April/March 20

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Chairs’ MesNew Meetings

Engineers WMeeting

RESERVAT

For reservationof the events this newslettercheck or monemade payable ASME Met Sto:

Dr. Marca LaDept of ChECooper Union51 Astor PlacNYC, NY 10

For further infoon any of thecall or email:

Dr. Marca La212-353-4393mjlam@coop

or

Jim Oussani718-768-3333jim@staplex.

ASME Met Section News

1

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers

04 New York City Volume 57

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CHAIRS’ MESSAGE

Marca Lam, Ph.D.James Oussani

If you are a professional engineer, you maynot be aware that the law changed as ofJanuary 2004. All licensed engineers willneed to get 36 hours of development credit inorder to be eligible for renewal. The renewalprocess is still every three years, so thatmeans you will have to get an average of 12credits a year. By attending our technicalmeetings, you can fulfill your 18 creditminimum for educational coursework. Ifthere is enough interest, we can increase thecredit per meeting to two, by offering a two-hour lecture.

We have been working hard to try to get ourmembership professional development credit(PDH) for attending the Met Sectiontechnical meetings. For those who attendedour April 22 meeting, you were able to obtain1 PDH. The cost associated with this creditis $10. This helps defray the cost to ASMEInternational for processing and keeping thepaperwork. We plan to offer PDH credit forevery eligible meeting. You must bring acheck to the technical meeting in the amountof $10 made out to ASME if you want credit.

Our year has been very successful. We’vehad six technical meetings, and are co-sponsoring a meeting on May 20 with the NYChapter of the NYS Society of ProfessionalEngineers.

We hope to see you at one of our functions. If youhave any suggestions for speakers or events, pleasecontact Marca at mjlam@cooper.edu or call 212-353-4393. We would love to hear from you.

TECHNICAL MEETINGS FOR 2004

GET PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDITS FOR

THE MAY AND OCTOBER MEETINGS

Keynote Speaker: Mr. Richard Tomasetti, P.E.Topic: “Lessons Learned for Protective Design of

Buildings from the World Trade CenterDisaster”

Date: May 20, 2004Place: Mullens Restaurant

233 Seventh Ave (Between 23 & 24 St)Cost: $35 - members (includes one cocktail)

$40 non-membersReply by: May 15, 2004Co-sponsored by: NY Chapter of NYSSPECall Mr. Karstadt for reservations at 212-689-8652

Details for the following meetings will be availablein our year-end issue that will be publishedJuly/August.

Keynote Speaker: Mr. Harold ArmenPresident, ASME International

Date: September 21, 2004We will notify you if PDH credit is available.

Keynote Speaker: Michael Greenstein, P.E., CQMIndustry Professor, Polytechnic University

Topic: “Manufacturing Management”Date: October 21, 2004Sponsored by the Management Chapter of theMetropolitan Section, ASME.To get PDH credit, bring a $10 check made out toASME to the meeting.

For the latest details, check our website athttp://sections.asme.org/metropolitan_ny/

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SEND US YOUR ARTICLES

Win next year’s ASME dues! Send us an article forpublication and you will be entered into the competition. TheMET Section will determine a winner at their June planning

meeting in 2004.*

Please send your articles and letters to the Newsletter Chair forinclusion in our next newsletter. The deadlines for this year isJuly 1, 2004 for the end-of-the-year issue. Send email tomjlam@cooper.edu, fax to (212)-353-4341, or mail to

Dr. Marca LamCooper Union, ChE Dept

51 Astor PlaceNew York, NY 10003

* members of the Met Section Executive Committee are excluded.

UPCOMING MEETINGSby Marca Lam

We are busy selecting speakers and topics for next year. Weare honored to have the new President of ASME come speakto us in September. In October, we will offer ourmembership a meeting on management. At this time, wewill plan to have a joint meeting with the American Societyfor Quality in November, but do not have any details yet.According to our yearly tradition, we will have our Historyand Heritage meeting in December, where we hope that Mr.Conrad Milster will once again be speaking.

At this point, we do not have any speakers planned for theSpring, although we will participate in Engineers Week withthe Metropolitan Engineering Societies Council. If you haveany topics you would like to see covered, please let us know.We are also striving to get you professional developmentcredit for every technical meeting.

