John J. Mooney
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John J. Mooney | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 6, 1930 |
| Died | June 16, 2020 (aged 90) |
| Alma mater | Seton Hall University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Fairleigh Dickinson University |
| Occupation | Chemical Engineer |
| Awards | National Medal of Technology (1974), Walter Ahlstrom Prize |
John Joseph Mooney (April 6, 1930 – June 16, 2020) was an American chemical engineer who was co-inventor of the three-way catalytic converter, which has helped reduce pollution from cars since the mid-1970s
Mooney grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he attended St. Georges Grammar School and then St. Joseph's High School, graduating in 1947.[1] Mooney then spent ten years working for the Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G)[2] while attending Seton Hall University, where he completed his Bachelor of Science degree in 1955.[1]
He spent the next few years with the United States Army. He then continued his education at Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology), where he earned a Master of Science in chemical engineering in 1960.
Mooney also earned an MBA in marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1992 while working at Engelhard.[1]
Mooney was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree (honoris causa) in 2007 by his alma mater New Jersey Institute of Technology for his outstanding achievements in the fields of environmental protection and automotive engineering.[3]
Career
While serving in the United States Army from 1955 to 1956, Mooney was assigned to a series of nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, which included 17 atom bomb and two hydrogen bomb tests. Mooney was as close as 7+1⁄2 miles from fission bomb tests.[1]
Mooney came to Engelhard in 1960, after graduate school, as a result of a connection made in an electrochemical engineering course. He worked at the company's Gas Equipment Division. Among his first tasks there were purification of hydrogen, purification and catalysis of ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen[1] and a process for using a ruthenium catalyst to produce hydrogen from liquid ammonia for the United States Air Force. As a result, the Air Force was able to easily supply hydrogen for weather balloons, since it was more efficient to ship liquid ammonia to distant locations than cylinders of gas.[2]
The 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act required significant reductions in hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. The converters available at the time were oxidation catalysts, which could handle hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide, but were ineffective in reducing nitrogen oxides. Car manufacturers and catalyst companies were trying to develop a multiple step process that would address hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide in one process while reducing nitrogen oxides in another.[1]
Chemist Carl D. Keith and Mooney with their team at Engelhard came up with the first production catalytic converter in 1973. The three-way catalyst developed by them allowed all three exhaust pollutants (hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides) to be remedied using a single catalyst bed. Their solution to addressing the variations in air/fuel mixtures was to combine rare-earth oxides and base metal oxide components in the catalyst together with Platinum and Rhodium in a ceramic honeycomb with tiny passages coated with the catalytic material. This design ensured that the oxygen needed in the reactions was absorbed when it was in excess and released when it was needed, allowing all three pollutants to be removed in a single catalytic component. The three-way catalytic converter reduces nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen, oxidizes carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and oxidizes unburnt hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water.[1]
