Bursic 2:00 pm
Group R13
THE USE OF HAZARDOUS CATALYSTS IN BIODIESEL PRODUCTION
AND THE VALUE OF ETHICAL CODES IN ENGINEERING
Tim Andersen (tja26@pitt.edu)
Ethics in Engineering
Biodiesel
In life, humans are expected to follow a certain set
of ethics. This isn’t to say obey laws, but there are certain
rules that are not always specified by law that decent
humans are expected to follow. These ethics are normally
tenets of human courtesy and morality, examples of which
include the lessons that are passed from generation to
generation by parents and grandparents or other authority
figures in one’s life. As with life there are codes of ethics
that apply to working professionals in any area. Instead of
leaving these ethics up to simple “understanding” of their
existence, however, the engineering community has
developed a written list to explicitly state the code of ethics
that applies to engineers in their daily working life. The
National Society of Professional Engineers (abbreviated as
NSPE) has organized a list of basic canon and some more
specific rules that are intended to guide engineers in
general. This code does not go into specific about any
situations because engineering is such a broad spectrum of
professions and they cannot cover all of the possibilities in
one document. The canon includes such points as:
“Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties,
shall: …Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of
the public,” and “…Conduct themselves honorably,
responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the
honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession,” [1].
To make up for the lack of specifics, the respective
organized communities of the different branches of
engineering have all formed their own sets of ethics. For
example, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
(abbreviated as AIChE). This code of ethics goes into
specifics about what is expected of chemical engineers in
their professional workplace. It is able to give more
applicable guidelines on morality and proper practice for
the field of chemical engineers. Although the code is
intended for Chemical Engineers in specific, it also includes
some basic canon that refers back to the NSPE Code of
Ethics, for example: “Members of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers shall uphold and advance the integrity,
honor and dignity of the engineering profession by:
…Being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity their
employers, their clients, and the public,” and “…Using their
knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human
welfare,” [2]. In summation, these codes are intended to
provide a reference for engineers when they are faced with
a situation in their area of work that forces them to question
the ethical repercussions of a decision that they are forced
to make.
Over the past decade, production of fuel sources
alternative to gasoline has ramped up significantly. Due to
the non-renewable nature of petroleum, the necessity of
developing alternative, renewable sources of fuel has
become more of a necessity. The term biofuel refers to a
fuel that is composed of organic matter such as animal fats
or vegetable oils, which burn clean and are renewable. A
specific type of these fuels is called biodiesel. Biodiesel is
a strain of biofuel that resembles diesel more in its state than
it does traditional gasoline. It is composed of methyl esters
which are concentrated strains of vegetable oils that are
produced in a process called transesterification. In the
process of transesterification, a mixture of vegetable oils
and a variable type of catalyst are heated and compressed
in order to produce glycerin and methyl esters. The two are
separated, the glycerin is used in the production of soap,
and the remaining product is biodiesel fuel. The process is
completely sustainable and the fuel burns relatively clean
in comparison to its petroleum-based counterparts. The
only hang up in the process is the catalysts. Based on the
solubility of the catalyst it is classified as either
homogeneous or heterogeneous. Homogenous catalysts are
used up during the reaction but provide a significantly
higher yield under similar conditions to their heterogeneous
counterparts, but heterogeneous catalysts can be retrieved
and reused after each use. This means that the catalysts
generally come at a significant cost to the companies that
produce biodiesel. Solutions are being developed in order
to modify the reaction so that heterogeneous catalysts can
be more effective including microwave and ultrasound
heating methods. Although this research is promising,
many fuel companies are still not interested in the biodiesel
options because of the cost that comes with them, but they
can provide not only a significant environmental benefit to
the world, but can also produce significant economic
development in the nations of the companies that produce
the biodiesel.
