The 2014-15 Sharks were not all that memorable. After a stunning collapse in the 2014 playoffs to the Los Angeles Kings in which they blew a 3-0 series lead, the organization took a planned step backward with the hope that it would be able to retool the roster and leadership group to set them up for success down the road. It was the only season of the 2010s that they did not qualify for the playoffs.

But the Sharks did have one of the leagues more notable personalities for that solitary season. Towering tough guy John Scott signed a one-year contract on July 2, 2014. As we integrate more younger players to our team, Johns presence alone can act as a deterrent and help keep teams and opposing players honest, general manager Doug Wilson said in a statement.

Scott was more than just an on-ice menace, though. He fit seamlessly into the dressing room, quickly endearing himself to a group that loved having him around. Just a year later, it would...

Originally posted here:
Sharks rebuilding team chemistry with help from new book - The Athletic

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --"Transforming R&D: Digital innovation in thepharmaceuticals and chemicals industries," a new report by MIT Technology Review Insights, explores how leading pharmaceuticals and chemicals companies are using artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other digital technologies to transform scientific research and enhance R&D performance.

The report, produced in association with PerkinElmer Informatics, is based on in-depth interviews with R&D executives at organizations including Novartis, Roche, Merck, BASF, and Syngenta. The report finds that:

"As scientific research and data management become increasingly digital and move into the cloud, they create exciting opportunities for organizations to leverage information in new ways to accelerate and improve scientific discovery and product development," said Kevin Willoe, VP and GM of PerkinElmer Informatics. "We are delighted to collaborate with MIT Technology Review to gain insights on how leading pharmaceutical and chemical companies are forging a path on this exciting journey."

Download the report here.

For more information please contact: [emailprotected]

About MIT Technology Review

SOURCE MIT Technology Review Insights

Original post:
Digital innovation is unlocking new pharmaceutical and chemical research horizons, according to MIT Technology Review Insights - PRNewswire

An internationally recognized expert on nanoporous materials and chemical separations has joined UBsRENEW Instituteand the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Miao Yu will serve as an Empire Innovation Professor in RENEW an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to research and education on globally pressing problems in energy, environment and water and in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE).

His appointment was announced by RENEW Director Amit Goyal and Kemper Lewis, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who said in a joint statement that Yu will boost UB's position as a premier public research university and will significantly impact the RENEW Institute.

Yus work aligns with RENEW'sNext-Generation Materials & Technologies for Energy, Environment, & Water Sustainabilityfocus area.

Sustainable energy, environment, water and food, to a large extent, depend on the ability to acquire, capture and utilize small molecules of water, ammonia, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, ethanol and liquid hydrocarbons. Precisely designing stable, molecular-scale pores for sieving these valuable molecules either from the final product or during their production processes could be an effective way of acquiring these molecules. Considering the very small sizes less than a nanometer of these molecules and the tiny size difference from their contaminants and/or byproducts, it is challenging to design these molecular-scale pores, especially using stable and desired materials.

One of the most important research directions of Yu's group is CO2 capture and utilization. He is leading or taking part in three Department of Energy (DOE) projects on CO2 capture from both flue gas and air, and two DOE projects on CO2 conversion to liquid fuels.

Yus long-term goals are to commercialize technologies developed from his research to impact energy, environment, water and food through the design of novel and scalable functional nanoporous materials and structures. This work is guided by deep fundamental understanding of materials synthesis and growth mechanisms, and their structure and property relationship.

Prior to joining UB, Yu was an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He served as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina from 2012-17, and an assistant research professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder from 2010-12.

Yu has published about 70 peer-reviewed papers two in Science and others in Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nano Letters, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ACS Catalysis, Chemical Communications, among others. He received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2015, and has secured roughly $20 million in research funds.

Yu has transferred four DOE research grants totaling more than $2 million to UB. Earlier this month, the DOE awarded approximately $2 million from its new Advanced Manufacturing Office program to E2H2Nano, Yu's startupcompany, to explore ammonia synthesis, with a subcontract to UB of roughly $500,000.

Yu received a PhD in chemical engineering from University of Colorado, Boulder in 2007, and an MS in chemical engineering Tianjin University, China, in 2002. He was as a postdoctoral researcher at Boulder from 2007-10.

Read the original post:
Expert on nanoporous materials and chemical separations joins UB faculty - UB Now: News and views for UB faculty and staff - University at Buffalo...

If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if were too distracted by mobile devices. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: Learning to think for yourself.

Tomorrows champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in todays marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: It starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.

Read the original:
What We Are Reading Today: Social Chemistry by Marissa King - Arab News

Fossil Fuels

Published on January 19th, 2021 | by Guest Contributor

January 19th, 2021 by Guest Contributor

Courtesy of Union Of Concerned Scientists.ByGenna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst

As peoples minds have rightfully been onthe state of our democracy and the Trump administration has been shedding agency heads left and right after inciting insurrection, the EPAs administrator, Andrew Wheeler, has stuck aroundto finalize a long list of destructive items that represent the administrations agenda all along: industry profits over public health.

Specifically, in its final days, the administration has taken a wrecking ball to the scientific basis for public protections against hazardous chemicals. Wheeler even had the gall to promote theEPAs Environmental Justice report, after we know that under his leadership,longstanding inequities have been neglected or made even worse. For example, environmental contaminants have not been as readily cleaned up at Superfund sites in communities of color. And Wheeler has weakened safety assessments of harmful chemicals by failing to use the best available science, which means fewer protections for those already carrying the burden of environmental toxins.

Its important to note that behind each of these actions there are EPA career scientists doing important work at the agency, but who have been thwarted by political officials at the EPA or the White House at different stages of the process.

Here are just five actions from the past two weeks that illuminate the Trump administrations toxic legacy on chemical safety:

In todays federal register, theEPA announced its intention not to finalize several bansproposed by its own staff under the Obama administration for three highly toxic chemicals: TCE, NMP, and methylene chloride. Over the past few years, the Trump administration has actively worked to delay or weaken these proposed bans and then reassess the chemicals using methods that were criticized by its own Scientific Advisory Committee on Chemicals. Last year,the White House was inappropriately involvedin rewriting the EPAs risk evaluation for TCE (a chemical used in dry cleaning and vapor degreasing facilities which can cause cancer and has development effects),downplaying the association between exposure and fetal heart defects. In 2019, the EPA issueda partial ban on methylene chloride (a chemical used in paint strippers linked to cancer and can be acutely lethal) for consumer uses, failing to adequately protect workers at risk of illness and death.

In response, the Environmental Defense Funds lead senior scientist, Richard Denison, stated that It appears that blocking these bans and denying crucial protections to workers and consumers for four years was not enough for the Trump EPA. This shameful move that epitomizes the Trump EPAs concerted attacks on public health is a transparent attempt to further constrain the incoming administration. It is yet another stain on Mr. Wheelers dismalrecord.

APoliticostoryon Wednesday reported on news from internal EPA sources that risk assessment for PFBS (a short-chain PFAS replacement for PFOS used in firefighting foam, food packaging, and other products) was significantly weakened by issuing a range for reference doses rather than a single number. The change was made by staffers in the agencys pesticides office at the direction of political officials, not the career scientists at the EPA who have been working on this assessment for years. In fact, several of those scientists would not put their names on the document as a result.

Typically, the EPAs IRIS program conducts a systematic review of the best available evidence and suggests a single reference dose (RfD), which is the amount of something one can be exposed to in the short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic), which is likely to result in a low risk of negative health effects. The inclusion of a range of values is something that industry has been advocating for because it allows states to pick the preferable end of the range to set their standards, possibly ignoring risks to the most sensitive populations. This also has the fingerprints ofNancy Beckand tracks all the way back to herhighly-criticizedattempt to meddle with risk assessments while working at OIRA in this2006 Draft Bulletin.

The additional White House review that this document was purportedly subject to opens it and future scientific documents up to political scrutiny and more delay. This is an unacceptable outcome for a scientific document that would serve to help states and the EPA set standards to protect all of us from the dangers of this PFOS-substitute in drinking water.

On Monday,The Hillreportedon documents they obtained that revealed White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) interference in the EPAs guidance on PFAS imports. The guidance sent to OMB weighed banning the import of products containing PFAS in any part of a product, but OMBs significant and substantive changes limited the ban to only products coated with PFAS. As Melanie Benesh from Environmental Working Group illustrates, Products disintegrate over time, so if you have something with PFAS on the inside then you may be exposed over time. As it dissolves it gets into household dust, eventually it gets thrown away in a landfill and can leach PFAS and get into the environment that way. OIRAs involvement inevaluating guidance documentsis aTrump administration overreach into agency discretionon matters on which the agency has extensive expertise.

