SCIENCE -EF*
MATTERS,
newsletter
Volume 1 I Number 5 I June 2011
Sustainable
CHEMISTRY
an Even Darker Shade of Green
TRANSFORMING
Paper Mill Pollution into
Commercial Resources
Q&A
with
Paul
nastas
Green Chemistry Turns 20
pin Doctors
educing Environmental
urdens Through Better Chemistry
SBIR
Supporting Green
Chemistry Innovations
Toxicity Testing
Goes Digital
6/10/2011 11:1
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Page 2
Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Green Chemistry Turns 20
Executive message from Paul T. Anastas, Ph.D.
Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Research and Development
Green Chemistry was introduced into
the world by EPA. What began as a
blueprint for designing safer chemical
products and processes has, after two
decades, not only transformed the field
of chemistry but also given us the tools
to build a sustainable future. It was EPA's
scientific leadership that guided the way.
The world's first green chemistry
research solicitation: Alternative
Synthetic Pathways for Pollution
Prevention was released by EPA in 1991
and it was just the beginning. Scores of
articles, books like Benign by Design, the
first-ever research symposium on green
chemistry at the American Chemical
Society, and numerous partnerships
and collaborations emerged from the
collection of excellent research in EPA's
fledgling green chemistry program. The
growing body of work suggested that
hazard and toxicity do not have to be
elements of our products and processes.
Instead, they are unintended "design
flaws" that can largely be avoided
with thoughtful molecular design—a
revolutionary concept.
In 1995, when President Clinton
called for proposals on ways to reinvent
government, EPA's proposal to create the
Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge
Awards was a game-changing winner.
Now 16 years strong, the Awards
recognize innovative green chemistry
solutions for pollution prevention. At its
heart, the Challenge Awards program is
about demonstrating environmental and
economic synergies; it's about belying
the myth that a healthy environment
and a strong economy are incompatible;
it's about showing what's possible with
green chemistry. On average, winning
technologies have eliminated nearly 200
million pounds of hazardous chemicals
and solvents, saved 21 billion gallons of
water and eliminated 57 million pounds
of atmospheric carbon dioxide releases
every year. The program has shown
that regulation is not the only way to
address our most pressing environmental
challenges and that innovative design can
help us meet important economic and
environmental goals simultaneously.
Today, EPA's Office of Research
and Development (ORD) continues to
engage in excellent, innovative, green
chemistry research. This should come as
no surprise to those familiar with the core
pillars of ORD's work: sustainability,
integrated transdisiplinary research, and
innovation. Green chemistry embraces
and exemplifies these themes by relying
on systems thinking, a solutions-
orientation, and innovative design. By
advancing green chemistry research and
incorporating its principles into all that
we do, we are moving ahead on ORD's
Path Forward toward sustainability.
There is no doubt that EPA will
continue to pursue excellent work in the
field of green chemistry. But perhaps
more importantly, all research involving
chemistry and engineering funded by this
Agency will be increasingly expected
to incorporate the principles of green
chemistry into the fabric of its design. As
we move ahead, it must become part of
all that we do.
What began at EPA as a small, singular
effort—the only research program of its
kind—has grown near-exponentially into
a collective endeavor of the worldwide
scientific community. There are now
green chemistry research networks in
more than 30 countries on every settled
continent, and at least four international
scientific journals devoted to the topic. I
am astounded by the brilliance, creativity,
and leadership that has cultivated the
field and allowed it to flourish.
Twenty years later, I am honored to be
back at the Agency that brought green
chemistry to life. I am humbled by the
field's progress and incredible scientific
advances over the course of two decades
and only more deeply humbled by the
breakthroughs waiting over the horizon
and the scientific discoveries yet to be
made.
In This Issue...
Executive Message: Green
Chemistry Turns 20 2
Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry 3
Science Matters: Q&Awith Paul Anastas 4
Sustainable Chemistry: An Even
Darker Shade of Green 6
Green Investments: Supporting
Green Chemistry Innovations 7
Transforming Paper Mill Pollution
into Commerical Resource 8
EPA Scientists Pioneer Methods
for Greening Biofuels Production 9
Spin Doctors: Reducing Environmental
Burdens Through Better Chemistry 10
Chemical Toxicity Testing Going Digital 11
ScienceMatters-GreenChem_Yellow.indd 2
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Volume 1 | Number 4 | June 2011
PageS
Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry
Green chemistry, also known as
sustainable chemistry, is the design of
chemical products and processes that
reduce or eliminate the use or generation
of hazardous substances. Green
chemistry applies across the life cycle of
a chemical product, including its design,
manufacture, and use.
