Recently in Award Category

It's always nice to hear our tax money going to something (hopefully) useful.

This one is a $24m grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) being given to companies that are develop technologies to produce biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products using biomass as feedstock.

The awardees must contribute a minimum of 20% of matching funds for R&D projects and 50% of matching funds for demonstration projects. For biobased products and biofuels development, companies selected include GE Global Research, Gevo, Itaconix, Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation, and Velocys.

Gevo, which was awarded $1.8m, said that this grant will help fund ongoing development of its yeast strain to produce biobutanol from cellulosic biomass. The company started up its biobutanol demonstration plant - said to be the first in the world, last September. The facility was designed from retrofitting an existing demonstration scale ethanol plant to produce biobutanol.

Itaconix, meanwhile, aims to produce green polymers from itaconic acid fermented with sugars extracted from hardwood biomass. Their product polyitaconic acid is a water soluble polymer, said to have a 2 million ton/year market potential as a replacement for petrochemical dispersants, detergents, and super-absorbents.

Other awardees include Exelus, which aims to develop a Biomass-to-Gasoline (BTG) technology; and universities such as University of Tennessee (working on switchgrass), Oklahoma State University, University of Minnesota, and Purdue University.

Energy crop company Ceres also won a separate grant ($5m) from the DOE to develop high-yielding, low-input energy grasses. The company aims to expand an advanced trait development project to increase biomass yields of several energy grasses by as much as 40%, and at the same time decreasing the use of inputs such as nitrogen fertilizers.

This "amazing grass" could displace 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 58 million tons of coal over a ten year period, according to Ceres.

I seem to be getting a lot of animal-based news this week. Here's another one forwarded by my secret informant from the American Oil Chemists Society.

A company called Mr. Ellie Pooh (yes, that is really their name) has recently received CO-OP America's 2008 Green Business Leader Award. This innovative Brooklyn, NY-based company sells 100% handmade journals, stationery, office supplies and various grades of paper made partially from Sri Lankan elephant dung.

Mr. Ellie Pooh paper products are said to be made up of 75% elephant dung and 25% post consumer paper. Only basic bonding agents such as alum and rosin, and water soluble salt dyes for coloring are used in its process.

According to CO-OP America, Sri Lankan elephants are killed not for their tusks, hides or meat but because they are in the way of agricultural crops, and that Mr. Ellie Pooh is working to encourage farmers to see elephants as a sustainable economic resource.

Along with their Sri Lankan partner and paper-production company Maximus, Mr. Ellie Pooh plans to introduce "Project Peace Paper," which would open paper re-cycling plants in rural areas, train villagers in paper making techniques and sell finished goods worldwide in order to contribute to the local economy.

Congratulations to Mr. Ellie Pooh and may your company prosper! Now that's a cause that should not be sniffed at!

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Center for Resource Solutions awarded late last month their annual Green Power Leadership Awards to 25 organizations/companies who either purchase, supply or develop renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, low-impact biomass, and low-impact hydro resources) across the US.

Unfortunately, none of them is from the chemical industry.

The awards serve to recognize the leading actions of organizations, programs, and individuals that significantly advance the development of green power sources. It is curious to see why nobody from the chemical industry is recognized in these awards since it is one of the leading developer in the renewable energy market. And shouldn't the chemical industry be a big purchaser of green power since they helped developed this market in the first place?

I've been running around at the annual HBA cosmetic event in New York city for the past two days and that led me to not being able to do my blogging job, for which I apologize.

Fortunately, the 3-day show is full of green news, events and presentations. For my stories on new green packaging products launched at the show as well as some of the difficulties in using bioplastic in cosmetic packaging, you can access them on ICIS.com [for subscribers only though -- sorry!].

My favorite quote while attending some presentations is from Wylie Royce, vice president of New Jersey-based dyes and specialty chemicals firm Royce International, who said that "dyes bleed like a stuck pig in polylactic acid (PLA) plastic."

