John J. Mooney

John J. Mooney (born April 6, 1930 in Paterson , New Jersey , † June 16, 2020 in Wyckoff , New Jersey) was an American chemical engineer and co-inventor of the three-way catalyst .

Early life and education

Mooney grew up in his birthplace in New Jersey. After graduating from high school, he worked for the Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE & G) for ten years, while at the same time visiting Seton Hall University, where he obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in 1955.

After several years in the United States Army, he resumed his education at the Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology), where he graduated with a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in 1960. In 1992, Mooney also earned a Masters of Business Administration degree in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University while working at Engelhard.

Mooney was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2007 by his alma mater, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, for his achievements in the areas of environmental protection and automotive engineering.

Career

While serving in the United States Army from 1955 to 1956, Mooney was assigned to a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands , which detonated 17 atomic bombs and two hydrogen bombs.

After completing his training, Mooney came to Engelhard in 1960 , where he worked for the gas systems division. To its first tasks the purification of hydrogen as well as investigations into the decomposition of ammonia in the included hydrogen and nitrogen and a method for use of a ruthenium - catalyst for the production of hydrogen from liquid ammonia for the United States Air Force . As a result, the supply of hydrogen to weather balloons could be simplified, as it was more efficient and easier to transport liquid ammonia instead of hydrogen.

In 1970 there were amendments to the Clean Air Act that imposed significant restrictions on hydrocarbon , carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. The converters common at the time were pure oxidation catalysts that were able to reduce carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, but were ineffective in reducing nitrogen oxides.

Automobile manufacturers and catalyst manufacturers first tried to develop processes with several steps in which the hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide were reduced first and then the nitrogen oxides.

In 1973, the chemist Carl D. Keith and John Mooney and their team at Engelhard succeeded in producing a three-way catalyst for the first time. This allowed the simultaneous elimination of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides with a single catalyst. The solution to deal with the fluctuations of the air-fuel mixture, the combination of oxides of rare earths such as cerium oxide as an oxygen storage component having platinum and rhodium on aluminum oxide in a ceramic honeycomb body .

This construction ensured that the required oxygen could be released from the rare earth oxides and was available for the oxidation reactions. The reduced oxides were regenerated in excess of oxygen. The three-way catalytic converter reduces nitrogen oxides to nitrogen , the oxygen contained in the nitrogen oxides and oxygen from the combustion air and the storage components oxidise carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water.

Awards

Mooney was elected a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in 1990 for his efforts in emission control . In 2001 he and Keith received the Walter Ahlstrom Prize for his work on the development and commercialization of the three-way catalyst, which is awarded in cooperation with the Finnish Academies of Technology. It is estimated that by the time the converters were developed by Keith and Mooney, 56 million tons of hydrocarbons, 118 million tons of nitrogen oxides and 464 billion tons of carbon monoxide had been converted from car exhaust in the 25 years since their inception.

Together with Keith, Mooney was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2002 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Mooney held 17 patents, including a catalytic converter for two-stroke engines, which is used in chainsaws, lawn mowers and leaf blowers, for example.

As president of the Environmental and Energy Technology and Policy Institute, Mooney worked in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program to end the use of leaded gasoline around the world. In 2002 there were still 51 countries in Africa where leaded gasoline was still in use. By dealing with questions about valve seat hardening and proving that lead in gasoline does not solve the problem, 50 of these countries have now banned the use of leaded gasoline.

Mooney had been living in Wyckoff, New Jersey since 2003, after 43 years with Engelhard, where he died of a stroke in June 2020 at the age of 90 .

Web links

• An AIChE Mini History of John Mooney
• John Mooney, Co-inventor of the Catalytic Converter, to Receive Distinguished Alumni Achievement Medal from New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 2007 Commencement Honoree: John J. Mooney '60, Co-Inventor of the Automotive Catalytic Converter
• The National Medal of Technology and Innovation Recipients 2002
• John Mooney to Receive the 2005 Kazutoshi Fujimara Award
• John Mooney, Co-inventor of the Catalytic Converter, to Receive Distinguished Alumni Achievement Medal from New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 2007 Commencement Honoree: John J. Mooney '60, Co-Inventor of the Automotive Catalytic Converter
• The National Medal of Technology and Innovation Recipients 2002
• John J. Mooney, President Environmental and Energy Technology and Policy Institute, Biography ( Memento of April 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 22 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Sam Roberts: John J. Mooney, on Inventor of the Catalytic Converter, this at 90. In: The New York Times , 25 June 2020 (English). Retrieved June 26, 2020.
2. ^ Clean Air Act Requirements and History. In: Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved July 8, 2014 .