ICIS Chemical Business | Endpoint

DayGlo is not just about those funky posters your older siblings used to hang up in their dorm rooms

"BEYOND FLUORESCENT," is how Stephen Jackson, president of US-based paint provider DayGlo, describes the company's new marketing direction. "We're proud of our history, but we wanted to show the fresh and exciting color effects made possible with DayGlo," Jackson said in a press release.

In late-June, with its newly redesigned website, the company launched a new messaging campaign: "Color. Only Better."

At the website, potential customers can utilize the site's interactive elements and the services of DayGlo's Brand Action Team to aid in the design and development a product.

"Computers are so prevalent in the design world" that the company adapted its site to be more interactive and provide better color resolution, said Kevin Sonby, vice president of marketing for DayGlo, in an interview with ICIS.

With "Color. Only Better," the company wants to communicate that it offers a variety of effects and enhancements for paints.

DayGlo paints are so bright because they reflect more light, including the ultraviolet wavelength - which is why the colors were perfect for the "blacklight" posters so popular in the 1970s.

Although DayGlo is transitioning from its glorious - and perhaps notorious - past as color provider for funky and trippy designs on posters, books and clothing, I am glad that Jackson acknowledges that past, even with a simple, yet somewhat exciting statement like "beyond fluorescent."

The company's quality may be its curse, though, if it ever wants to shed its psychedelic legacy: DayGlo is still the primary paint of choice when people make tie-dyed T-shirts.

SHUTTING DOWN
As ICIS Chemical Business transitions towards its new format, this column - like a redundant steam cracker - is being mothballed.

A big thanks to all the ICIS staff that over the years aided and abetted this column, and an extra-special thanks to all the chemical industry personnel who supported it before - by suggesting topics;
during - by being interviewed;
and after - by commenting on and sometimes even praising the results.
My gratitude.

While potential mineral wealth in Afghanistan piques the curiosity of many, bad clichés are revived

YOU JUST can't keep a good hackneyed metaphor down! One of the bees in my bonnet is the lazy overuse of the phrase "the Saudi Arabia of whatever" to indicate a location's untapped wealth or precious resources.

Those resources can be solar - in July 2008, US Senator Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada) called Nevada "the Saudi Arabia of solar energy;" or wind - before he soured on the topic, oil magnate T. Boone Pickens would say that "the US is the Saudi Arabia of wind power;" or lithium: Whenever the Bolivian government sponsors a press junket for journalists, a few hacks routinely come back and file stories using the phrase "Bolivia is the Saudi Arabia of lithium" - although that title rightfully belongs to Chile, if you want to split hairs about it.

Now the US Army has called Afghanistan "the Saudi Arabia of lithium."

Last week, the Pentagon officially announced that roughly $1 trillion (€810bn) of as-yet untapped mineral resources have been discovered in the war-torn nation. "There is stunning potential here," said General David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command, in a press conference.

According to The New York Times, the deposits include "huge veins" of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, lithium and others. All in a country that has the lowest cement production in the world.

"This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy," added Jamil Jumriamy, representative of the ministry of mines, at the conference.

While it will take time to see whether these resources cure or cause more problems, there is no reason for the US military to keep alive lame clichés.

The metaphor "the Saudi Arabia of fill-in-the-blank" needs to be retired, and in its place a more mythological locale needs to be used. Some might be tempted to use "Asgard," or "Atlantis," but I lean towards "El Dorado," South America's legendary lost city of gold - as in "Afghanistan is the El Dorado of lithium."

While El Dorado's connotations might not be the best - it was never found after all - it certainly has less active socio-political turmoil associated with it.

Nobody's calling them locusts, okay? They are just grasshoppers--hungry, hungry grasshoppers

The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a bulletin in early June warning the Mid- and Southwest States that large grasshopper outbreaks are expected this spring and summer.

"These estimates are based on the unusually high population of adult grasshoppers in these States at the end of the summer of 2009, indicating that a large number of eggs may have been laid," says APHIS in a release.

Since America's native locust, the Rocky Mountain locust, has long gone extinct, this cannot be properly called a locust infestation - thankfully avoiding the theological baggage an Old Testament-style "plague of locusts" brings with it - but the effects could be about the same:
Grasshopper eat about half their bodyweight per day, and if foliage is unavailable, the grasshoppers will eat wood and paint.

According to APHIS, grasshopper outbreaks can destroy 80% of the forage in areas as large as 2,000 square miles.

Last summer, The Wall Street Journal reports, one Wyoming rancher had everything on his 10,000 acres - including his wife's lilac bushes - devoured by a horde of the critters. Without grass, the rancher had to sell his cattle earlier and lighter, and the resulting total profit loss tallied about $30,000 (€25,182).

