CAD DESIGN UPDATES
Welcome to 3D CAD Design Updates. The world of computer aided design is changing all the time. Subscribing will get you every interesting story and event as it happens. If you to subscribe to my RSS Feed click on the Orange button. Lets get into whats happening below...
Dec 03, 2025
Is this the worst toxic ash on the planet ?
Back in 1984, A Union Carbide fertilizer manufacturing plant released toxic gas into the air around the Indian city of Bhopal. More than 5000 people died. It remains the worlds worst industrial and environmental disaster.
After the closure of the factory, all of the manufacturing plant was incinerated in an effort to erase every trace of it's existence. The ash from that incineration was stockpiled in a building, untouched, incredibly, until now.
A huge controversy has erupted, not surprisingly, about where to bury this ash. 40 Years later no one in India wants this material buried anywhere near them. Despite the governments efforts to assure citizens that there is no more toxic elements left in this ash.
It's going to take a disposal method nothing short of treating it like nuclear waste to even begin to put peoples fears to rest.
More background articles here:https://www.ndtvprofit.com/amp/nation/900-tonnes-of-toxic-ash-post-incineration-of-union-carbide-waste-causes-unease-in-mp-town
Continue reading "Is this the worst toxic ash on the planet ?"
Nov 30, 2025
Toronto fire may be restoration nightmare
A stubborn fire in Toronto, Canada at 11 Thorncliffe Park Drive and 21 Overlea Blvd has caused the evacuation of 400 condo units. While thankfully everybody is safe, the nature of the fire is proving hard to put out with Toronto fire pouring water in between walls to control hot spots they can only see with infrared cameras.
It's taking a while to get the fire totally under control but after the fire department has finished, the Insurance companies will bring in restoration contractors with hundreds of fans, industrial size dehumidifiers and extractors. The difficult task will then become getting all the water out from between the wall as quickly as possible.
It's going to be tough with the dampness being in between wall cavities because walls will have to be broken down to get access for fans and airflow. Hopefully because it's a condo it's mostly concrete and steel construction but if there's any wet drywall, insulation and wood framing, all of that will have to be torn out and replaced.
Although steel framing may not be a problem for mould formation you do no want moisture remaining that would promote rust at the location of any structural fasteners, joints and rebar.
As the fire chief said, this fire is a unique situation and it will certainly prove to be one when it comes to restoration.
As of Dec 13/2025 Toronto Fire reported that they will estimate spending another week fighting the fire. They also released some more information about how the bituminous infused wafer board that is burning is sandwiched in a gap no bigger than 25-50mm between the two buildings.
https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/no-end-in-sight-thorncliffe-park-fire-evacuation
Continue reading "Toronto fire may be restoration nightmare"
Nov 29, 2025
Using Incinerator bottom ash for construction
The primary benefit of incinerating waste is that it gets rid of 90 percent of municipal waste once & forever as opposed to landfills which keep accumulating waste for all time.
What to do with the 10% bottom ash left over is a question that is being answered by Panda, a waste management company in Knockharley Ireland. Panda is building a bottom ash processing facility that will remove any toxic metals from the ash and allow the remaining ash to be used for road construction and other civil infrastructure building projects.
This is a big change because formerly all bottom ash was shipped out of the country because it could not be landfilled. The laws surrounding ash exclusion from landfills are somewhat ironic considering that they accept 100% of municipal waste with the toxic metals still there completely unprocessed.
Continue reading "Using Incinerator bottom ash for construction"
Nov 29, 2025
Modular homes for health care workers
A small hospital in South Okanagon, B.C., Canada has come up with an interesting perk to keep emergency doctors on site and the emergency room open. The hospital is building 2 bedroom modular homes for the doctors to use. The hospital hopes these homes will encourage the doctors to remain in the community and prevent the hospital from repeated closures caused because medical staff are just not available.
Nov 26, 2025
Shipping Container Gatehouses & Offices
A shipping container makes a great portable office, gate house or guard house. They can be insulated and air conditioned and provide any amenities necessary. The big advantage is their portability.
Another advantage of Container offices is their designed in modularity. If you want to stack two shipping container offices on top of each other, or even three or four they are already designed to be structurally sound. All that is required is first to verify the existing foundation to make sure it can support these loads and Second, to create a proper stair tower for accessibility.
