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Environment, Health, Safety & Security

A natural pesticide combats locust plague . . .

Richard Milner, a Honary Fellow at CSIRO Entomology (Canberra, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6517-541), has developed a rare native fungus, Metarhizium, into an environmentally friendly control for grass-hopper-type (including locust) agricultural pests. Metarhizium is a naturally occurring soil fungus that is genetically diverse;…

Fungus discovered to kill sugar-beet root maggots  

Stefan Jaronoski, an insect pathologist at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (Sidney, Mont.; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6517-543) has discovered that a strain of the fungus Metarhizium anisoplia is effective in killing the sugar beet root maggot. Currently,…

Broader Horizons for Biomass  

      Biomass has come center stage in the pursuit of reduced dependence on finite - not to mention geopolitically sensitive - quantities of fossil fuels such as petroleum, coal and natural gas. And while ethanol produced from corn…

Cold asphalting

Researchers from the Physics of Fluids and Biocolloids group at the University of Granada (Spain; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6516-549) are developing a system in which bitumen emulsifies at room temperature, which facilitates transport and allows cold application. Because the bitumen does not need…

Measurement Best Practices for Safety Instrumented Systems

    The ANSI/ISA-S84.01-1996 standard, which has guided North American users for the past decade in designing safety instrumented systems (SIS) has migrated to a new international standard based on the IEC 61511 and is now known as ANSI/ISA-84.00.01-2004 (IEC…

Electrically controlled ion exchange offers a greener way to treat wastewater

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; edlinks.chemengonline.com/6515-533) have demonstrated a new process for treating water contaminated by toxic perchlorate ions, found in drinking water in 35 U.S. states. As in conventional treatment methods, the process uses ion exchange to…

Honors for greener-reaction conditions . . .

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…

Prevent Plant Upsets

    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…

Gold-medal ways of going for the green

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.…

Gold-medal ways of going for the green

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.…