Limitless opportunities exist today for business, government, and academia to work together in tackling environmental and technological issues. These oportunities take the form of a variety of collaborative organizations. Historically, government and industry---and, to a lesser extent, academia---were adversaries focusing on remediating past events. Their mistrust resulted in a whole spectrum of command-and-control legislation. The environment and environmental issues were treated as one element of competition by businesses in the marketplace. For example, two firms with nearly identical spills or emissions sought advantage over one another and used intellectual property protection or business secrecy as reason to deny even the existence of many emissions. Pollution prevention was anathema; it was viewed as acknowledging past sins. As time passed, treating ongoing emissions gained more attention and so did destroy-and-treat processes.
Relationships between government and industry evolved as well. Technology programs that supported research and encouraged dissemination and application of usable technologies appeared. Then, changing laws required disclosure of industrial practices and emissions. Knowing how big the problem really was changed the very nature of conversations about the environment. Business, realizing the large potential costs of eliminating emissions, reluctantly began to cooperate on a limited basis and developed means to share limited process-and-stream information with universities.
Recovery and recycle of useful materials, conversion of "waste" to useful coproducts, and reduction of energy use showed enough short-term return that their popularity soared. During the 1980s, simply treating a waste stream was viewed as a financially inappropriate practice. Companies shared experiences and practices---at least in terms of the results---and pollution prevention referred to a whole range of options with the goal of reducing overall emissions or wastes. Cooperation and collaboration emerged as themes for relationships among companies and in interactions between government and industry and between industry and academia. Organizations emerged to facilitate these relationships. Carefully structured agreements and practices as well as changes in U.S. law that allowed consortia for precompetitive research protected against antitrust allegations.
The new era
A new era is evolving in which any thought of environmental improvement being
an adversarial process has been eliminated. Collaborations and cooperation
are giving way to synergy, a new phenomenon. The new focus is
sustainability: What is the net global impact of minor activities, including
industry? What resources are conserved? Can the environment assimilate the
impacts of our products and services? Emerging organizations provide a forum
for the needed synergy to develop solutions to a variety of problems, rather
than jointly developing a common solution that does not largely match any one
problem. In this way, the unmet needs can be identified, discussed,
analyzed, restated, and prioritized. Common needs form the basis of the
precompetitive research that will benefit many.
As many as 150 separate organizations have been formed to share existing information and to sponsor new research. They have diverse characteristics and abilities to meet today's emerging needs. The six organizations described here were part of a poster session on new paradigms that took place during the September 1995 symposium entitled "Emerging Technologies in Hazardous Waste Management VII." Many of these organizations work together, pooling resources and ideas and preventing overlap of efforts.
These organizations are similar in their dedication to reducing the impact of industry's operations on the environment. However, they differ in how the issue is approached and by whom. Some organizations are led by industrial sponsors, such as the Center for Waste Reduction Technologies (CWRT). Others are led by educational institutions, such as the Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) at University of Missouri--Rolla or the Environmental Solutions Program (ESP) at the University of Texas, although each has an industrial advisory board. Still others are housed in a government agency, such as the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT). Some organizations conduct research themselves (CEST, ESP, or Washington University's Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratory [CREL]); others largely or totally fund research (CWRT, OIT). Some organizations emphasize generation of new technology (CEST, CREL, ESP), whereas others identify existing technology and attempt to match it with specific or general needs.
Identifying existing technology and matching it to a need is, of course, technology transfer. This is practiced by the National Center for Clean Industrial and Treatment Technologies (CenCITT) and by CWRT, although technology does not constitute the entire program of either organization. Many organizations strive to move away from remediation technology and away from end-of-pipe treatment. CWRT, CenCITT, CEST, and CREL, among others, have significant programs to reduce waste at its source-through new reactor design development, improved in-process separation technologies, or fundamental process design improvements.
All of these organizations provide a vital service to the chemical industry by facilitating cooperation among competitors, government, and academia.
