Consumer advocates are fighting a new rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that aims to address concerns over “inert” ingredients, including fragrances and dyes, in pesticides for non-food use. They say the proposal, which could become final this year, doesn’t go far enough to protect human health and the environment from the ingredients’ potential impacts.
Chemical engineers have designed a catalyst that...
Scientists at IBM and leading global energy company Repsol S.A. announced this week the world’s...
An overwhelming number of chemicals from household and industrial products are in the...
Where's the remaining oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? The location of 2 million barrels of oil thought to be trapped in the deep ocean has remained a mystery. Until now: A national team of scientists has discovered the path the oil followed to its resting place on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor.
Major leaks from oil and gas pipelines have led to home evacuations, explosions, millions of dollars in lawsuit payouts and valuable natural resources escaping into the air, ground and water. But scientists say they have developed a new software-based method that finds leaks even when they’re small, which could help prevent serious incidents and save money for customers and industry.
Measuring oil content in wastes is nothing new to the petrochemical industry. Whether it’s produced water from onshore or offshore sites, effluents from refineriers or drill cuttings and drilling mud, limits on hydrocarbon levels need to be met. With the increase of hydraulic fracturing in the U.S., more public attention has been focused on the need for regulations and limits.
Penn State Univ. said Wednesday that General Electric Co. will give the school up to $10 million to create a new center for natural gas industry research. GE said the money will support research projects, equipment, and undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellowships at The Center for Collaborative Research on Intelligent Natural Gas Supply Systems. the money will be donated over the next five years and earmarked for different uses.
Cleaning up oil sands tailings has just gotten a lot greener thanks to a novel technique developed by Univ. of Alberta civil engineering professors that uses solar energy to accelerate tailings pond reclamation efforts by industry. Instead of using ultraviolet lamps as a light source to treat the water affected by oil sands processes, sunlight alone treats just as efficiently but at a much lower cost.
German electronics and engineering company Siemens AG has reached a deal to acquire oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand for $7.6 billion. Dresser-Rand, based in Houston and Paris, has annual revenue of around $3 billion and employs about 8,100 people. Its portfolio of compressors, steam and gas turbines and engines is expected to complement Siemens' existing offerings in the gas, oil and power generation businesses.
German drug company Merck says it has agreed to buy St. Louis-based chemical firm Sigma-Aldrich Corp. for $17 billion in a deal Merck says will strengthen its business in chemicals and laboratory equipment. Sigma-Aldrich has over 9,000 employees in 40 countries and supplies chemicals and laboratory equipment to government and commercial facilities. Its board of directors has unanimously approved the deal.
A number of leading international researchers, among others from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, have recommended that fluorochemicals should only be used where absolutely essential, until better methods exist to measure the chemicals and more is known about their potentially harmful effects.
According to Univ. of California Irvine and Princeton Univ. scientists, existing power plants around the world will pump out more than 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide over their expected lifetimes, significantly adding to atmospheric levels of the climate-warming gas. The findings are the first to quantify how quickly these "committed" emissions are growing.
As the oil and gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) proliferates, a new study on the contents of the fluids involved in the process raises concerns about several ingredients. Scientists say that out of nearly 200 commonly used compounds, there’s very little known about the potential health risks of about one-third, and eight are toxic to mammals.
As the Obama administration weans the U.S. off dirty fuels blamed for global warming, energy companies have been sending more of America's unwanted energy leftovers to other parts of the world where they could create even more pollution. This fossil fuel trade threatens to undermine the president's strategy for reducing the gases blamed for climate change and also reveals a side effect of countries acting alone on a global problem.
The launch of a multi-million dollar joint industry project this week by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) aims to better understand oil and gas separation technology. The Separation Technology Research Program (STAR Program) is a three-year effort open to operating companies, contractors and equipment manufacturers, and will combine industry knowledge and resources to advance research.