The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry,
originally published by Paul Anastas
(currently EPA's Assistant Administrator
for Research and Development) and John
Warner in Green Chemistry: Theory and
Practice (Oxford University Press: New
York, 1998), provide a road map for
chemists to implement green chemistry.
The twelve principals are:
Prevention: It's better to prevent
waste than to treat or clean up waste
afterwards.
Atom Economy: Design synthetic
methods to maximize the incorporation
of all materials used in the process into
the final product.
Less
Hazardous
Chemical
Syntheses: Design
synthetic methods to use
and generate substances
that minimize toxicity to
human health and the
environment.
Designing Safer
Chemicals:
Design chemical products
to affect their desired
function while minimizing
their toxicity.
Safer Solvents and
Auxiliaries:
Minimize the use of
auxiliary substances
wherever possible and make
them innocuous when used.
Design for Energy Efficiency:
Minimize the energy requirements of
chemical processes and conduct synthetic
methods at ambient temperature and
pressure if possible.
Use of Renewable Feedstocks:
Use renewable raw material or feedstock
whenever practicable.
Reduce Derivatives: Minimize
or avoid unnecessary derivatization
if possible, which requires additional
reagents and generates waste.
Catalysis: Catalytic reagents are
superior to stoichiometric reagents.
Design for Degradation: Design
chemical products so they break down
into innocuous products that do not
persist in the environment.
Real-time Analysis for Pollution
Prevention: Develop analytical
methodologies needed to allow for real-
time, in-process monitoring and control
prior to the formation of hazardous
substances.
Inherently Safer Chemistry for
Accident Prevention: Choose
substances and the form of a substance
used in a chemical process to minimize
the potential for chemical accidents,
including releases, explosions, and fires.
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Page 4
Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
ANSWERS
QUESTIONS
Science Matters
EPA Assistant Administrator and "Father of Green Chemistry" Paul Anastas Ph.D. discusses Green Chemistry.
with innovative, new
products at the same
time as meeting their
environmental and
human health goals.
SCIENCE MATTERS:
How is green chemistry
revolutionary?
PAUL ANASTAS:
For 150 years or more,
chemists, molecular
scientists — the
molecular architects —
have been using their
considerable knowledge
and skills to develop
ways to put together new
molecules. And they've
done it in a way that has
achieved astounding
things. Life-saving drugs
that improve quality-of-
life, the reason we're able
to have food production
at the rate that we have it is because of
chemistry.
Now with all of those accomplishments,
there's been one piece that's kind of been
missing, and that piece is ensuring that,
while we achieve those goals, we also
don't cause harm to human health or the
environment.
That's what green chemistry is all about.
It's closing the circle, saying, "We're
going to perform these miraculous feats
of science and technology and we're
going to do it in a way that is sustainable,
that is good for this generation and future
generations."
SCIENCE MATTERS: Across the
variety of research happening in green
chemistry — within the private sector,
universities and government — what role
does EPA play?
PAUL ANASTAS: At its best, EPA is
a catalyst. The Agency helps others see
what's possible, enables others to pursue
Continued on page 5
Science Matters recently sat down with
EPA Assistant Administrator Dr. Paul
T Anastas, widely known as the Father
of Green Chemistry, to talk about green
chemistry.
SCIENCE MATTERS (SM): Greetings,
and thanks for making the time to meet
with us today. Why don't we start at the
beginning: how do you define "green
chemistry"?
PAUL ANASTAS: Green chemistry
is the design of chemical products and
processes that reduce or eliminate the use
and generation of hazardous substances.
It's about as fundamental an approach to
sustainability as you can get.
SCIENCE MATTERS: What are some
of the benefits?
PAUL ANASTAS: Green chemistry
demonstrates that you can actually attain
all of the goals that you set out for human
health and the environment at the same
time as you meet your economic goals.