The Chemical Reaction Engineering Laboratory (CREL) is an industrially supported academic organization at the Chemical Engineering Department at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. CREL's main focus is reaction engineering, a multifaceted discipline that quantifies the interaction of transport phenomena and kinetics in relating reactor performance to operating and design parameters. In the process of accomplishing this task, reaction engineering addresses the molecular events as well as transport-kinetic interactions on particle and reactor scales. These are essential in selecting reactor types and operating conditions that minimize the formation of undesirable products and protect the environment.
CREL was founded in 1969, and since 1974 it has been guided by Prof. M. R. Dudukovic, assisted by full-time faculty members M. H. Al-Dahhan, B. Joseph, P. A. Ranachandran, and J. Turner. Many distinguished adjunct faculty from industry are also associated with CREL. Support for the laboratory has grown from the original three companies to more than a dozen, which include Air Products, Amoco, Chevron, DuPont, Eastman, Elf Atochem, Exxon, Institut Français du Petrol, Lummus, Mobil, Monsanto, Statoil, Union Carbide, and UOP.
As an industrially supported consortium, CREL offers unique and attractive opportunities for leveraging of company resources by pooling industrial resources and governmental funding. Moreover, in the era of diminishing resources and shrinking engineering staff, CREL also provides invaluable opportunities for continued research and contract work. The laboratory
The research
The theme of our research is to improve the understanding and quantification
of transport-kinetic interactions in reaction systems using modeling and
experimentation. We are convinced that this knowledge will lead to safer,
faster, and more economical reactor selection, scale-up, and design as well
as improved reactor control. CREL is equipped with unique experimental
analytical and computational facilities. The broad spectrum of CREL activity
is shown in Figure 1.
Numerous research results from CREL activities have been implemented in industry, but some cannot yet be revealed because of proprietary constraints. A small sampling of CREL industrial applications follows; many other examples exist in control, expert systems, and reactor trouble-shooting.
Tickle-bed reactor scale-up. Our correlation for contacting efficiency and methodology for transfer of data from small- to large-scale reactors is being used.
Bubble-column reactors. The information generated by the Computer Automated Radioactive Particle Tracking/Computer Tomography (CARPT/CT), the only facility in the world that combines CARPT and CT, is changing the framework for modeling bubble columns, slurry reactors, and ebulated beds.
Silicon manufacture. CREL work contributed to the fluidized-bed reactor for silane pyrolysis (the only of its kind in the world), improved Czochralski crystal growth of silicon, and better acid etcher design.
Composites manufacture. Models developed by CREL and Materials Research Laboratory for the autoclave composite process are used in industrial practice.
CREL contributions have gained recognition in the United States and worldwide. We regard the presentation of the 1994 R. H. Wilhelm Award in Reaction Engineering to Prof. Dudukovic, CREL director (AIChE Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 1994), as national recognition of CREL's efforts to advance reaction engineering theory and practice. In 1995 he became the first chemical engineer to receive the ACS St. Louis section Man of the Year Award. This award recognizes the success that CREL has had in combining the disciplines of engineering and chemistry.
The Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) is located at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). According to Prof. William James, director, CEST was created in 1991 to bring together the extensive engineering and scientific capabilities of UMR to address environmental problems and to broaden the education of its students. The center's mission is to
CEST is making this mission a reality through research and educational programs (which stimulate interdisciplinary environmental research and teaching) and outreach to governmental, industrial, and academic institutions.
CEST serves as an internal catalyst at UMR for environmental research and teaching. The center has brought together more than 25 faculty under a common umbrella as senior investigators and research associates. These people represent more than a dozen engineering, physical science, mining, life science, and metallurgical disciplines. CEST has developed an association of a wide array of extraordinary laboratories and institutes at UMR and at other organizations. These laboratories and institutes-with their faculty and staffs-have an extensive and sometimes unique array of capabilities. Their expertise includes cloud and aerosol sciences, materials research and recycling, environmental trace analysis, materials characterization, toxicology, coatings technology, environmental monitoring, and more.
