East Tennessee Local Section

The January meeting presentation on Carbon Renewal Technology by Bill Trapp of Eastman is available here:  

https://www.aiche.org/community/sites/local-sections/east-tennessee/files/carbon-renewal-bill-trapp-january-2020

Eastman in the Circular Economy - Carbon Renewal Technology

Bill Trapp of Eastman Chemical

Abstract

Consumer plastics are under increasing pressure due to environmental damage from irresponsible dumping but also conventional landfilling and incineration. Calls for plastic bans are prevalent, but plastics provide numerous benefits that improve life for all. Perhaps the culprit is not plastic, but in how we dispose of used material and manufacturing wastes.  Eastman is uniquely situated to be a leader in chemical recycling and has recently announced technologies to make significant progress in addressing the issue.  Carbon Renewal Technology (CRT) is suitable for mixed plastic streams and Polyester Renewal Technology (PRT)is suitable for impure, but primarily polyester streams. Carbon renewal was commercialized in October, 2019 and enables recycle content to be incorporated into the acetyl stream products, especially cellulose ester based products. In order to enable large scale recycling, an allocation system referred to as mass balance accounting is being adopted by Eastman and the industry. This allows partial recycle into very large existing processes thus making recycling more economical versus the requirement to build new isolated processes to track recycle material directly.

Bill Trapp

Bill has been an Eastman Chemical Company employee for almost 40 years and has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Clemson University.  In that time, he has had assignments in Technology, Manufacturing and Business.  His first assignment was as a Process Improvement Engineer in the DMT (Dimethyl Terephthalate) Department and has had several different assignments related to gasification throughout his career. Currently, Bill serves as Platform Director for Carbon Renewal. Bill and his wife Cathy, live in Kingsport, TN. They have two children, and four grandchildren. Bill’s hobbies/interests include Church, most sports, “fixin’ stuff” and increasingly so – grandchildren.

Videos of the November 2019 Local Section meeting are posted under the videos link at left.  These show Doug Atkins presentation on safe use of laboratory glass.

Hello, Tennessee chemical engineers.  Our chapter is an important part of chemical engineering history.  An updated list of our local section officers since 1943 is at the following link:

https://www.aiche.org/sites/default/files/community/160956/aiche-community-site-files/526241/pastoff-2019.pdf

Congratulations to Peter Lodal on his election to Director of the Global AIChE!  Peter is an AIChE Fellow from our East Tennessee Local Section.

Please refer to the Newsletters link for our latest newsletters and the Files link to see presentations from our speakers. 

The August 2019 Newsletter, The Pipeline, is now available along with past issues: 

https://www.aiche.org/community/sites/local-sections/east-tennessee/newsletters/

About Us

I hope you'll join in to the many educational, networking, and enjoyable activities of the East Tennessee Section of AIChE.

The East Tennessee Section has contributed to the profession of chemical engineering for seven decades.  Our area is in the extreme eastern part of the state near the border with Virginia and North Carolina.  As discussed in the local section history, our section was founded and is largely driven by employees of Eastman Chemical Company, which is the 9^th largest chemical company in the U.S. and has over 500 chemical engineers at its headquarters in Kingsport, Tennessee.  However, many of our members work for other local employers as well including Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) in Erwin, Tennessee and BAE Systems in Kingsport.

Our section has monthly programs from September through May.  Most of these are lunchtime meetings held in the Eastman Research Laboratories, but there are occasional plant tours and night meetings as well.  The local section offers a review course for the professional engineer’s exam and sponsors continuing education classes as well.  The history of these events is documented by our local section newsletter which is published monthly from September to May.