You can make sustainability profitable.
For too long there's been this myth that
you can't have economic benefit and
environmental benefit at the same time.
Green chemistry is belying that myth
every day.
SCIENCE MATTERS: How has green
chemistry already impacted, let's say,
business?
PAUL ANASTAS: When we look at
the impact that green chemistry has had
over the past 20 years, it's astounding to
see that virtually every industry sector—
from the traditional chemical industry,
Pharmaceuticals, agriculture, materials,
energy, automotive, electronics, and on
and on—have been impacted by green
chemistry.
Award-winning technologies in the
United States, Europe, Asia and beyond
are using green chemistry, not because
there's a law or regulation that says
"thou shalt use green chemistry to meet
your environmental goals," but because
companies are realizing that through
using green chemistry they can increase
their competitiveness, they can increase
their profitability, they can come up
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Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Page 5
Science Matters
Continued from page 4
their goals, provides the information and
insight to allow innovation and invention
to bloom.
In some cases it is through research
grant funding, in others it is sharing
and making accessible data, and in
some cases it's doing the innovative
research here at one of EPA's own labs
or providing a venue to demonstrate
new technologies. When EPA engages
with our partners—in the private sector,
from colleges and universities, from
environmental groups and the public in
general—it raises the awareness of what's
possible and removes barriers that would
otherwise impede the implementation of
new technologies and new innovations.
That's when EPA is at its best.
SCIENCE MATTERS: How does
Green Chemistry support an overall
vision for advancing sustainability?
PAULANASTAS: The classic
definition of sustainability is meeting
the needs of the current generation
while preserving the ability of future
generations to meet their needs. What
that means for us is recognizing that we
need to take care of the things that we
can't live without, and we need to take
care of them forever.
Designing tomorrow
is the challenge that we
all face. As we seek to
design tomorrow, we need
to recognize that it's not
good enough to be just a
little bit less bad, a little
bit less polluting, having
our water be a little bit less
contaminated.
SCIENCE MATTERS:
What is the future of green
chemistry?
PAULANASTAS: The
only thing more exciting
than the achievements of
green chemistry so far
is the future power and
potential of green chemistry.
For every product that
has been reinvented
using the principles of
green chemistry, there are
perhaps tens or hundreds of
products that have yet to be
reinvented. And so, when
we start thinking about the
kind of transformative innovations that
are possible, the kind of transformative
innovations that true sustainability
requires, that's where green chemistry's
future lies; thinking beyond incremental
improvement into transformative,
disruptive innovations that are real game
changers.
Stay connected to
EPA science.
Subscribe to the
Science Matters
newsletter:
www. epa.gov/sciencematters
6/10/2011 11:19:20AM
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Page6
Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Sustainable Chemistry: An Even Darker Shade of Green
Innovative EPA researcher taps everyday tools and plants to develop environmentally friendly ways to make chemicals
and nanomaterials.
EPA researcher Dr. Rajender Varma
has given new meaning to the phrase
"reading the tea leaves" through his
visionary development of new, green
ways to synthesize chemicals and
nanomaterials from things such as
microwave ovens, magnets, and natural
antioxidants found in coffee, vitamins,
grape husks left over from winemaking
operations, and, of course—tea.
Varma and his team have developed
dozens of new and patented methods for
the chemical industry and others to make
compounds in environmentally friendly
ways.
Working at an EPA research laboratory
dedicated to tapping the principles of
green chemistry and engineering to
advance sustainability, Varma's team
is developing benign nanomaterials to
replace conventional catalysts, substances
that initiate or speed up chemical
reactions but do not
themselves change during
the reaction. Catalysts can
be expensive, dangerous
if not handled properly,
and may end up as waste
products that must be
treated and/or disposed
of carefully. In contrast,
Varma has created
iron-based magnetic
nanomaterial-based
catalysts that are easily
recycled.
By building
nanomaterial-based
catalysts with a core of
iron and coating them
with other metals, the
catalyst can be separated
using a simple magnetic
field and then re-used,
avoiding the use of
hazardous substances
while creating virtually no
waste. "I often feel these
methods plagiarize Nature
because our approaches
mimic what nature does
so elegantly in biological
systems," Varma says.
