Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 01/21/05
Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 01/21/05
This is the weekly bulletin of the TURI Library, reporting a selection of recently published titles we have acquired. Our pledge is to keep the bulletin relevant to your work and brief -- no more than 10 titles. (usually)
Titles here, abstracts below them:- Cargill Dow Works to Jump-Start Growth for Polylactic Acid, November 2004
- UK Electronics Firms Announce WEEE Takeback Plans, October 2004
- The Many Faces of Chlorine, October 2004
- Montreal Protocol Exempts MB for Critical Uses, December 2004
- New Opportunities Under the EPA Audit Policy: Using a Group Effort to Self Audit, August/September 2004
- Waste Reduction and Cost Cutting, August/September 2004
- Flame Retardants Under Fire, June 2004
- Nano Silica - Amorphous Silicon Dioxide, August 2004
- Multilevel Cycle of Anthropogenic Copper, February 2004
- Kinetic Studies for Processes of Liquid-Phase Alkylation of Aromatics Over Solid Acid Catalysts, January 2004
1. TITLE Cargill Dow Works to Jump-Start Growth for Polylactic Acid
AUTHOR Wood, Andrew
SOURCE Chemical Week, November 24, 2004, vol. 166, no. 39, p. 31
ABSTRACT
Cargill Dow says it is working to breathe life into its corn-based
polylactic acid (PLA) biodegradable polymer. The company, a joint
venture of Cargill and Dow Chemical, spent $300 million to build a
300-million lbs/year PLA plant at Blair, NE that started up in early
2002. Market development has been slow, however, and it is the only one
of Dow's jv's that the company says is underperforming.
2. TITLE UK Electronics Firms Announce WEEE Takeback Plans
SOURCE Business and the Environment, October 2004, vol. XV, no. 10, pp. 11-12
ABSTRACT
Eight leading electronics manufacturers have unveiled their plans to
set up a National Clearinghouse to comply with the UK government's
requirements for handling the producer responsibility aspects of the
EU's Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The
companies, Apple, Electrolux, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung
Electronics, Gillette, and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, say that
the central role of their new Strategic Electronic Waste Policy Forum
will be to manage data and allocate waste equipment to producers. The
Forum will not be responsible for collecting any recycling equipment,
and the firms will be free to join independent compliance schemes or
set up their own.
3. TITLE The Many Faces of Chlorine
AUTHOR Howlett, C.T.; Collins, Terrence
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News, October 18, 2004, vol. 82, no. 42, p. 34
ABSTRACT
Chlorine. The word evokes pleasant images of swimming pools and clear
blue water sparkling in the summer sun. for most people, in fact, the
familiar smell of the chemical is linked with the reassurance that the
water we use every day has been rendered pure. But critics have brought
forth another image of chlorine and chlorinated compounds that are used
in many products and industrial processes, including ubiquitous
polyvinyl chloride plastics. For them, chlorine is inextricably
accompanied by the dark shadows of dioxins and PCBs - polychlorinated
biphenyls. They blame chlorine and chlorine chemistry for unleashing
some of the most serious threats to human health and the environment. A
year ago, at an off-the-record forum on sustainability sponsored by
Chemical &
Engineering News, the discussion shifted to
chlorine. The vigorous and provocative debate that followed surprised
even those of us on the magazine staff who follow controversy as a
matter of course in our reporting. We decided to identify two of the
best experts on chlorine chemistry and sustainability in order to bring
this debate to our readers. Our experts for this Point-Counterpoint on
chlorine make it clear that time has erased none of the passion for
this topic. Writing in support of chlorine and related industries is
Kip Howlett Jr., executive director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council
and vice president of the American Chemistry Council. His ritings about
chlorine have appeared in scholarly texts, and he has addressed the UN
regarding chlorine and its positive contributions to global human
health. Terrence Collins, Thomas Lord Professor of Chemistry at
Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Institute for Green
Oxidation Chemistry there, is a member of C&EN's advisory board. He
contends that the dangers of chlorine chemistry are not adequately
addressed by either academe or industry and that alternatives to
chlorine and chlorine processes must be pursued.
4. TITLE Montreal Protocol Exempts MB for Critical Uses
SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, December 6/13, 2004, volume 266, number 19, p. 11
ABSTRACT
An international conference on protecting the ozone layer has ended
with governments agreeing to allow the US and other industrialized
nations to continue using methyl bromide in 2005 for "critical" uses,
even though the soil fumigant was scheduled for phase-out in developed
world agriculture starting next year.
5. TITLE New Opportunities Under the EPA Audit Policy: Using a Group Effort to Self Audit
AUTHOR Losee, David
SOURCE New England's Environment, August/September 2004, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 4-5
ABSTRACT
We are all aware that EPA aggressively enforces its regulations using a
variety of tools, including an unannounced multimedia (air, water,
hazardous wastes, etc) site inspection. These inspections have resulted
in well-publicized penalties in the five, six, or even seven figures.
What is less publicized is an opportunity to avoid such inspections. In
1996, the US EPA announced its final Audit Policy. That Audit Policy
provided an opportunity to minimize or avoid penalties while correcting
violations. Under the policy, an regulated entity can self-audit, that
is, examine all of its operations for environmental compliance,
disclose violations to the government within 21 days of completing the
audit, correct the violations disclosed within 60 days of the
disclosure, and file a report enumerating violations found, the action
taken to correct the violations, and action taken to prevent
recurrences. Tremendous savings are possible by using the Audit Policy.
