Supercritical CO2-based cleaning system among Green Chemistry award winners A chemical process that combines dense, liquidlike carbon dioxide with a special surfactant to remove stains from textiles was one of five technologies honored June 24 in the 1997 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge awards. Launched in 1995 by President Clinton as part of the Reinventing Environmental Regulations initiative, the awards program recognizes technologies that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous materials from a chemical process. It operates through a broad consortium that includes the American Chemical Society, die Chemical Manufacturers Association, and the Council for Chemical Research. The five awards, selected from more than 80 entries, also include
a chilled-ozone process that depends only on oxygen and water as raw materials to remove organic contaminants; a highly efficient, low-waste process to produce the well-known antiinflammatory drug ibuprofen; a photothermography technology that reduces the use of silver halide in film processing; and the development of biocides as a new class of antimicrobial chemistry. Working with colleagues from the University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, Joseph DeSimone developed a surfactant that can adhere to CO and water-soluble compounds The honored under the Academic egorv Through the development of the surfactant scientists have discovered a way to dissolve non-
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Siting of uranium enrichment facility halted Marking the first time a federal body has applied the executive order on environmental justice to a claim of racial bias, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) atomic safety and licensing board denied Louisiana Energy Services' request to build a uranium enrichment facility in a northern Louisiana parish. Local environmentalists are heralding the May 2 decision as opening the door to consideration of racial discrimination issues under the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental impact statements for federally funded projects. Louisiana Energy Services has appealed the decision. Louisiana Energy Services, a consortium including affiliates of Duke Power Co. and Urenco Ltd., a European firm operating three uranium enrichment facilities in Europe, announced its intention to build the facility in 1989. In 1991, after spending $32 million to develop an advanced enrichment technology, the company filed a permit request with NRC, according to company spokesperson Mary Boyd. Citizens living near the proposed site filed an intervenor brief, claiming the company targeted the parish because it is a predominately poor AfricanAmerican neighborhood, according to Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund attorney Nathalie Walker. The intervenors reviewed the company's site selection process and found that the outlying, predominately white communities were rejected on the basis of quality-of-life factors such as large homes. But when the company applied those same standards to poorer communities, a decrease in the quality of life "didn't register" with those making the decision, said Walker. Company officials note that the selection process included community input. "We have had tremendous support from the parish, biracial support," said Boyd. In addition, the location complies with a state law encouraging construction of new industrial sites in economically depressed areas. Legally, the board's decision is "unsupported by any evidence in the record and capriciously transforms the process of assessing impacts to one of assessing motives," Boyd charged. But Walker maintains that discrimination can occur regardless of motive: "Whether you intend to discriminate or not, if the process you are using is biased, you will end up with a discriminatory result." —CATHERINE M. COONEY
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polar, or water-adverse molecules, including grease and oils in the C0 2 . Because the process can also be used to dissolve polar, or water-soluble compounds such as vegetable and blood stains, it is effective in the garment cleaning industry. DeSimone was recognized previously for his discovery. In 1995 the New York Times dubbed him "a Wunderkind of chemical engineering." The invention spawned MiCell Technologies, a Raleigh, N.C., company headed by DeSimone and Brad Lienhart, who worked with cleaning systems at Dow Chemical Co. The cleaning system uses a process similar to that used to decaffeinate coffee. The C0 2 is heated under pressure to a supercritical state with properties of a liquid and a gas. Once the surface is cleaned, most of the C0 2 is piped out of the cleaning chamber. Although C0 2 is a greenhouse gas, "we are not adding to the carbon load at all," Lienhart said. The process uses C0 2 generated as a byproduct in the petrochemical industry and recycles it. Taking the award for the Small Business category, Legacy Systems was recognized for the development of a novel chilledozone process that depends only on oxygen and water as raw materials to clean organic contaminants from semiconductor, flat panel, and micromachining production. The process eliminates the need for large volumes of the traditionally used chemical solutions of sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and other chemicals (known as Piranha solutions). More than 4 million gallons of metal-containing Piranha solution waste generated annually The company is licensing the technology for new workstations and to retrofit existing sites Recognized in the Alternative Synthetic Pathways category, BHC Co., a joint venture of Boots Company and Hoechst Celanese, received an award for a "green" process to manufacture ibuprofen. The process, which eliminates aluminum trichloride and any cosolvents, has only three steps diat proceed with 80% atom utilization, compared with a traditional six-step process with only 40% atom utilization. The world's
NEWS BRIEFS
Joseph DeSimone's surfactant for use in a supercritical carbon dioxide cleaning system was one of five technologies honored this year by the President's Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.
