NEWS OF THE WEEK
UNILEVER SEEKS MORE RENEWABLES INDUSTRIAL BIOTECH: Consumer products firm, U.K. university join for biobased chemicals development
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Unilever is targeting sugar beet residue as a source of renewable chemicals.
U
NILEVER HAS BEGUN a research project with
England’s University of Liverpool to develop renewable chemicals from biomass for use in its home and personal care products. The effort is the latest attempt by a consumer products company to increase the renewable materials content of its products without adding costs for the buying public. The three-year project, according to Unilever, is driven by increased demand for sustainable raw materials and the need for alternatives to fossil fuels. “By taking a long-term view, we can ensure security of supply, reduce costs, and protect scarce resources,” the firm says. The partners plan to develop chemicals from forestry waste and from sugars, fats, oils, and carbohydrates generated as by-products from industrial processes. University researchers will use high-throughput methods in their labs in Liverpool to develop new routes to
AGENCIES ADVISE ON AMMONIUM NITRATE POLICY: Administration takes initial steps to address worker and public safety issues
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N A PRELIMINARY RESPONSE to an executive
order from President Barack Obama, three federal agencies last week issued a “chemical advisory” on the fertilizer and powerful explosive ammonium nitrate. Although the advisory is nonregulatory, it provides recommendations and lays the groundwork for changes in safety regulations that may come through Obama’s order. Obama’s order and the federal guidance come a few months after an ammonium nitrate explosion at a farm supply warehouse in West, Texas, destroyed the town and killed 15 people. The combination warehouse and store is similar to some 6,000 other facilities operating in the U.S. The 20-page document, prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety & RON JENKINS/MCT/NEWSCOM
A deadly explosion at a West, Texas, retail supply warehouse may lead to a federal overhaul of chemical safety oversight.
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renewable molecules. AB Sugar, a sugar producer that recently opened the U.K.’s largest bioethanol plant, is also a partner in the project. AB Sugar will supply the researchers with sugar beet residue, a material with potential to yield such compounds. “This innovative project brings together academia and industry experts from the fields of materials chemistry, biorefineries, catalysis, and chemical synthesis to address some of the challenges of converting biomass materials into new high-value chemical products,” says Jose A. Lopez-Sanchez, a lecturer in sustainable chemistry and catalysis at Liverpool and the leader of the research. The project will contribute to Unilever’s goals of sourcing 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020 and decoupling business growth from environmental impact. U.S. consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is also developing biomaterials through collaborations with biotech firms including LS9 and ZeaChem. Likewise, German rival Henkel is trying to boost its use of enzymes and other renewable raw materials. All three companies, however, face the challenge highlighted by Len Sauers, P&G’s vice president for global sustainability, in the firm’s most recent environment report: Few consumers are willing to pay a premium for greener goods. Thus, the processes they are developing will have to be cost-competitive from the outset.—ALEX SCOTT
Health Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives, provides information on the explosive hazards of storing, handling, and managing ammonium nitrate. It is part of an ongoing federal review of hazardous chemicals triggered by the executive order. It lays out the lessons learned from a worldwide history of deadly ammonium nitrate accidents. It also characterizes the chemical’s properties and makes several recommendations for better storage methods, improved emergency planning and response efforts, and other actions that can be taken to avoid an accident. The federal report was greeted with support by the Fertilizer Institute, a trade association, and by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee. Boxer’s committee held a hearing in late June on the West, Texas, accident. That hearing revealed that the West facility’s handling of ammonium nitrate was exempt from nearly all federal regulatory requirements, except for those of the Department of Homeland Security, which failed to enforce them. Chemical experts and government officials not involved in the federal review take a more skeptical view of the advisory, calling it a good “interim step” that provides a warning but falls short of filling regulatory gaps. The Obama executive order puts federal agencies on a tight schedule, calling for a series of steps leading to a thorough examination of federal regulatory gaps, which is to be completed by next spring.—JEFF JOHNSON
SEPTEMBER 9, 2013