Late last week, the EPA denied apetition submitted in Octoberby Center for Environmental Health, Clean Cape Fear River Watch, Clean Cape Fear, Democracy Green, Toxic Free NC, and the NC Black Alliance. It simply asked the agency to use its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to require Chemours, a PFAS polluter based in NC, to submit testing data and fund independent health studies to determine the exposure risks of 54 PFAS present in the Cape Fear River watershed. The denial letter speaks to the problems inherent to our chemical regulatory system that allow the release of chemicals without adequate evidence of their safety and with no requirements for industry to pay for further testing or independent review.

The great irony is thatTSCA allows for these massive data gaps, fails to require industry to fill them, and then uses them as a justification for being unable to set health-protective standards.

This action also speaks to Wheelers utter failure to listen to the needs of impacted communities. LaMeshia Whittington, campaign director for the North Carolina Black Alliancestated,Its preposterous that the EPA has chosen to dilute the intent of the petition and prioritize corporate interest over the needs of the communities affected in North Carolina. This decision reflects the environment the outgoing administration created, poison over our health and profit over the people. We wont stop here. We will continue to fight against our water being poisoned, and children left without a basic human right of access to clean water.

On January 6th, the EPA announced its final rule that dramatically restricts the science the agency can consider in rulemaking. It would downweight studies that rely on any nonpublic data including studies involving private medical records, interfering with many key public-health studies the agency relies on to set safeguards for chemicals. This rule was issued despite opposition from the scientific community and nearly one million comments overwhelmingly against its finalization. It was also issued and made immediately effective, which goes against typical procedure of a 30-day finalization window. A new lawsuit from the Environmental Defense Fund, The Montana Environmental Information Center, andCitizens for Clean Energyare challenging thelegality of the processby which it was rushed through the door at the 11thhour.

In response, UCS Ce
nter for Science and Democracy Director Andrew Rosenbergstated that, Its even more egregious that EPA has chosen to finalize these restrictions on science during the worst public health crisis in our lifetimes. This rule would interfere with the agencys urgent, ongoing work on a range of issues including links between environmental factors and COVID-19, the impacts of wildfire smoke on public health, and the effects of the pesticide chlorpyrifos on children by undermining the EPAs ability to use the best available science. Its a willful decision to throw away the exact tools the agency needs now.

President-elect Biden has repeatedly said his administration will listen to the science and that science will guide policy decisions. UCS will hold him to this promise and fight to reverse all of the many damaging changes that have been made to undermine science-based assessments and related policies at the EPA. We look forward to working with the incoming administration to undo these destructive policy decisions. New leadership at the EPA must commit to listening to its scientists, upholding scientific integrity, and using the best available science to craft policies that protect everyones health and safety.

Featured image by Nithin Sameer on Unsplash

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Tags: Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump, EPA Environmental Justice Report, Methylene Chloride, NMP, north carolina, PFAS, PFBS, TCE

Guest Contributor is many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts in a large variety of fields. This is our contributor account for those special people. 😀

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5 Recent Actions That Epitomize Andrew Wheelers Caustic Chemical Safety Legacy - CleanTechnica

Global oil consumption declined by roughly 9% in 2020 as the pandemic reduced business and pleasure travel, factory production and transportation of goods. This abrupt drop accelerated an ongoing shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

U.S. government forecasts show that oil use for transportation, industry, construction, heating and electricity is declining and will continue to drop in the coming years. This trend has enormous implications for the oil industry: As the International Energy Agency observed in 2020, "No oil and gas company will be unaffected by clean energy transitions."

Many of these companies are trying to make up losses by boosting production of petrochemicals derived from oil and natural gas. Today roughly 80% of every barrel of oil is used to make gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, with the rest going into petrochemical products. As demand for petroleum fuels gradually declines, the amount of oil used for that "other" share will grow.

This makes sense as a business strategy, but here's the problem: Researchers are working to develop more sustainable replacements for petrochemical products, including bio-based plastics and specialty chemicals. However, petrochemicals can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost. As a biochemist working to develop environmentally benign versions of valuable chemicals, I'm concerned that without adequate support, pioneering green chemistry research will struggle to compete with fossil-based products.

Pivoting toward petrochemicals

Petrochemicals are used in millions of products, from plastics, detergents, shampoos and makeup to industrial solvents, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, fertilizer and carpeting. Over the next 20 years, oil company BP projects that this market will grow by 16% to 20%.

Oil companies are ramping up to increase petrochemical production. In the Saudi Arabian town of Yanbu, for example, two state-owned companies, Saudi Aramco and Sabic, are planning a new complex that will produce 9 million metric tons of petrochemicals each year, transforming Arabian light crude oil into lubricants, solvents and other products.

These changes are happening across the global industry. Several Chinese companies are constructing factories that will convert about 40% of their oil into chemicals such as p-Xylene, a building block for industrial chemicals. Exxon-Mobil began expanding research and development on petrochemicals as far back as 2014.

The promise of green chemistry

At the same time, in the U.S. and other industrialized countries, health, environmental and security issues are driving a quest to produce sustainable alternatives for petroleum-based chemicals. Drilling for oil and natural gas, using petrochemicals and burning fossil fuels have widespread environmental and human health impacts. High oil consumption also raises national security concerns.

The Department of Energy has led basic research on bioproducts through its national laboratories and funding for university BioEnergy Research Centers. These labs are developing plant-based, sustainable domestic biofuels and bioproducts, including petrochemical replacements, through a process called "metabolic engineering."

Researchers like me are using enzymes to transform leafy waste matter from crops and other sources into sugars that can be consumed by microorganisms typically, bacteria and fungi such as yeast. These microorganisms then transform the sugars into molecules, similar to the way that yeast converts sugar to ethanol, fermenting it into beer.

In the creation of bioproducts, instead of creating ethanol the sugar is transformed into other molecules. We can design these metabolic pathways to create solvents; components in widely used polymers like nylon; perfumes; and many other products.

My laboratory is exploring ways to engineer enzymes catalysts produced by living cells that cause or speed up biochemical reactions. We want to produce enzymes that can be put into engineered bacteria, in order to make structurally complex natural products.

The overall goal is to put carbon and oxygen together in a predictable fashion, similar to the chemical structures created through petroleum-based chemistry. But the green approach uses natural substances instead of oil or natural gas as building blocks.

This isn't a new concept. Enzymes in bacteria are used to make an important antibiotic, erythromycin, which was first discovered in 1952.

All of this takes place in a biorefinery a facility that takes natural inputs like algae, crop waste or specially grown energy crops like switchgrass and converts them into commercially valuable substances, as oil refineries do with petroleum. After fermenting sugars with engineered microorganisms, a biorefinery separates and purifies microbial cells to produce a spectrum of bio-based products, including food additives, animal feed, fragrances, chemicals and plastics.

In response to the global plastic pollution crisis, one research priority is "polymer upcycling." Using bio-based feedstocks can transform single-use water bottles into materials that are more recyclable than petroleum-based versions because they are easier to heat and remold.

Reducing the cost gap

To replace polluting goods and practices, sustainable alternatives have to be cost-competitive. For example, many plastics currently end up in landfills because they're cheaper to manufacture than to recycle.

High costs are also slowing progress toward a bioeconomy. Today research, development and manufacturing are more costly for bioproducts than for established petrochemical versions.

Governments can use laws and regulations to drive change. In 2018 the European Union set an ambitious goal of sourcing 30% of all plastics from renewable sources by 2030. In addition to reducing plastic pollution, this step will save energy: Petroleum-based plastics production ranks third in energy consumption worldwide, after energy production and transport.

Promoting bio-based products is compatible with President Biden's all-of-government approach to climate change. Biomanufacturing investments could also help bring modern manufacturing jobs to rural areas, a goal of Biden's American Jobs Plan.

But oil company investments in the design of novel chemicals are growing, and the chasm between the cost of petroleum-based products and those produced through emerging green technologies continues to widen. More efficient technologies could eventually flood existing petrochemical markets, further driving down the cost of petrochemicals and making it even harder to compete.

In my view, the growing climate crisis and increasing plastic pollution make it urgent to wean the global economy from petroleum. I believe that finding replacements for petroleum-based chemicals in many products we use daily can help move the world toward that goal.

Constance B. Bailey, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Read this article:
Oil companies are going all-in on petrochemicals and green chemistry needs help to compete - Salon

Joining a new team always presents challenges. Theres a new playbook to learn, a new city to live in, and new teammates to adjust to. That last piece could be particularly troubling if a free agent joins a team that had well-documented chemistry issues the year before.

But Nicolas Batum hasnt found any challenges in his move to Los Angeles. Hes grateful to be in such a promising situation to compete for a title in his 13th year in the league, especially after being marooned in Eastern Conference mediocrity for half a decade. And team chemistry has been the least of his concerns, as he told the media Tuesday.

The transition has been pretty easy, Batum said. This is a great group, like you can hear a lot of stuff all around, but I didnt see it yet. Thats good. I dont think Im gonna see it this year. The group is great, you know, guys, they welcomed me with open arms. Like yesterday, Ive been here for a week and they already called me and texted me for my birthday yesterday, so that was great. So, you know, love these guys, love this group. Its been fun on the court, its been fun off the court as well.