largest ibuprofen plant in Bishop, Tex., uses the technology to produce 3500 metric tons annually. Imation Corp. was honored under the Alternative Solvents/ Reaction Conditions category for its "DryView" photothermography technique, which replaces silver halide technology in film processing. Traditional processing annually generates 3 million gallons of developer waste and 5.5 million gallons of fixer waste containing toxic substances such as silver hydroquinone. The "DryView" approach is an imaging technology in which exposed film is developed by heat, thereby eliminating the chemical baths Photothermographv which is used to process panchromatic film products is applicable in industries such as medical radiography and printing Under the Designing Safer Chemicals category, Albright and Wilson was selected for the development of tetrakis (hydroxy methyl) phosphonium sulfate (THPS) biocides as a new class of antimicrobial chemistry. The biocides have been used successfully in environmentally sensitive areas around the world for water treatment and oil field applications. The technology combines superior antimicrobial activity with a relatively benign toxicology file. Replacing traditional biocides with THPS biocides in these applications lowers toxicity and use levels In addition THPS biocides rapidly break down in the environment and do not bioaccumulate. CATHERINE M. COONEY
The Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology (CIIT) will start receiving funding from the Chemical Manufacturers Association, which will for the first time provide support for the industrycreated research group. A board of CUT and CMA representatives will conduct a two-year review to set research priorities for the institute, said CUT spokesperson Bob Nellis. The group will add atmospheric chemistry, exposure assessment, and environmental toxicity to its current list of research areas which include carcinogens developmental and endocrine sciences neurotoxicitv respiratory toxicitv and immunotoxicitv CMA has approved a budget of $16 5 million over the next two years to fund effort But CMA's support will not affect the science of the organization according to Nellis Lead-acid batteries have the potential to become one of the first examples of a hazardous product managed in an environmentally acceptable fashion, according to Princeton University researchers Robert Socolow and Valerie Thomas. "The Industrial Ecology of Lead and Electric Vehicles" (Socolow, R.; Thomas, V. Journal of Industrial Ecology 1997, 1, 13-36) disputes the findings of previous studies that lead-acid batteries for electric vehicles environmentally unacceptable The report says a clean recycling system must maximize the recycling rate minimize export of used batteries to countries where environmental controls are weak minimize the impact on communities near lead-processing facilities and maximize worker protection from lead exposure Environmental taxes are successfully reducing pollution in countries around the world, according to a report by the Worldwatch Institute, "Getting the Signals Right: Tax Reform to Protect the Environment and the Economy." Researcher David Malin Roodman found that environmental taxes have been used to cut emissions of heavy metals in the Netherlands, nitrogen oxide emissions VOL.
in Sweden, and the production of toxic wastes in Germany. These taxes can be used to offset payroll taxes, said the report, which noted that the European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, suggested that an EUwide tax on carbon emissions and energy use be dedicated to cutting payroll taxes as a way to create new jobs. For a copy of the report, call (202) 452-1999.
Watershed land is rapidly deteriorating, causing pollution from development to overwhelm technologies designed to produce safe drinking water, according to a new report by the Trust for Public Land. "Protecting the Source" recommends that local water supply managers incorporate watershed protection in all drinking water supply management planning, that states establish permanent sources of funding for wa~ tershed land preservation, and that EPA make more funding available for watershed land prpQ-
ervations The report notes that the $140 billion that EPA estimates will be needed for drinking water infrastructure over the next two decades can be significandv reduced by an investment in watershed protection For a coov of the report call (202) 822-5200 A better measure of a nation's natural resources use would allow countries to understand the scale and environmental consequences of industrial activity, said researchers from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States in a World Resources Institute report, "Resource Flows: The Material Basis of Industrial Economies." The report, released in April, recommends that countries develop a new indicator called "total material requirement" to mea~ sure an annual natural resources use which can be compared with output of goods and services Copies of the report are available by calling (410) 516-6963
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