Companies ranging from large global firms, with tens of thousands of employees and sales in the $10 billion range, to small businesses, with only a few employees and a few million in sales, form CEST's core sponsor base. Three forms of membership, sponsorship, and cooperations have been developed to fit the needs of the member companies and CEST's faculty and research associates. In all cases, projects generally represent joint technical design, the use of membership fees for support, and the recommendations of a Technical Advisory Board that reviews proposed projects. Members of the Industrial Consortium have the opportunity for research and commercial use of all technologies originating under CEST's consortium program.
Full and basic memberships in CEST provide a framework for private, proprietary research sponsorship with joint technical design and patent rights, joint projects using funds from member firms, and cost-shared research. An innovative program of affiliate memberships that can be customized to a company's needs and resources can cost as little as $1500 a year. In these cases, CEST works with the company on specific projects to create a consulting and research relationship with specific faculty and staff. This relationship enables resolution of company problems and development of opportunities that are immediate and critical to the company. The faculty or staff receives support from CEST for their research for the services rendered to the company. With this program the company, the faculty, the university, and CEST benefit.
A special focus of CEST is to provide technology and science that address environmental concerns by preventing waste formation, understanding the impact of emissions, and converting potential wastes into useful materials. Coupled with the industrial linkages and sponsorship, more than 20 significant research projects have been created. These projects extend beyond UMR to governmental, industrial, and other university laboratories. Some examples of these projects follow.
Development of phytotoxicity tests for wetland species. The goal of this government-, industry-, and academia-based study is to explore the sensitivity of several major groups of indigenous wetland organisms to chemical contaminants in order to protect wetlands and wetland species.
Production of energy and natural carbons from agricultural materials. This research has led to processes for producing thermal energy from rice hulls and useful char for adsorbing organic chemicals from production and waste streams.
Ultralow volatile organic carbon and nonchromated anticorrosion coatings. This project is aimed at developing environmentally friendly primers that do not produce organic emissions and that are resistant to corrosion without the use of hazardous metals.
Transport of organic compounds on carbonaceous aerosols. The project studies the adsorption/desorption kinetics and photochemical transformation of toxic organics on submicrometer aerosols generated during incineration in order to determine the potential impact of condensed phase transport of toxic organics.
Recovery and removal of wastes by cloud-point extraction. Research is focused on and has demonstrated a cloud-point extraction technology applicable to low-levels of organic waste materials in aqueous streams. The process is highly efficient and inexpensive to operate, and it recovers useful materials.
In less than five years CEST has been recognized nationally for its environmental technology programs and its research and educational efforts to address technology with a strong focus on environmentally benign technologies. CEST invites inquiries for additional information on its programs and opportunities for membership.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT)
works with industry to reduce industrial energy use through the adoption of
advanced energy-efficient, renewable-energy, and waste reduction technologies
Advantages to companies using energy-
In 1995 OIT initiated the Industries of the Future strategy to streamline its research and development (R&D) activities to support seven U.S. industries deemed both energy intensive and waste generating. These industries included chemicals, forest products, glass, steel, metalcasting, aluminum, and petroleum refining. Each industry is represented by an OIT team that works closely with the industry to identify its future technology needs. OIT is committed to aligning its R&D funding according to the technological priorities of its industry partners.
For the chemicals industry, the vast majority of technologies currently in progress or recently commercialized focus on cost-effective pollution prevention or waste reduction. The current portfolio of technology R&D of relevance to the chemicals industry totals more than $60 million. Chemical companies directly cost share about dollar for dollar.
One example of a recently commercialized technology is ultrasonic tank cleaning, which was developed through a cost-sharing agreement among the Department of Energy, the State of New Jersey, and DuPont--Merck. The technology uses a tubular resonator instead of a solvent and allows homogenous radial, omnidirectional sound distribution, minimizing dead spots. This technology is projected to reduce toxic waste by 8 tons annually and reduce energy by 112 x 106 Btu/unit by 2010.
Another recently initiated project is the SRI Reactor process. SRI International developed a design for innovative chemical reactors that provides for highly uniform temperatures and concentrations throughout the reactor. As a result, yields are improved and waste generation via side reactions is minimized. Although all developments to date are based on detailed computer modeling, the objective of this effort is to experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of the technology. Other collaborators with SRI and OIT include the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' Center for Waste Reduction Technologies, Air Products & Chemicals, Eastman Chemical, Monsanto Co., Rhône-Poulenc, and Olin Corp.