WEBSITE NAME CHANGEby Marca Lam, Ph.D.

As webmaster for our ASME Met Section website, I havebeen notified that ASME will be moving our webpage to anew location. As this letter is being printed, the websiteaddress will change to

http://sections.asme.org/metropolitan_ny

If you type the old address in, you will get automaticallyforwarded. This service will work for 1 year. Therefore, ifyou have our website bookmarked, please change the sitelocation.

ENGINEER’S WEEK CELEBRATIONby Gerald Hillenbrand, P.E.

Welcoming remarks byMESC Chair Wasyl Kinach

This annual celebration was held on February 12, 2004, atthe New York Academy of Sciences where approximately100 attendees enjoyed a delicious buffet supper and animpressive program of presentations highlighting the theme“Engineers—Turning Ideas into Reality.” This meeting wasopened by Wasyl Kinach, P.E., Chairman of theMetropolitan Engineering Societies Council (MESC), whoasked for a minute of silence in memory of twodistinguished members, Marcel Piry and Nicholas Russo,who passed away during 2003. Mr. Piry was therepresentative of Ingineurs et Scientifiques du France toMESC, and Mr. Russo was a popular and energetic advisorto the mechanical engineering students at PolytechnicUniversity. Both men had a history of enthusiastic anddedicated service to the engineering profession in the NewYork Metropolitan area.

In May, 2004 Polytechnic University will celebrate the 150th

anniversary of its founding in 1854. In recognition of thisachievement, MESC invited a delegation of engineers andstudents from Polytechnic to attend our meeting (below).This delegation was led by James Oussani, Jr., president ofits alumni association. In his brief remarks, Mr. Oussanistressed the need for teamwork, flexibility, and open mindsin engineering efforts while avoiding temptations to cutcorners and compromise standards. Solving complicatedinterdisciplinary problems is more important than ever and a

Polytechnic University alumni

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Deputy Commissioner Warren Kurtz, P.E.,with George Golovchenko, P.E., and Wasyl Kinach, P.E.

lot of work still needs to be done in publicizing the role ofengineers in producing meaningful progress and enrichingthe lives of all people.

Next, MESC Program Chair George Golovchenko, P.E.,introduced Warren Kurtz, P.E., Deputy Commissioner of theN.Y. City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP),who presented Mayor Bloomberg’s Proclamation ofEngineers Week to the assemblage. In his remarks, Mr.Kurtz summarized the DEP’s $17.5 billion capital plan toimprove the long-range quality of New York City’s watersupply. This plan includes completion of the $1+ billionCroton Reservoir filtration plant, construction of theultraviolet treatment and disinfection plant in the CatskillReservoir starting in 2005, completion of Stage 2 of CityWater Tunnel #3 from Central Park to the Battery(scheduled for 2008), rehabilitation of the city tunnel fromthe Kensico Reservoir, and $3 billion upgrades to theCatskill, Delaware, and Kensico aqueducts. Completion ofCity Water Tunnel #3 will allow taking Tunnels #1 and #2out of service for maintenance and repair. In all theseefforts, priority is given to security of the system this era ofterrorism and sabotage.

This year’s keynote address on the subject of “TurningOrganic Waste into Resources” was presented by Brian S.Appel, CEO, and James H. Freiss, P.E., Vice-President ofEngineering, of the Changing World Technologies (CWT),Inc. organization located in West Hempstead, Long Island,and major installations in Philadelphia; Carthage, Missouri;and Colorado. These installations employ an upgrade of theThermal Depolymerization Process, a 15 year old patentedprocess converting hydrocarbons and organic wastes intoclean solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels and specialtychemicals. Previous attempts to achieve this conversionhave not been more than theoretically successful. The CWTorganization has developed a thermal process for breakingdown organic polymers into their smallest elements andreforming them into commercially viable products. Thisprocess emulates the earth’s natural geothermal activity inwhich organic material is converted into fossil fuel underextreme heat and pressure over millions of years. The CWTprocess mirrors the earth’s process by using chemicalvessels and piping to control the application of temperatureand pressure to reduce the natural process from millions ofyears to several hours.

