Science/Technology down through a grid tower. According to the firm, this co-current flow allows the flue gas to be cleaned at almost twice the flow rate of a conventional scrubber. A more compact, less costly vessel thus can be used. Many of today's FGD scrubbers yield a wet, pasty sludge that may require further treatment before it can be disposed of. The Pure Air scrubber converts the sludge to a potentially valuable by-product. Integrated into the system is an air rotary sparger that oxidizes the sulfite sludge to commercial-quality gypsum that can be used to make wallboard. Pure Air expects to produce and sell about 150,000 tons of gypsum per year from the Indiana demonstration project. The project also will test a new wastewater evaporation system. If successful, DOE notes, the approach could lead to a "zero discharge" scrubber presenting neither liquid nor solid waste disposal problems. Conley says that although the technology is new to the U.S. it is well proven abroad. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHIA's parent company in Japan), which developed the process, has sold some 77 units worldwide. All the units have met or exceeded performance guarantees and all have shown reliability of better than 98%, Conley adds. DOE points out that the business arrangement between Pure Air and NIPSCO also represents an "innovative approach." In existing practice, a utility has had to contract with several firms to design and build scrubbers. Then the utility has had to operate the scrubbing system. At the Bailly plant, in contrast, Pure Air will assume full responsibility for the scrubbing system. It will own the pollution control equipment and it will provide design, construction, operation, and maintenance. And it will guarantee t h e advanced scrubber's performance over the life of the contract. DOE notes that it will fund $63.5 million of the project's $150 million total cost. NIPSCO will contribute $8.2 million. Pure Air will provide the rest. If all goes well, Pure Air will continue to run the flue gas cleaning system after the demonstration project ends. Ward Worthy 18
December 11, 1989 C&EN
Europe soon will have environment watchdog The European Agency for the Environment is a new body, one of whose roles will be to ensure that its member countries are provided the information necessary to safeguard the environment from damage. The decision to form it was taken late in November by the environment ministers of the 12 member countries of the European Community meeting in Brussels. Carlo Ripa di Meana, the EC's environment commissioner and an ardent supporter of the creation of such an agency, expressed "satisfaction" that an agreement was reached. He views the decision as "a clear response to the environmental fears of European citizens." The agency, which begins its work in January 1991, will be made up of the 12 EC countries and will be open to any of the other European countries, including those of Eastern Europe, that may wish to join. It won't have the legal clout of the U.S.'s Environmental Protection Agency, a rough counterpart—at least for the short term. For example, it won't have the authorization to work toward harmonizing legislation in environmental matters between its member states. Nor will it be empowered to levy fines when environmental laws are broken. It will, however, provide scientific and technical support leading to the goal of environmental protection. It also will collect and collate European environmental measurements and data, and ensure that sound environmental information is made available to the public. It's also fair to assume that links will be established with other international bodies that already have active e n v i r o n m e n t a l programs. Among these are the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, the United Nations Environment Program, and Geneva's Economic Commission for Europe, an arm of the UN, which has been measuring transboundary movements of air-borne pollutants throughout Europe for the past 10 years. In the year ahead, details of the
new agency will be hammered out. One of these will be a decision on where it should be centered. Already, EC members have proposed a total of 44 sites to choose from. A director will have to be named, a charter on how it should operate drawn up, and a budget arrived at. One unofficial estimate is that it could cost some $6 million annually to run. And an agreement will have to be reached on how that amount will be distributed among the members. Dermot O'Sullivan
Caltech launches Linus Pauling lecture series An annual Linus Pauling Lecture has been established by the Division of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering at California Institute of Technology. Pauling himself gave the first lecture in the series late last month in Pasadena. Pauling addressed a standingroom-only crowd of Caltech faculty and students in Room 22, Gates Annex, now also known as the Linus Pauling Lecture Hall. First-year chemistry is taught in the hall, and as such, it was the setting for numerous lectures by Pauling during his long career at Caltech. In his talk, Pauling traced the development of x-ray crystallography, a history in which he played a major role. He arrived at the institute
Linus Pauling (right) with Caltech's Zewail, organizer of lecture event
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^îv^,^^ the American 40^^ Chemical Society...
to do his graduate work in 1922, computers and not on their unique shortly after Caltech chemist Ros- ability to reason. He provided the coe G. Dickinson had developed a audience with details of crystal strucprocedure for using x-ray diffrac- ture problems he has worked on tion data to determine the structure recently to make his points. of simple crystals. Pauling recalled Establishment of the lecture sethat Alfred A. Noyes decided that ries represents another step in the Pauling should work with Dickin- rapprochement between Pauling son in the then-new field. and Caltech that began with his 85th By 1926, Pauling had grown ex- birthday celebration in 1986. Pauling asperated with his inability to de- served as chairman of Caltech's Ditermine the structures of many of vision of Chemistry & Chemical Enthe crystals he prepared. For many gineering for 22 years beginning in crystals, the x-ray diffraction data 1936, longer than any other chairsimply were too complicated to an- man. However, his activism throughalyze directly. To circumvent this out the 1950s in support of a nucleroadblock, Pauling developed a ar test ban and other antiwar activimethod that made use of all the ties led to clashes with Caltech's information known about a crystal board of trustees. Pauling resigned to suggest a structure for it, and from Caltech in 1963. Future Linus Pauling lecturers then exploited the x-ray diffraction data to verify the proposed struc- will be "truly outstanding chemists who have made major contributure and refine it. Again and again in his talk, Paul- tions" to the field, says Caltech ing emphasized the need for scien- chemistry professor Ahmed H. tists always to be thinking. Too of- Zewail, who chaired the committee ten, he said, scientists rely on their that organized the event. Rudy Baum sophisticated instrumentation and
NAS offers research visits to East Europe A new program is now available from the National Academy of Sciences for American scientists who might wish to make research visits to the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The program, which begins in April 1990, offers two-week project development visits. The two-week project development visits are a new category of visits added this year to the academy's exchange programs at the request of the National Science Foundation. The aim is to provide U.S. researchers with opportunities to develop concrete plans with counterparts in Eastern Europe for longterm cooperative research. The two-week visit is to be spent entirely at a single institution where funding proposals to be submitted to NSF can be developed. The visits to Eastern Europe can be in any field NSF supports in the U.S. For the U.S.S.R., subfields in a number of areas are supported. The areas include chemistry, mathematics, theoretical physics, scientific problems
of the Arctic and the North, geosciences, life sciences, engineering sciences, and science policy. In addition to the two-week visits, Ν AS will support 12-month re search visits during 1991. Special emphasis on young investigators is included in each program. Appli cants must be U.S. citizens and have doctoral degrees or their equivalent by June 1990. Necessary expenses will be met by NAS and the foreign academy, including reimbursement for long-term visitors for salary lost up to a predetermined maximum, and expenses for accompanying fam ily members for visits exceeding five months. Applications must be postmarked by Feb. 28,1990. Requests for appli cations should reach the academy no later than Feb. 15, 1990. Appli cation requests should be made to National Academy of Sciences, Of fice of International Affairs, Soviet and East European Affairs (HA-166), 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Wash ington, D.C. 20418; phone (202) 334-2644. James
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Krieger December 11,1989 C&EN
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