Other advanced technologies currently in progress to help reduce waste in the chemicals industry are included in "Department of Energy Industrial Waste Program 1994 Annual Report" (DOE/EE-0053) and "Federal Agencies Active in Chemical Industry-Related Research and Development" (DOE-EE-0077). Both publications can be ordered through the National Technical Information Service at 800-553-6840. (See also the article by Denise Swink in the March 1996 issue of CHEMTECH, p. 10, for more about the work at OIT.)
The National Center for Clean Industrial and Treatment Technologies (CenCITT) advances the science, engineering, and implementation of pollution prevention. It was established in 1992 through a base grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Michigan Technological University (MTU), the University of Wisconsin--Madison, and the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities were founding members; MTU was the administrative lead. Today, CenCITT enjoys participation and collaboration well beyond these founding members. The numbers tell the story: Since its establishment, CenCITT has initiated 57 projects involving 51 principal investigators, 57 companies, 33 governmental and other organizations, and more than 100 students.
In addition to its highly valued relationships with individual companies and governmental entities, CenCITT has strategic alliances with the Center for Waste Reduction Technologies (CWRT) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS). These alliances speed development and industry implementation of innovative waste reduction technologies, educational programs, information systems, and processes. Relationships also exist with state and national pollution prevention technical assistance organizations, national laboratories, and other universities.
CenCITT's mission is to assist industry in pollution prevention by devising clean technologies and process design tools, and by pursuing promising leads in treatment, beneficiation, and reuse when prevention is not feasible. This mission is addressed on three fronts: clean design information; new, clean technologies; and research agenda alignment.
Clean design information
The goal is to help process and product designers create, simulate, and
compare innovative design options. Considerations in these comparisons
include cost, safety, health, environmental risk, emissions, use of recycled
feed stocks, disassembly potential, constructability, and lifetime waste
generation for process equipment, technologies, and products. The Clean
Process Advisory System (CPAS) is the mainstay of this effort. CPAS is being
codeveloped with CWRT, NCMS, and other participants. It typically involves
projects that produce engineering information resources and computer-based
design tools. Tool projects led by CenCITT include the Design Options
Ranking Tool; the Environmental Fate and Risk Assessment Tool; the
Environmentally Conscious Constructability Tool (with the M. W. Kellogg
Co.); the Chemical Industry Planning System; the Process Safety and Risk
Evaluation Tool; the Reactive Chemistry Screening Tool; the Physical Property
Management System; and numerical simulators for adsorption, adsorptive
distillation, aeration systems, and ion exchange. Additional projects focus
on tool integration, process simulation, optimization, and control-and with
CWRT and EPA, design option information resources, design heuristics, and
pollution assessment. The first CPAS tools went into beta test in March
1996. Individuals and organizations owning, developing, or planning software
tools that could contribute to answering design questions for environmental
benefit are invited to participate in this fast-growing program.
New clean technologies
Development and demonstration of fundamental clean technologies can lead to
step reductions in pollution generation. Key areas include catalysis,
separation technologies, separative reactors, renewable feed stocks,
efficient materials utilization, green synthesis pathways, making plastics
from lignin, casting waste minimization, fine-particle beneficiation and
reuse, volatile solvent replacement, and materials recovery from waste
streams. Several of CenCITT's research results to date include
Participating researchers have patented clean technologies and new materials in dehydrogenation and photolytic catalysis, no-VOC coatings and adhesives chemistry, and a microbial synthesis route for production of 1,3-propanediol. Most of CenCITT's clean technology projects include industry participation, and many involve multidisciplinary teams, ensuring rapid industry implementation of the technology under development.
