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HEATWAVE European chemical makers weather cuts in power supplies, distribution
F
OR T H E CHEMICAL INDUSTRY,
the only good thing to be said about the drought and deadly heat wave that have enveloped Europe the past fewweeks is that they have reached a peak in the traditional lull of August. Skeleton crews in offices and plants are coping with the sweltering temperatures and limited rainfall that have contributed to a spate ofheat-related deaths, while sparking forest fires, raising air pollution levels, and lowering river levels throughout the region. A combination of rising tem-
CATALYSIS
peratures and falling rivers that supply water for cooling has forced France—the European country most dependent on nuclear power— to temporarily close one-fourth ofits nuclear plants. A spokesman for French chemical maker SNPE says he isn't aware of production problems related to the power cutbacks. According to a report from the Port Authority of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, low levels on the Rhine and its tributaries mean that barges can carry only about half their normal capacity More-
RESEARCH
MAKING LOW-CO H2 Catalytic process converts oxygenates to H 2 , removes C O in a single reactor
H
IGH-PURITY HYDROGEN
can be produced from oxygen-containing organic compounds using a simple waterbased catalytic process developed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Researchers there have shown that the carbon monoxide content of the H 2 produced in their single-reactor reforming process can be controlled as a function of the process conditions. Akey requirement ofhydrogen used in fuel cells and other applications is that it be free ofCO, because this oxide tends to poison catalysts. Thus, the products of reforming reactions, which include H 2 and CO, must be subjected to CO-cleanup treatments to produce fuel-cell-grade hydrogen. The water-gas shift reaction, which converts C O + water to C 0 2 + H 2 , is commonly used to reduce C O levels. But that reacHTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
tion needs to be run separately from typical steam-reforming reactions because the two processes require different conditions. T h e competing requirements make fuel-cell hydrogen generators complex engineering systems —an undesirable feature, especially for portable applications such as automobiles. But now, Wisconsin chemical engineering professor James A. Dumesic and graduate student Rupali R. Davda have demonstrated that oxygenates such as ethylene glycol can be used to make high-purity hydrogen in an aqueous-phase system that consists of a single reactor [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., published online June 18, http:/Avww3.interscience. wileycom/cgi-bin/abstract/10453 9925/start}. The group showed that through judicious choice of temperature and pressure, an eth-
over, river water temperatures are almost 5 °C above normal. As port executives note, this implies that chemical and other process plants may have to use more water to obtain the same level of cooling. The fall in river levels has caused some problems, conceded BASF Chairmanjurgpn Hambrecht at the company's recent second-quarter results press conference in Ludwigshafen, Germany 'Tor our plants, there maybe times operations will have to be reduced, because cooling capacities may be limited. But there are no major problems,,, he said. He added, "The water level is very low—but in 1758, somebody actually walked through t h e Rhine River from one bank to the
DRY FIELDS Arid field in southwest France is but one area affected by summer drought in Europe.
other."-PATRICIA SHORT
ylene glycol solution can be converted to hydrogen containing as little as about 60 ppm of CO. The work builds on another study in which Dumesic's group found that biomass-derived compounds can be converted to hydrogen and C O at about 500 K using an alumina-supported platinum catalyst [Nature, 418, 964 (2002)}.-MITCH JACOBY ο CO LU
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Catalyst surface *
Gas "bubble Ethylene Ethylene glycol glycol + +H H220 0 • Ethylene glycol + H20 feed
REFORMATION Researchers can produce hydrogen from ethylene glycol and clean up unwanted CO in a single reactor using the watergas shift reaction.
C&EN / AUGUST
18, 2003
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