SOLUTIONS: International Year of Chemistry panel mulls 21st-century challenges
A
BOUT 300 INTREPID SOULS braved Philadel-
phia’s ice and cold on Feb. 1 to celebrate the U.S. kickoff of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC). The gathering, which took place just five days after the inaugural world celebration in Paris (C&EN, Jan. 31, page 8), featured a panel of industry and academic leaders in a discussion of how chemistry can help solve pressing social and economic problems. “We’re doing everything we can think of to draw attention to chemistry—its science, its history, its creativity, its technologies, its contributions to the common good, its limitations, its challenges,” said Thomas R. Tritton, president of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, which hosted the Philadelphia panel. Underwriters for the U.S. event included the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemistry Council, and the National Academies. The United Nations designated 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry to recognize the science for its essential contributions to knowledge, environmental protection, and economic development. ACS President Nancy B. Jackson said the event underscored a need for the U.S. to “take a leadership role in using the chemical enterprise to make the world a better place.” ACS intends to do whatever it can to make that leadership role possible, she added. In fact, ACS played a role in ensuring a wider audience for the Philadelphia panel. Along with Dow Chemical, it underwrote a webcast of the event. Dow is hosting
an archive of the panel discussion at tinyurl.com/IYCwebcast. ACS also has launched an IYC Virtual Journal at iyc2011.acs. org/2011/01/01/virtual-journal to showcase how chemistry improves everyday life. Daniel G. Nocera, professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led a panel discussion, which centered The IYC panel was composed of (standing, on energy, human health, food, from left) Liveris, Tritton, Hering, Nocera, and water. Speakers included Du- and Kullman, as well as (seated, from left) Pont CEO Ellen J. Kullman, Dow Boger and Colwell. CEO Andrew N. Liveris, former National Science Foundation director Rita R. Colwell, Vertex Pharmaceuticals founder Joshua S. Boger, and Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology Director Janet G. Hering. Carbon-neutral energy resources—biofuels, wind, and nuclear—are inadequate to meet the doubling of world energy demand that is expected over the next 40 years, Nocera said. But the sun provides more than enough energy to power civilization if the molecuRepresentatives of organizations lar sciences can find a way to harness it to produce fuel, sponsoring the IYC for example, an inexpensive way to use sunlight to split panel included water into oxygen and hydrogen, he added. (from left) Tritton, Dow’s Liveris sees an opportunity for the chemical Jackson, Liveris, industry to help meet increases in global energy demand. and American “We need to use the might of chemistry,” he said. KullInstitute of Chemical Engineers man of DuPont focused her remarks on feeding a growPresident Maria ing world population. To solve the world’s most intracBurka. table problems, including food production, “all the sciences need to come together,” she said.—MARC REISCH RUDY BAU M/C&EN
CELEBRATING CHEMISTRY
CO N RAD ER B/CHEM ICAL HER ITAG E FOU N DAT IO N
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ACQUISITIONS Cytec sells basic chemicals unit to private equity firm H.I.G. Cytec Industries has reached an agreement to sell its building block chemicals business to an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital for $180 million. The business’s main asset is a plant in Fortier, La., that manufactures melamine, acrylonitrile, and sulfuric acid. The only U.S. producer of melamine, it had sales last year of $600 million. Cytec says it decided late last year to divest the business, which was a key operation when the firm was spun off from American Cyanamid in 1993. CEO Shane D. Fleming says the sale will allow Cytec “to put more attention and resources on our core growth platforms of engineered
materials, in-process separations, and waterborne and radcure [radiationcured] coating resins.” The sale will come at a cost to Cytec. Although the building blocks business mainly serves the merchant market, it does supply Cytec with melamine to make melamine resins and acrylonitrile to make carbon fiber. Cytec expects that having to buy these chemicals at their current high prices will reduce its earnings this year by about 15 cents per share. The building blocks business is prone to wide swings in earnings, Laurence Alexander, a stock analyst at Jefferies &
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
7
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Co., noted in a report to clients. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization were about $59 million last year, compared with $37 million over the past 10 years, Alexander said. For its part, Miami-based H.I.G. is developing a small stable of chemical businesses. In 2008, it purchased two Illinois-based firms: a Croda oleochemicals business and the surfactants maker Petroferm. Last year, the oleochemicals business, renamed Vantage Specialty Chemicals, bought a stake in Lipo Chemicals, a supplier of personal care ingredients.—MICHAEL MCCOY