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering
2014/10/24
The Byproduct Issue
As stated before the issue of catalyst effectiveness
is prevalent in the biodiesel production industry, because of
this the focus of the industry seems to be catalyst
development. I was recently hired straight out of college as
an environmental quality control consultant by a large
contracting corporation (called Company X) that was hired
by a large fuel company (called Company Y), which was
responsible for a considerable portion of fuel production in
Tim Andersen
the United States. As a chemical engineer with a soft spot
for the environment, this had been my dream job essentially
since I began school. Things went well initially, the
company had courted me because of my performance in
college, but recently some decisions that were made around
me seemed somewhat gray, morally. Whether it was
overlooking certain “unnecessary” details or taking some
questionable offers, I had started to become suspicious of
some of the decisions made by my management. One day
I was sent in to the factory in order to examine the
environmental impact of a new type of catalyst developed
by company Y. It was similar to traditional heterogeneous
catalysts that had been tested in the past, but the research
scientists had come up with a new blend that used a sample
of potassium hydroxide blended with a lead product in
order to increase the effectiveness of the microwave
treatment in the production process. My job was to observe
a small control of what the full scale process would be, and
report the findings from the test to my boss. Of course to
anyone observing from the outside, the lead raised some red
flags. Use of the toxic element in production of consumer
products had nearly been phased out in the nineties, but I
had been assured by the scientists that due to the nature of
the transesterification reaction, the lead byproduct would
not be an issue to the environment in any major way.
Regardless of the assurances, I needed to perform the tests
in order to collect my data, so I did what I had to and sent
the results back to the labs and went home for the day. The
next day I received a call from the lab. They reported that
in their scaled transesterification test, the lead byproduct
was released into the air and produced high levels of
airborne toxicity. My verdict after observing the results
was that there was absolutely no way that it was
environmentally okay for company Y to begin use of these
catalysts. I went in to work that day to report the findings
to my boss at company X, but the reaction was not what I
would have expected.
significantly toxic when released into the environment, a
detail which should not be overlooked in an unbiased
survey done by a third party like my own. My boss assured
me that if I allowed the issue to be swept under the rug, not
only would the company prosper, but he would arrange a
bonus for me with a large possibility of promotion and a
possible company car. Although these benefits were great
for my career, I knew that morally I could not go through
with it. I searched the internet to try to find examples of
how this type of situation was handled in the past. One case
I found was case 1039 of the National Institute of
Engineering Ethics (abbreviated NIEE). In this case, a man
was required to analyze a site for his employer, and he
found the materials located at the site to be toxic. The
article describes that: “further, Shariq notes that, based on
past experience, it is his opinion that analysis of the samples
will most likely determine that the drum contents would be
classified as hazardous waste. Of course, both he and
Chuck know that if the material is hazardous waste, certain
steps will legally have to be taken to transport and properly
dispose of the drums, including notifying the proper federal
and state authorities,” [3]. When he reports these findings,
however, his boss tells him that another environmental firm
had analyzed the site and cleared the hazardous material for
disposal near a residential area. Although, morally he
should report this to the proper authorities, he is offered
money and possible promotions to stay quiet, which puts
him in a tough position. In another case, listed as Case No.
13-11 of the NSPE, a structural engineer is required to test
the effectiveness of a fire alarm system. The system is
tested and found to be ineffective, and upon receiving his
report, the proprietor of the building decided that the
funding didn’t exist to make proper renovations to the fire
alarm system. On one hand, he should report these findings
to the authorities because it is in the NSPE code of ethics
that he should hold paramount the safety of the public, [1],
but it is more convenient for him as a professional to let the
issue go and accept his payment [4]. Other cases included
an engineer who noticed mismanagement in the
construction of a major New York City skyscraper, [5], and
an engineer who noticed the improper construction
practices being used on a highway ramp that could lead to
dangerous driving conditions and even put at risk the lives
of the many drivers who would use the ramp, [6]. Looking
at these cases and the NSPE and AIChE codes of ethics it
became apparent to me that the proper choice in the
situation would be to report the findings to not only the
proper engineering authorities, but also the proper
government authorities.
Pressure from Management
The management did not give me the reaction that
I would have expected in this situation. Based on the results
of the test the new form of catalyst was extremely toxic. I
had assumed that there was no way that the management
would go along with this, but based on my boss’ reaction it
almost seemed like he was willing to overlook it. He asked
me to return later that night for a meeting with the
management of the research division of company Y, in
order to discuss the findings. This made me feel like there
was more to the situation rather than simply providing an
unbiased opinion on the catalyst. At the meeting I found
that company Y had arranged something of a bonus for my
company in order to report findings that allowed them to
begin using their new catalyst in biodiesel production.
