Albert Matlack, one of the founding educators of green chemistry and author of the book ‘Introduction to Green Chemistry’, provides his views on this year’s Green Chemistry & Engineering conference…
This year’s Green Chemistry and Engineering conference had speakers from industry, academia and government. From industry, Eastman Chemical Company talked about acetylating wood with acetic anhydride to produce a substitute for lumber treated with copper chromium arsenate. Others have used the polymerization of vinyl monomers to improve the properties of wood so that it can replace valuable tropical woods such as teak and mahogany. In another example, wood was treated with maleic anhydride, styrene and glycidyl methacrylate to improve resistance to decay and dimensional stability. See also www.intechopen.com for a review.
A. W. Myers described the use of soybean-derived polyols to substitute for ones from petroleum in making polyurethanes. The problem is that such substitutions are limited to about 30%. One substitution by Ford Motor Co. was best at only 2.5%. It should be possible to make polyols that can be 100% replacements. Would methyl-terminated polyethylene glycol help? Would opening the epoxide rings with diglycerol help? Vinyloxyethyl soyate has been prepared by A.Chernykh et. al., Green Chem. 2013, 15(7), 1834. This could be used in an approach to this problem.
David Constable of the Green Chemistry Institute gave a very thoughtful talk on raw materials that we depend on but which have limited supplies that will last only a few more years. Most of these are not recycled and reused. These include rare earths, noble metals, indium, gallium, gold, silver, tin, phosphorus and others. For a review of methods to recycle phosphorus, see G. Ondrey, Chem. Eng., 2013, 120(2), 17. If he keeps thinking along these lines, he will join the ranks of incisive thinkers such as Lester Brown and E.O. Wilson.
James Hutchinson of the University of Oregon talked about the use of silver nanoparticles on polyester shirts to eliminate retention of odors. However, the silver that is lost in washing may inhibit the bacteria and fungi in the activated sludge process and, if the sludge is used on land, the microrhizae and rhizobia of the plants.
Adam Malofsky of Bioinformix described the advantages of methylenemalonic acid (which is made with the carcinogen formaldehyde) over the usual cyanoacrylates. It cures faster. This superglue can bond wood quickly at room temperature without the use of heat or pressure or phenol-formaldehyde resins. Malofsky says that he is going to start with higher value uses before going to plywood but declined to be specific.
Other highlights of the event include:
- Martin Johnson from Eli Lilly said that they are using continuous flow reactors. The company would perhaps do even better by shifting to microchannels.
- The University of Nuevo Leon has used an amalgamator at 4000 rpm for 7 minutes to prepare a europrium chelate in 91% yield. The conventional synthesis gave a 58% yield. Thus, mechanochemistry can often be helpful.
- Marcel Ferguson of Nalco described the recycling of used water from fracking. It still has to be diluted with some fresh water. Work is in progress to minimize the amount of fresh water. The ultimate fate of the brine is in an injection well.
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