It is uncertain yet whether this pertains to the grasshoppers' swarming in America, but researchers at UK's University of Cambridge have discovered that when the desert locusts of Africa swarm, even though the bugs' bodies shrink somewhat, their brains grow by 30%, especially the areas for learning and information processing.

Cambridge's scientists say this happens to prevent cannibalism - their bigger brains enable the locusts to identify between friend and food during the high-density mayhem of the swarm - unlike, say, sharks during a feeding frenzy who become so crazed, they attack and eat each other.

Grasshopper swarms like the current one APHIS is warning about are cyclical, building to a peak, then quiet for two or three years after.

Perhaps some insect neurologist will be able to find a way to convince grasshoppers that they themselves are tasty and delicious next time they plan to take the plains.

A philosopher puts into words what the industry has known for a while, and maybe others will listen

NOT THAT BP's pathetic bumbling helps the situation any, but when the petrochemical industry refers to hard-line ecologists as ideologists - people who act as if their beliefs were an orthodox religion - the general public usually scoffs, preferring to believe that the protectors of nature would have nothing other than the noblest of intentions.

Recently, though, I discovered that leftist philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek has, in various forums, called ecology the "new opium for the masses." He says, "Ideology addresses real problems, but mystifies them."

At a lecture in Greece, Žižek noted, "The underlying message of this predominant ecological ideology is... any change can only be a change for the worse."

The philosopher argues against the notion that nature would be a perfect, healthy system if it were not for humans' disrupting influence.

This idea of nature as some pristine ideal will keep us from dealing with the problems at hand. "What is wrong I think is the... principal position... that there is something like 'nature,' which we humans... disturbed," he says.

At another point, Žižek expands on his themes: "While one cannot be sure what the ultimate result of humanity's interventions into the geo-sphere will be, one thing is sure: if humanity were to stop abruptly its immense industrial activity and let nature on Earth take its balanced course, the result would have been a total breakdown, an imaginable catastrophe."

He notes, " 'Nature' on Earth is already to such an extent 'adapted' to human interventions; the human 'pollutions' are already to such an extent included into the shaky and fragile balance of the 'natural' reproduction on Earth, that its cessation would cause a catastrophic imbalance."

Because he is a philosopher and not an engineer or technician, Žižek can only offer a philosophical answer: "Indeed, what we need is ecology without nature: the ultimate obstacle to protecting nature is the very notion of nature we rely on."
Žižek may not have an answer - but so far, neither does anyone else - but perhaps a new way of looking at things is a step in the right direction.

Or at least a fun way to pass the time.

BP's legacy will be a black ring around the Gulf of Mexico and a black eye for the petchem industry

RED ALERT! There is a new conspiracy theory on the whacko circuit: This one blames North Korea for the destruction at BP's Deepwater Horizon rig.

This theory claims that a North Korean freighter, en route to Venezuela from Havana, went about 130 miles off its official course into the Gulf of Mexico, where it launched a submarine commando squad whose mission, it seems was accomplished.

The theorists continue - and I will admit that they lose me here - that the North Koreans did this so President Obama has to use a tactical nuclear weapon to seal the leaking hole in the ocean.

After reading this absurdity, I asked myself, "Is BP paying somebody to plant this story?"

Because people hate BP now.
Really.
I mean they really, really, really hate them. At a dinner party this weekend, conversation was hijacked by the topic of the Gulf disaster, and the least incendiary comment was something to the effect that BP execs should be threatened with violence until they clean all the Gulf's beaches - with toothbrushes.

As of this writing, that monstrous busted well has been pumping out, depending on whom you're listening to, between 5,000-50,000 barrels/day of gnarly and awful hydrocarbonic material.

The New York Times writes, "On May 23, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said that 65 miles of his state's coastline had been 'oiled.' Local officials in Jefferson Parish reported that the slick was moving past the shore into environmentally sensitive wetlands."

At dinner, I was the only representative of the petrochemical industry and it was demanded of me to provide an answer.

BP might be able to control media access to the afflicted areas now, but anti-business news organizations are already noticing the oil company's heavy-handed tactics - like ordering deputies to deny access to certain areas - and with a disaster this big? Soon enough the nightmare stories will emerge, and then the entire petrochemical industry will be on the firing line.

Dozens of years of hard work and trust-building will be thrown out, and once again, in the public eye, the industry will be The Villain.

The industry ought to take BP out back and give it a good, biker gang-style stomping.

A recent trip to Eastman's new facility yielded insights beyond a new product release

USUALLY THE Law of Unintended Consequences is not our friend, and the best way to deal with it has been to shrug your shoulders and try and make lemonade from the lemons life has given you.

