User:Milton Beychok

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About me

(CC) Photo: Milton Beychok
Milton Beychok

I am a retired chemical engineer living with my wife in Newport Beach, California, USA. I spent the first part of my career (about 30 years) working in and designing petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants, natural gas treating plants and other industrial facilities in various locations worldwide. For the next 20 years or so, I was an independent consulting engineer in the environmental field ... impact studies, permitting, wastewater and air pollution emission studies.

I am a graduate of Texas A & M, class of 1944 ... but didn't graduate until 1946 because I served 2 years in the army during World War II. I considered myself (during my working career) to be both a chemical engineer and an environmental engineer.

I am a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. I have published two engineering books and over 25 engineering articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as non-reviewed engineering trade magazines. At one time before I retired, I was also a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers as well as a registered Professional Engineer in California, Texas and Delaware.

Want more? Visit my website here.

I joined Citizendium in January 2008 and have been very happy to be an active participant.

My functional roles in Citizendium

• A member of the 5-person Management Council
• One of the Editorial Personnel Administrators whose function is explained at Editorial Personnel Administrators as a group
• An Editor in the Engineering Workgroup and the Chemistry Workgroup as well as the Chemical Engineering Subgroup and the Environmental Engineering Subgroup

Some of my favorite quotes

• Life is what happens while you are planning it.
• If you want to hear God laugh, make a plan.
• The Second Law of Thermodynamics: There are no free lunches.

Biography

Academic credentials:

• B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1946.

Work and other experience:

• 1944 - 1945: Between my junior and senior years at Texas A&M, served in the 100th Infantry Division in France and Germany. Held ranks of 2nd Lieutenant and 1st Lieutenant. Discharged as a Captain after war ended.
• 1946 - 1948: Worked in chemical engineering research at the Shell Oil Refinery in the Houston, Texas area.
• 1949 - 1953: Worked as chief chemist and as chemical engineer at the Rothschild Oil Refinery in the Los Angeles, California area.
• 1954 - 1975: Worked as chemical process design engineer for Fluor Engineers and Constructors in Los Angeles, California and in London, England.
• 1976 - 1999: Worked in my own practice as an independent consulting engineer.

Distinctinctions, honors and awards:

• 1970, "Technical Achievement Award", Southern California section, American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE)
• 1973 -1975, Served an appointment on the California Regional Water Quality Control Board
• 1974 - 1975, Served on AIChE Speakers Bureau Tour
• 1976, Keynote speaker, "Open Forum on Management of Petroleum Refinery Wastewaters", jointly sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, American Petroleum Institute and the National Petroleum Refiners Association, at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma
• 1976, "Environmental Division Award", the national American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• 1978-1980, Chairman, Petroleum Committee, Air Pollution Control Association, now the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA)
• 1978 - 1980, Director of Environmental Division, national American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Elected as a Fellow of the national American Institute of Engineers (Don't remember the date)
• Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers (Don't remember the date)

Publications:

• Books:
  • Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum and Petrochemical Plant, John Wiley and Sons, 1967
  • Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion, self-published, 1979 (Ist Edition), 2005 (4th Edition)
• Major consulting reports:
  • Process and environmental technology for producing SNG and liquid fuels EPA/2-75-011, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, May 1975
  • Comparative economics of advanced regenerable flue gas desulfurization processes, EPRI CS-1381, Electric Power Research Institute, March 1980
• Articles in peer-reviewed journal, conferences and other technical publications (partial list)
  • "Algebraic solution of McCabe-Thiele diagram", Chemical Engineering Progress, May 1951
  • "Naphthenates from spent caustic", Petroleum Processing, May 1952
  • "Cooling tower control variables", Petroleum Processing, October 1952
  • "First postwar butadiene plant", Petroleum Refiner, June 1957
  • "Design of sour water strippers", Seventh World Petroleum Congress, Mexico, April 1967
  • "Performance of surface-aerated basins", WATER-1970, Chemical Engineering Progress Symposium Series 107, Volume 67, 1971
  • "Wastewater treatment processes", Instituto de Ingenieros Quimicos, Puerto Rico, July 1971
  • "Wastewater treatment", Hydrocarbon Processing, December 1971
  • "NOx emissions from fuel combustion", Oil and Gas Journal, February 26, 1973
  • "Clean energy via coal gasification", 18th Annual New Mexico Water Conference, Las Cruces, New Mexico April 1973
  • "Coal gasification and the Phenolsolvan process", American Chemical Society 168th National Meeting, Atlantic City, September 1974
  • "Coping with SO2", Chemical Engineering, October 21, 1974
  • "Environmental factors in producing supplemental fuels", Hydrocarbon Processing, October 1975
  • "Sulfur emissions control for a coal gasification plant", EPA Conference on Environmental Aspects of Solid Fuel Conversion, Florida, December 1975
  • "Options for SO2 reduction", U.S. EPA Symposium on Flue Gas Desulfurization, Florida, November 1977 (co-authored with A.V. Slack)
  • "A data base of dioxin and furan emissions from municipal refuse incinerators", Atmospheric Environment, January 1987
  • "Dioxin, furan, particulate and trace metal emissions from municipal refuse incinerators", American Flame Research Committee International Symposium on Incineration of Hazardous, Municipal and Other Wastes, Palm Springs, California, November 1987
  • "Error propagation in stack gas dispersion models", The National Environmental Journal, January and February, 1996
  • "Calculating flow rates for accidental gas releases", Environmental Technology, January and February, 1997

Citizendium articles:

• Articles which I created and for which I was the major contributor:
  • A total of 175 articles of which 28 achieved Approved status. See Articles for complete, detailed list.
• Articles to which I significantly contributed or edited:
  • A total of 35 various engineering, chemistry, physics and other technical articles of which 3 achieved Approved status. See Articles for complete, detailed list.