n e w s of t h e
week
GREEN CHEMISTRY HONORED Five receive presidential awards for chemical research leading to pollution reduction
T
he second annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards were presented last week at ceremonies at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The awards recognize four chemical companies and one academician for outstanding accomplishments that bring chemical principles to bear on pollution reduction. The awards, which consist of glass sculptures, are the only presidential awards specifically recognizing work in the chemical sciences. They are the result of a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency, the American Chemical Society, the Council for Chemical Research, and the National Research Council. These awards "represent the triumphs of science over some of the more difficult problems that we as a society face," said Lynn R. Goldman, EPA assistant administrator for prevention, pesticides, and toxic substances, who made the award presentations. BHC, Dallas, a joint venture of BASF and Hoechst Celanese, received die Alternative Synthetic Pathways Award. The company's award-winning technology "provides an elegant solution to a pressing problem in bulk pharmaceutical synthesis—
that is, how to avoid large quantities of solvents and wastes," says BHCs Steve Wachnowsky, manager of bulk pharmaceutical operations at Hoechst Celanese. The company's manufacturing process for die widely used anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen involves only three steps that proceed with 80% atom utilization, in comparison to the traditional process, which requires six steps that proceed with less than 40% atom utilization. "All three steps in the alternative process are catalytic and therefore are significantly more efficient and pollution preventing; two of the three steps are solventless," he says. The largest ibuprofen facility in the world was built in 1992 in Texas specifically to commercialize the process. Imation Corp., Oakdale, Minn., received the Alternative Reaction Conditions Award for its DryViewfilmdevelopment technology used in medical imaging. "Traditional silver halide photographic films are processed by using a series of developing, fixing, and rinsing baths," explains DryView business manager John Farrell. "These baths require silver halides, hydroquinone, and various acids that have health and environmental concerns and are costly to use and recover." In Imation's photothermography pro-
Posing on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C, are (from left) Farrell, Wachnowsky, Haack, DeSimone, and Matthews, who accepted the 1997 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.
cess, exposed film is developed by heat, thereby eliminating the series of chemical baths. In the medical imaging industry alone, the DryView technology has the potential to eliminate the use of more than 3 million gal per year of developer, 5 million gal per year of fixer, and 900 million gal per year of wash water, says Farrell. Albright & Wilson, Richmond, Va., received the Designing Safer Chemicals Award for developing tetrakis(hydroxymethyl) phosphonium sulfate (THPS) biocides that have a relatively benign toxicology. Marketing development representative Tom Haack explains that "THPS is selectively toxic. That means it is more toxic to bacteria than to people or other organisms." THPS is a magic bullet, Haack says. "You put the material in the system, and it controls bacteria, but once it is discharged, it loses its antimicrobial activity and degrades to a virtually nontoxic compound." The THPS technology has been patented and commercialized for use in the U.S. for water treatment and oil field applications. The U.S. industrial water treatment market alone for nonoxidizing biocides is 42 million lb per year, with more than 500,000 individual use sites in this category. Legacy Systems, Fremont, Calif., won the Small Business Award for developing a chilled ozone process that removes photoresists in the flat-panel display and the rrucromachining industries. Dangerous "piranha" solutions, consisting of concentrated sulfuric acid, peroxides, and other chemicals, have traditionally been used to remove the organic material on silicon wafers to expose the circuitry etched there in previous production steps. In Legacy System's award-winning process, only water and oxygen are used to expose the etched materials. "The oxygen is converted to ozone, which then attacks the resist, converting it to carbon dioxide. No resistflakesor particles are generated, thereby eliminating the need for filtration of particle waste from the aqueous stream," says Legacy President Robert Matthews. In eliminating the need for piranha solutions, the alternative technology has the potential to reduce overall water consumption by more than 3.4 million gal per year per silicon wafer wet station and more than 5.0 million gal per year per flat-panel display station. There are thousands of these stations worldwide. More than 30 billion lb of organic and halogenated compounds—including volJUNE 30, 1997 C&EN 7