The CWT process has been under development for 6 yearsand began with key laboratory design testing at HofstraUniversity. Next, a pilot R & D plant was constructed in1999 at the Philadelphia Naval Yard in partnership with theGas Research Institute. After significant development bytrial and error and technical expertise, the company achieveda successful conversion process from a range of organicinput including animal and medical waste, tires, mixed-useplastics, and paper. Starting in July 2001, CWT constructedits commercial facility in Carthage in cooperation with theConagra Foods Organization. This $20 million facility wascommissioned in April, 2003 and now processes input of200 tons per day which includes fats, bones, feathers,grease, and

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oils from a nearby turkey slaughterhouse. Brief runs of 400tons per day have been achieved. This plant has a 17-minuteprocessing time and operates at 85% energy efficiency. Asecond commercial plant is now being designed andconstructed in Colorado. In addition to private investments,the federal government has issued development grants of$12 million to CWT and has assured that all waste anddischarge products are environmentally acceptable. TheMissouri plant is financially profitable and receives nooperating subsidy from any government agency.

Of course, products vary with composition of the plantinput, but a typical cycle would consist of animal, farm,forestry, and medical waste; sewage sludge; paper; plasticbottles; and rubber tires converted into approximately 6%carbon and coke products; 5% gas products, includingmethane, propane, butane and cetane; 45% water products,which are recycled; and 44% organic petroleum products,such as fatty and amino acids, palmitic acid, and carboxylicacid. These petroleum products are then sent to a crackingunit where the result is #1 distillate, which is equivalent to#2 diesel oil having a commercial value of $15 per barrel.The gas products are fed back to power the cycle while theair discharge (consisting of 98% CO2 and 2% odor vapors) issent to an oxidizing unit operating at 900° F to eliminate theodors resulting from processing the animal ingredients.Water production is about 30,000 gallons per day. The mostdifficult components to process are the elastomers in rubbertires, which require intense exposure to 480° F minimumtemperature and high pressures to produce the carbon andcoke products.

The usual question and answer period yielded the interestingobservation that municipal sanitation agencies are doubtfulconcerning successful processing of ordinary garbage, thecomponents of which can vary widely and unpredictably.CTW stated that processing of garbage is possible, but manymunicipal agencies do not want to implement newtechnology. All in all, however, this keynote address was animpressive example of how engineers turn ideas into reality.

A Special Note

This Engineers Week celebration and, particularly, itskeynote address entitled “CWT’s Thermal Process: TurningOrganic Waste into Resources,” qualified for 1.0professional development hours of continuing education forlicensed professional engineers under the recentlyinaugurated statutes and regulations of the New York State

Department of Education. The evaluating and certifyingagency for approval of this grant of continuing educationhours is the Practicing Institute of Engineering (PIE), adivision of the New York State Society of ProfessionalEngineers.

MESC extends sincere thanks to PIE for its cooperation ingranting our application for professional development hours.As a result, approximately 25 professional engineersreceived certificates of course completion as they left the N.Y. Academy of Sciences at the conclusion of the EngineersWeek celebration. As far as we are aware, this was the firstgranting of this certification in the New York CityMetropolitan area since the new procedures were establishedon Jan. 1, 2004. Once again, thanks to all!

Metropolitan Section Executive CommitteeMeeting Schedule

The Executive Committee of the ASME MetropolitanSection holds monthly meetings to consider activities thatare pertinent to the Section’s mission. We look forward tomeeting people who are interested in learning more aboutthe section. Please attend any of our meetings as they areopen to the Met Section membership. Here is the scheduleof upcoming meetings. For more info contact M. Lam at212-353-4393, or J. Oussani at (718)-768-3333.

May 25, 2004

MET SECTION NEWS STAFFPublished by the Publications and Publicity

Committee of the Metropolitan Section of ASME

Marca Lam, Ph.D., ChairContact Dr. Lam at (212)-353-4393 or email

mjlam@cooper.edu.

The ASME Met Section shall not be responsible forstatements or opinions printed in its publication.ASME By-Laws B7.1.3.