Research agenda alignment
CenCITT encourages coordination through communication and joint projects by
research providers and users in industry, universities, and government
entities. In this manner, concept papers outlining research and development
needs as well as technological barriers toward implementation of specific
clean technologies are generated. Our conference series entitled "National
Working Meetings on Coordinating Clean Technology Research Programs" provides
a forum to discuss ongoing research programs and to coordinate and leverage
programs toward pollution prevention goals that are beyond the reach of any
single organization. The 1996 meeting, which is being planned for the
summer, will focus on clean process technologies involving catalysis,
adsorption, separative reactors, and CPAS.
To date, CenCITT's researchers have conducted projects targeting chemical processing, metals, manufacturing, energy, forest products, and other industries. Participating disciplines have included environmental, chemical, civil, mechanical, metallurgical, and geological engineering as well as chemistry, biology, social science, business, and forestry. CenCITT's overall program undergoes regular external peer review by its Scientific Advisory Committee, which is composed of nationally recognized pollution prevention and industrial process experts from industry, government, and universities.
CenCITT's goal is to ensure the chain of industry need, solution discovery, testing, and implementation remains unbroken. Its approach is founded in a belief that limited research funding is a long-term reality, stewardship of the environment can't wait, and that these factors should compel researchers worldwide to communicate and coordinate their efforts to achieve sustainable economic development.
The Center for Waste Reduction Technologies (CWRT) is an industry-driven, not-for-profit organization affiliated with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). CWRT develops and transfers new and innovative, environmentally beneficial technologies to industry. These technologies are defined as waste minimization, source reduction, pollution prevention, sustainability, energy and resource conservation, in-process recycle, responsible waste treatment, and innovative remediation of soils and groundwater.
CWRT sponsors research and development of clean, cost-effective technologies and transfers this information to the user community. CWRT now has more than 25 sponsoring members including major petroleum, chemical, and pharmaceutical companies as well as other manufacturers and users of chemicals, engineering contractors, environmental consultants, and government agencies.
During the past year nine new sponsors have joined CWRT: Air Products and Chemicals, Argonne National Laboratory, Eastman Chemicals, General Electric, ICI Americas, Merck, Rohm and Haas, SRI International, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). With the National Risk Management Research Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this brings the total membership to 28.
The activities of the center fall into three areas, fundamental environmental research, applied collaborative research, and technology transfer.
Fundamental environmental research
This broad research is of common interest to all sponsoring members and
includes a variety of waste-reduction technologies, including topics such as
total reuse of industrial water, reduction of volatile organic compound
emissions, integrated energy recovery and waste reduction, and integration of
separations technologies with chemical reaction technology.
An innovative project has been initiated to advance the concept of separative reactors. In these operating units, a chemical reaction and mass transfer occur simultaneously (e.g., reactive distillation, membrane reactors, and PSA reactors). A workshop is planned involving eight or more experts in 1996, and a monograph will be published after the workshop.
Applied collaborative research
This focused research is sponsored by a smaller group of sponsoring members as
well as nonmembers and other supporting institutions. Research topics target
areas of particular practical interest to the collaborating parties. Rapid
implementation to solve industrial problems of real significance to the
collaborators is emphasized.
CWRT launched the first collaborative research project on an experimental confirmation of a novel design for a chemical reactor proposed by SRI International. Six companies and DOE are joining forces to fund this nine-month project at a cost of more than $300,000. The six companies will pay one-half of the costs, and DOE will fund the remainder. The collaborating organizations will retain special rights to the technology after it is demonstrated. Up to 10 additional collaborative research projects are under consideration, each of which has a task force of interested sponsors actively seeking consensus on project goals and funding.
As part of another collaborative project, CWRT is preparing a home page for the World Wide Web. A wide range of information will be available at the site: meeting schedules, links to sponsor home pages, and information of environmental interest.
Technology transfer
Publications, seminars, and workshops--as well as the development of a broad
family of integrated databases and analytical software for identifying and
implementing source and waste-reduction technologies---are included in this
area. CWRT is funding four projects within the Clean Process Advisory System
(CPAS), a family of databases for use in designing clean manufacturing
processes. One of the four CPAS projects dealing with industrial water reuse
will result in a 150-page monograph; this will be CWRT's fifth publication.
A monograph on separative reactors is scheduled to be published by CWRT
later in 1996.
