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Environment, Health, Safety & Security

Chementator: Dow and NREL Join Forces in a Biomass Gasification Project  

A thermochemical process for converting biomass to ethanol, other biofuels and chemical intermediates will be developed jointly by Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) and the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, Golden, Colo.; www.nrel.gov). Under the…

Chementator: Taking Advantage of Landfill Gas    

Dow Chemical (Midland, Mich; www.dow.com) has started using a renewable energy source — methane from landfill gas — at its Dalton, Ga., plant where carpet latex is manufactured. As a result, carpet-backing products manufactured with the so-called Dow Lomax technology,…

Chementator: Plastics: A New Use for an Ethanol Coproduct    

Corn residue left in fermenters after ethanol production could find a future use as a filler in plastics through research being done at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s North Central Agricultural Research Laboratory (Brookings, S.D.; www.ars.usda.gov). The granular residue, called…

Chementator: EPA Delays GHG Action    

On July 11, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA; Washington, D.C.) released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) soliciting public input on the effects of climate change and the potential ramifications of the Clean Air Act in relation to…

Finding the Right Gloves To Fit the Application  

Workers in the chemical process industries (CPI) would certainly benefit from the "perfect" glove that would be thick enough for thermal insulation, thin enough to promote dexterity and tough enough to protect workers from cuts and abrasion. The glove would…

Chementator: A new route to ethanol  

Ethanol could be produced for less than $1/gal through a new process developed by ZeaChem, Inc. (Lakewood, Colo.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-531). The company has piloted the process (flowsheet) and plans to start up a 1.5-million-gal/yr full-scale demonstration plant at the end of…

Chementator: A ‘smart’ helmet  

Industrial designer Tore Christian Bjørsvik at Sintef Health Research (Trondheim, Norway; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7374-545) has developed a safety helmet with a soft, flexible inner layer that instantly becomes a hard shock absorber if the helmet is subjected to impact. The helmet also…

Newsfront: Reaching for a Solution  

The chemical process industries (CPI) are subjected to countless environmental, health and safety (EH&S) regulations affecting the production, distribution and general use of chemical products. To add to the existing burden, new global initiatives related to product stewardship — most…

Chementator: Cellulosic ethanol  

Dupont (Wilmington, Del.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7373-533) and its partner Genencor (Palo Alto, Calif.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7373-534), a div. of Danisco A/S, plan to invest $140 million to integrate the pretreatment process and fermenting organism — developed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL: Golden,…

Chementator: Plastics from CO2?  

Researchers from the Organic Chemistry Dept. at Newcastle University (U.K.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7373-544) have developed aluminium (salen) complexes that exhibit "exceptional" activity for catalyzing the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO2 and epoxides. Cyclic carbonates are widely used for the production of…