The East Tennessee Section of AIChE Leadership Board has updated the local section bylaws. The bylaws are going to nationals for review and comments. The board would like you to review these bylaws in parallel. Please review these by the June 30th if you would like to comment. After June 30th commenting will be closed. When national approves the bylaws they will be sent out to the local section for voting and ratification. Please send any comments to the Local Section Secretary, Rebecca Glaspie, by email at rglaspie@eastman.com .

The draft of the revised bylaws can be found here.

December Program Presentation Available

John Barber, “Integrated Water Management” (7.4MB Powerpoint)

November Program Presentation Available

Dan Ingersoll, Oak Ridge National Lab, “Small Modular Reactors and the Second Nuclear Era,” November 17, 2011

October 11^th Presentation Available – Life Cycle Assessment, Perry Murdaugh and Jason Pierce

September Program Presentation Available

Chemical Engineering Megatrends – Future Challenges and Opportunities
by
Jeffrey J. Siirola
Purdue University and Carnegie Mellon University

When: Thursday, September 29^th, 2011 at 11:30 a.m. (pizza), Noon (program)

Where: Eastman Research, B-150 (Auditorium), Kingsport, TN.

See his presentation here. (3 MB PowerPoint)

Jeff Siirola is an engaging speaker who will discuss the current chemical engineering challenges of global warming, sustainability and shale natural gas. Global warming mitigation and raw material displacements are about to affect the chemical processing industries. The primary focus of global warming mitigation efforts has involved carbon management strategies. Strategies that Eastman recently evaluated included fuel switching to less carbon-intense fossil fuels, fuel switching to sustainably grown biomass, and unconventional non-fossil energy sources including wind, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, and nuclear, and greater use of electrically-driven processing technologies. Conclusions from these studies will be discussed as well as the primary recommendation for short term action. Secondly, a curious aspect related to the design, optimization, and control of sustainability-related objectives in the processing industries including energy consumption minimization, environmental impact minimization, safety performance and the like will be discussed, as well as a possible new sensing, modeling, and control paradigm under the rubric of "smart manufacturing" directly related to maximizing these sustainability metrics during operation. Finally the impact of recently developed shale gas availability on the raw material picture for the US chemical industry, on the relative fuel economics for both the chemical industry and the electric power industry, and even on carbon mitigation strategies (and the future of gasification) will be discussed. The future indeed will be full of interesting challenges and exciting opportunities.

Jeffrey J. Siirola

Jeff Siirola retired in 2011 as a Technology Fellow at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport Tennessee where he had been for more than 39 years. He received a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Utah in 1967 and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1970. His areas of interest include chemical process synthesis, computer-aided conceptual process engineering, design theory and methodology, chemical process development and technology assessment, resource conservation and recovery, sustainable development and growth, carbon management, and chemical engineering education.

Siirola is Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee of ABET. He is also a trustee and past president of CACHE (Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering Education), and a member of the American Chemical Society, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and the American Society for Engineering Education. He has served on numerous National Research Council, National Science Foundation, and Department of Energy panels, and on the advisory boards of several journals and chemical engineering departments.

Siirola is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was the 2005 President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

March 24^th, 2011 Local Section Program

Pete Lodal

“Catastrophic Pump Failures -- Bleves”

This presentation is available for download, here.

Abstract

Do you work with pumps or anywhere near pumps? Then this is a MUST SEE presentation. A sometimes overlooked safety issue with centrifugal pumps occurs when they are isolated (both suction and discharge) while running, which can lead to catastrophic failure of the pump casing via a boiling liquid, expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE). Three case histories will be used to illustrate several key points, such as the fact that seal failure will not give you adequate protection, and that this phenomenon can occur even with clean, non-flammable liquids. Several mitigation and control strategies will also be presented.

About the Speaker

Peter Lodal is a Technical Fellow and group leader of the Plant Protection Technical Services group at Eastman Chemical’s site in Kingsport, TN. He has been with Eastman in various positions for more than 32 years, 17 years in process engineering, and the past 15+ years in process safety and loss prevention. He is Eastman’s representative to the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) Technical Steering Committee, is the chair of the CCPS Planning committee, and is the past chair of the Reactivity Management Roundtable (RMR). Pete chairs the Process Safety Subteam for the American Chemistry Council (ACC), and serves on the International Editorial Board for the Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries. Pete is the author or co-author of over 20 papers and publications, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and a Fellow of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). He is a past Director of both his local AIChE section (East Tennessee), and is the 2010 Chair of AIChE’s Safety and Health division. Pete holds BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Tennessee.