There was no denying its economic efficiency and the yield
was unbeatable compared to its counterparts, but the lead
byproducts have been proven time and time again to be
The Importance of Ethical Codes
It seems cliché, and a little religiously biased, but
one common saying that anyone could follow in the world
today is: “What Would Jesus Do?” or WWJD. This is not
to say that Christians are morally superior to any other
religion or that people of any other religion should convert
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Tim Andersen
to Christianity in order to fill a moral void left by other
religions (or lack of religion); but rather to say that WWJD
provides a constant reminder of morality for the believers
of the Christian faith, and an easy way to focus yourself
morally is to find your WWJD, whatever that may be, based
on your set of beliefs in life. For engineers of any faith, this
reminder lies in the ethical codes. They do not explicitly
tell you what to do, rather, ethical codes provide a
consistent, black and white, non-biased opinion on how to
handle ethical dilemmas in the field of engineering.
Sometimes in the field of engineering, pressure from
employers and the pressure to succeed in your profession
can skew your view of morality. In these cases an engineer
can always refer to the code of ethics for a clear answer on
how to deal with a tough situation. One of the tenets that is
important to note in this situation is specified in the NSPE
code of Ethics section 4.2: “Engineers shall act for each
employer or client as faithful agents or trustees… Engineers
shall not accept compensation, financial or otherwise, from
more than one party for services on the same project, or for
services pertaining to the same project, unless the
circumstances are fully disclosed and agreed to by all
interested parties,” [1]. It may seem insignificant to take a
bonus from an employer in a situation like this but under
the Code of Ethics, it is explicitly stated that an engineer
cannot take bonuses in order to modify their work. This
kind of situation can seem like a gray area, but, if utilized,
the codes of ethics provided by engineering organizations
can provide a yes or no answer to almost any situation that
a working engineer would face in the real world.
[5]. E. Karagianis. (1999) MIT Spectrum: 11, p. 3. "The
Right Stuff. A Question of Ethics." WebGuru. (online
article).
http://www.webguru.neu.edu/professionalism/casestudies/cost-integrity.
[6]. (2013). NSPE Board of Ethical Review. “Case No.
12-11.” Public Health and Safety – Scaffolding for
Highway Ramp. (online article).
http://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethi
cs/EthicsResources/EthicsCaseSearch/2012/BER%20Case
%20No%2012-11-APPROVED.pdf.
[7]. W. Richard Bowen. (2014) “Engineering Ethics.”
Springer International Publishing, Switzerland (e-book).
http://rt4rf9qn2y.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z3
9.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_f
mt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book&rft.genre=book&rft.title=E
ngineering+Ethics&rft.au=W.+Richard+Bowen&rft.date=
2014-0101&rft.pub=Springer+Verlag&rft.isbn=9783319040950&r
ft.externalDocID=9783319040967&paramdict=en-US.
Additional Sources
M. Balat. (2010). “Progress in Biodiesel Processing.”
Applied Energy. (online journal article).
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626
1910000255
“What is Biodiesel?” (2012). biodiesel.org. (online
article). http://www.biodiesel.org/what-isbiodiesel/biodiesel-basics par. 8.
R. Luque, J.A. Melero. (2012). “Advances in Biodiesel
Production: Processes and Technologies.” Woodhead
Publishing Series in Energy. (online
book).http://site.ebrary.com/lib/pitt/reader.action?docID=1
0641468. pp. 139-144.
References
[1]. (2007). National Society of Professional Engineers.
“NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers.” NSPE. (online
article). http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics.
[2]. (2013). American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
“Code of Ethics.” AIChE. (online article).
http://www.aiche.org/about/code-ethics.
[3]. Texas Tech University Whitacre College of
Engineering. “I’d Rather Be Fishing.” Applied Ethics in
Professional Practice Program. (article).
[4]. (2014). NSPE Board of Ethical Review. “Case No.
13-11.” Public Health and Safety – Delay in Addressing
Fire Code Violations. (online article).
http://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/BER%20Case%20
No%2013-11-FINAL.pdf.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my father, Paul Andersen;
my mother, Maureen Andersen; my roommate, Robert
Merrick; my neighbors, William Pezutti and Nicholas
Cunningham; my ENGR 0011 instructor, Karen Bursic;
and my writing instructor, Joshua Lapekas, for all of the
help they provided me in finishing this assignment.
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