Varma's group has also
pioneered a new method of synthesizing
nanoparticles. Instead of using a typical
"top-down" approach that relies on large
energy inputs and toxic solvents to break
down larger materials, Varma and his
colleagues employ a simple "bottom-up"
method that assembles nanomaterials at
the molecular level. This novel approach
avoids the use of hazardous reducing
agents, and instead employs benign
metallic salts (such as iron salts), water,
and polyphenols from plant materials
(tea, coffee, and red grapes) to act as
reducing or capping agents to prevent
nanomaterials from aggregating into
larger clumps during the production
process.
Varma's innovative methods for coating
iron nanomaterials are earth-friendly in
both their production and degradation
processes, allowing them to be used for
environmental remediation operations,
even to clean up pesticides from soils
near crops.
Working with the Connecticut-based
firm VeruTEK, Varma and his EPA
colleagues have played an important role
in developing and commercializing green
remediation technologies. VeruTEK has
used this approach for degradation of
pollutants in water. The technology can
also be applied directly to soil, where
it forms nanomaterials that breakdown
organic toxicants. The iron-based,
phenolic-coated nanomaterials naturally
degrade, so they can be left in place once
applied, offering an attractive alternative
to standard cleanup methods of extracting
and hauling away contaminated soils for
offsite cleaning before they are trucked
back in and replaced.
Not surprisingly, Varma's work has
attracted significant attention from the
scientific community and beyond. He
has briefed U.S. Congressional staff
and the President of India in addition to
lecturing in Chile, China, India, Peru,
and Venezuela. He pointed out that
developing countries are immensely
interested in methods that allow them
to "leapfrog" by circumventing older
technologies and embracing more
efficient ones, such as when governments
encourage the establishment of cell phone
networks, allowing them to skip costly
and disruptive installations of telephone
poles and overhead wires in areas that
previously had no telecommunications
technology.
The nanocatalysts that Varma's team
produces can be safely recycled and may
be used over and over, and can even be
utilized for clean-up operations using
visible light from the sun. According to
Varma, "this process allows for a little
darker shade of green" as we transition to
practices for more sustainable chemical
manufacturing and use. "In addition to
its monitoring and compliance efforts,
hopefully EPA can be a beacon to others
in developing sustainable methods going
forward," Varma says.
ScienceMatters-GreenChem_Yellow.indd 6
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Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Page 7
Green Investments: Supporting Green Chemistry Innovations
EPA's Small Business Innovation Research Program helps bring green chemistry benefits to the marketplace.
Smart phones and text messaging
help people stay in touch from virtually
anywhere, portable GPS units keep
us from getting lost, and MP3 players
allow commuters to ride the rails with an
entire music collection tucked away in
a hip pocket. The proliferation of small,
portable electronic devices has sparked
profound changes in the ways people
work, travel, and communicate.
But what about the unseen costs of
such convenience? The manufacture
of microelectronic devices relies
on thin film coatings such as
electroplating, which often come with
significant negative environmental
effects. "Electroplating, for example,
uses toxic chemicals and generates
significant process waste and water
pollution. Chemical vapor deposition
(CVD) employs toxic gaseous organic
precursors," reports EPA.
With the support of
EPA's Small Business
Innovation Research
Program (SBIR), Jet
Process Corporation
(JPC) of North
Haven, Connecticut
has developed
environmentally-friendly,
clean coating process
alternatives it markets to
leading manufacturers
of microelectronics, as
well as semiconductor
packaging, advanced
sensors, solid-state
lighting, optoelectronics,
telecommunications,
and other high-tech
components.
The SBIR Program was
established in 1982 to
ensure that a significant
part of the federal
government's research
and development efforts
are conducted by small,
high-tech, innovative
businesses. EPA, one of
11 government agencies
with SBIR programs,
issues annual solicitations
to provide incentive
funding to small science
and technology businesses like JPC
interested in translating their innovative
ideas into commercial products that
address environmental problems.
EPA has funded promising projects in
the areas of drinking water, greenhouses
gases, air pollution monitoring and
control, green building, sustainable use
of biomass, waste monitoring, homeland
security, and others. More recently, the
Agency's focus has turned increasingly
toward sustainability-related technologies
and methods.