Of course this produced some comments about lipsticks and pigs but I'm not getting into that.

On HBA's first day (which was Tuesday), I attended one marketing program that focused on sustainable packaging initiatives. Anthony Sterling, a packaging consultant, noted that not all bioplastics are created green and necessarily good for a company.

Wendy Jedlicka, another consultant in green packaging designs, advised on how to avoid greenwashing in marketing products; while Jane Bickerstaffe, director of UK's Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN), pointed out that politicians don't really have a clue on what sustainable packaging means, and that it is up to the packaging and consumer products companies to educate them as well as consumers on how green products are really determined - from production, to distribution, to consumption, to waste.

She cited an example about the total carbon footprint of a shampoo product. Packaging accounts for more than 20% of its carbon emission IF the use of the shampoo is not included. What they found out is that more than 90% of the product's total emissions came from the use of hot water to wash away the shampoo. The lesson here? Don't use hot water that much when showering - it's bad for your hair anyway, according to Bickerstaffe.

I am actually working on a green packaging article for ICIS Chemical Business' packaging feature on October 20, so stay tune for more on this subject.

Meanwhile, the HBA show also had its separate naturals conference program dedicated to all things, natural/organic/holistic/sustainable... in cosmetics and personal care mostly focused on ingredients I think. I was unable to attend much of it although I heard there were several sessions about the popularity of certifications for natural/organic products.

Here is a list of some of the naturals/organic products launched at the show:

Alcan's 95% organic, Ecocert-certified cosmetic line called Be Organic; 100% natural cotton, paraben-free wipes for your feet by A World of Wipes; Interfashion Cosmetics' organic color cosmetics that contains 100% certified active organics; Silab's Osilift Bio cosmetic ingredients line that are certified by Ecocert; and TwinCraft Soap's Ultra Organic Soap Base which is said to be 100% chelate free and certified organic by the Soil Association of the UK and by Quality Assurance International.

You just have to love these green marketing lines! Now you know how these green certifications are becoming so important to the industry.

Lastly, HBA also introduced in its annual International Package Design Awards during a new category called Green Packaging.

For my next post, I'll be talking a little bit about my second day at the HBA covering their 3rd annual regulatory summit. You'll read some of the industry rantings about the growing rules and regulations [especially in California!] targeting the chemical, packaging and consumer products markets.

Is $26m enough to partially fund development of new energy efficient industrial processing?

The US Department of Energy (DOE) seems to think so and has given the three-year funding to be shared by eight lucky projects:

• Energy Reduction and Advanced Water Removal via Membrane Solvent Extraction Technology for $5.6m by 3M company.

• Thermochemical Recuperation for High Temperature Furnaces for $4.6m by American Iron and Steel Institute.
  

• Paired Straight Hearth (PSH) furnace for $1.51m also by American Iron and Steel Institute. PSH furnace is said to be an alternative to the energy and carbon-intensive blast furnace commonly used to make steel.
  

• Induction Consolidation/Molding of Thermoplastic Composites using Smart Susceptors for $4.1m by Boeing Company.

• Prototyping Energy Efficient Thermo-magnetic and Induction Hardening for Heat Treat and Net-Shape Forming applications for $4.3m by Eaton Corporation.
  

• Electrohydraulic Forming of Near-Net Shape Automotive Panels for $3.7m by Ford Motor Company.
  

• Inorganic Membranes for Refinery Gas Separations for $897,265 by Media and Process Technologies, Inc.
  

• Ultra-Efficient and Power Dense Electric Motors for $1.9m by Reliance Electric Company.

Growing up, I used to collect metal scraps (mostly copper and aluminum) from the neighborhood motor shops with my street pals and then sell them to the highest recycler bidder via door to door (since Ebay is not yet around).

