velop a transportable supercritical water oxidation pilot plant for destroying small a m o u n t s of chemical agents, solid rocket motor propellants, a n d other Department of Defense h a z a r d o u s wastes.
are reported for 19 volatile organic compounds and four explosives in water and soil. The method also evaluates the risk associated with measuring the analyte after the practical reporting time.
Engineers from Northeastern University (Boston, MA) have patented a sorbent that simultaneously removes S 0 2 and NO x . If successful, the sorbent could replace expensive smokestack scrubbers. The process introduces a fine p o w d e r of calcium magnesium acetate into a high-temperature environment s u c h as a coalfired combustion chamber. At these temperatures the salt forms highly porous, thin particles of calcium a n d m a g n e s i u m oxide, which trap the SO a ; m e a n w h i l e the acetate reduces N O x to N 2 . The salt can be a d d e d dry or wetsprayed into the chamber.
BUSINESS
MEASUREMENTS
Because many environmental samples are analyzed in a fixed laboratory, there is often a time lag between collection of the sample and analysis. During that time analytes may degrade, escape, or volatilize, processes that all affect the accuracy of the analysis. In this m o n t h ' s ES&-T (p. 1430] Charles Bayne, Denise Schmoyer, and Roger Jenkins from Oak Ridge National Laboratory describe a new statistical m e t h o d , "practical reporting t i m e , " that specifies how long a sample can be held with reasonable assurance that the initial concentration has not changed significantly. The method relies on a kinetic m o d e l that approximates the degradation of an analyte's concentration a n d the precision of the analytical measurement variation. Results
On June 2, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (1RS) ruled that most expenditures associated with soil and groundwater are immediately tax deductible. 1RS declared that these expenditures constituted "ordinary and necessary" business expenses. However, the cost of constructing water treatment facilities must be spread out over several years (capitalization). The ruling reversed IRS's previous position that tax write-offs for these cleanups had to be spread over several years, and represents a significant savings to businesses, which generally had to wait until the property was sold to recover cleanup costs. Depending on who is doing the analysis, paper manufacturers are or are not eliminating chlorine from their operations. A market study by the Alliance for Environmental Technology (AET) finds that "elemental chlorinefree (ECF)" pulp production of U.S. paper—essentially a switch from chlorine to chlorine dioxide—has grown by 1300% since 1990. "By the end of 1994, ECF pulp production will total 7 million tons or about 25% of its respective U.S. market," said Doug ; Pryke, executive director of AET. I In Canada, ECF production has : grown even faster and now ac: counts for about 50% or 5.5 mil; lion tons of paper. ECF produci tion, says AET, has grown : worldwide from 3.5 million tons i in 1990 to about 23 million tons ; today. Greenpeace, which favors a I total ban on chlorine-containing I chemicals, argues that manufac; turers should adopt "totally chlo: rine-free (TCF)" production. "The : failure of North American mills to I adopt TCF technologies also jeopi ardizes their future viability in i the global marketplace," says | Greenpeace. Worldwide, TCF pro: duction is still low: 4.4 million | tons in 1994, according to AET. ! Moreover, the Alliance predicts : that only in the Nordic countries i will TCF production grow significantly.
The market for environmental laboratory testing services in western Europe will rebound by 1995, predict analysts at Frost & Sullivan. Revenues for these laboratories have been hurt by the recent recession in Europe after a strong growth of about 10% per year in the early 1990s. However, the enforcement of tougher envir o n m e n t a l legislation and an increased governmental application of the "polluter p a y s " concept should refuel the d e m a n d for env i r o n m e n t a l testing, says Frost & Sullivan. As a result, by the late 1990s revenue growth will reach about 9% per year, creating a market worth $1.9 billion by the end of the year 2000.
EPA has registered its first biofungicide. In June the Agency gave Ecogen Inc. approval to market AQ-10 for the protection of crops from the common agricultural disease powdery mildew. Ecogen plans to initially market the biofungicide for use on specialty crops such as grapes, tomatoes, strawberries, and ornamentals—an estimated $210 million market just in the United States and Europe. AQ-10 is a proprietary isolate of the fungus Ampelomyces quisqualis (AQ) and works via hyperparasitic activity; that is, it is a parasite on the powdery mildew fungus, which is a parasite on plants. AQ often exists naturally on infected plants at equilibrium with the powdery mildew, allowing continuous survival of both fungi. Ecogen claims that its isolate shifts this equilibrium in favor of the AQ, enabling it to overpower and kill the powdery mildew fungi. Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 28, No. 8, 1994
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