The Environmental Solutions Program (ESP) was established in 1990 to facilitate interaction between industry and the university so that research results and the knowledge of successful University of Texas (UT) researchers could more quickly solve environmental problems. A research program of the Center for Energy Studies and the Center for Research in Water Resources within UT--Austin's College of Engineering, ESP is headed by Dr. Raymond C. Loehr, professor of civil engineering and a leading expert in industrial and hazardous waste treatment. Twenty-four faculty principal investigators direct research projects conducted by staff and graduate students. These faculty represent the chemical, civil, mechanical, and petroleum, and geosystems engineering departments.
ESP focuses on eight environmental research areas in which faculty, staff, and graduate students have developed expertise: waste minimization, sludge treatment, air pollution control, treatment of water and wastewater, site remediation, waste containment and isolation, environmental assessment, and energy-environment interactions. Funding for the program is obtained through sponsor membership fees. ESP faculty also receive funding from a wide variety of other sources including UT, the State of Texas, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. As of August 1995 ESP faculty had more than $10.5 million of non-ESP-funded environmental research.
The program's 16 sponsors collaborate with UT personnel on research projects and form the Sponsor's Advisory Council, which functions as a sounding board for research planning. Sponsor representatives are encouraged to interact directly with faculty on projects of interest to their companies. Benefits of sponsor membership in ESP include the following.
These examples of projects recently funded by ESP provide a look at the range of problems that are addressed by the researchers.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from industrial sewers: An improved emissions estimation methodology. With the use of a unique experimental system, this research will determine air exchange rates for a wide range of environmental and system operating conditions (e.g., water flow rates and wind speeds above manhole covers and process vents), integrate this model with previous research into VOC emissions, and apply the model to develop sewer networks to ESP sponsors' specific needs.
Reactive wall constructed with biopolymer trenching for in situ treatment of contaminated groundwater. Using a new groundwater treatment that incorporates biopolymer trenching technology, this feasibility study will identify candidate materials for reactive walls and will perform laboratory experiments that combine the reactive material with biopolymer slurry. Testing will identify problems that may exist with a prototype wall, and the results will determine which steps will be necessary to take this project into the field.
Biofiltration technology development: Pilot-scale studies. With the recent acquisition of a pilot-scale biofilter unit, research into VOC removal was enhanced to improve understanding of key biofilter design concepts, increase knowledge of important biofilter operational factors, and increase opportunities for industry treatability studies and evaluation of this technology. This project will make the pilot-scale biofilter fully operational and will result in carefully planned experiments to provide additional design and operational data.
Recovery of VOCs from industrial gas streams by microwave regeneration of adsorbents. Aiding in the development of process design models for VOC recovery, this project will provide additional funding to complete studies on the design and testing of a microwave applicator for implementation in a fluidized bed pilot test unit being supplied by an ESP sponsor.
Risk-based analysis of site remediation using in situ containment. The objective of this project was to evaluate and improve the ability to implement risk--cost--benefit analysis in site remediation. Using several case history sites, this project developed some general conclusions about uncertainties in decision criteria and design alternatives to limit the impact that uncertainties have on design.
Examples of innovative technologies also being developed by ESP faculty include supercritical water oxidation systems, hollow fiber membrane bioreactors, radio frequency heating to enhance soil vapor extraction, flue gas desulfurization processes, and photooxidatively self-cleaning coatings.
One of the important functions that ESP performs is to network the critical players working on solutions to environmental problems. Based on input from sponsor representatives, ESP brings together regulatory, academic, and industrial researchers to share information and discuss the issues in science, technology, and policy that affect the results and implementation of ESP research. Through these interactions, the program increases the opportunities for beneficial collaboration, the probability of success in solving complex problems, and the leveraging of sponsors' research investments.
In its 1993 Strategic Plan, the College of Engineering designated environmental engineering as a thrust area for the college. This designation means that major resources should be provided in a quantity and mix to bring the area up to a level and quality second to none. This commitment by the college assures ESP sponsors that the infrastructure to conduct first-quality advanced research will be enhanced and that it will continue for the foreseeable future.
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