[msb-alumni] John Mooney, 90, Whose Invention Made Engines Fuel Efficient and Cleaner, Dies on June 16, 2020
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 17:10:05 -0400
BlankJohn Mooney, 90, Whose Invention Made Engines Fuel Efficient and Cleaner.
By Sam
Roberts.
John J. Mooney, an inventor of the catalytic converter, the small and
ubiquitous
device that makes the engines that power everything from cars to lawn mowers
less
polluting and more fuel efficient, died on June 16 at his home in Wyckoff, N.J.
He
was 90. The cause was complications of a stroke, his daughter Elizabeth Mooney
Convery said.
Mr. Mooney was a high school graduate working as a clerk at a gas company when
his
colleagues encouraged him to pursue a college education. After earning a
bachelor's
degree and two master's degrees, he went on to receive 17 patents during his
43-year
career with the Englehard Corporation in Iselin, N.J. (now the Catalyst
Division of
the German chemical manufacturer BASF). Among them was the three-way catalytic
converter, which has been described by the Society of Automotive Engineers as
among
the "10 most important innovations in the history of the automobile."
The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that tailpipe emissions from
the
newest passenger cars, sport utility vehicles, trucks and buses generate about
99
percent less smog-producing exhaust and soot than those from the 1970 models
did.
Development of catalytic converters was spurred by federal regulations that
mandated
the production of gasoline without lead, which greatly impaired the
effectiveness of
existing antipollution devices. While early converters were able to reduce
emissions
of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, the 1970 Clean Air Act imposed limits on
another
pollutant, nitrogen oxides.
Mr. Mooney and Carl D. Keith, a chemist, collaborating with their Englehard
colleagues Antonio Eleazar and Phillip Messina, successfully experimented on a
1973
Volvo station wagon to create a catalytic converter that reduced all three
kinds of
emission. Simply put, the device filtered the exhaust through tiny passages in
a
ceramic honeycomb coated with a combination of various oxides, platinum and
rhodium.
It was introduced on assembly lines in 1976. Installing a computerized feedback
link
to the converter resulted in fuel savings upward of 12 percent.
Similar technology was later applied to an array of devices, including mining
equipment, motorcycles and wood stoves. Mr. Mooney's most recent patent, in
1993, was
awarded for a converter that reduced emissions from chain saws and leaf blowers
by up
to 40 percent while improving fuel efficiency.
Joel Bloom, the president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said in a
recent
statement that Mr. Mooney, a 1960 graduate, was "a brilliant engineer, a
trailblazing
inventor and an esteemed mentor to many."
John Joseph Mooney was born on April 6, 1930, in Paterson, N.J., to Denis
Mooney, a
lineman for Public Service Electric & Gas, and Mary (Hegarty) Mooney, a nurse.
He
went to work for PSE & G after high school ("I was basically a clerk," he said)
but
then enrolled in Seton Hall University, where he earned a bachelor of science
degree
in chemistry. After serving in the Army at the Enewetak Atoll atomic testing
site in
the Pacific, he earned a master's in chemical engineering from the Newark
College of
Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology) and, later, a master's
in
marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. "Although I liked my chemistry
courses
well enough, I've always had a practical bent," he once said. "I like to make
things
happen, and that's what engineers do -- they take the basic science and make
things
happen."
In 1960 he joined Englehard, where he initiated a process to produce hydrogen
from
liquid ammonia, which enabled the Air Force to inflate weather balloons more
efficiently.
In 2002, Mr. Mooney and Mr. Keith received the National Medal of Technology and
Innovation from President George W. Bush for their 'incredible impact in
curbing smog
and eliminating some of the most damaging side effects of the internal
combustion
engine on the environment and on human life.
In 2014, Mr. Mooney was awarded the Science and Technology Medal by the
Research &
Development Council of New Jersey.
As president of the Environmental and Energy Technology and Policy Institute,
Mr.
Mooney worked with the United Nations to encourage African countries to ban
leaded
gasoline. He retired from Engelhard in 2003.
In addition to his daughter Elizabeth, Mr. Mooney is survived by his wife,
Claire
(Ververs) Mooney; his son, John D. Mooney; three other daughters, Marybeth
Stachowiak, Noreen Dominguez and Kathleen Mooney; 14 grandchildren; and his
sister,
Kathleen Heintz.
"He is one of a very few individuals that can claim to have made contributions
to the
automotive industry that led to saving the lives of millions and extending the
lives
of countless more with cleaner air around the world," Rasto Brezny, executive
director of the Manufacturers of Emission Controls Association, which Mr.
Mooney once
headed, said by email. Mr. Mooney had, his daughter Elizabeth said, "an
engineering
mind."
"He would say, "If you don't think there's a solution, then you just haven't
asked
the right questions."
Other related posts:
- » [msb-alumni] John Mooney, 90, Whose Invention Made Engines Fuel Efficient and Cleaner, Dies on June 16, 2020 - Steve