"Promoting green production processes
in key manufacturing sectors is an
important focus going forward," notes
April Richards, Manager of EPA's SBIR
program. JPC was the first company
Richards mentions when asked to
name an Agency-supported company
that has brought green chemistry
results to the marketplace. The Jet
Vapor Deposition™ (JVD™) process
designed by the company exemplifies
green chemistry's goal to develop novel
production methods that eliminate toxic
waste streams and conserve energy.
The JVD™ process offers a pollution-
free method for connecting very small
electronic components, such as memory
chips employed in sophisticated
microelectronics. The process works
by allowing high-rate deposition of
any solder on photo-resistant materials.
JVD™ vaporizes wire normally used as
solder completely into atoms, which then
are carried by sonic inert gas carrier jets
and deposited to target areas. Various
material sources can be fed into the
process, in sequence or together, creating
layered structures or alloys of multiple
metals to suit the requirements of new
technologies.
According to Dr. Bret Halpern, Director
of Research at JPC, electronic integrated
circuits can now be made "by direct
reaction of oxygen with the vaporized
metal, so there is nothing toxic involved.
Our process is useful anytime a small
chip or circuit element needs to be
soldered to an integrated circuit, often on
very small scales."
JVD™ can be developed for a wide
range of systems for low- and high-
volume production. One such application
of this green innovation is a coating
service for lead-free solders. Halpern also
acknowledged EPA's support for methods
that are important to the company's
current platinum nanotechnology work.
In addition to noting JPC, April
Richards says that EPA's SBIR Program
funds other, similar projects, such
as nanotechnology-based coatings
for environmentally preferable dry
machining, a carbon dioxide-based
metal deposition for microelectronics
applications, and light-curable coatings.
For more information on EPA's SBIR
program, please visit: www.epa.gov/ncer/
sbir/.
6/10/2011 11:19:26 AM
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Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Transforming Paper Mill Pollution into Commercial Resource
EPA-pioneered green chemistry technology that filters toxic pollutants from industrial waste and turns it into a
marketable resource has the potential to pay big dividends for paper mills.
You're cruising down the highway,
windows open, fresh air in your face.
"What is that gosh-awful smell?"
Suddenly, the fresh summer air smells
as though a hundred cooks are boiling a
thousand cabbages right under your nose.
You have just driven by a pulp and paper
factory.
The chemical pollutant causing this
odorous essence of cabbage is called
dimethyl sulfide. It is a waste product of
the pulp and paper industry along with
numerous hazardous chemicals including
highly toxic sulfur compounds, called
total reduced sulfur compounds (TRS),
and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
like methanol gas.
"The dimethyl sulfide in one pulp
and paper company alone was being
generated at about 400 thousand pounds
per year," reports John Leazer, director
of EPA's sustainable technology research.
A toxic pollutant, methanol gas, is also
very common in pulp and paper industry
waste. "Methanol was being emitted at
roughly 600 thousand pounds per year at
the same company," says Leazer.
In an effort to reduce these harmful
pollutant wastes, EPA scientists have
developed a green chemistry technology
that captures and converts such chemicals
into useful resources.
In 2006, the US pulp and paper industry
generated over 200 million pounds of
hazardous wastes, including TRS and
VOCs. Currently, standard practice is for
pulp and paper mills to direct hundreds
of thousands of pounds of such waste
into giant incinerators for burning, which
in itself entails large energy costs.
Where others saw only the creation
of waste and the consumption of
energy, a handful of EPA researchers
saw opportunity. The scientists have
now pioneered a safe technology that
captures certain polluting compounds and
converts them into chemicals that can be
sold on the open market—commodity
chemicals.
EPA chemical engineer, Endalkachew
Sahle-Demessie (Sahle), states, "This
technology takes the methanol from the
pulp and paper industry waste streams
and selectively converts it into methyl
formate, an environmentally friendly
blowing agent and solvent, and a
precursor to formic acid which is used as
a preservative and antibacterial agent."
In addition to creating a marketable
resource, the new technology even clears
the factory air of most of its unpleasant
odor.