Batum went on to say that he probably has the most conversations with Reggie Jackson, whose locker is next to his, but hes had a great time with Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Marcus Morris Sr., among others.

Hes also made a different connection with Serge Ibaka, as the two are both French speakers. Batum said that theyve already communicated in French while on the court together during the preseason.

Actually did it a couple times last game, and thats sometimes the strength you can have, you can talk in your own language about defense and stuff like that, Batum said. The opponent cant understand what youre saying, so it can be an advantage sometimes.

With a shortened preseason and an offense dictated by feel thus far rather than set plays, Batum noted how important it was for the team to develop chemistry. Its been a smooth process, but thats because the Clippers are making more of an effort this year than last. The returnees have reached out to the new players, and theyve all taken advantage of their limited practice time to build cohesion on and off the court.

Batum has been part of successful NBA teams in Portland and successful international teams playing for France, so he knows what works when he sees it. If he thinks the Clippers are on the right track in terms of their locker room dynamics, thats a good start for the 2020-21 season.

More news for Wednesday:

The rest is here:
LA Clippers News: Nic Batum already has rave reviews for the Clippers team chemistry - Clips Nation

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The chemical software market is expected to grow by USD 192.36 million, progressing at a CAGR of over 5% during the forecast period.

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The rise in digitalization is one of the major factor propelling the market growth. However, the system integration issues and interoperability glitches will hamper the growth market.

More details: https://www.technavio.com/report/chemical-software-market-industry-analysis

Chemical Software Market: Application Landscape

Based on the application, the chemical process simulation segment led the market in 2019. The market is driven by the rise in digitalization in chemical companies to improve operational efficiency. However, market growth in the chemical process simulation segment will be slower than the growth of the market in the inventory management and ISO management segments.

Chemical Software Market: Geographic Landscape

By geography, North America is going to have a lucrative growth during the forecast period. About 38% of the markets overall growth is expected to originate from North America. Factors such as the presence of global chemical companies, the rising trend of digitalization in chemical companies, and the strict laws associated with the chemical industry are fostering the growth of the market in North America.

The US and Canada are the key markets for chemical software in North America. Market growth in this region will be faster than the growth of the market in South America.

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Global Vector Signal Generator Market- Vector Signal Generator Market is segmented by end-user (telecom, electronics, automotive, industrial, and others), frequency (6 GHz, 4 GHz, and 2 GHz), and geography (North America, Europe, APAC, South America, and MEA). Click Here to Get an Exclusive Free Sample Report

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Global Chemical Software Market Research 2020-2024 | Key Insights and Industry Planning Structure | Technavio - Business Wire

Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles Kevin Tucker, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Chemistry, is the epitome of a teacher-scholar: offering numerous opportunities for students to engage in applied research and gaining funding to advance his novel research endeavors.

But a necessary addition to that designation is mentor. Amid a pandemic that has made it difficult for students and educators to conduct laboratory research, Tucker has demonstrated just how much emphasis he places on his role as a teacher-scholar-mentor.

An acknowledgement of his impact on students success is Tuckers nomination as a Difference Maker by chemistry graduate student and research assistant Katherine Maloof.

Dr. Tucker is more than an amazing professor and mentor, Maloof said. This past year has been one of the hardest in my life, but Dr. Tucker has helped me through it. Without him, I would not be where I am today, and I can say that confidently. He will pick you up when youre down, and give you what you need to build yourself back up. He truly has a passion for learning and ensuring the success of his students. He goes above and beyond for us, and absolutely deserves to be recognized.

I am honored and humbled by Katies words, Tucker said. I have a large research lab ranging from 15-20 students depending on the semester, and I truly enjoy mentoring each one of them as a student and as a person. I always want to know my students as a whole individual because it allows me to mentor them more effectively toward their goals professional and life.

Tuckers research focuses on the detection of pharmaceutical and personal care products, and other contaminants of emerging concern, within local and regional waterways and the surrounding soil systems. These compounds include antibiotics, and endocrine disruptors, soaps, cosmetics and agricultural products.

He has worked diligently to overcome the pandemic'schallenges by creating policies that allow his research team to continue their important work in a safe environment. He developed lab zones that are reserved via a group calendar to ensure proper spacing of students. Additionally, each student wears a mask and face shield in the lab for protection.

Tucker credits students for making his scholarship possible and knows from personal experience just how valuable effective mentorship is for academic, professional and personal development.

As I pursue novel research projects and form new collaborations, I know that it is my students and their support and commitment to the lab that will enable me to continue to deliver positive results in the future, Tucker said. I remember having professors as an undergraduate who mentored me into the student and professional that I have become. I revered them and am still in contact with them to this day. I expect nothing less of myself with every student that I mentor than what my mentors gave me.

SIUE is celebrating Difference Makers like Tucker throughout February. These individuals are just a few of the many university faculty, staff and students who have made hard times a little less difficult for others. They were nominated by colleagues and students.

Visit link:
SIUE Difference Maker: Chemistry professor Kevin Tucker shines as a teacher and mentor - AdVantageNEWS.com

You can watch the video version of this podcast above, or listen to the audio-only version from the Chemistry in its element podcast feed here:

Or read the edited transcript below.

Ben Valsler

Were in the midst of a climate crisis. In response, countries are pledging significant action to reduce their carbon emissions the European Union intends to be carbon neutral by 2050, for example, and China by 2060. The Paris Climate Agreement was adopted by almost 200 parties in 2015, obliging countries to set out their plans to reduce greenhouse emissions in increasingly ambitious five-year cycles. And carbon consciousness has also made its way into corporate culture, with organisations like BASF aiming for carbon neutral growth by 2030, and General Motors aiming for 2040.

When discussing large-scale carbon reduction, the focus is often on power generation replacing fossil fuels with solar, wind or tidal energy or on new technologies like carbon capture and storage. But for a truly sustainable future, we need a wider view.

Chris Stumpf

Im Chris Stumpf, and I work at Waters Corporation. Im a senior manager, and I focus on market development. Really, what Ive been looking at pretty extensively as of late is the area of electronics, and also sustainability. Ive kind of developed the title of green ambassador within the company because Im tying in a lot of the electronics, especially lithium ion batteries. It connects into carbon neutrality, but also into supporting sustainability goals of a lot of corporations and a lot of countries around the world as theyre trying to meet their carbon neutrality stated goals.

Ben Valsler

Waters Corporation is the worlds leading specialty measurement company they dont make lithium ion batteries or research new sustainable materials themselves, but they develop chromatography, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis techniques that enable scientists and industry worldwide to answer cutting edge questions.

Chris Stumpf

I think there is a common thread with this, and I think a lot of this is really accelerated due to Covid-19. What weve discovered is that supply chains are being disrupted and theres this need to be able to manufacture within countries. A lot of the supply chain, as it stands now, is not sustainable. So one way of reducing that is to use 5G, which enables the Internet of Things, which enables automated manufacturing. Theres also artificial intelligence, which can be focused directly on managing specific aspects of the supply chain, and continuous manufacturing, things like that. The underlying technology for a lot of that is energy, and how you can store and use energy where it needs to be used. One way to do that is with batteries, specifically lithium ion batteries. Theyre the dominant battery type today. Currently, they enable electric and hybrid electric cars, and theyre used in the electric grid, for smart grids. Their use is going to be very pervasive across the landscape. In addition, theyre heavily used in consumer electronics, our smartphones and our laptops, and all these types of devices that we use nowadays.

Ben Valsler

While all of these technologies play a role in fostering development and reducing our reliance on existing, outdated infrastructure, batteries perhaps seem the least exciting on the list. Its only about 30 years since the first commercial lithium ion battery, but in that time theyve become ubiquitous, commonplace, even forgettable.

Chris Stumpf

AI and 5G receive a lot of publicity. I mean, theyre even in pop culture you can think about Stephen Kings novel Cell, based on creating zombies with cellphone towers. And Steven Spielberg had a movie in 2001, based on artificial intelligence and creating like an [artificial] human person.

But right now, were taking this lithium ion battery technology for granted. Its everywhere: its in our laptops and our cell phones. And theres still a lot to be done.

The chemistry Nobel prize winners in 2019, Goodenough, Wittingham and Yoshino-san, said there are six things that still need to be done with regards to research: reducing the cost, improving the safety, increasing the charge density. For example, if youre going to put these lithium ion batteries on an aeroplane, or a big tractor-trailer truck or something like that, you need a lot more energy density.

Then theres the question of whether lithium ion battery technology, as its being practised today, with the liquid electrolyte fluid and the cathode and anode, is the right approach. Should we go with another type of technology? Do we use solid state, for example? Or do we replace the electrodes with other types of technology? The lithium and cobalt that are in the anode and cathode are not really that sustainable its a bit difficult to justify this from a sustainability perspective. Could you perhaps replace some of that with more common metals like sodium? Theres a lot of opportunity here for really basic R&D to decide which direction to go in, and which is the most commercially viable option.

