Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 11/12/04
Greenlist(tm) Bulletin 11/12/04
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:- EMS Accomplishments Through the Pollution Prevention Program, November 2004
- Industry, Activists Spar Over Bush EPA Enforcement, October 2004
- Green Chemistry, October/November 2004
- The Best of Both Worlds, Case Study: The Auto Industry and Better Cleaning Processes, October 2004
- Improved Productivity for Cable Manufacture, October 2004
- Foam Protects: Intumescent Coatings and Paints for Fire Protection, October 2004
- A Comparative Study of Water-Borne Coatings for Metal Protection, October 2004
- Just One Word: Carbohydrates - Chemical and Energy Companies Take on the Petroleum Habit, September 2004
- Toxic Iodoacid By-Products of Clean Water, September 2004
- Sustainable Coatings Approach Total Coverage, March 2004
AUTHOR Mauer Sculthorpe, Katherine
SOURCE Metal Finishing, November 2004, vol. 102, no. 11, pp. 35-38
ABSTRACT Eglin's Environmental Management Systems (EMS) is successful at identifying high-risk process groups and reducing risk by decreasing hazardous materials (HAZMAT) usage, air emissions, and hazardous waste (HW) generation. It also has proven to increase shop efficiencies and worker safety through compliance site inventory (CSI) and process specific opportunity assessment (PSOA) processes. As part of the EMS process, Eglin AFB has developed a CSI listing of more than 3,000 aspects specifically related to activities and processes that have an environmental impact and are subject to specific regulatory requirements. Eglin is expanding CSI to be a true environmental aspects inventory (EAI), which would contain all cultural and natural resources, biological health, safety, noise, infrastructure, community concerns, and any other data that might have or be an environmental impact. Examples of existing compliance sites include range road and stream crossings, hazardous waste storage and collection containers, air pollution emission sources like boilers or paint booths, or HAZMAT storage areas.
Compliance sites are grouped and then ranked by environmental, health, and mission impact/risk. PSOAs are scheduled at top-ranking shops and used to develop potential solutions in the most cost-effective and environmentally sound manner. Eglin has found the PSOA process to be instrumental in soliciting an environmental initiative from the shop level and therefore garnering greater continued environmental support. The CSI and PSOA Web sites contain a searchable on-line inventory of compliance sites and potential environmental opportunities for shop review. The opportunities implementation can additionally be tracked through the Web site.
2. TITLE Industry, Activists Spar Over Bush EPA Enforcement
AUTHOR Sissell, Kara
SOURCE Chemical Week, October 20, 2004, vol. 166, no. 34, p. 61
ABSTRACT
The Environmental Integrity Project has released a report that says
EPA's environmental enforcement actions have decreased 75% since
President Bush took office, a claim industry denies. EIP is headed by
Eric Schaeffer, a former enforcement chief at EPA who quit in 2002 to
protest the agency's proposed overhaul of the New Source Review rule.
3. TITLE Green Chemistry
AUTHOR Warner, John C.; Cannon, Amy S.; Dye, Kevin M.
SOURCE Environmental Impact Assessment Review, October/November 2004, vol. 24, nos. 7-8, pp. 775-799
ABSTRACT
A grand challenge facing government, industry, and academia in the
relationship of our technological society to the environment is
reinventing the use of materials. To address this challenge,
collaboration from an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders will be
necessary. Traditionally, the approach to risk management of materials
and chemicals has been through interventions intended to reduce
exposure to materials that are hazardous to health and the environment.
In 1990, the Pollution Prevention Act encouraged a new tact -
elimination of hazards at the source. An emerging approach to this
grand challenge seeks to embed the diverse set of environmental
perspectives and interests in the everyday practice of the people most
responsible for using and creating new materials—chemists. The
approach, which has come to be known as Green Chemistry, intends to
eliminate intrinsic hazard itself, rather than focusing on reducing
risk by minimizing exposure. This chapter addresses the representation
of downstream environmental stakeholder interests in the upstream
everyday practice that is reinventing chemistry and its material
inputs, products, and waste as described in the ‘‘12 Principles of
Green Chemistry’’.
4. TITLE The Best of Both Worlds, Case Study: The Auto Industry and Better Cleaning Processes
AUTHOR Green, Newton B.; Herrington, Philip
SOURCE Clean Tech, October 2004, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 31-33
ABSTRACT
The National center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery (NCR3) at
the Rochester Institute of Technology seeks to assist manufacturing
companies and remanufacturing companies to improve productivity while
reducing their impact on the environment. A particularly critical
aspect of remanufacturing is surface cleaning, which can represent a
large portion of the cost of remanufacturing a product. Alternative
cleaning systems can be identified through a process known as a
cleaning assessment, which will be described.
5. TITLE Improved Productivity for Cable Manufacture
SOURCE Plastics Engineering, October 2004, vol. 60, no. 10, p. 8
ABSTRACT
To help satisfy the growing demand for MV (megavolt), HV (high
voltage), and EHV (extra high voltage) underground cable systems for
electric energy transmission, Borealis, a supplier of polyethylene to
the wire and cable industry, has developed Supercure LS4201. The XLPE
(crosslinked polyethylene) compound can effect significant increases in
cable production speed without sacrificing quality or performance, says
the company. Supercure LS4201, a further development of Borealis'
LE4201, was engineered to enhance performance by decreasing the length
of the processing run (thus lower propensity for scorch), by reducing
the degassing process, and by maintaining or increasing extrusion
speed. Degassing is an important process for HV and EHV cables because
it removes the crosslinking by-products (e.g. methane) that would
result in a number of problems if left within the XLPE matrix. The time
required to degas cable primarily depends on the initial level of
by-products. Traditionally, the process has been accelerated by
increasing the temperature, which speeds up degassing but also uses
significant amounts of energy and can cause damage to the cable core.
