Agricultural fires form white smoke plumes in infrared photo from space shuttle over East African coast of a dangerous trend by raising awareness and public education." Last Friday, conference scientists discussed global burning on a teleconference broadcast live on Public Broadcasting Service stations and by satellite around the world. Viewers questioned the panelists by using a toll-free phone number. Bette Hileman
Plan for vital defense technologies issued Efforts are moving on at least three fronts toward formulating a national technology policy. For example, a report released last week describes plans for developing 20 technologies rated by the Department of Defense as the "most critical to ensuring the long-term qualitative superiority of U.S. weapon systems." Under a Congressional mandate, the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy is forming a National Critical Technologies Panel. This high-level panel will prepare by late fall the first of a series of biennial studies of up to 30 crucial defense and civilian technologies. Moreover, OSTP will soon issue a first, broad overview of technology policy. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department is expected shortly to issue a report on critical technologies.
DOD's 272-page report is the second annual Critical Technologies Plan it has prepared (C&EN, April 3, 1989, page 24). Concerned that the U.S. is losing its technological edge, Congress has mandated in the past two defense authorization acts that DOD, in consultation with the Department of Energy, draw up such a plan and submit it by March 15 each year to the Senate and House armed services committees. The report will be the focus of a hearing this week before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Defense Industry & Technology, chaired by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D.-N.M.), initiator of this and the OSTP mandate. The 20 technologies include all four chemically related ones from last year's list, plus an addition. Two technologies—composite materials, and semiconductor materials and microelectronic circuits—rank in the highest of three priority groups, Group A. Three others—biotechnology materials and processes, high energy density (energy dense) materials, and superconductivity—are in Group C, which contains mainly emerging technologies. High energy density materials, which include improved rocket propellants and explosives, are new to the list. For each technology, the report describes the reasons for its selection, current and projected manufacturing capabilities, development plans, related R&D in the public and private sectors, potential benefits for weapon systems and the U.S. industrial base, and current funding. DOD and DOE are spending $3.1 billion on 19 of the technologies (funding of one is classified). Nuclear technologies are not included and will be addressed later separately. The report also compares the U.S/s competitive status versus other nations. As in 1989, Japan is "significantly ahead in some niches of technology" in five areas: semiconductor materials and microelectronic circuits, machine intelligence and robotics, photonics, superconductivity, and biotechnology materials and processes. The Soviet Union has a significant lead in some niches of just one technology, pulsed power. It is generally on a par with the U.S. in high energy density materials and two other areas.
The report is a "significant improvement over last year's," says Bingaman. It is the "most comprehensive effort thus far to sort out our defense technology priorities," and has substantial industry input. He hopes it will be "a building block" toward a national technology policy. However, he adds, "it is still not a plan to get from here to where we want to be." Thus, DOD does not designate a lead agency for each technology, as Congress asked. "This is still more of a report on critical technologies than a plan for achieving specific goals by specific organizations in specific time frames with specific resources." Richard Seltzer
New, powerful catalysts for methane conversion Catalytic chemists at Oxford University in the U.K. have discovered a new series of ruthenium-based catalysts that provide very high activity and selectivity in converting methane to synthesis gas. A research group, including Anthony K. Cheetham, of Oxford's chemical crystallography laboratory, has demonstrated that catalysts of the type Ln 2 Ru 2 0 7 (where Ln is a lanthanide) are extraordinarily active for the partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas—for example, lowering the temperature required for the reaction from more than 1200 °C to only about 775 °C [Nature, 344, 319 (1990)]. These catalysts are ruthenium analogs of a number of rare-earth/tin oxides that have been used for the oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene. Unlike most synthesis gas generating reactions, the partial oxidation reaction (CH 4 + V402 —> CO + 2H2) is mildly exothermic and produces a synthesis gas with an unusually low H/CO ratio. This may be advantageous in future commercial operations by eliminating the need for a second-stage reactor to adjust the H/ CO ratio, as is done today. Cheetham's work is supported by the Gas Research Institute, Chicago, which has just renewed his funding for an extended period. According March 26, 1990 C&EN