Ben Valsler

Sustainability means different things to different people. For a business strategy to be sustainable, it needs to ensure profits are greater than costs. But this can conflict with the environmental bottom line ensuring no environmental or ecological damage to sustain the natural world for generations to come. Taking a global view, the United Nations has set out 17 sustainable development goals, which include affordable and clean energy, climate action and responsible consumption and production alongside gender equality, sanitation, peace and justice.

Chris Stumpf

In addition to a clean environment, they also want to promote civil stability, because they want to minimise extreme wealth inequality to reduce the possibilities of war. So with regards to lithium ion batteries, that framework of sustainability and trying to source your materials plays a part in those 17 development goals of the United Nations. Thinking about the Paris Climate treaty, if we can maintain our carbon emissions to 1990 levels, then we can arrest the increase in the Earths temperature. Basically, that justifies the investment in all this R&D for lithium ion batteries and all the products they are going into.

Yoshino-san talked about lithium ion batteries being the bedrock of the sustainable society. But theres other things that we dont quite realise, until we get to that world of having a lot of our consumer electronics and cars and aeroplanes and things like that running on lithium ion batteries or another alternative. Its an enabling technology. Its playing a small part in this overall scheme of sustainability. Its not the only thing thats going to help with this, because its kind of a hybrid situation where we have lots of things that we need to do in order to reach a sustainable future, but its the foundation of that, in my opinion.

Ben Valsler

If batteries are to be the bedrock of the sustainable society, its vital that we understand how to tailor them to specific uses the battery in your laptop has a very different specification to the ones in the latest electric cars. This is where measurement technologies come into their own, helping with everything from blue-skies research to efficient manufacture.

Neil Demarse

Hi, my name is Neil Demarse. I am a product manager for our microcalorimetry products.

Because theyrecontained and non-moving, you can think of batteries as a machine almost. Its a complex device. Theres not a lot of techniques that can be used to study whole cell batteries. A lot of them are destructive techniques. Having a test that you can use to look at the chemicals separately, but also look at whole cell batteries is important. Thats where calorimetry really has a very important contribution to the research field.

Research is also starting to look at bringing in some of the tools that biochemists or biopharmaceutical sciences are using because of their sensitivity: HPLC and mass spectro
metry. Theres also cryo EM, which was historically used just in protein science; now, its being carried over into material characterization for batteries. As the batteries change and the performance demands accelerate, thats where theyre drawing in some of these tools that wouldnt traditionally be used by chemical engineers or chemists. Theres not a one-size-fits-all battery, so theres going to be a lot of research to determine how best to build certain batteries for certain applications.

Chris Stumpf

In order to think about things like safety or energy density, as far as an analytical characterization perspective, you have to go back and think about the battery itself. Theres four primary things that you have to think about when you when you think about a battery. Theres the anode and the cathode, and were all familiar with the terminals of batteries that is basically the anode and the cathode. Inside, there is the electrolyte. Theres additives and all this stuff that is put in there partly to enhance the performance of the battery, but also to suppress potential fires and things like that. Then on the inside, there is a polymer separator. Its purpose is basically to prevent a short circuit between anode and cathode. If you actually have a short circuit if the polymer gets punctured, or if it shrinks the battery gets hot very quickly. And if the battery gets hot very quickly, it can cascade because a lot of the time, these cars will have thousands of these batteries in in a battery pack. It can cascade like dominoes.

Neil Demarse

Calorimetry can tell you how fast reactions are happening, how much of a reaction is happening, even the fact that there is a reaction happening [at all]. So a researcher might have some data on their chemistry before it goes into the battery, or if you were to cut it open, but calorimetry tells you how all those components together react are there reactions in there that we dont want? Were measuring heat; do those reactions get too hot?

The chemistry that goes into the battery is going to help the charge density and the battery life cycle. Safety is also something that can be looked at early on in the R&D process to make sure that chemicals are compatible. High-precision coulometry is another technique thats paired with calorimetry to understand these parasitic reactions, the small minute reactions that researchers want to understand because it points directly to how good their batterys going to be.

Chris Stumpf

But youve also got the capabilities of really understanding the chemistry thats going on, and all the side reactions. These side reactions basically rob the battery of its main goodness: the power that its generating. If you can understand that from a molecular perspective, with techniques such as mass spectrometry, or maybe for the whole battery itself using battery calorimetry, then you can really get to understand how you can actually make this battery last 20 years, 40 years, 100 years.

Ben Valsler

Fine-tuning the chemistry within a battery isnt enough to make a perfect product the right battery case is essential to allowing that chemistry to work in situ. To confirm a case wont collapse in the real world, researchers use techniques like thermo-gravimetric analysis, or TGA. By applying heat to a material in a controlled way, they can precisely measure not just physical deformation, but chemical changes that would indicate degradation or oxidation.

Chris Stumpf

The polymer that the casing is made out of is actually very important. Youd like to make a casing thats resistant to being crushed in a car accident, for example.So you can design a casing and use analytical characterization in order to build that polymer so that it resists that. You can put the right additives in the electrolyte on the inside so that if the thing does start to heat up, it can trigger some type of flame repression. Theres a number of these things that you can do from an analytical perspective to build a high performing battery that that has a lot of the energy performance that you want. But at the same time youve got to think about the safety perspectives as well.

Ben Valsler

One essential component of a sustainable future highlighted by the United Nations goal of responsible consumption and production centres around what happens to a product at the end of its useful life. Electronic waste is a growing problem the UN estimated 50 million tonnes was reported in 2018, and levels are expected to double by 2050. This includes complex equipment that is hard to recycle and can contain components that are toxic or hard to replace creating a vicious circle whereby materials are mined in environmentally damaging ways, only to be returned to landfill in just a few years. With batteries, as with other electronic components, research and characterisation can help us to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Neil Demarse

Theres a lot of work going into understanding recycling. Apple is one of the largest recyclers of batteries in the world. Its no surprise they have batteries in all of their devices. Im sure they want those back and they have a process that might be able to recycle some or all of the battery. Theres lots of other techniques, but there are still questions: how do you take something thats a static machine full of chemicals and take it apart? How do you recycle these small little pieces? Theres some initiatives or research that go into, were going to grind up the battery and try to purify certain parts of it by just making it smaller and smaller and smaller, mechanically. Others, open up a battery and extract certain materials, but I think it is a big challenge understanding how batteries are going to be recycled. Whats the best way to do that? I dont think it necessarily fits our current recycling process as we know it of separating [components]. Its easy to separate trash. With batteries, its a lot more complex.

Chris Stumpf

Right now, theres regulations in order to collect these batteries, because we dont want them to get into the waste stream. But as far as collecting enough material to reuse it, I think the amount of electric cars is actually not high enough to make that economically feasible. Theres two major areas that people look at with regard to recycling batteries. The first is relatively straightforward: you take the battery pack in some kind of casing from a car, you open that case off, and theres all these individual battery cells. You can test each one of those cells and you can pull out the ones that are bad and replace them with good ones. Then you can repurpose that battery pack, either by putting it back into another car, or you can put it into a Smart Grid, which might have less aggressive energy requirements. It actually might last a lot longer in the electric grid. Its basically a reconditioning of the battery.

The second one is to take that battery pack out of the car or the cell phone or whatever, open up the battery pack, take out the cells, and grind them up. Then try to separate things into cobalt, magnesium, lithium etc. to get back to virgin materials. Thats another area where you need analytical characterization; you need mass spectrometry, NMR, TGA, DSC, all these types of techniques in order to just understand the physical properties and the molecular properties of this, and to see if youve actually got yourself back to where you want to be.

Ben Valsler

Pure, virgin materials have fairly well understood properties. But when a material has been reclaimed from a disused battery, we need to be certain that it will behave in the same way before it returns to the manufacturing process. With many companies operating on a financial knife edge, the risks of using recycled or reclaimed materials that may contain impurities can be too much to bear.

Chris Stumpf

Without the analytical characterisation, without the molecular understanding of the anode and the cathode material, the electrolyte, and the polymer materials that the the battery cells made out of, without that molecu
lar and physical understanding with a TGA, you can actually take that polymer and you can melt it with a thermoplastic. You need to know when these polymers melt, because thats part of the manufacturing process. You melt these polymers and then you blow mold them, or you do different types of manufacturing with them. But you need to be able to understand that because if the temperatures shifted, somehow, its not going to work in the existing manufacturing process, and youre going to have to do all this adaptation. So really, you need to understand, Do I still have that same polymer or has it has it degraded somehow? If you take a polymer from a battery, for example and use it in a different application, maybe in a car bumper, if that polymer now is brittle, its going to break right away. Its not going to be a good application in a car because you need that bumper to resist that impact. So absolutely, analytical characterisation across the whole, from the very beginning of making a battery to the circular economy and reusing the components, youve got to understand that from each step of that process.

Ben Valsler

So as we collectively try to find ways to adapt to a challenging future, to meet the ambitious targets we set for our varying definitions of sustainability, its essential that we use every tool available to us to probe, analyse and understand the technology that we take for granted. And with that understanding we will be able to build, and rebuild, better batteries that can realise Akira Yoshinos vision of them as the bedrock of a sustainable society.