Studies have shown that the new
technology removes roughly 98% of the
chemical pollutants responsible for the
boiling cabbage smell of pulp and paper
mills. Ninety percent of toxic methanol
gas is also removed from the factory
waste.
Based on the average amount of waste
from pulp and paper mills, this new
technology has the potential to remove
up to 13,000 pounds of pollution per day,
saving the factory between $500,000 and
$ 1 million each year.
"This technology is new. This
technology doesn't use any toxic
chemicals. And it doesn't disrupt the
Continued on page 12
ScienceMatters-GreenChem_Yellow.indd 5
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Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Page 9
EPA Scientists Pioneer Methods for Greening Biofuels Production
EPA researchers test new technology to reduce the costs of biofuels production.
Anyone who has filled their car
recently understands the growing desire
to develop substitutes for gasoline.
Biofuels, such as ethanol made from
corn and other bio-based feedstocks,
have been a highly sought-after potential
candidate for years. But while the
prospect of turning domestically grown
corn crops into fuel is an exciting one,
the actual practice has faced significant
sustainability challenges.
Using current methods, the production
of ethanol consumes a large portion
of the energy it yields. Traditional
production, relying on a distillation
process that separates energy-rich
alcohols from dilute fermentation broths,
requires the generation of steam, which
requires large energy inputs.
EPA researchers Leland Vane, Ph.D.
and Franklin Alvarez are working to
change that through the development of
more energy efficient ways of producing
biofuels. The two scientists have
pioneered a kind of hybrid distillation
method that uses a new membrane
technology to produce
fuel-grade ethanol with
greatly reduced energy and
production inputs.
Based on promising bench
ii studies, including process
simulations and sophisticated
spread-sheeting analysis
software, the researchers
and their partners are now
conducting pilot tests of the
new technology. If the new
technology continues to
show positive results as it is
scaled up, it could lead to less
expensive, cleaner-burning
gas and less dependency on foreign
supplies of oil, according to Alvarez.
"By using new membrane technologies,
we can produce the same amount of
ethanol using about half the amount of
energy needed with other processes,"
says Alvarez, a chemical engineer in
an EPA research lab in Cincinnati,
Ohio that explores green chemistry and
engineering to advance clean processes
and other environmentally sustainable
technologies.
The new method Vane and Alvarez
are working on employs what they call
membrane assisted vapor stripping
(MAVS) technology that efficiently
separates water from alcohol (fuel).
Substituting the MAVS hybrid
technology for the distillation process
in pilot tests is proving to allow ethanol
production using much less energy and
production costs than is possible with
current methods. The product of the
MAVS process is ethanol concentrated to
the 99.5 weight percent (wt%) needed if
it is to be blended with gasoline.
The new hybrid technology is so
efficient and easy to employ, in fact, that
it has the potential to make small-scale
operations more cost-effective. This
would greatly expand the number and
amount of bio-based sources that could
be turned into ethanol, including waste
and byproducts from a host of food
processing and other industries.
Alvarez points to interest already
expressed from cheese and wine
companies seeking to extract energy
from whey (a cheese by-product) and
grape skins to produce fuels, as well as
valuable chemicals they could sell on the
open market. "Using the steam stripper
and membrane technology allows us to
get additional energy out of these waste
streams," he explains. "We are open to
working with a variety of companies to
transform their waste streams so they
are cheaper to dispose of and more
environmentally friendly," he adds.
"Promoting the efficiency of fuel
production and reducing environmental
waste is a win-win situation for EPA
and the private sector. I am proud to
be part of a team that takes science
and engineering so seriously and is
creating a safer country and a cleaner
environment," Alvarez says.
The new EPA technology could clear
the way for a more efficient, cost-
effective, and environmentally friendly
set of solutions to persistent energy
challenges facing the nation. It could
make a trip to the gas station far less
painful.
Follow the latest
EPA science news on
Twitter:
@EPAresearch
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Page 10
Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Spin Doctors: Reducing Environmental Burdens Through Better Chemistry
EPA scientists and partners develop new spinning methods to "green " chemical production.
EPA chemist Dr. Michael Gonzalez
describes standard chemical batch
manufacturing processes as being a bit
like boiling potatoes in a big pot. While
some potatoes are cooked, others are
still underdone, requiring the cook to
leave them boiling longer. It's a hard
balance. By the time the undercooked
ones are ready, others that have not been
removed are ruined. The same inefficient
scenario often holds true in chemical
manufacturing processes.