In an attempt to prevent vast quantities of oil from fouling beaches and marshes after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP applied 1.84 million gallons of chemical dispersant. The dispersant was thought to rapidly degrade in the environment, but a new study has found that the DOSS dispersant compound remains associated with oil and can persist in the environment for up to four years.
In Pennsylvania's gas drilling boom, newer and unconventional wells leak far more often than older and traditional ones, according to a study of state inspection reports for 41,000 wells. The results suggest that leaks of methane could be a problem for drilling across the nation, but the research is being criticized by the energy industry.
The University of Notre Dame, along with GE and four other public entities, are collaborating on a $36 million project to create a research and testing center to advance the technology of gas turbine engines used for jet aircraft, power generation plants and the oil and gas industry. GE has committed $13.5 million over the next five years to fund research at the Notre Dame Turbomachinery Facility, which was unveiled this week in Indiana.
By fusing together the concepts of active fiber sensors and high-temperature fiber sensors, a team of researchers at the Univ. of Pittsburgh has created an all-optical high-temperature sensor for gas flow measurements that operates at record-setting temperatures above 800 C. The new technology should be ideal for use in deep drilling operations, nuclear reactor cores and outer space.
When crude oil is refined to fuels and chemicals, catalysts such as zeolites. are at work making this process happen. Scientists have recently developed a reference parameter for the performance of this important class of catalysts, which can suffer from production hindrances if reaction side products clog pores or block active sites on the catalyst.
Researchers at Oregon State Univ. have discovered that some compounds called polyoxoniobates can degrade and decontaminate nerve agents such as the deadly sarin gas, and have other characteristics that may make them ideal for protective suits, masks or other clothing. The use of polyoxoniobates for this purpose had never before been demonstrated, and the discovery could have important implications for both military and civilian protection.
Researchers in Japan have developed a new nickel catalyst with a “kabuto-like” structure that was found to catalyze the cross-coupling reaction between carbonyl compounds and readily available phenol derivatives, to form arylketones, which are found in many biologically active compounds. A kabuto is a helmet worn by Japanese samurai.
The U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center now completing a multi-year effort to refine several new smoke screen compositions that will allow troops to mask themselves from enemy fire. Intended to at last replace the World War II-era hexachloroethane smoke grenades that produce a toxic, irritant containing zinc chloride, the new formulations range from “black smoke” to lithium combustion technology.
The most important fertilizer for producing food is, at the same time, one of the most important risks for human health: nitrogen. If no action is taken, nitrogen pollution could rise by 20% by 2050 in a middle-of-the-road scenario, according to a study now published by scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. This research also shows that ambitious mitigation efforts could decrease the pollution by 50%.
Scientists at Ames Laboratory have developed a nanoparticle that is able to perform two processing functions at once for the production of green diesel, an alternative fuel created from the hydrogenation of oils from renewable feedstocks like algae. The method is a departure from the established process of producing biodiesel, which is accomplished by reacting fats and oils with alcohols.
Scientists at Battelle have developed a tiny bead that not only detects corrosion but delivers a payload to help heal the microscopic cracks that rust creates. Called the Battelle Smart Corrosion Detector, the beads look like a fine, whitish powder that can be mixed with coatings used to protect pipelines and other critical infrastructure subject to corrosion. Self-activating, they release a proprietary chemical that fills cracks.
Winners of R&D 100 Awards must often wait months or even years before the market decides their innovation can become a truly successful product. The editors at R&D follow the fortunes of many these winners, and we are often surprised at the way they can quickly transform entire industries. Recent announcements from R&D 100-winning companies like Newlight, Dow Chemical and Leica Microsystems reflect this level of success.
Scientists at Rice Univ. have created a nanoscale detector that checks for and reports on the presence of hydrogen sulfide in crude oil and natural gas while they’re still in the ground. The nanoreporter is based on nanometer-sized carbon material developed by a consortium of Rice labs led by chemist James Tour, R&D’s 2013 Scientist of the Year.
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