But what happens when life gives you lemonade? It is a situation Eastman Chemical seems to have found itself in.

On May 13, the company officially cut the ribbon on its new Tritan copolyester facility in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Originally developed in the late-1950s as a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber modifier, Tritan - unnamed at the time - was shelved until 2003, when Eastman chemists were looking for a resin that could withstand higher temperatures in both the manufacturing process and later as a finished molded product: "Polymers that can deal with boiling water," explained Mark Costa, Eastman's executive vice president of specialty plastics, at the opening of the new 60,000 tonnes/year facility.

Running 24-seven, the plant is currently utilizing more than half of its capacity, but the company expects it to be running at full capacity by 2011, with, if demand remains strong, more capacity coming on afterwards. Construction took place from December 2008 to August 2009, and production of Tritan started in December 2009.

THE PUBLIC SPEAKS
From 2003, when the original formula was dusted off, until its launch at the 2007 K-show, Tritan was considered a drop-in higher heat resistant replacement for most polycarbonate applications, especially for housewares and appliances.

But during that time, public sentiment against bisphenol-A (BPA) had grown very strong.

Here's where the Law of Unintended Consequences comes in: Tritan has always been free of BPA.

The company had not set out to make a BPA-free polymer, but it has one now, and consumers want it.

Whether warranted or not, the anti-BPA concerns have been a strong driver, Eastman executives concede.

"Any other polymer would take five to 10 years" to reach where Tritan has gotten "in the last two years," noted Costa. "Our Tritan business has quadrupled in the past 12 months."

Photos courtesy of Eastman Chemical

An old, out-of-print book could introduce chemistry to a new generation - and it is available online

HAVING TROUBLE getting your kids interested in science, specifically chemistry? Tell them it's bad for them, and the government has banned it!

Okay, The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments (GBCE), written by Robert Brent, with excellent illustrations by Harry Lazarus, is not really banned: Original published by Golden Press in 1960, the book's copyright was not renewed since its last printing in 1971 - the edition I used to own - and is now sadly out of print.

Not that any publisher would touch this book these days: With more than 200 experiments to choose from, the GBCE expects junior chemists to be able to work around flame, be capable enough to carefully break glass pipettes, and maybe even make their own hydrogen or chlorine gas.

Of course GBCE warns, "Be careful not to breathe fumes!"

Absolutely none of this would pass any of the super-sensitive child safety regulations on the books these days.

But you can still get a copy of this fabulous primer via the website About.com. The site's chemistry editor, Anne Marie Helmenstine, has provided a link to a free pdf of the GBCE.

"For the aspiring chemist who can adhere to the safety precautions, this remains one of the best do-it-yourself chemistry books around," she writes.

One commenter at About.com, Jerry Svoboda, writes, "I learned to think for myself, how to get things done."

Blogger Chris Brunner goes farther, noting, "This book is... the bible for any young chemist-in-training."

"Comparable chemistry books sold today are designed for parents as much as for kids, offering the wan pleasures of experiments that require no glass pieces and no open flames and use only environmentally safe materials," laments Ken Silverstein, author of the non-fiction book The Radioactive Boy Scout, about a boy inspired by the GBCE to build his own nuclear reactor.

"The Golden Book, by contrast, promised to open the doors to a brave new world. It was the era of JFK and the New Frontier, of satellite launches and the race to the moon. The sky truly was the limit," notes Silverstein.

"Chemistry is one of the most important of all sciences for human welfare," the GBCE emphasizes in its introduction. "Chemistry means the difference between poverty and starvation and the abundant life."

And gosh, who wants kids to know about that?

Earth Day just had its 40th birthday, and it's put on some weight - and picked up some baggage, too

THE REACTION was probably not what the organizers expected: A serious level of cynicism towards the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, especially with its multitude of corporate sponsors. The Washington Post said the event was suffering a "midlife crisis," and The New York Times accused high-end toy store FAO Schwarz of "taking advantage of Earth Day to showcase Peat the Penguin."

There was also a level of righteous indignation from some. In response to why she was not "celebrating" Earth Day, blogger Christie Ritz King wrote, "Why, because we are Earth conscious every day."

Green means money, that's for certain. So much so now that lawsuits are being filed against companies that have been charging top dollar for products that are "green" in name only.

But since the first Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970, much excellent work has been done to clean up - and keep clean - the environment.
Are people taking things for granted? Perhaps to a certain extent, but regulations - and even stronger nowadays, public shame - are certain to keep us all in line.