Gonzalez and his collaborative research
partners are working to change that
and to help protect human health and
the environment at the same time.
Their innovative research, performed
in a "spinning tube-in-tube" reactor,
allows for each chemical to be "cooked"
and removed after it is done, without
affecting the rest of the batch.
Gonzalez, from the Sustainable
Technology Division of an EPA research
lab in Cincinnati, OH, embraces the
principles of green chemistry to advance
the development of cleaner synthesis
techniques for commodity and specialty
chemicals. He and his partners are
exploring the development of innovative,
benign substitutes—such as the spinning
tube technology—for harsh chemical
catalysts or solvents.
Catalysts are substances that speed up
chemical reactions without affecting
the chemicals themselves. Separate
chemical catalysts or toxic solvents
are widely used during conventional
chemical manufacturing efforts. They
become hazardous waste at the end of the
process.
The increased mixing action within the
spinning tube-in-tube reactor, or STT®,
promotes or accelerates the desired
chemical reaction, while minimizing
or eliminating the need for a catalyst or
solvent(s).
The STT® reactor has been successfully
demonstrated and used within EPA
laboratories and has now been licensed
by a couple of companies that are looking
to build commercial-scale operations
for the production of their consumer
products.
Through these industry partnerships,
EPA scientists and engineers are
facilitating the development and
wider adoption of green chemical
manufacturing approaches that can
produce thousands of different chemicals.
The methods need no chemical inputs
other than the reactants and therefore
greatly reduce the time, costs, and energy
associated with standard chemical
production processes. They also lower
safety risks to workers. Reaction times
within the STT® reactor are faster,
enabling one reactor to produce from
two to 12 tons of product per year while
having the physical footprint of a six-foot
table.
According to Gonzalez, the process
has potential applications in the
pharmaceutical, industrial chemical,
food additive, and fragrance sectors.
Application in these industries "offers
the maximum opportunity to minimize
risks" by applying the principles of
green chemistry (such as substituting
increased mixing for toxic solvents) and
green engineering, he explains. Green
engineering comes into play because
the physical size of a plant needed
for spinning tube reactors is orders of
magnitude smaller than that needed for
conventional chemical manufacturing
with large, room-sized reactor vessels,
separation towers, filtering systems, and
pipeline networks.
EPA has been collaborating with
the Four Rivers Energy Company to
co-develop and advance the spinning
tube-in-tube technology. "By partnering
with Four Rivers and with the chemical
industry, we've been able to tackle
real-life challenges, apply sustainable
solutions to these challenges, and work
with more than 20 companies to get these
technologies out into the marketplace,"
Gonzalez says.
Gonzalez often speaks to student
groups about green chemistry and green
engineering as emerging ways to make
chemicals. According to Gonzalez,
using sustainable principles is "pollution
prevention at the molecular level."
Gonzalez also says that he has found
other audiences eager to learn more.
"This research is an opportunity to show
new ways of doing things to colleagues,
industry scientists, and society so they
can educate the next generation of
chemists and consumers as we head
down the path to sustainability."
ScienceMatters-QreenChem_Yellow.indd 3
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Volume 1 | Number 6 | June 2011
Page 11
Chemical Toxicity Testing Going Digital
EPA is using computer models to predict the human health and environmental hazards of new chemicals and advance
the design and use of green chemistry.
With thousands of new chemicals
introduced into the market each year,
EPA needs a better way to predict which
ones are most likely to pose the greatest
threats to human and environmental
health. Now there is T.E.S.T. (or the
Toxicity Estimation Software Tool), a
computer program developed by EPA
that enables scientists to conduct analyses
to estimate toxicity from a chemical's
molecular structure—the atoms from
which it is built and the particular way
they are linked together.
It can take months or even years to
measure toxicity in the laboratory using
test animals, but "it can take only seconds
on the computer," says EPA scientist
Dr. Douglas Young. "Animal testing is
very expensive," he adds, but T.E.S.T.
"utilizes data that are already out there."
Dr. Young and colleague Dr. Todd Martin
designed the T.E.S.T. software program.