For more on this topic, check out the new Chemistry World sustainability collection curated content created with our partners. You can find that at chemistryworld.com/sustainability.

This podcast featured Chris Stumpf and Neil Demarse of Waters, and was produced in partnership with Waters Corporation. Im Ben Valsler from Chemistry World, thank you for joining me.

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Batteries: The bedrock of the sustainable future | Sponsored - Chemistry World

Newswise Thinking like Earthlings may have caused scientists to overlook the electrochemical effects of Martian dust storms.

On Earth, dust particles are viewed mainly in terms of their physical effects, like erosion. But, in exotic locales from Mars to Venus to Jupiters icy moon Europa, electrical effects can affect the chemical composition of a planetary bodys surface and atmosphere in a relatively short time, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

This direction of scientific investigation has been largely overlooked in the past, said Alian Wang, research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences. Researchers are used to thinking inside the box based on terrestrial experience.

Wangs study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets focuses on amorphous sulfur and chlorine salts found by the Curiosity rover at Gale crater on Mars. The chemical signature of these materials could have been induced by electrochemical processes during Martian dust activities in a relatively short geologic time frame: years to hundreds of years.

Low-strength electrostatic discharge causes electrochemical reactions that transform materials on the Martian surface, Wang explained, causing loss of crystallinity, removal of structural water and oxidation of certain elements like sulfur, chlorine and iron.

The collective chemical effect of electrostatic discharge can be significant, Wang said. This is the core idea of our new study.

The findings could inform science priorities for the next phase of Mars exploration missions, including NASAs Perseverance rover, China National Space Administrations Tianwen-1 lander and rover, and the European Space Agencys ExoMars lander and rover.

Explore the subsurface is the suggestion that we would give to the next phase of Mars exploration missions, said Bradley Jolliff, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and a co-author on the paper.

These missions are all seeking evidence for geological and hydrological evolution at their selected landing sites, and they are especially looking for and hoping to collect samples that contain traces of past biological activity, Jolliff said. Exploring the subsurface would enable sampling of ancient materials some of which might still be safekeeping precious biomarkers.

Read more on the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences website.

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Powerful electrical events quickly alter surface chemistry on Mars and other planetary bodies - Newswise

CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS: You started the company in the back of your house, right, around 1970? How did that come about?

GEORGE HILL: Well, this is one of those believe-it-or-not kind of situations. I was working at Chrysler Corp. at the time. The director of government affairs ... got ill and he was supposed to be representing Chrysler at a (Small Business Administration) conference and ... he called me up and said, 'George, you've been around for a while ... I want you to stand in for me.' This is a true story. So, I went to the conference.

I wandered about and wandered into this one particular event and you had to sign in, not knowing that my signage was going to end up being a data point to the people who were in that group who were interested in contracts. A few weeks later I started getting these government bids in the mail. I went to this friend of mine who was kind of in that business, knew something about it. He said, 'Look, why don't we see if we can't make some money on the side.' We did it, and we got the bid. We got several more and he said, 'See how easy it is to make money in this chemical business?' That became kind of a side job ... and bingo. Here we are.

So in 1968 you were on a CBS affiliate in Detroit hosting the show "Job Opportunity Line," the first Black person on regularly scheduled TV in the area. Can you talk about how that came about?

Well, what happened is that after the ('67 uprising) of course there was a great deal of interest, as there is now, in what's going on in the Black community ... and everyone was trying to figure out what could be done to improve conditions in the community and to get a better peek into the world of African Americans. A friend of mine ... had been talking to CBS without my knowledge. He'd kind of thrown my hat into the ring. He called me and said, 'George, I've done this and I wonder if you'd take the time to talk to these folks.' So I went out and talked to them and much to my surprise, they wanted me to do it. I was the interviewer, we talked about jobs, education, things in the community. I was interviewing people who had companies, I was interviewing university professors about training ... It was really odd. It came out on Sunday mornings this is kind of funny. When I first started the business, you know, there was a period in which you're gearing up to do your manufacturing and on one point in time I would be in people's living rooms and bedrooms (doing interviews) and then on Monday I'd be out calling on small businesses and we'd be going in to (do cleaning work). They'd look at me and say, 'Didn't I see you on TV yesterday morning? ... Come on, come on to my office, we'll talk.' ... That might be the secret sauce to the beginnings of the company's small successes.

How did the company develop over time, then?

We started off doing simple things. (Chemicals to) clean the floor, clean the toilets, that kind of stuff. We had a small plant up on Woodrow Wilson. We were selling things primarily in gallons and drums, that kind of stuff. As we grew and had our own chemists, we recognized the formulations that were being used to clean X would be the same basic formulations to clean Y. Then, in the manufacturing plants, once a part is machined, it has to be cleaned before it can be welded or assembled or anything else, and they'd been cleaning all these things with ... very high caustic solutions and high heat, and the energy costs were just enormous. Well, as we got more chemists and had more sophistication ... we started innovating in terms of the things we could do in our plants and laboratories here that would mimic and replicate what was going on in our customers' plants. We developed a variety of very innovative products that really saved a lot of money and did a great deal of cleaning without the dangers of the caustic being heated up.

Can you give us an idea of the size of the company?

In terms of revenue we're in the $75 million-$100 million range. We will be in the neighborhood of $80 million probably in 2021. We have about 90 employees.

You guys put emphasis on hiring Detroit residents, right?

We always do. There was a lot more talent and confidence, particularly in the Black community, than people suspected. I mean this is an extraordinary city. We felt there was a lot here to tap into (as a Black middle class and education and homeownership grew with the automotive industry) ... so we really felt as though, given my personal philosophy that people really drive your success, people who are talented, committed, skilled, passionate ... so Detroit itself was just the perfect spot. We grew on a national basis and even built a plant in Germany and in South Korea at one time ... We've been a much bigger company, by the way, we've sold off divisions. In the downturn of the '80s we sold off a $25 million-$30 million division. But the basis for all that (expansion) was the people who were here and the educational base that was here and industries that were here.

Anything new going on?

We are licensed to manufacture, and the only licensee in the country, to manufacture a product called Envirocleanse, which is a water-based disinfectant that kills the virus that leads to COVID-19. (We got the license) within the last six-seven months.

Right now we're looking at this pandemic-induced downturn. What do you think needs to be done in Detroit to help the city and Detroiters during this time?

I've got a philosophy that the answer to the regeneration of urban areas and the regeneration of the economy would be a marriage between corporate America and small business, particularly small business that's diverse. Black, Hispanic, et cetera. As we look at the relationship we've got with some of our partners for instance, Henkel (Adhesive Technologies). Henkel is engaged with us on the community level ... Henkel has joined with us (on an educational and mentorship program called Math Corps) and (companies like Henkel) want to do something that makes a difference. So my answer to what has to be done is bringing resources ... into our community and that those resources make an investment in people, who are the businesses, in order to make sure we have a future that is always in jeopardy if we are not always developing the skills to make us first ... I'm going to sound very critical when I say this. Our level of science competency and engineering competency, we are no longer leaders of the world in those areas. We should be. We need to come together in a way that we start recognizing this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Hear the entire interview on crainsdetroit.com/theConversation

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Diversified Chemical's George Hill on finding the right chemistry - Crain's Detroit Business

Dec 12th 2020

SHERBURN IN ELMET

ANDREW CLARKE closely guards his recipe for yolk-coloured ink, known in the trade as a yellow 13. But the process is simple enough. Powdery pigment is mixed with solvent, varnish and thickener, many of the supplies imported from abroad, and then milled between steel rollers into a glossy syrup. His factory in Yorkshire specialises in bespoke orders for coatings used to make food cartons, magazines and circuit boards. His small laboratory is lined with pots of resins and wetting agents, and machines that measure the fineness and viscosity of his creations.

Brexit, which comes into full effect on January 1st, worries Mr Clarke. The European chemicals market is fragmenting. He fears the substances that give his coatings their distinctive qualities may slowly disappear from sale in Britain, leaving him reliant on inferior substitutes. If we are trying to sell to Europe, we might be offering our best stuff, but an EU competitor could come in using the state-of-the-art raw material, which in our customers eyes is significantly better, he says.

The future of the British chemicals industry is Brexit in microcosm. Boris Johnson wants a trade deal that eliminates all tariffs on goods, including chemicals. Yet even if he gets this, it will do little to soothe the headaches that arise from leaving the single market. A project that promised to throw off the EUs system of regulation will instead replicate it in miniature, creating a Brussels-on-Thames. Chemical firms, foreign airlines, lawyers and internet companiesall will face new burdens if they wish to keep doing business in Britain.

At root is a grand misunderstanding. Brexiteers often think of the EUs single market as a mere rule book. Thus, they suggest, Britain simply needs to copy those rules into domestic law, and then tweak them at leisure. But the single market is better thought of as an ecosystem: an elaborate regime of registration, surveillance and enforcement. Goods and services percolate freely across national borders because governments can rely on Brussels to keep watch for unwanted adulterations.

