Washington, D.C., June 28 - Small business, large chemical companies and academic researchers in Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were honored today by the federal government for using "creative chemistry" to create new products and processes that protect the environment.
The winners of this year's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award were cited for helping the government to solve environmental problems with scientific approaches to waste reduction, safer chemical compounds for existing products, and more. The innovative projects offer new solutions to the insecticide, pharmaceutical, paper, pesticide and water treatment industries-some with the potential to improve earnings as well as the environment.
"These awards honor chemists who have helped the nation to use research instead of regulation to protect our air, our land and our water," said Ed Wasserman, president of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. "We're delighted that their creative chemistry offers us new and better ways to protect the environment."
The 1999 award recipients and their achievements are (also see attached fact sheet):
Professor Terrence Collins (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, Pa.): developed TAML(tm) activators, catalysts with the potential to eliminate the use of chlorine in bleaching procedures for the activators, pulp and paper industry. The technique eliminates the formation of hazardous chlorinated pollutants such as dioxin and provides energy savings, as wood pulp bleaching occurs at a lower temperature. This technology also promises better laundry detergents that would prevent dye-transfer accidents among clothes and have stronger stain-removal properties.
Biofine, Incorporated (Waltham, Mass.): designed a process that converts cellulosic biomass such as paper mill sludge, municipal solid waste, unrecyclable waste paper, waste wood and agricultural residues into chemicals for fuel, pesticides and other useful products. Cellulosic biomass is otherwise difficult to recycle and naturally resistant to chemical breakdown.
Eli Lilly and Company (Indianapolis, Ind.): designed a more efficient, less waste-producing synthesis of a central nervous system compound, still in the early stages of drug development.
Nalco Chemical Company (Naperville, Ill.): developed a new environmentally-friendly way to make polymers used in wastewater treatment. The new process is safer, eliminates the need for organic solvents, is energy-efficient and utilizes waste by-products from other manufacturing processes.
Dow AgroSciences, LLC (Indianapolis, Ind.): developed Spinosad, a selective, natural, low-risk, insecticide (registered by the EPA as a reduced risk pesticide) against chewing pests in cotton, trees, fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants.
An independent panel of experts chose the winners as demonstrating practical as well as innovative ways to significantly reduce pollution at its sources. The panel is selected by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, as part of its participation in the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administers the awards. Now in its fourth year, the awards program is part of President Clinton's Reinventing Environmental Regulations Initiative to encourage public-private partners to create innovative ways to protect the environment without the need for regulatory controls. The EPA, in participation with the National Science Foundation, also funds about $7 million annually for research grants dedicated to green chemistry. Peter D. Robertson, Acting Deputy Administrator for the U.S. EPA, presented the awards during a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
A nonprofit organization with a membership of nearly 159,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. (http://www.acs.org)
Fact Sheet
Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge
1999 Award Recipients
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award, now in its fourth year, is part of President Clinton's Reinventing Environmental Regulation Initiative to encourage public-private partners to create innovate ways to protect the environment without the need for regulatory controls.
An independent panel of experts chose the winners as demonstrating practical as well as innovative ways to significantly reduce pollution at its sources. The panel is selected by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, as part of its participation in the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge.
The five Presidential awards fill five categories:
Academic Category.
Professor Terrence Collins of Carnegie Mellon University has developed a series
of iron-based peroxide activators with applications in the pulp and paper
industry, water disinfection, and the laundry field. These TAML(tm)
(tetraamido-macrocyclic ligand activators) catalysts are
environmentally-friendly and non-toxic. A key use of these activators is in the
pulp and paper industry, which is moving toward totally chlorine-free processes
to eliminate the formation of hazardous chlorinated pollutants such as dioxin.
TAML(tm) activators enhance the oxidizing capability of hydrogen peroxide in
wood pulp delignification, thereby eliminating the use of chlorine in bleaching
procedures. This new technique offers potential energy savings as the first
low-temperature hydrogen peroxide delignification process. TAML(tm) activators
also have applications in the laundry field inhibiting dye transfer among
articles of clothing and paving the way for washing machines that use less
water. They also improve stain-removal properties of detergents. Research is
continuing into the water purification potential of TAML(tm) activators, an
application with global applications.
Small Business Category.
Chemists at Biofine, Incorporated have designed a process that converts
cellulosic biomass to levulinic acid, a building block in the manufacture of
other useful chemicals. Waste biomass includes paper mill sludge, municipal
solid waste, unrecyclable waste paper, waste wood, and agricultural residues.
Levulinic acid is a versatile intermediate in the synthesis of such products as
diphenolic acid, succinic acid, and tetrahydrofuran. An industry/government
consortium has conducted research to identify other high-value derivatives that
can be synthesized from levulinic acid. Two such products with a large
potential market are methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF) and
delta-amino levulinic acid (DALA). MTHF is a fuel additive that can be blended
at the refinery with gasoline to increase its oxygenate level. DALA is a
non-toxic, biodegradable pesticide that is photochemically activated,
selectively killing weeds without affecting most major crops. The Biofine
process uses waste as a renewable feedstock in synthesizing levulinic acid and
other useful chemical products.
Alternative Synthetic Pathways.
Chemists at Eli Lilly and Company have designed a more efficient, less
waste-producing synthesis of a central nervous system compound, still in the
early stages of drug development. For every 100 kg of product generated, the
improved process eliminates the formation of 300 kg of chromium waste and the
use of 34,000 liters of solvent. Only three of the six intermediates formed are
isolated, minimizing worker exposure and decreasing waste generated during
isolation and purification. In addition, the product yield increased from 16%
to 55%. By redesigning the synthesis of this drug candidate, Lilly has
decreased the amount of solvent required, eliminated the use of a hazardous
oxidizing agent, and increased the overall yield of the process.
Alternative Reaction Conditions.
Nalco Chemical Company developed a new water-based process for manufacturing
acrylamide polymers which have applications in wastewater treatment.
Traditionally, they have been produced as a dry powder or as a water-in-oil
emulsion. The powder form presents exposure hazards and is energy-intensive to
produce and use, while the emulsion employs large quantities of hydrocarbon
solvents and surfactants. Nalco's new process manufactures acrylamide polymers
in a water environment, eliminating the use of oils and surfactants and
utilizing a waste by-product from another industrial process. In wastewater
treatment applications, these water-soluble polymers also eliminate the need for
the expensive inversion and mixing equipment required when emulsion polymers are
used.
Designing Safer Chemicals.
Dow AgroSciences developed Spinosad, a selective, natural low-risk insecticide
(registered by EPA as a reduced risk pesticide). Spinosad is produced by
fermentation of a naturally-occurring microorganism, Saccaropolyspora spinosa,
isolated from a Caribbean soil sample. This new insecticide has been effective
in controlling chewing pests in cotton, trees, fruits, vegetables, turf, and
ornamentals and has demonstrated remarkable selectivity in targeting these pests
without harming 70-90% of beneficial insects and predatory wasps. In addition,
Spinosad exhibits low toxicity and presents little risk to the environment, as
it does not leach, bioaccumulate, volatilize, or persist in the environment
(photochemical breakdown is the major degradation route).