GODZILLA IS GREEN
The exploitation of public eco-consciousness has been always with us.
The best example of this, in my opinion, is the movie Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, where the mighty atomic lizard battles a living embodiment of pollution in an epic battle that could be best described as psychedelic.
The film's theme song, the bubblegum pop "Save the Earth," is impossible to get out of your head.

The movie, however, politely ignores the fact that the 200 tonnes Smog Monster, called Hedorah in Japan, is, by the end of the flick, now a dead 200 tonnes mountain of toxic sludge. So we got rid of one problem, but still have another.
Perhaps it's a metaphor...

Another fun fact that's sci-fi and Earth Day related: The original Earth Day flag, that mutated US flag with a yellow Theta on a field of green (see above), with green and white stripes, was designed by Ron Cobb, who went on to design sets and props for the genre films Alien, Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian and others.

NATURAL & DELICIOUS
If Earth Day is about using our planet's resources responsibly, here's a memory that fits: It was either August 1972 or 1973, and we'd been visiting some of my parents' friends who lived on a farm in Upstate New York.

A mutual friend had struck a deer on his way up to the farm, and had called the police. When the friend asked what would happen to the deer carcass, the cop replied, "Do you know anyone who can dress a deer?"

And that's how I tasted venison as a child!

Get with the program, gramps, the Moon is yesterday's news, Mars is where it's at now!

NEXT STOP, MARS - that was the message President Obama gave during his April 15 speech at the Kennedy Space Center, in Titusville, Florida. The President also called for private enterprise to step up to the plate, saying, "We've got to do it in a smart way, and we can't just keep on doing the same old things that we've been doing and thinking that somehow is going to get us to where we want to go."

The President's Mars plan has its detractors, but it can be hard to tell whether the objections are due to genuine concerns over untested technologies, or are politically motivated.

"The President's new plan... [pins] our hopes for success on unproven, commercial companies," said one Senator after Obama's speech.

Mars Needs Americans!
Early in the film Fight Club, the narrator, in a combination of cynicism and prescience, says,
"When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks."

And why not? If there are no rules keeping corporate entities from naming the baseball stadiums they buy or build, why can't they name the spoils of their intergalactic efforts?

The privatization of space travel is something that should have started ages ago.

One of my childhood heroes, the second man on the moon, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, backs the President's plans, and wrote in USA Today, "It is important that the system we develop is capable of enabling broader commercial markets. To do this, the future plan should include the development of a reusable, space plane-like runway lander as the next generation of crew carrying space transport."

Which is great - especially if you are familiar with Tom Wolfe's excellent history of the early days of the "space race," The Right Stuff.

Wolfe wrote that what the US Air Force was working on at the time of Sputnik was exactly that: a series of super-high altitude rocket jets leading up to one that could enter the vacuum of space and glide to a return.

That program was sidetracked and eternally paused, as the US chased the brute force tactics of big rockets to get a man on the moon first.

Photos: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Paramount Pictures

By Anna Jagger

With fierce competition between tea brands, tea bag design has become more innovative. In a drive to improve sustainability, the latest bags are made from the bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA).

The advantages of the new bags are that they are made from a renewable material and are compostable, says Eamonn Tighe, business development manager at US-based bioplastics producer NatureWorks.

Developed by Helsinki-headquartered nonwoven materials specialist Ahlstrom, the bags are made from a lightweight nonwoven filament web based on NatureWorks' Ingeo PLA.
A group of committed tea drinkers at ICIS took a close look at some pyramid-shaped tea bag samples.

We agreed that the material was more transparent. "When you put them in the water, the bag becomes almost invisible, so you can see the tea better," remarked one colleague.

Another observed that, while the tea bags were relatively thin, they did not tear. But she did question whether the material was as porous as other bags, and whether that could have a detrimental effect on the infusion.

The idea is that the new bags, as well as being more sustainable, will increase consumer awareness about high-quality tea, says Marco Martinez, Ahlstrom's global communications manager. The brand will be launched this year, targeting the premium tea market.

Because the material can be sealed using the latest ultrasonic bonding technology, it is suitable for pyramid-shaped bags, which are becoming increasingly popular at the high end of the market, explains Martinez.

Until now, ultrasonic sealing has only been suitable for bags made from a woven nylon net.
"The new material is the first available alternative to the nylon woven materials," says Martinez. "Compared with nylon, there are some clear advantages in terms of sustainability."
Most tea bags are made of a mix of natural and synthetic fibers, usually polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), and sealed with heat or by crimping.

Ultrasonic bonding generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional materials, adds Martinez. And, most importantly, the material has no odor or taste.

And how did the tea taste? Pretty good. Now, where are the biscuits...?