Both are part of an EPA research team
working to advance green chemistry
and engineering methods to advance
sustainable technologies.
T.E.S.T. gleans mutagenicity and
developmental toxicity data from
thousands of in vivo exposure tests
conducted under strictly controlled
laboratory conditions. The scientists used
such existing toxicity data to develop
models that the program then uses to
predict quantitative toxicity values, such
as the concentration of a certain chemical
(in mg/L) it would take to result in a 50%
mortality rate for a commonly used study
animal (such as fathead minnows) in a
given amount of time.
The program's results have been
impressive. "We've tested it against
a number of different software tools
and approaches [including commercial
software], and our tool always seems
to come out either on top or as good as
anything else," says Young. T.E.S.T.
is free and has been downloaded from
EPA's website more than 4,000 times.
With more than 80,000 chemicals in
commerce and thousands more being
added into commercial applications each
year, the utility of T.E.S.T. is becoming
increasingly apparent.
Users range from chemical and
pharmaceutical companies to academic
researchers and environmental health
specialists. They can input the structure
of a chemical to be tested into a computer
by drawing it using a built-in structure
drawing tool, importing it from standard
chemical structure file formats, or
selecting it from the program's structure
database. The databases in T.E.S.T. are a
series of that relate molecular descriptors
or characteristics to the result of a given
toxicity test. Each type of test contains its
own library of comparison chemicals that
vary in size and composition.
The European community has
embraced using similar programs like
T.E.S.T. to reduce the need for animal
testing. The goals of the Registration
Evaluation Authorization and Restriction
of Chemical Substances (REACH)
legislation, which was enacted by the
European Union and went into effect
in 2007, are to manage chemical risks
and develop more chemical safety
information, but the burdens of increased
animal testing associated with more
testing were at first thought to be
enormous. New types of toxicity tests
and database programs are the main
approaches Europeans are taking to
answer this challenge.
T.E.S.T. is a key part of the toolkit
that EPA has developed in support of
its mission to advance technologies to
reduce environmental risks to human
health and ecosystems. For example,
T.E.S.T. can supply missing toxicity
estimates needed for "green process"
design, a new approach to designing
industrial processes to reduce the
environmental impacts of the waste
that is generated while at the same time
minimizing manufacturing costs. EPA
also has developed a green process
design software program called the Waste
Reduction Algorithm (WAR), which can
be downloaded at its Clean Processes
website.
Today, scientists in the fields of
genomics and bioinformatics are
measuring the effects of chemicals
directly on genes and proteins. T.E.S.T.
was designed so that these and other
types of new information about chemicals
can be added easily to the program as the
science evolves. EPA is using T.E.S.T. as
part of its strategy to continue advancing
sustainable toxicity testing into the 21st
century and beyond.
6/10/2011 11:19:05AM
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Page 12
Volume 1 | Number 5 | June 2011
Grants and Funding Opportunities
EPA supports the Nation's leading scientists and engineers through
competitive grant programs and fellowships to ensure that the latest science is
available to help the Agency meet its mission to protect human health and the
environment.
For more information, please visit: www.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/
Transforming Paper Mill Pollution
Continued from page 8
current core process of the pulp and
paper industry. It simply converts the
industry waste into useful product," says
Sahle of the aspects of green chemistry
prevalent in this research.
This unique technology is the result
of collaboration between university,
government, and industry researchers.
Presently, EPA scientists have completed
a small-scale trial of the waste converting
technology they and their partners have
pioneered at a pulp and paper mill in
Kentucky.
"A lot of innovative bench work has
been done, but most of the research does
not simply transfer to an industrial scale,
so you can't see the impact of it yet,"
cautions Sahle. "What we are doing
now in the EPA lab is trying to move
from the discovery of this technology
to small scale research trials, and then
to collaborate with industry to take this
technology and scale it up."
Future large-scale use of this innovative
green chemistry could significantly
decrease the amount of pollution released
by paper mills, the amount of energy
paper mills use to dispose of waste fluids,
and greatly reduce the smell surrounding
paper mills. At the same time, such
technology could increase mill profits
as they harvest marketable chemical
resources.
ScienceMatters-GreenChem_Yellow.indd 1
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