., Tarimo, D., Sylla, F. & Van Heerden, X. (2021). Enhancing the electrochemical properties of a nickel–cobalt–manganese ternary hydroxide electrode using graphene foam for supercapacitors applications. Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 10(7). doi.org/10.1007/s40243-021-00192-y
- Van Heerden, X. & Badenhorst, H. (2015). The influence of three different intercalation techniques on the microstructure of exfoliated graphite. Carbon, 88, 173–184. doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2015.03.006
Principal
Heino van Wyk
Co-founder · Chemical and nuclear engineer
Process design · Safety · Commissioning
- 2023Postgraduate Diploma in Nuclear Science & Technology, North-West University
- 2022Technology Management, cum laude, University of Pretoria
- 2012BEng Chemical Engineering, cum laude, University of Pretoria
Heino has spent fourteen years designing, commissioning and operating process plants. Until August 2026 he was Head of Engineering at a separation-technology company, running an engineering team of seventy across two production facilities and numerous active projects, and sitting on the executive committee.
He has directed projects through the entire engineering value chain: feasibility and concept, basic and detailed design, safety and hazard studies, procurement, construction, commissioning, and then operation. Few engineers see all of those stages on the same plant. Having operated plants he designed, he reads a design package for how it will be built and run, not only for whether it is arithmetically correct.
At the separation company he was the appointed Radiation Protection Officer and held the Section 16(2) appointment under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, with delegated accountability for health and safety across both sites, and he managed a capital portfolio of more than USD 12 million. He wrote the engineering standards those facilities are built and verified against for ultra-low vacuum service and helium leak-tightness, and was responsible for Pressure Equipment Regulations compliance on category piping and vessels, including overpressure protection and Approved Inspection Authority verification.
The commissioning experience is first-hand rather than supervisory. He cold- and hot-commissioned a separation plant handling pyrophoric silane, ran it as shift leader with a small operating team, and managed real-world scenarios as they arose. Earlier he led detailed engineering on separation cascade plants, covering cascade design, cryogenic equipment, desublimers and full mechanical data packs.
His earlier career was broader than separation work. He engineered hydrocarbon storage and loading terminals for petrol, diesel and jet fuel, covering hydraulics, relief sizing, hazardous-area classification to SANS and ATEX, fire-water systems and operating manuals. Before that he worked as a process engineer on large petrochemical and refinery projects, doing equipment design, safety calculations, PSV datasheets and Aspen Plus simulation. He has worked in water treatment, on ion exchange, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis plant, and spent two years in renewable energy running the technical function for solar and battery storage systems, where he also built a solar sizing tool. His final-year research was on the fast pyrolysis of biomass and the hydrogenation of bio-oil.
He co-founded Immersa Hub (Pty) Ltd, ImmersaEngineering’s parent company, in June 2026, and is its Operational and Technical Director.
Specialist ground
- HAZOP facilitation and independent chairing
- Overpressure protection and relief system design
- Pressure Equipment Regulations, category piping and vessels, AIA verification
- Ultra-low vacuum system design, to 10−9 mbar
- Helium leak-tightness verification, to 9×10−6 mbar·L/s
- Pyrophoric and hazardous gas handling — silane, germane
- Cryogenic systems and desublimation
- Hazardous-area classification, SANS and ATEX
- Radiation protection and regulatory liaison
- Cold and hot commissioning, start-up and troubleshooting
- Hydrocarbon storage and loading terminal design
- Water treatment — ion exchange, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis
- Solar and battery energy storage systems
- Process simulation — Aspen Plus, dynamic simulation, HTRI, AFT Arrow and Fathom
Where this shows up
The engagements this background sits behind.
These are the formats the two careers above support directly, and where we are at our most useful.
Format
Independent HAZOP chair
A chair with no stake in the design under study, and first-hand experience of the failure modes being discussed.
Format
Design & document review
Calculations, datasheets, flowsheets and P&IDs checked against the codes and the physics before they are committed to.
Format
Technical due diligence
Technology readiness, scale-up evidence and cost assumptions examined by people who have taken processes to commercial scale.
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Enquiries come to us directly, and we answer them ourselves. A mutual non-disclosure agreement is attached to our first reply, before any technical detail is exchanged.
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