Not only can a regulated entity correct its environmental violations
with minimal or no penalty, but the entity is then in a position to
demonstrate to commercial lenders, stock holders, would be purchasers,
and the public in general, that it has fully complied with
environmental laws.
6. TITLE Waste Reduction and Cost Cutting
AUTHOR Tortora, Michael
SOURCE New England's Environment, August/September 2004, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 12-13
ABSTRACT
On June 24, 1998, the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the US
EPA signed a landmark agreement identifying goals to reduce the impact
of health care facilities on the environment. Joined by the American
Nursing Association (ANA) and Healthcare Without Harm, they agreed to a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This agreement proposed to virtually
eliminate mercury waste by 2005, reduce overall waste by 33 percent by
2005 and 50 percent by 2010, and further identify other hazardous waste
and persistent bioaccumulative toxin (PBT) pollutants and eliminate
them. Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) was formed following
this historic signing. This sounds great on paper, but the question is,
how can your healthcare institution participate in this program? If you
do participate, what are the benefits? The answer is, you can benefit
in many ways by participating in the H2E program, and the best part is
that you can see these benefits, especially the financial ones, right
away with few additional resources.
7. TITLE Flame Retardants Under Fire
AUTHOR Wilson, Alex
SOURCE Environmental Building News, Vol. 13, No. 6, June, 2004, pp. 1, 9-15
ABSTRACT
This article tackles the issue of flame retardants - and especially
brominated flame retardants - in building materials, furnishings, and
office equipment. We'll describe how different flame retardants work,
review applications of flame retardants, examine environmental and
health concerns surrounding these compounds, discuss regulatory
actions, and, finally, provide some far-reaching recommendations for
reducing the use of the most dangerous flame retardants.
8. TITLE Nano Silica - Amorphous Silicon Dioxide
AUTHOR Oder, Richard
SOURCE Paint & Coatings Industry, August 2004, vol. 20, no. 8, p. 52
ABSTRACT
By way of background, over six years ago I was working on a project
with a Canadian research group to develop an economic means to recover
germanium from Corning Inc.'s fiber optic operations. At the time,
Energy Strategy Associates was just beginning our proprietary silver
metal coating process. We were always looking for unique substrates to
metal coat for different applications. Nano particles were a key
interest. Corning manufactures the amorphous silicon dioxide (ASD) as a
coating for their fiber. We discussed producing more of the material if
we could identify commercial applications. Our focus at that time was
on thermoplastics. Since then, we have confirmed the scientific
principles that underlie the contributions made by the ASD and think
that many of these principles should apply to coatings.
9. TITLE Multilevel Cycle of Anthropogenic Copper
AUTHOR Graedel, T.E., et al.
SOURCE Environmental Science & Technology, February 15, 2004, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 1242-1252
ABSTRACT
A comprehensive contemporary cycle for stocks and flows of copper is
characterized and presented, incorporating information on extraction,
processing, fabrication and manufacturing, use, discard, recycling,
final disposal, and dissipation. The analysis is performed on an annual
basis, ca. 1994, at three discrete governmental unit levels-56
countries or country groups that together comprise essentially all
global anthropogenic copper stocks and flows, nine world regions, and
the planet as a whole. Cycles for all of these are presented and
discussed, and a "best estimate" global copper cycle is constructed to
resolve aggregation discrepancies. Among the most interesting results
are (1) transformation rates and recycling rates in apparently similar
national economies differ by factors of two or more (country level);
(2) the discard flows that have the greatest potential for copper
recycling are those with low magnitude flows but high copper
concentrations-electronics, electrical equipment, and vehicles
(regional level); (3) worldwide, about 53% of the copper that was
discarded in various forms was recovered and reused or recycled (global
level); (4) the highest rate of transfer of discarded copper to
repositories is into landfills, but the annual amount of copper
deposited in mine tailings is nearly as high (global level); and (5)
nearly 30% of copper mining occurred merely to replace copper that was
discarded. The results provide a framework for similar studies of other
anthropogenic resource cycles as well as a basis for supplementary
studies in resource stocks, industrial resource utilization, waste
management, industrial economics, and environmental impacts.
10. TITLE Kinetic Studies for Processes of Liquid-Phase Alkylation of Aromatics Over Solid Acid Catalysts
AUTHOR Beltrame, Paolo; Zuretti, Giovanni
SOURCE Green Chemistry, January 2004, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 7-13
ABSTRACT
The liquid-phase alkylation of aromatics has been effected
traditionally with catalysis by inorganic acids or AlCl3, and similar
compounds. However the increasing importance of solid acid catalysts is
changing the procedures in this field. One of the prerequisites for the
development of relevant processes, and the design of reactors, is
knowledge of the kinetic data in reactions catalyzed by solid acids.
This review examines the information available on the kinetics of
alkylations catalyzed by solid acids, mainly zeolites, supported metal
chlorides and oxides, mesoporous (MCM) materials, and heteropolyacids,
but also other less studied materials.
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