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News of the Week to a spokesman for GRI, the research is of primary interest because of the light it sheds on the problems of methane activation chemistry. Activation of the C-H bond is a basic reaction in the new wave of catalysis dealing with utilization of methane, conversion of petroleum residues to higher value products, and even gasification of coal. The catalysts d e v e l o p e d by Cheetham and his colleagues are polycrystalline mixed oxides. Their selectivity for synthesis gas increases with temperature. A tendency to form carbon monoxide, rather than carbon dioxide, is dominant above 693 °C. For stoichiometric reasons, the available oxygen is insufficient to convert all the methane to carbon dioxide, so the formation of synthesis gas is entropically favored. With nitrogen diluents, methane conversion exceeds 90%, and selectivities above 94% were observed for all the mixed oxides. Pure ruthenium oxide is less effective than mixed oxides. Without nitrogen diluents, conversions were lower but selectivity was still high. The results suggest that the active catalyst may be supported ruthenium metal. The reaction mechanism remains unclear, but a carbonaceous surface may be involved, as is true for several closely related reaction systems. Joseph Haggin
Perkin-Elmer sells its E-beam business Perkin-Elmer Corp. has sold its electron-beam semiconductor fabrication business to Etec Corp., Hayward, Calif., a firm newly formed by a group of current and former employees, with five other firms participating in the purchase. Included are technologies both to etch semiconductor wafers and to make masks for microlithography. Electron beams are capable of etching features onto silicon wafers with a resolution of 0.25 /Ltm, far greater than that of the ultraviolet light now used. "This deal was made to keep the technology in the U.S./' commented Harinder Kohli, an analyst with the investment firm 6
March 26, 1990 C&EN
of Sutro & Co., San Jose, Calif. "This is the technology of tomorrow to make devices of 8-inch wafers and beyond. "IBM sponsored Perkin-Elmer in this for a long time, for example by guaranteeing orders," Kohli said. "If this deal hadn't gone through, the U.S. would have lost its edge in the next generation of devices." Etec will be headed by Charles E. Minihan as chairman and chief executive officer and Thomas Halloran as president and chief operating officer. The two are former PerkinElmer employees who were most recently at Micrion Corp. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Roughly half the stock in Etec may be held by the group of employees, with the rest held by Du
Pont Co., Grumman Corp., IBM, Micron Technology, Perkin-Elmer, and Zitel Corp. Part of IBM's investment is contribution of its own E-beam technology. In a separate development, Du Pont bought PerkinElmer's applied lithography operation in Danbury, Conn., a unit that makes microlithography masks. Sale of its E-beam division brings Perkin-Elmer almost to the end of divesting unwanted businesses, and close to its goal of being strictly an instrument and materials company. Its German aerospace subsidiary Bodenseewerk Geratetechnik was sold to Diehl Group of West Germany in 1989, and its Electrooptics Technology Division was sold to Hughes Aircraft. Stephen Stinson
Production of herbicide-tolerant crops faulted A coalition of farm and environmental groups—including such diverse bodies as the National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Defense Fund, and Foundation on Economic Trends—has issued a report criticizing efforts to produce herbicide-tolerant crops through biotechnology. The report claims development of such crops would promote increased use of dangerous herbicides leading to severe groundwater and surface water contamination and the demise of support for so-called sustainable or alternative agriculture. Titled "Biotechnology's Bitter Harvest," the report says there are at least 27 corporations, primarily chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers, that have research programs to develop herbicide-tolerant plants. It points out the obvious issue that companies that can make a crop safer from their own herbicides could increase sales of that herbicide. It also gives some projections (previously published in various trade publications) of potential sales from herbicide-tolerant plants. The coalition, which includes some groups that have long histories of antipathy toward biotechnology, thinks the whole idea of a herbicide-tolerant crop is wrong. Such crops could cause herbicide contamination of drinking water, more illnesses among farm workers, in-
creased residues in food, and a heavier toll on wildlife and their habitats, according to the report. The report recommends halting federally supported research on herbicide-resistant crops and increasing government regulation of them. The coalition also seeks much greater support for sustainable agriculture, including nonchemical pest control, and changes in federal farm policy to discourage what are called environmentally damaging agricultural practices. The companies involved in much of this research think the study is off base. Calgene Inc., for example, which is cited for its work on the herbicide bromoxynil, says it is committed to the use of more environmentally compatible chemicals on crops. Calgene's chief executive officer Roger H. Salquist basically believes the report has many of its facts wrong. Herbicide-resistant crops will eventually lead to the use of smaller amounts of chemicals by permitting use of more effective herbicides than those currently available, he says. Some of the early research projects cited in the report are finished and show that the perceived dangers don't exist, he adds. Other critics of the report find it too full of old and misleading information to be of any lasting value. David Hanson
