Among this year's award winners of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA; Washington, D.C.) Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge are Codexis, Inc. (Redwood City, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-538), Merck & Co. (Whitehouse, N.J.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-539) and Galen Suppes, professor of chemical engineering at the…
For many years, the job of a control room operator at a petroleum refinery or chemical plant was seen as relatively simple: Keep the process running and fix it when it breaks. That perception is changing as more…
As it has for several years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) once again paid tribute early this summer to companies, as well as to an individual, for contributions to pollution prevention, via its Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards competition.…
Soil contaminated with chlorinated aliphatic compounds can be remediated ten times faster than with biological or iron-based methods by use of a new metallic powder developed by Tosoh Corp. (Tokyo; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6514-532). The powder, called MA-FN20, electrochemically strips the chlorine atoms…
Air pollution is monitored by many different regulatory programs, some of which require that emissions be measured continuously. This task is often accomplished by directly measuring air pollutants with continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS). In recent years, innovative…
The heat-trapping potential of CO2 and the other major greenhouse gases (GHG)1 in the Earth’s atmosphere, while once hotly debated, is now undisputed, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.; epa.gov) and a growing list…
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), together with particulate matter, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, are major components of air pollution that can lead to serious environmental and health hazards. Physical, chemical and biological treatment methods are available to remove…
In families, organizations or nations, it can happen that when leaders at the top do not lead, those supposedly led take things into their own hands. That seems like an adequate, if imprecise, summary of how the largely regional, state-level…
Among pilot plants, those in petrochemical or petroleum-refining service pose special risks of fire and/or explosion. The key strategies to minimize those risks are these: properly conducted preconstruction safety reviews; leaktight design and construction; close attention to area…
BroadWare Technologies, Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-548) and Intergraph Corp. (Huntsville, Ala.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5829-549) have created an integrated solution that feeds high-quality video from remote locations to a central command center to speed decisionmaking and response time when a security event…