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Environment, Health, Safety & Security

Green chemistry — there’s a lot still left to do

Last August, the comments on this page saluted recent achievements of BASF Corp., Merck, Archer Daniels Midland and other winners of the U.S.’s 2005 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (Green-chemistry feats bring in the…

Chementator: A dosimeter monitors long-term exposure to phosgene

Phosgene is widely used for making fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates, and polymers such as isocyanates, polyurethanes and polycarbonates. But phosgene is highly toxic, and although gas detectors are required to monitor for dangerous leaks, they cannot determine if workers have…

Dust collection focuses on smaller particles

    A direct link between the size of particles and their potential for causing health problems is what has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; epa.gov) concerned about particulate matter (PM) that is 10µm in diameter or…

Chementator: FF granted TÜV approval for SIS specifications

Last month, TÜV Anlagantechnik GmbH, Automation, Software and Information Technology (Cologne, Germany) granted protocol-type approval for the Fieldbus Foundation (FF; Austin, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-541) safety-instrumented-systems (SIS) specifications. The specifications are in compliance with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61508 standard requirements up…

Chementator: …and there’s a new CTL licensee and patent for Rentech

Last month, Rentech, Inc. (Denver, Co.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-539) signed its first domestic license agreement with DKRW Advanced Fuels LLC (Houston, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5826-540) for the use of Rentech’s patented F-T CTL technology (CE, May 2004, p. 23). At the same time, DKRW’s…

Chementator: …and this process makes power from waste heat  

WOW Energy (see item above) has also developed a patented process that uses commercial, off-the shelf components to reduce the FG temperature to near ambient, while converting the extracted thermal energy into electricity. The cascading closed-loop cycle (CCLC) does this…

Chementator: Smelling false alarms

An electronic nose capable of distinguishing between cigarette smoke and smoke from an office or factory fire has been developed by a consortium of nine European companies and research institutions, with funding from the EU’s IST (Information Society Technologies) program.…

Chementator: Biodiesel

Lurgi AG (Frankfurt, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-549) is building the world’s largest biodiesel plant for Neckermann-Renewables GmbH (Würzburg, Germany). When the E64-million facility starts up in December at Piesteritz, Germany, it will produce more than 200,000 m.t./yr of biodiesel from rapeseed. The…

A deplorable tendency for accident-related risks

Reader feedback tells us that maintaining process-plant safety is an area of perennial concern. That, doubtless, explains why Carolyn Merritt, chair and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB; Washington, D.C.), drew a large…

Chementator: Purifying ethanol without distillation

Ultrasound Brewery Co. (Naruto, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-535) has developed a process that separates the water from dilute solutions of alcohol to achieve 99.5%, without using conventional evaporation or distillation. The company has tested the process in a pilot plant that produces…