2010-2011 Local Section Program Schedule

Program	Speaker	Date
Effective Facilitation of Meetings	Mike DePollo, Eastman	9/16/10
Tour of BAE	Tony Hewitt, BAE	9/23/10
Tritan™ Copolyester Commercialization at Eastman Chemical	Chris Killian, Paul Ketchum	10/19/10
EPA Regulation of Greenhouse Gases	Elaine Zoeller, Eastman	11/16/10
Leadership in a Crisis	Pete Lodal, Eastman	12/9/10
Dealing with Difficult People	Mark Hecht, Eastman	January 2011
Heat Transfer	Brad Killen, Eastman	February 2011
Distillation Fundamentals – 4 hour seminar	Dan Summers, Sulzer Chemtech	March 2011
Common Safety Issues	Pete Lodal, Eastman	March 2011
Globalization and Eastman	Greg W. Nelson, CTO, Eastman	April 2011
A Fun (but Educational) History of Chemistry – joint meeting with ACS celebrating the International Year of Chemistry	Dr. Al Hazari, UTK Prof. of Chemistry	May 2011

Read recent newsletters from the East Tennessee Section

The Pipeline

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2010

2011

2012

Treasurer's Reports

Web News Archive

“Integrated Water Management,” John Barber, December 1, 2011.

“Small Modular Reactors and the Second Nuclear Era,” Dan Ingersoll, November 17, 2011.

“Life Cycle Assessment,” Perry Murdaugh and Jason Pierce, October 11, 2011.

“Chemical Engineering Megatrends—Future Challenges and Opportunities,” Dr. Jeffrey J. Siirola, September 29, 2011.

“A Fun but Educational History of Chemistry—Celebrating the Year of Chemistry,” Dr. Al Hazari, May 19^th, 2011.

“Cultivating a Culture for Growth and Innovation,” Dr. Greg W. Nelson, Eastman CTO, April 12, 2011.

“Pump BLEVEs,” Pete Lodal, March 2011.

Distillation Seminar, March 2011, Daniel R. Summers: Distillation 101, Tower Performance Evaluation, Tray Design Techniques, Tray Training, Packing Distribution, Distillation Seminar

“Process Heat Transfer 101,” Brad Killen, February 22, 2011 (Extensive heat transfer design and troubleshooting notes, 2.7MB .pdf)

“Dealing with Difficult People,” Joanne Ward, January 20, 2011.

“Emergency Response Leadership—Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire!,” Peter Lodal, December 7, 2010 (Pearl Harbor Day, as is appropriate).

“Effective Meetings—Mike DePollo,” September 16, 2010.

“R.L. Hasche—East Tennessee Section’s First Chair (1945),” December 1, 2009.

“Process Analytics”, November 17, 2009.

“Kenneth Massey’s BCS Computer Systems and Sports Ratings,” October 22, 2009.

“Plant tour of the Domtar Kingsport paper mill,” September 10, 2009.

“TVA Nuclear Generation Development and Construction,” Daniel Pratt, March 10, 2009. (.ppt 5.1MB)

“The Kingsport Center for Higher Education”, Gloria Gammel, February 18, 2009. (.ppt, 3.7 MB)

“Corrosion Engineering”, Robert Sinko, Eastman Chemical Company, January 21, 2009. (.ppt, 5.5MB)

“Chemical Plant Security”, Bill Hendon, Eastman Chemical Company, December 8, 2008. (.ppt)

“Nuclear Fuel Services—Business and History”, Tracy Coates, Engineering Section Manager, NFS, Nov. 11, 2008. (.doc)

“Sustainability Benchmarks and Roadmaps”, Darlene Schuster, AIChE Institute for Sustainability, Oct. 22, 2008. (5 MB .ppt)

Nu-Energie Biodiesel Plant Tour, September 18, 2008.

“AIChE 100^th Anniversary,” Tim Nolen, April 15^th, 2008.

East Tennessee Section
Company Contacts

Please call these co-workers of yours if you need more information about our local section.

Eastman Chemical Company
Patrice Riesenberg, P.E.
423-229-8980
patrice@eastman.com

BAE Systems
Braxton Sluder
Process Chemical Engineer, Acids Manufacturing
423-578-6225
braxton.sluder@baesystems.com

Nuclear Fuel Services
Natalie Robertson
423-743-2526

nsrobertson@nuclearfuelservices.com

Domtar
Rhonda Smith
Process Control Engineer
423-392-2797
Rhonda.smith@domtar.com

2012 Local Section Officers

Officer History

	Chair-Steve Miller Eastman Chemical Company		Vice Chair – Noah McMillan Eastman Chemical Company
	Treasurer – Rebecca Glaspie Eastman Chemical Company		Secretary – Lane Daley Eastman Chemical Company
	Director – Paul Fanning Eastman Chemical Company		Director – Mark Harrison Eastman Chemical Company
	Director – Lauren Moyer Eastman Chemical Company

Webmaster – Tim Nolen, Eastman Chemical Company

Professional Development – Joe Parker, Eastman Chemical Company

Newsletter Editors – Mark Kettner, Eastman Chemical Company

- Ashfaq Shaik, Eastman Chemical Company

Short Course Coordinator – Mark Shelton, Eastman Chemical Company

68 Years of Local Section History

The East Tennessee Section of AIChE has a long and interesting history. Many influential chemical engineers have shaped and nurtured our professional organization. Click here to read more and become a wizened veteran yourself. You might also be interested in the story of the distinguished life and career of our first Chair, Dr. R. Leonard Hasche.

You can find the names of many great chemical engineers in our list of Past Officers from 1945 to present and also our list of Fellows.

Our local section bylaws are documented here.