Reach, the bit of the single market governing chemicals, is especially strict. Firms selling into Europe must submit lengthy dossiers detailing how their products were made, and appoint an agent on European soil, who can be collared if things go wrong. The system is overseen by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, which has 600 staff and a budget of more than 100m ($120m). The enforcement is done by a network of national agencies, such as Britains Health and Safety Executive (HSE), based in Liverpool. The result is a free-flowing pool of 23,000 chemicals for Mr Clarke and his continental rivals to choose from, underpinned by a vast database of safety information which regulators can scour for risks.

Theresa May, Mr Johnsons predecessor, asked to stay in Reach, having been convinced there was little to gain from divergence. But this was rejected by the EU, who called it cherry-picking. So Britain will try to replicate the regime at home, under the title of UK Reach. The names of chemicals originally registered by British companies will be copied into domestic law. The HSE will take on the ECHAs job, funded by fees on users. European companies will need a legal footprint to trade in Britain, and British companies vice versa.

The most difficult task will be replicating the ECHAs database. Ministers at first insisted they could simply copy-and-paste it. They could not: it is stuffed with commercially-sensitive intellectual property, and there is little incentive to give a departing state a leg-up. The EU has so far rebuffed Britains request for a chemicals data-sharing clause in the trade deal.

Instead, the government will require Mr Clarkes suppliers to submit the data themselves. But many dossiers were produced by consortia of companies, and there is little reason for a French firm to bail out a British rival. BASF, a big German chemicals firm, reckons registering with UK Reach will cost them 70m ($90m). Small British distributors whose continental suppliers file paperwork under the EU system may find themselves designated importers. One boss calculates a bill of 1m in registration fees if he has to lodge all the substances he imports, on an annual turnover of 15m: Wed be bankrupt in a week.

George Eustice, the environment secretary, now admits some firms may find the task both expensive and time-consuming, and this summer delayed the timetable for lodging dossiers for some products from 2023 to 2027. But more time does not help much, says Peter Newport of the Chemicals Business Association. Its a change from a guillotined beheading to a death by a thousand cuts over a six-year timescale, he sighs.

There are two scenarios for how this will play out. One is that ministers push on with UK Reach, and substances are pulled from the British market as manufacturers conclude that registration costs make low-volume products unviable. The so-called salt-and-pepper additives used in tiny quantities in paints are particularly vulnerable. The flow going the other way is already shrinking. Only 70% of the British firms that registered chemicals with the ECHA before Brexit have started transferring their dossiers to new legal entities in Europe, the regulator notes. Well become very insular, and theyll become equally self-absorbed, says Mr Clarke. As a result, Britain would be a less attractive place to open an assembly line.

The second scenario is that UK Reach founders. The deadlines could be pushed back further, or the new rules left unenforced. With an empty database, says Michael Warhurst of CHEM Trust, an environmental charity, the regulator in Liverpool would be less able than the one in Helsinki to spot hazards, or to defend its decisions against deep-pocketed companies in court.

The promise of Brexit was that Britain would be the master of its own regulation, acting more nimbly or stringently than the EU if it wished. But the outcome Mr Warhurst fears would not be deregulation by design, but one forced upon ministers because their ambitions to match European standards have failed. A big market means Brussels can afford to be strict in its regulation. Britain will learn that it cannot.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Fade to grey"

The rest is here:
What a grand chemistry experiment reveals about Brexit - The Economist

WUWM's Emily Files visits the virtual classroom of a Milwaukee high school chemistry teacher.

Many schools in Milwaukee have spent the entire first half of the school year online, as a precaution against the coronavirus. WUWM has been visiting virtual classrooms to see how teachers are adapting.

McKenzie King, a chemistry teacher at Carmen Southeast High School in Milwaukee, says some learning experiences are impossible to recreate virtually. Right now, shes teaching her students about chemical compounds. Its usually one of her favorite units.

In the classroom, we just like throw out 16 various substances and kids are moving around the classroom and trying to test them and notice different patterns, King says. So theyll melt them and see what temperature it melts at, or dissolve them in water, conduct electricity.

Hands-on labs normally make up the bulk of Kings chemistry class. But she cant do that when students are learning from home.

The whole point of chemistry, and science in general, is applying it to the real world. But now were cut off from the real world, King says. Its just one of those things, at the end of day its not going to be as successful. Kids might not be able to answer Why? Why are we doing this? Because its not as impactful.

In one recent Zoom class with her sixth period tenth graders, King was teaching about the properties of sugar and salt.

Right now we just want to see can sugar, when its dissolved in water, conduct electricity? Can salt? And can water just do it by itself?" she asks.

Since they cant do in-person experiments, King uses a virtual simulation, where you can click a picture of sugar or salt, add to water, and see if it conducts electricity.

Alright so were putting the connectivity meter in ta da! The salt water does conduct electricity, lighting up a light bulb in the computer simulation.

Whoa! Is that light bulb on? Jennifer Bennett, a paraprofessional and Kings teaching partner, responds.

The students react too, but in the Zoom chat box. For most of the class, her students keep their microphones muted and cameras off. King says, it does feel demoralizing sometimes to look at all the black boxes.

We had more cameras at the beginning of school, King says. I think kids being kids, theyre testing out what theyre comfortable with. And if the majority of people have their cameras off, theyre not going to opt into doing that.

But, King says, you have to pick your battles. And she doesnt want to goad her students into keeping their cameras on when they are participating in other ways.

You have to frame, whats a realistic expectation or whats a win? King says. If 20 out of 23 students are responding in the chat frequently throughout the entire class, thats a win. Theyre there, theyre learning. Do I prefer to know what they look like? Absolutely.

You can tell that King and Bennett are building relationships with students despite the limitations of the chat box. During one class, King asks students silly questions while theyre waiting for others to finish their work.

If you saw Ms. Bennett in the grocery store, do you say hello or do you just dip? King asks. Some of the students jokingly respond that they would ignore Bennett if they saw her in public.

Im not really a science fan, but I can say that chemistry isnt bad, says Karla, a sophomore at Carmen and one of Kings students. Actually Ms. King and Ms. Bennett make it fun, thats why I like chemistry.

Karla says online learning is stressful sometimes because she has three younger siblings also in virtual school who she helps. Im kinda tired of being at home all day, doing nothing other than school, she says.

That feeling is shared by teachers.

The weight of virtual learning, I feel like, is a little more draining because the joys of in-person learning are not truly present, King says. You have to look for them and reframe them just like your teaching. So if I felt tired in-person, I definitely feel fatigued right now.

King says, she still likes her job but its because the fulfillment of working with students outweighs the many challenges of virtual teaching.

Have a question about education you'd like WUWM's Emily Files to dig into? Submit it below.

_

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Virtual Classroom Series: Teaching High School Chemistry Without Hands-On Experiments - WUWM

