weighs in on how NIH set its mandatory open-access policy
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UST OVER A MONTH after NIH announced its mandatory public access policy for research that it funds, some in Congress are questioning whether the agency did enough to gather input from journal publishers. The policy change, which came as a result of congressional language attached to this year’s omnibus appropriations legislation, was issued on Jan. 11 (C&EN, Jan. 21, page 10). In a letter to NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees NIH’s funding, questions whether the agency has acted in the spirit of the congressional directive with regard to talking to journal publishers. The policy states that peer-reviewed articles based on research funded by NIH must be submitted to the agency’s public access repository, PubMed Central, within 12 months of publication. “I am concerned that the NIH is not taking the appropriate steps to seek out and take into account the
DESULFURIZING HEAVY OILS CLEAN FUELS: Study identifies
unexpected culprits that inhibit catalytic cleanup
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UCCESS IN applying today’s sulfur-removal methods to heavy crude oil depends primarily on the oil’s concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, not on the nature of the oil’s sulfurous molecules, according to a study conducted at ConocoPhillips (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/ es0720309). That observation, which contradicts conventional wisdom in fuel processing, deepens understanding of desulfurization chemistry and may open the valve to using alternative feedstocks to produce low-sulfur transportation fuels. To reduce the sulfur content of gasoline and diesel fuels to the low parts-per-million level, as mandated in several countries to decrease harmful pollutants, oil manufacturers routinely use cleanup technologies such as hydrodesulfurization. In that process, sulfur compounds in fuels react with hydrogen in the presence of Co-Mo- or Ni-Mo-based catalysts to produce volatile H2S, which is removed from the feed material. Years of investigations have shown that the effective-
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SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING: Senator
advice of journal editors,” Specter writes. The mandatory public access policy notice put out by NIH in January, he explains, “did not outline a process for seeking the advice and comment of journal publishers, scientists, or any other interested parties.” Specter adds that the notice also did not provide details on “how the policy would be implemented in a manner consistent with copyright law.” This has been an issue of concern to journal publishers, which include the American Chemical Society, the publisher of C&EN. “Since the notion of a mandatory public access policy was raised last year in Congress, ACS has been seeking to have the policy implemented in a fair and balanced manner that is consistent with copyright law,” says Glenn S. Ruskin, director of the ACS Office of Legislative & Government Affairs. “We welcome Sen. Specter’s letter to NIH and hope the agency will seek input from publishers and the public on the mandatory policy, and we think the best way to do this is through a federal rule-making process.” In response to Specter’s concerns, Norka Ruiz Bravo, deputy director of extramural research at NIH, tells C&EN that NIH will be responding directly to Specter, but she would not elaborate on any details. She did point out that NIH has been talking with publishers throughout the development of the public access policy and that the agency plans on “continuing to take input as it rolls through with the implementation.” —SUSAN MORRISSEY
ness of such desulfurization methods in treating light crude oils is limited by the reactivity of hard-to-remove sulfur compounds such as dibenzothiophenes. As a result, scientists focus on the structures and other properties of those compounds to optimize sulfur-removal catalysts and processes. But as high-quality feedstocks are gradually depleted, fuel suppliers are turning to heavier crude oils. Thus far, those oils, which are complex mixtures that are difficult to analyze, aren’t yielding to desulfurization-optimizing methods. “We all assumed that the conventional wisdom in light oils would apply to heavy oils. But it doesn’t work that way,” says Tushar V. Choudhary, who conducted the study with Stephen Parrott and Byron Johnson at ConocoPhillips. On the basis of newly developed analytical methods, pilot-scale hydrotreating tests, and kinetics investigations of several heavy oils, the ConocoPhillips researchers conclude that three-ringed and larger polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as anthracene, reduce the effectiveness of heavy-oil desulfurization by blocking the access of sulfur compounds to catalysts’ active sites. “Now that they found the culprits, researchers can begin designing new catalysts or conditions to eliminate them,” says Daniel E. Resasco, a catalysis specialist at the University of Oklahoma, Norman.—MITCH JACOBY
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SPECTER SPEAKS UP ON PUBLIC ACCESS
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New findings could open the way to low-sulfur gasoline from low-quality, sulfurrich petroleum feedstocks.
