Newsletter Archive

One hundred major technology successes were recently recognized with the announcement of the 2002 R&D 100 Awards. These awards seek to identify the most significant products introduced to the market over the past year. They are chosen by a 50-member panel of judges with diverse areas of expertise and a common goal of distinguishing projects that are both cutting-edge and practically applicable.

Celebrating 40 Years of Technological Significance

This year's competition marks the 40th anniversary of the awards, which began in the early 1960s, when the editors of Industrial Research assembled 17 individuals to choose 100 innovative and practical projects. These "IR 100" winning products ranged from Polacolor instant film, to the earliest lasers, to a computer with the ability to process three million instructions per second. Now, 50 panel judges select winners from universities, government laboratories, and both U.S.- and foreign-based organizations.

Among this year's winners are two cutting-edge biomass products: the Environmentally Friendly Plasticizers for Polyvinyl Chloride Resin and the CO₂ Wash Technology equipment.

A Solution for Plastics Found in Soy

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic is a popular material used in many applications such as packaging, film, semi-rigid or flexible tubing, flooring, and medical devices. To develop these plastics, plasticizer molecules need to be applied to provide the appropriate level of elongation and tensile strength. Dioctyl Phthalate is used as a plasticizer, yet it does not provide thermal stabilization during the high-temperature extrusion process of PVC resin.¹ In addition, these petroleum-derived products are under environmental scrutiny because of their suspected endocrine-disruption activity in laboratory rats.²

To address these issues, the Ohio Soybean Council and researchers at Battelle in Columbus, Ohio, have developed a new plasticizer derived from modified soybean oil. In the past, commercial soy oil-based plasticizers were not compatible with PVC at the levels needed for primary plasticizers such as phthalate and benzoate products.³ The Environmentally Friendly Plasticizer for Polyvinyl Chloride Resin is not only 100 percent successful in its use as a primary plasticizer for PVC plastic, but it also solves the thermal stability issues faced by synthetic plasticizers such as dioctyl phthalate. Highly effective and based on a renewable agricultural resource, this Environmentally Friendly Plasticizer offers many benefits over existing products. For more information, visit www.battelle.org.⁴

Drawing Energy from Landfills

A barrier to commercial utilization of landfill gas (LFG) is reliable, economic removal of trace levels of toxic volatile organic compounds produced during the digestion process of microorganisms in the landfill.⁵ Acrion markets a process, CO₂ Wash™ Technology, that is the first to successfully remove these contaminants from landfill gas. The process uses liquid carbon dioxide obtained directly from LFG. A stream of contaminant-free methane and CO₂ is produced. Contaminants are concentrated in a separate small stream of CO₂ for incineration in the landfill flare. The contaminant-free methane and CO₂ stream can be used as medium Btu fuel gas, such as methanol. Alternatively, it can be further processed to separate CO₂ from methane to produce pipeline methane or transportation fuel (compressed or liquefied) and liquid CO₂. Natural gas fleet vehicles are a potentially steady market for methane recovered from LFG.⁶ For more information, visit www.acrion.com.

To learn more about the R&D 100 Awards and all of this year's winners, visit www.rdmag.com.

Pennsylvania's available renewable biomass fuels could produce about 10.8 billion kWh of electricity, which is enough to meet the annual needs of about 1,080,000 homes (26 percent of the residential electricity use in the state).¹ In 1999, about 1.3 percent (2.5 million MWh) of electricity generated in Pennsylvania came from biomass, including 20 methane-to-energy landfill projects. Pennsylvania is ranked tenth among all of the United States in bioenergy generation.²

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Chemists Build Body Fluid Battery
Chemists from the University of Texas at Austin have developed a miniature battery that could run on body fluids to drive sensors to monitor our health. The biofuels cell converts directly into electricity the energy produced when glucose reacts with oxygen during normal metabolism. The device works at a temperature and alkalinity close to those of normal blood and produces the same amount of power as a wristwatch battery. It could be inserted in the spinal cord, under the skin to be in contact with glucose-containing body fluids, or used to drive a miniature glucose sensor for monitoring diabetics.
www.nature.com

A New "Green" Skyscraper in Takoma Park
Citizens of Takoma Park, MD, have a new "green" skyscraper in the valley of the public works compound. A 25-foot-tall urban grain silo was unveiled on November 18^th that will hold 21 tons of organically fertilized, no-tilled corn. The corn will provide the fuel to heat a dozen homes of the Save Our Sky Home-Heating Cooperative. By heating houses with corn-burning stoves instead of natural gas or electricity, the citizens of Takoma Park are fighting global warming.
www.washingtonpost.com

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Data Sources:
OxyFuel News: Ethanol (U.S. Avg: Terminal); MTBE (Houston, TX: spot); Gasoline (Gulf Coast: spot, regular grade)
USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service, "Agricultural Prices," "Grain Stocks"

Data Sources:
U.S. DOE-Energy Information Administration, "Petroleum Supply Monthly"
USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service, "Agricultural Prices," "Grain Stocks"

*Please note: Units used for fuel data have been revised to correct an error in previous editions.

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