National Review

Hunter Biden reportedly pushed CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming to quickly wire $10 million to properly fund and operate a Biden joint venture with the Chinese energy company in 2017, and sent his best wishes from the entire Biden family to the chairman, according to a new report.In a June 18, 2017 email obtained by Fox News, Biden requested the transfer, which was never completed, and asked Zhao Runlong at CEFC to please "translate my letter to Chairman Ye, please extend my warmest best wishes and that I hope to see the Chairman soon.""I hope my letter finds you well. I regret missing you on your last visit to the United States," Hunter Biden wrote in the attached letter, dated June 17, 2017. "Please accept the best wishes from the entire Biden family as well as my partners.""We are all hoping to see you here again soon, or in Shanghai, he continued.Biden added that they had concluded the establishment of Sinohawk Holdings, the joint venture between the Bidens and CEFC, and that Tony Bobulinski, a very close friend of James Gilliar and the Biden family would act as the CEO."He has invested capital all over the world for some of the worlds wealthiest families, Biden wrote of Bobulinski.Biden wrote that Bobulinski had "sent a request to Dong Gongwen [Gongwen Dong] and Director Zang for the funding of the $10 MM USD wire.""I would appreciate if you will send that quickly so we can properly fund and operate Sinohawk," Biden wrote."I am sure you have been well briefed by our dear friend Director Zang on the political and economic connections we have established in countries where you are interested in expanding during the coming months and years," he said. "I look forward to our next meeting."Ye Jianming and Gongwen Dong were linked to the Chinese Communist government and the Peoples Liberation Army, according to a September report by the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Senate Finance Committee on its investigation into Hunter Bidens foreign business dealings."Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in questionable transactions/cash flow," the report stated.More than a dozen text messages between Bobulinski, Biden business associates, and Chinese representatives of CEFC from June 25, 2017 to mid-July 2017 show that the $10 million transfer was delayed for weeks, potentially due to visa issues."Just got off the phone with Zaho[sp], Still dealing with Visa issues, they still havent filled out proper paperwork submissions, re entry. Still want my personal advise," President-elect Joe Bidens brother Jim Biden reportedly wrote in an email to Bobulinski on July 10, 2017.A July 18, 2017 message shows Bobulinski asking Zhao whether the transfer would be "$10 MM or 2x $5MM," claiming they "asked that $10 MM be sent in 2 $5 MM tranches but @ the same time, $5 MM to savings and $5 MM to checking. That is what we prefer."The transfer was never completed, though the Senate report shows that the CEFC wired nearly $5 million to the bank account for Hudson West III, a firm that Hunter Biden opened with Chinese associates, less than one month later"These funds may have originated from a loan issued from the account of a company called Northern International Capital Holdings, a Hong Kong-based investment company identified at one time as a substantial shareholder in CEFC International Limited along with Ye," the report said. "It is unclear whether Hunter Biden was a half-owner of Hudson West III at the time."The report adds, "the same day the $5 million was received, and continuing through Sept. 25, 2018, Hudson West III sent request payments to Owasco, Hunter Bidens firm." The payments were described as consulting fees and reached "$4,790,375.25 in just over a year, according to the report.Another email to the general manager of the House of Sweden shows Hunter Biden asking for keys for his new "office mates," his father, Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Jim Biden at the Washington, D.C. building that houses multiple office suites and a number of embassies.Biden also requested keys for Gongwen Dong, whom he calls an "emissary" for Chairman Ye Jianming.He issued directions for the lease to remain under the name of his company, Rosemont Seneca, but for the office sign to say "The Biden Foundation" and "Hudson West (CEFC US)."A source told Fox News that the Biden Foundation used another office space at the time and there was no relation to the office space within the House of Sweden.The report comes after Biden last week confirmed he was under federal investigation for his tax affairs.Last week Hunter Biden said in a statement that he had learned for the first time that the U.S. Attorneys Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel of an investigation into his tax affairs.I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors, he said.President-elect Biden on Wednesday said he is confident Hunter Biden did nothing wrong when asked by Fox News Peter Doocy about the investigation.Joe Bidens tax documents and returns, which were previously released by his campaign, do not show any involvement with Chinese investments.

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High school student left in tears after chemistry final goes wrong: 'This panic is unlike any other' - Yahoo News

Steph Curry admitted that it will take time to find chemistry with his new Golden State Warriors teammates following their opening preseason game on Saturday night.

"Honestly, I don't know because I've had a solid, consistent core. I think from Monday to now we're starting to talk about some of the patterns and some of the things that I'm used to, especially if I give up the ball.

"And knowing where open spots on the floor are. It will come. I don't know what the specific answer to the question is, but it will come. ... It's just one of those things where you have to continue to communicate," said Curry.

Curry had 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field.

Steve Kerr added that the new Warriors will have to get used to Curry's unique style.

"I think with most players who come in, they're not used to the second half of the possession. They're sort of used to whatever the pattern is in the beginning. But as soon as maybe Steph gives up the ball, that's when the action really starts the way we play. And that's the tricky part for guys to figure out."

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Steph Curry On Finding Chemistry With New Teammates: 'It Will Come' - RealGM.com

The Philadelphia 76ers are a brand new team and they have to work through a lot of changes in a short amount of time before the 2020-21 season. They have a brand new supporting cast around their star duo and brand new coaching staff.

The team only has a few weeks to get everything sorted out before the season begins on Dec. 23 against the Washington Wizards. Considering the team had a normal offseason in 2019 after they made plenty of changes to the roster and they had chemistry issues, one could be concerned about this current group.

However, there does not appear to be those same issues as the team moves forward.

You got a good group of guys who like each other, said Seth Curry, one of those new additions. That goes a long way on the floor as far as enjoying being around each other in the gym. I think were appreciating a little bit more actually being in the gym after that long layoff earlier in the year. Obviously, with COVID and all that, guys arent taking practices for granted, I know Im not.

Coach Doc Rivers noticed a different spirit in the gym on Sunday as the team prepares to get preseason going on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics. That is a good thing to hear for a very talented team that only has so much time to figure it all out.

It was great practice, said Rivers. I thought maybe one of our better ones, great energy. Guys are starting to get it. Were a long way away from that. Both ends of the floor, just a lot of good energy.

Chemistry is such an underrated and important aspect for any basketball team. It is important that these guys come together and establish some type of connection as it will make things that much easier when it comes to playing on the floor.

Im enjoying coming in and being around the fellas and working on our games, Curry added. I think we also got a good group of vets here that are wishing the younger guys and playing their role so its an exciting time for all of us.

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Seth Curry already seeing Sixers' chemistry come together in practice - Sixers Wire

SOMERVILLE, Mass., Nov. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Greentown Labs, the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC), a global leader in chemicals and healthcare, are now accepting applications for the KAITEKI Challenge, the latest iteration of the Greentown Launch corporate partnership accelerator program. Greentown Labs and MCHC seek novel technologies in alternative proteins, waste plastics recycling, and the prevention of food loss and waste that will promote sustainable consumption in daily life. The KAITEKI Challenge will offer selected startups an opportunity to pursue paid proof of concept collaborations with MCHC and to explore long-term partnerships, licensing agreements, and investment from MCHC's corporate venture capital arm, Diamond Edge Ventures (DEV).

This corporate partnership accelerator program is rooted in MCHC's original management concept of "KAITEKI," which aims to achieve the sustainable well-being of people, society, and planet Earth. MCHC's businesses include bioplastics, plastic films and sheets, food ingredients, and healthcare, among many others. This challenge will prioritize innovations that enable circularity across proteins, plastics, and packaging value chains.

Benefits to startups selected for the KAITEKI Challenge include the following:

"The creation of a sustainable future is a core value of the MCHC Group and is embodied in our KAITEKI management philosophy. We believe that reimagining proteins, plastics, and packaging will move us toward a circular economy and a brighter future for our planet. And we know from experience the power of partnerships between innovative startups and the MCHC Group. We are excited to build on our collaboration with Greentown Labs and the global startup community through the KAITEKI Challenge," said Larry Meixner, Chief Innovation Officer and CTO of MCHC.

The KAITEKI Challenge is for startups in the alternative protein and waste recycling industries with solutions beyond proof of concept and a technology readiness level of three or above. For startups in the prevention of food loss and waste, the challenge is accepting applications for solutions with a technology readiness level of five or above and a product ready for sample testing.

"Research shows that building a more sustainable food system and creating more sustainable packaging are two areas that could have an enormous impact on our mission to address climate change, protect the environment, and provide equitable access to resources for all," said Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs. "The KAITEKI Challenge aims to support innovations that will not only tackle these problems and improve our daily lives, but also have applications on a global scale. We're proud to partner with MCHC on a challenge that's focused on these important industries and excited to support more climatetech startups!"

Applications for the KAITEKI Challenge are due by February 10, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Interested entrepreneurs can learn more about the call for applications by visiting the program website. Applicants may apply from anywhere in the world. Selected participants are expected to participate in all challenge events, either virtually or in-person at Greentown Labs' headquarters in Somerville, Mass., USA.

About Greentown Labs As the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, Greentown Labs brings together startups, corporates, investors, policymakers, and many others with a focus on scaling climate solutions. Driven by the mission of providing ground-breaking startups the resources, knowledge, connections, and equipment they need to thrive, Greentown Labs offers prototyping and wet lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, an electronics lab, software and business resources, a large network of corporate customers and investors, and more. Greentown Labs is home to more than 100 startups and has supported more than 300 startups since the incubator's founding in 2011. These startups have collectively created more than 6,500 direct jobs and have raised more than $1 billion in funding. Greentown's second-ever location will open in Houston, TX, in spring 2021. For more information, please visit http://www.greentownlabs.com or Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

About Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation conducts its corporate activities and businesses worldwide in the domains of Performance Products, Industrial Materials, and Health Care based on the core values of "Sustainability," "Health," and "Comfort." The company builds stakeholder value while contributing to the sustainable well-being of people, society and our planet Earth. For more information, visit https://www.mitsubishichem-hd.co.jp/english.

Greentown Labs Media Contact Julia Travaglini VP of Marketing + Communications[emailprotected]603-867-3657

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation Media Contact [emailprotected]

SOURCE Greentown Labs

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Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation and Greentown Labs Launch the KAITEKI Challenge, Reimagining Proteins, Plastics, and Packaging - PRNewswire

Even in small quantities, pharmaceutical impurities can influence the behaviour and efficacy of a drug, which directly or indirectly jeopardises the safety of patients. One research group found 71 out of 222 (32%) Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved novel therapeutics were impacted by safety concerns designatedpost market safety events between 2001 and 2010. There were three withdrawals, 61 boxed warnings and 59 safety communications, said the 2017 investigation.

Product recall due to the detection of impurities, or other safety reasons, can have major consequences for both consumers and pharmaceutical companies. Revenue losses and fines are a risk but the publics perception of the industry is also at stake. When the FDA reported that various angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) containing the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) valsartan were found to contain N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and N-nitrosodiethylamine(NDEA)impurities, the potential hazards became clear.