Pity I didn't have the entrepreneurial foresight to make it as a business or I might have been included in Alcoa's top scrap suppliers for this year, which included the following:

American Iron and Metal [Montreal, Quebec,Canada], David J Joseph Co. [Cincinnati, Ohio], Metal Conversion Ltd. [Mansfield, Ohio], Newco Metals Inc. [Pendleton, Indiana], Omnisource Corp. [Fort Wayne, Indiana], Service Aluminum Corp. [Ellicott City, Maryland], Shapiro Sales [St. Louis, Missouri], Smelter Service Corp. [Mount Pleasant, Tennessee], State Metal Industries [Camden, New Jersey], Weiner Iron and Metal [Pottsville,Pennsylvania].

Alcoa said it has been able to increase its scrap purchases by more than 10% annually for the last three years.

-----------
Speaking of awards, I just want to congratulate our friends from Rohm and Haas who won the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Environmental Performance Track Award for its Kankakee facility, and the American Chemistry Council's (ACC) 2007 Responsible Care Energy Efficiency Awards for the company's Houston and Philadelphia plants.

Congratulations as well to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) when it bags the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Regional Industrial Innovation Award for its environment-friendly deicer technology.

The visit of advanced materials company, SiGNa Chemistry, today in our office reminded me to post this year's recipients of the Presidential Green Chemistry Awards by the Environmental Protection Agency.

1. Battelle (Greener Synthetic Pathways Award) - development and commercialization of biobased toners.

2. Nalco Company (Greener Reaction Conditions Award) - 3D Trasar Technology

3. Dow AgroSciences (Designing Greener Chemicals Award) - Spinetoram: Enhancing a natural product for insect control.

4. SiGNa Chemistry (Small Business Award) - New stabilized alkali metals for safer, sustainable syntheses.

5. Prof. Robert E. Maleczka Jr. and Milton R. Smith III of Michigan State University (Academic Award) - Green chemistry for preparing boronic esters.

I'll post more about the interview with SiGNa as soon as I finished my article for ICIS News.

Office products supplier Corporate Express launched its Ecoffice Makeover contest to all US businesses with the winner receiving $5,000 worth of office supplies,janitorial facility products and business furniture from the company's Ecoffice catalog.

Entrants must submit a presentation why their company deserves an Ecoffice makeover.

Not that I'm ridiculing the idea (I think it's great!) but as a fan of the tv show The Office, this is one great plot to work on!

I just finished my article about California's Green Chemistry Initiative and one of the key elements that most industry and manufacturing trade groups would like to see is incentive-based programs instead of mandatory policies (no surprise there!).

With that note, here are some of this year's green awards that I came across within the two-month period. Just to let you know ICIS (Disclosure: I work for ICIS) is calling for entries to this year's ICIS Innovation Awards. Deadline for entries is July 4.

1. Dow named "Best of the Best" winner by ESS for their sustainability projects.

2. North Carolina gave Syngenta their Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Award for this year.

3. The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) presented Patrick Gruber, Gevo's CEO, its new George Washington Carver Award for innovation in industrial biotechnology.

4. Schnitzer Steel Industries bag the Steel Manufacturers Association's "Recycler of the Year".

5. Eastman Chemical earned the American Chemistry Council's energy efficiency awards for the 15th consecutive year.

6. National Biodiesel Board and the Soap and Detergent Association awarded researchers from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) with their 2008 Glycerine Innovation Award.

The Society of Plastics Industry (SPI) released a video statement on Monday clarifying the intended purpose of the marked recycled numbers found on the bottom of most plastic bottles and rigid containers.

According to SPI President and CEO William Carteaux, the resin codes are simply to help sort the type of plastics that can be properly recycled or reused.

"The resin codes do not provide guidance on the safe or intended use of a bottle or a container, as well as the product inside the container. They should not be used for that purpose.”

"Look for number 1 on the bottom of the bottle," says MPI Packaging president Ron O'Brien.

This week DuPont also gave out its annual Packaging Innovation awards focusing on sustainability. Photos of this year's recipients and their products can be found on the DuPont website.