Repurposing refrigerated shipping containers is particularly helpful for outdoor offices because reefer container are already fully weather sealed, only the interior climate control systems need to be modified and windows added so that they are comfortable to work in regardless of exterior weather. In the case of an application like a multi storey freezer facility, no modifications will even be necessary.
It is also important to note that wood frame construction used in conventional modular buildings is often done to keep costs low and energy efficiency often suffers because of that. Refrigerated containers, about as tightly sealed and insulated as you can get so save money on energy right out of the box, so to speak!
https://parametric-architecture.com/the-case-for-using-containers-as-portable-office-buildings/
There is no shortage of container handling trucks that can be used to haul them wherever they need to be. But to keep shipping costs at a minimum, you need to buy locally. In Oakville Ontario, Canada, I work with Fab-Con Fabricated Container systems https://fab-con.ca/ for shipping container offices.
Nov 25, 2025
Diesel or Electric trucks, whats it going to be ?
Troy Lake is an experienced diesel mechanic who has been demonized by the Environmental Protection Association. The EPA says you cant disable power robbing failure prone anti pollution equipment on diesel engines without stiff fines and prison time.
But what if EPA rules make it impossible for the trucking sector to earn an honest living ? It is not logical to sacrifice highly productive segments of the economy. If you are going to go electric Why not heavily subsidize electric trucks so there is no longer an incentive to drive diesel ? Why on earth is no one pursuing a compromise such as using diesel electric hybrid powerplants such as those in locomotives and ships ?
Cities world wide tout the success of using diesel exhaust emissions controls like the dpf systems mechanic Troy Lake disables. The Cities show the results of lowering fine particulate diesel emissions over years of regulations.
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/traffic/from-beijing-to-london-cities-show-what-happen-when-they-crack-down-on-polluting-vehicles-4990254.html
Continue reading "Diesel or Electric trucks, whats it going to be ?"
Nov 24, 2025
Flash Joule Heating could be answer to extracting minerals out of fly ash
In this interview with Dr James Tour, the subject of flash joule heating is discussed which has the potential to extract rare earth minerals out of materials such as incinerator fly ash.
Continue reading "Flash Joule Heating could be answer to extracting minerals out of fly ash"
Nov 22, 2025
Do It Yourself Healthy Air Scrubber
I have seen this do it yourself healthy air scrubber many times now and it's not a bad idea. Air Scrubbers are simple devices, basically a filter and a fan in an enclosed box.
But there are some important details. It's all about the filter. The ones he is using are not capable of filtering out invisible particles that go through most face masks and straight into your lungs. You need MERV 13 filters at a bare minimum for that. Commercial scrubbers use expensive HEPA air filters.
Then there is the fan, it is not capable of overcoming the resistance of a good filter. That's why real scrubbers have much smaller fans with giant motors on them.
It would be great to do particulate testing on one of these homemade scrubbers to find out just how good it actually is and then optimize it with slightly better filters
Nov 21, 2025
Burning or Burying Municipal Waste
This article does a great job of laying out the pro's and con's of municipal waste incineration versus landfills.
About the only thing that I can think of that it does not cover is the in the long term benefits of an incinerator. Once garbage is burned in an incinerator it is gone. Whereas in a landfill the waste just keeps building up over time making problems with leachate and off gassing progressively worse. The landfill never stops growing it merely relocates to another deep hole so that you have two landfills.
off gassing in landfills is particularily problematic because methane is a much more hazardous gas to the environment than simple carbon dioxide which is a fundamental building block of life.
Nov 20, 2025
China running out of garbage to burn
China is running out of waste to burn, which is a good thing ! For one they have found a way to get rid of landfills, to the extent they are digging up old ones to provide fuel for waste to energy plants.
Secondly they have discovered there is a limit to how many waste to energy plants need to be built based on available municipal waste stocks. That's actually better for the environment because there is no need for stockpiling garbage for decades with its associated leaching and off gassing into the soil and air.
Municipal incinerators are clearly an efficient method of permanent waste disposal. There is no need for an unlimited number of incinerators they just need to be matched to the quantity of available waste.
https://en.as.com/latest_news/trash-in-high-demand-how-china-is-trying-to-solve-its-garbage-shortage-problem-f202511-n/#tooltip-google
This Eco-Business article delves into the Chinese incineration over capacity situation in much more detail. It still does not discuss the changing nature of incinerator feedstocks and the impact it has on continued operation.
https://www.eco-business.com/news/whats-behind-chinas-waste-incineration-overcapacity/
Here is another article that goes into how China has decided to import municipal waste from western countries again. China originally did this 10 years ago because it was possible for to items like waste cardboard that could be recycled and resold. China stopped importing waste back then because there was just too much unusable material.