n e w s of t h e w e e k atile organic compounds (VOCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—are used worldwide each year as both solvents and cleaning agents. Until recently, carbon dioxide was not a suitable solvent for many cleaning applications in which VOCs and CFCs are traditionally used because of the poor solubility of surfactants and other cleaning agents required in the detergent formulations. Chemistry professor Joseph M. DeSimone at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, received the Academic Award for developing surfactants that can be used in carbon dioxide. Applications that could benefit from this technology include precision cleaning of microelectronics and optics, medical device fabrication, and dry cleaning. "The key to solving problems for many academics," notes DeSimone, "is simply knowing what the problems are and knowing where to focus their interests." At the award presentation ceremonies, ACS President Paul S. Anderson announced the establishment of the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry's Kenneth Hancock Memorial Award in Green Chemistry. Hancock, who died in 1993, was director of the National Science Foundation's Chemistry Division and one of the early advocates of environmentally benign chemical synthesis. The award, which will be presented for the first time at next year's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award ceremony, will recognize students who are furthering the goals of environmentally benign chemistry. Linda Raber
Clinton backs ozone, soot standards President Bill Clinton last week threw his support behind a significant tightening of the nation's ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter. At a family values conference in Tennessee last Wednesday, Clinton said, "I approved some very strong new regulations today that will be somewhat controversial. But I think kids ought to be healthy." Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M. Browner, who has steadfastly supported stricter standards (C&EN, April 14, page 10), called the president's move "a major step forward for protecting the health of the people of this country." Clinton approved the standards just one day before addressing a United Nations environmental summit in New 8 JUNE 30, 1997 C&EN
York City at which the U.S. was taken to task for being a major polluter and chastised for its reluctance to set firm, shortterm targets for reducing its carbon dioxide emissions (see page 10). Barring any action by Congress, which has 60 days to review the rules once they are published next month, the Administration's endorsement of the air quality standards all but ensures that they will be adopted, pretty much as they were proposed last November, but with a somewhat relaxed implementation schedule. Last week, EPA announced that the revised ozone standard would be 0.08 ppm based on an eight-hour time-weighted average, with the fourth highest reading obtained over three years determining whether an area is in or out of compliance. Use of the third highest reading had been proposed in November. The agency says using the fourth highest reading will provide greater stability for an area's compliance designation. In addition to a new ozone standard, the nation will have a new standard for fine particulate matter that specifically covers particles 2.5 pm in diameter and smaller. The standards have been controversial since they were announced. EPA and supporters of the standards say they are needed to protect the health of asthmatic children and other sensitive populations. Opponents, including most U.S. industries, have waged an unrelenting attack on the standards, which they believe will economically hobble them without saving anywhere near the 15,000 lives per year that EPA claims they will. Clinton's decision was hailed by envi-
Browner: major step for health protection
ronmental and public health groups and blasted by industry. "President Clinton and Vice President Gore took what is probably one of the most important public health protection steps of the entire Clinton-Gore Administration," said Phil Clapp, executive director of the Washington, D.C., Environmental Information Center. "They stood up to enormous industry pressure .. . and they deserve an enormous amount of credit." "The new standards will inflict terrible economic damage to our urban areas and undermine existing programs that are already working to make the air cleaner," said Jerry J. Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, the group that has been spearheading resistance to the standards. A few members of Congress, including Rep. Ron Klink (D-Pa.) and Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) have called for an all-out "war" with the Administration. They and a number of other congressmen are threatening to use the powers they have under the new Small Business Enforcement Fairness Act to block adoption of the standards. "Such an attack would be unwise and certainly unsuccessful," said Gregory S. Wetstone of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "That doesn't mean it won't happen." Linda Raber
Europeans negative on biotechnology Although the European public's knowledge of relevant basic biology has increased slightly since the start of the decade, optimism about the contribution of biotechnology and genetic engineering to improving their way of life has actually declined. This is the conclusion of a "Eurobarometer" survey that gauged the attitudes of more than 16,000 people in Europe [Nature, 387, 845 (1997)]. George Gaskell of the London School of Economics and John Durant, assistant director of the Science Museum and a professor of the public understanding of science at Imperial College in London, coordinated the October/November 1996 survey conducted by the European Commission Concerted Action Group on Biotechnology. Support for medical or diagnostic applications of biotechnology is stronger among the European public than is support for its use in food production or