The formers carcinogenic properties were first reported in 1956, the latters in 1967. Like the wider nitrosamine family, they were classified probably human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Despite there being traces in small quantities in food, the presence of nitrosamines in ARBs (used to treat hypertension, heart failure and kidney disease) caused widespread alarm.

Product recalls can have major consequences for both consumers and pharmaceutical companies

Subsequent voluntary recalls affected multiple therapeutics including ARB batches containing valsartan, losartan and irbesartan and has impacted other drugs in the years since. In April 2020, the FDA called for immediate withdrawal of all ranitidine (Zantac) products from the market, and voluntary recalls of diabetes medication metformin are currently ongoing.

Legislative failure compounded pharmaceutical contamination by NDMA. Many of the therapeutics implicated were generic, as are 90% of medications prescribed in the US. A market flooded with products from multiple manufacturers becomes harder to monitor, especially when that market is globalised. According to the FDA, just 28% of API manufacturing facilities for all US-sold drugs were located in the USA in 2019. Nearly one fifth were in India and 13% in China double that of 2010.

2019 also marked a decline in the number of FDA inspections overseas with just 125 FDA inspections within China 11% less than 2018 and 24% less than 2017 a Bloomberg investigation showed. Since recalls impact products from large generic drug manufacturers globally, inspection regimes must be rigorous and ongoing testing by producers is crucial to protect consumers. Understanding how impurities form is vital to prevent them entering a final drug product. By accurately monitoring and preventing their formation, drugs with potentially harmful impurities will not reach the market. Impurities can arise at any stage of the drug formulation pipeline. Environmental factors like temperature or humidity can cause them as well as contamination from equipment, dosage form or drug degradation.

Organic impurities fall into a number of categories. They can be degradants of the drug API or starting materials, unintended by-products of the manufacturing process or untransformed production intermediates. An API failing to separate from other materials involved in its synthesis such as unreacted starting materials or intermediates is one such instance. Impurities also occur when the by-products formed during synthesis do not completely separate from the active compound.

Instability in pharmaceuticals can also cause organic impurities to develop through API degradation over time. The FDAs ranitidine recall for example, hinged on mounting evidence of a heat-unstable API.

Organic impurities are known to be harmful to human health, making strict limits on their presence in drug substances necessary

Many organic impurities, like nitrosamines, are known to be harmful to human health and regulatory bodies and government set strict limits on their presence in drug substances. If thresholds are exceeded, qualification of the impurities can be necessary, resulting in costly toxicity studies. Robust quality assurance is the best defence against contamination by organic impurities, with regular testing of multiple product batches. The use of reference standardsprovides further safeguard.

Inorganic impurities, like reagents, ligands, catalysts, inorganic salts and heavy metals used in vessels, filters and machinery, are easier to prevent and control. Using demineralised water and glass-lined vessels, and carefully monitoring each stage of the production process constitutes good practice.

Solvents used in the manufacture of a drug compound can be difficult to fully remove, meaning residues remain on the product. Solvents are therefore categorised according to their risk to human health, with strict limits set for safe daily exposure. Only the safest are approved for use in drug formulations and they require testing regimes to ensure continued consumer safety.

Depending on the complexity of the compounds and the purity requirements in question different combinations of techniques can be used

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection determines impurities for most pharmaceuticals. Quantitation can be performed versus an external standard of the impurity itself or by comparison to the response of the API. Depending on the complexity of the compounds and the purity requirements in question different combinations of techniques can be used.

Regardless of the pathway pursued, pure independently synthesised impurity samples help verify structure. Matching the spectral and chromatographic profile of a detected impurity with those of a pure known reference provides a necessary benchmark. And having a sufficient amount of an impurity allows it to be studied further, allowing full understanding of its toxicological effect and formation mechanism. It is these practices that underpin impurity threshold safety.

At LGC, our TRC portfolio of pharmaceutical impurity standards supports drug development, medical and biomedical research professionals in more than 140 countries.

Our team of over 250 highly skilled chemists specialises in designing optimal synthetic routes for both new and known compounds, from impurities to customised chemical compounds and rare organics.

The challenges surrounding pharmaceutical impurity analysis can be seen in the complex synthesis of theepoxy pyrrolooxazin tricylic (EPT) potassium salt impurityin atorvastatin.

This tricyclic impurity is a photodegradation product of atorvastatin a selective, competitive HMG-CoA reductase sold under the brand name Lipitor. It is the only drug in its class specifically indicated for lowering both elevated LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides in patients with hypercholesterolemia.

TheEPTsalt impurity (A791895) is a photodegradation production of atorvastatin that can cause adverse effects in users of the drug. As such, it is included in the mandatory list of impurities for which any drug manufacturer must test before they submit a new drug application.

Of all the impurities associated with the photodegradation of atorvastatin, EPT potassium salt is arguably one of the most difficult to prepare. To date, no synthesis has been reported in literature, making it difficult to obtain for use as a standard. We were contacted by a researcher who required EPT potassium salt, but was unable to find the molecule at a purity level appropriate for their analytical needs. We were tasked with developing a synthesis at the required purity which allowed isolation in quantity.

Despite its apparent complexity, the product was prepared in two steps from an advanced atorvastatin bicyclic impurity. However, the highly strained tricyclic molecule was susceptible to both heat and protic solvents (it
slowly degraded even at 0C),limiting our options both in terms of purification methods and reagents to effect the steps of the synthesis.

An alternate ether solution proved to be the optimal reagent to generate the desired K+ impurity from the methyl ester intermediate. Again, because of the limited stability of A791895 in a suitable solvent for NMR analysis, the structure of the impurity was verified indirectly via the ester precursor.

A 2D-NMR study provided the essential information, allowing research labs to gain access to a supply of the EPT potassium salt at the appropriate purity level.

TRC is proud to support this vital research and safeguard the quality of therapeutics and wellbeing of consumers worldwide.What our teams do facilitates science for a safer world.

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Pharmaceutical impurities: Combatting pharma's elusive threat | Sponsored - Chemistry World

Singapore-based scientists have discovered a way to rapidly form methane hydrates at atmospheric pressure and moderate temperature by combining the additive 1,3-dioxolane with an amino acid. This mixture is significantly less toxic than traditional additives and results in the fastest reaction time ever reported to produce hydrates for stable methane storage.

Current industrial methods for storing methane have their limitations. Liquefied natural gas requires extremely low temperatures (163C). Meanwhile compressed natural gas poses a safety risk and requires expensive storage tanks. However, solidified natural gas, such as gas hydrates, is a compact way for storing natural gas under moderate pressures and temperatures, and uses water as the main raw material (>94%).

Gas hydrates are crystalline inclusion compounds where gas molecules are trapped inside host cages made up of water molecules. Nature has been storing methane as gas hydrates for millions of years and these structures represent a significant source of the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. To the naked eye, methane hydrates present themselves simply as ice or snow, explains Praveen Linga from the National University of Singapore. Methane hydrate formation is a simple physical phase change process and gas hydrates melt the same way as ice, releasing the stored gas and water, earning it the name combustible ice.

Commercial applications of gas hydrates are limited by problems in forming the hydrates at a fast enough rate, and ensuring their prolonged storage stability. Now, Praveen and his co-workers have found that adding a small concentration of l-tryptophan, along with the thermodynamic and kinetic promoter 1,3-dioxolane, results in ultra-rapid hydrate formation.

l-tryptophan is a benign and hydrophobic amino acid, which functions here as a kinetic promoter. It increases the porosity and flexibility of the hydrate crystals and opens up pathways within the crystal microstructure. This facilitates greater methanewater contact and allows faster methane diffusion into the solid phase.

Adding l-tryptophan caused a 147% increase in the hydrate rate of formation compared to a water1,3-dioxolane system. The team also discovered that the hydrate pellet exhibited incredible stability when stored at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 5C. Moreover, their additive mixture is also less toxic than traditional additives such as tetrahydrofuran, which is both volatile and carcinogenic.

Carolyn Koh, director of the Center for Hydrate Research at the Colorado School of Mines, US, calls the research an impressive advance. The ability to rapidly form methane hydrates at lower pressure conditions and under mild refrigeration are necessary requirements, and when coupled with optimised and reduced promoter concentration, will be important for practical applications of gas hydrates.

Jeong-Hoon Sa, a gas hydrate researcher at Dong-a University in South Korea, says the practical use of hydrates has been hindered by their insufficient formation rate and long-term stability. It is remarkable that the produced hydrates can retain natural gas only at 268.15K under atmospheric pressure for eight days. The next pilot-scale testing will further advance industrial applicability of the solidified natural gas technology process.

We firmly believe that this is the first solidified natural gas technology process developed that can genuinely boast feasibility for commercial adoption, says Praveen. He says the team now plan to enhance the volumetric gas storage capacity of the combustible ice by tuning the additive concentrations and designing new reactors.

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Additive mixture speeds up process for making combustible ice - Chemistry World