Now that Chinese cities are using up municipal waste stocks they need more from overseas to prepare the correct garbage recipes to efficiently keep their incinerators creating power from heat.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3335298/waste-wealth-why-china-building-incinerators-around-world
Nov 19, 2025
Making paper using energy from waste
In my previous post I talked about the expansion of Canada's Emerald Energy, a waste to energy incineration plant that sends a lot of its electricity across the street in Brampton, Ontario to a paperboard processing plant. This cosy relationship saves money and reduces Carbon emissions. Thousands of miles across the globe in Taiwan, Valmet plans to build a waste to energy plant to do the exact same thing with the CLC Houli paper mill right next door. The energy from waste will make it unnecessary for the paper plant to burn coal to create it own energy.
Nov 13, 2025
Canada's largest Incinerator to get even bigger
I previously worked on Emerald Energy's huge Energy from Waste facility in Brampton, Ontario Canada. At that time it was already the largest incineration plant in Canada.
The newest proposal includes adding two more continuously loaded incineration lines. Garbage is fed into the waste burner using a ram. Then a series of moveable floor panels move the garbage hundreds of feet through a long tunnel where combustion gases are reburned until there is nothing left than inert ash.
Continue reading "Canada's largest Incinerator to get even bigger"
Jul 10, 2024
About Adrian Dunevein
Adrian Dunevein has been a mechanical designer and drafter since 1985 working with AutoCad, SolidWorks & OnShape
Jun 22, 2024
Industrial dust collector systems design
Industrial dust collector systems detailed for ease of construction and installation
Jun 16, 2024
Bad flashing ends up costing big money
This Condo Corporation in Kanata, Ontario just found out that simple Flashing can be a huge problem. Flashing is shaped aluminum panels that are used to to direct rainwater away from joints such as where windows meet walls at the top or head of the window, at the sides or jambs or at the bottom or sills.
Any window, door and certainly any solarium installation needs three layers of protection working together to keep rainwater from getting into the walls and rotting away any wood structure or causing rust deterioration in structural steel. Those layers are caulking, weather seals and of course flashing.
In the case of the Kanata Condominium, 30 of the 40 units in the condo had attractive aluminum frame solariums installed as a glass roof over top of their balconies in the mid 1980's. These solariums were common elements intended to be maintained by the condo corporation. New Unit owners noticed evidence of leaks very soon after moving in but nothing was ever done about it.
Fast forward to 2024 and the the leaking has built up moisture inside the walls and destroyed the wood structure to the point that the walls are unsafe. All because relatively inexpensive flashing, caulking and weather sealing was not done properly.
It is so sad because now 40 retired single income seniors are now saddled with a $600,000 repair bill. It is an expense that should never have been a problem and one which could have been dealt with by replacing improper flashing, caulking and weather seals that were causing leaks.
If you are a condo owner and notice evidence of water leaks near common element windows make sure to follow up with your condo manager and get verification that something is being done.
You cant just rely on caulk to last 40 years. You need flashings to direct rainwater away and weather sealing underneath as a backup in case some leakage gets past the caulk and flashing. And you need inspection to verify its been done right so that you do not face problems like the owners in Kanata now have to deal with.
Jun 14, 2024
Mandated DPF filter use on Tugboat causes alarm
Having worked on Incinerators and Kilns I have an interest in all the things those devices are used for. One use that I find particularly interesting is heat cleaning diesel particulate filters or DPF's.
Heat treating DPF's is done to burn off all the old carbon deposits inside and give the expensive DPF filter an extended lease on life to go on removing sooty exhaust from diesel engines.
The US state of California CARB have recently mandated DPF usage for tugboats and in so doing caused a big uproar. While DPF's reduce dramatically reduce diesel engine emissions they also increase the operating cost and if not carefully monitored and maintained can cause the engines to become more unreliable.
That's hard enough with a tractor trailer diesel rig but when a tugboat is involved, if the boat breaks down while pushing a huge container ship in Los Angeles harbour the consequences could be catastrophic not to mention incurring the loss of millions of dollars
Continue reading "Mandated DPF filter use on Tugboat causes alarm"