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…
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…
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…
Solvents have been used for centuries and in all type of industries for the processing, manufacturing and formulation of goods. In the chemical process industries (CPI), solvents are used in various process-operation steps such as separation (of gas,…
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…
Toshishige M. Suzuki and his colleagues at the Tohoku Center of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST; Sendai, Japan; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5827-538) has developed a new analytical test strip that can quickly detect parts-per-billion (ppb) concentrations of heavy metal…
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…
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…
BASF AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-546) has developed a biodegradable plastic that contains 45% polylactic acid, a biodegradable polymer made from corn (CE, November 2003, pp. 42, 43). The remaining component is BASF’s biodegradable plastic, Ecoflex, which is derived from petrochemicals.…
This month, the first field tests will be conducted on a pilot plant, developed by WOW Energy, Inc. (Sugar Land, Tex.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/5825-534), to remove mercury, oxides of sulfur (SOx) and nitrogen (NOx), particulates, heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)…