Supercure LS4201 reduces the degassing requirements and thus can
significantly improve cable productivity, says Borealis. The scale of
productivity improvements that can accrue from the increased throughput
offered by Supercure LS4201 (increased length of run at essentially
identical line speeds) depends on cable design, size, and manufacturing
principles. For example, at 12-mm wall thickness, production time can
be reduced by 25% or more, reports the company. www.borealisgroup.com
6. TITLE Foam Protects: Intumescent Coatings and Paints for Fire Protection
AUTHOR Walz, Rudiger; Thewes, Volker
SOURCE Paint & Coatings Industry, October 2004, vol. 20, no. 10, pp. 148-152
ABSTRACT
Fires are devastating and, unfortunately, occur all too frequently. The
estimated annual cost to the economy of fire damage is $400 billion,
i.e., around one percent of world GNP literally goes up in smoke. One
reason is the high flammability of many materials such as wood,
textiles ad plastics used in clothing and furnishings, etc. Suitable
flame retardants are required for most of these materials if they are
to be used in high-fire-risk areas. However, it is not always possible
to add flame retardants as additives to raw materials. In some cases,
the substrate is incompatible with further additives; in others the
desired flammability rating cannot be achieved with a single additive,
or the use of a flame-retardant product is simply too expensive.
Frequently, the solution then lies in "intumescent coatings: - a sure
method with great potential, as the following article shows.
7. TITLE A Comparative Study of Water-Borne Coatings for Metal Protection
AUTHOR Mestach, D.; Weber, M.; Goossen, J.; van de Watering, P.
SOURCE Journal of Protective Coatings & Linings, Vol. 21, No. 10, October, 2004, pp. 32-38
ABSTRACT
In the shop coating metal protection market, the dominant technology in
Europe is still either solvent-borne two-component (2K) urethanes or
one-component (1K) solvent-borne alkyds. Faced with the upcoming
European legislation on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), paint
manufacturers are being forced to switch from conventional solvent-
borne coatings to VOC-compliant technologies. In this respect,
water-borne resin technology plays an important role in replacing
solvent-borne coatings. The progress made over the years in the design
of water-borne polymers has enabled us to overcome the drawbacks that
were associated with the first generation of water-borne binders. In
addition to reducing VOC emissions during application, water-borne
coatings reduce the risk of fire, are easier to clean up (creating less
hazardous residue), and result in reduced worker exposure to organic
vapors. Finally, the use of water-borne technology might reduce overall
costs for the coating process. The growing acceptance of water-borne
binders in the metal coatings market was the reason for the comparative
study described in this article. Different existing water-borne resin
technologies, both 1K and 2K, are the focus. This article discusses
testing carried out and comment son the economics of water-borne
coatings.
8. TITLE Just One Word: Carbohydrates - Chemical and Energy Companies Take on the Petroleum Habit
AUTHOR Boswell, Clay
SOURCE Chemical Market Reporter, Vol. 266, No. 8, September 13, 2004, p. FR12, FR14
ABSTRACT
There is only so much petroleum in the earth, and as time passes, that
oil will become increasingly rare, petrochemicals will become
specialties, and chemical manufacturing will turn to carbohydrate
feedstocks. The transformation is already in progress. The production
of glucose from corn has evolved to a highly efficient process, and
tremendous advances have been made in the economical production of
carbohydrates from non-traditional sources such as wood and
agricultural waste. Using recombinant technologies, researchers have
adapted microorganisms to produce a range of basic chemicals from
carbohydrates, and companies such as Cargill Inc., Dow Chemical and
DuPont have begun the development of a platform of biobased chemicals
that will open the door to a new era of chemical innovation and
long-term sustainability.
9. TITLE Toxic Iodoacid By-Products of Clean Water
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News, September 20, 2004, vol. 82, no. 38, p. 40
ABSTRACT
A new class of highly toxic contaminants has shown up among the
disinfection by-products of a Texas drinking water treatment plant.
Iodoacids (including iodoacetic acid and some brominated compounds such
as 3-bromo-3-iodopropenoic acid) are the likely result of a pair of
reactions. A chloramine disinfectant reacts with iodide (which seeps
into the Texas water from an ancient seabed) to form HOI, and HOI
reacts with natural organic matter to form a variety of iodoacids.
Michael J. Plewa of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and
coworkers tested iodoacetic acid for its biological toxicity.
"Iodoacetic acid is the most potent cytotoxic and genotoxic
disinfection by-product that I have ever seen in mammalian cells,
"Plewa reports. He suspects that only treatment plants that rely solely
on chloramination disinfection and encounter high levels of iodide and
bromide should produce the iodoacids. He adds that his data highlight
the dangers of not having a comparative database of disinfection
by-products.
10. TITLE Sustainable Coatings Approach Total Coverage
SOURCE Architecture, March 2004, vol. 93, issue 3, p. 77-
ABSTRACT
Features several low volatile organic compound products with E3 ratings
that have met the requirements of international green standards.
Hydropox No. 2 epoxy from Griggs Paint; Old Masters H2O acrylic varnish
from Diamond Vogel; EcoLogic lacquer from Cloverdale Paint; Morwear
Floor & Patio floor paint from Smiland Paint.
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