Solar alchemy: Photocatalysts to clean water and recover chemicals

 Polluted water can be easily cleaned and treated to extract valuable chemicals, e.g., used in drug manufacturing. No factories or plants are needed, the sun and a "magic" powder are enough. The nearly alchemic transformation is accomplished due to photocatalysts studied by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

In many places of the world water is highly polluted by organic chemicals from industrial wastes. The experiments carried out at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) in Warsaw prove that the biomass can be successfully transformed into useful chemicals and fuel. Due to appropriately selected photocatalysts, the transformation of polluted water into clean one and chemicals does not require specialized plants and takes place under conditions that are commonly met in nature.

Catalyst is a substance that participates in the chemical reaction, speeds its course and fully recovers after the reaction is completed. In typical catalytic processes the catalysts are activated at high temperatures, typically of several hundreds degrees centigrade, often at a significantly increased pressure.

"Photocatalysts studied by us differ in many respects from traditional catalysts. They are activated by light, and the temperature has no significant effect here," says Dr Juan Carlos Colmenares from the IPC PAS. The reactions with participation of photocatalysts occur at good exposure to sun rays, at temperature about 30 degrees centigrade and at normal atmospheric pressure -- so at conditions occurring naturally all year round in many equatorial countries.

The photocatalysts studied at the IPC PAS are solids based on titanium dioxide, TiO2. The catalysed reaction occurs in a liquid containing organic pollutants. After the reaction is completed, the catalyst can be isolated almost without losses and used again.

"My work resembles somewhat alchemy," jokes Colmenares. "I take a 'magic' powder, pour it into polluted water, stir and expose to the sun. After several hours, I get clean water plus chemicals that can be used to make useful things, for instance drugs."

The research on photochemical degradation of pollutants has been carried out in the world already in the late 1960's. By intensive UV irradiation chemical compounds with simple structures have been obtained at that time.

The research pursued at the IPC PAS aims at such a selection of photocatalysts and reaction conditions that the reaction can occur without using specialized equipment, and the degradation of biomass stops at a precisely defined stage. With titania-based photocatalysis the researchers managed to produce carboxylic acids used, e.g., in pharmaceutical and food industries. It is also possible to prepare a photocatalyst so as to have the reaction completed and yielding substances with the simplest structure, such as hydrogen or carbon dioxide. The latter compound is undesirable and would require disposal, hydrogen, however, has excellent prospects as the fuel of the future.

"In laboratory conditions, the reactions of the biomass with participation of photocatalysts are promising already now. In this year we are going to attempt the first tests in the pilot biochemical photoreactors at the University of Cordoba, Spain. The reactions will occur there in liquids with volumes measured in tens of litres," says Colmenares while making clear that still many tests and studies are to be carried out before the new technology gets disseminated.

The co-authors of the paper published in the Bioresource Technology journal, describing application of photocatalysts to glucose degradation and to production of valuable chemicals are Agnieszka Magdziarz and Dr Anna Bielejewska, who passed away late last year. The research has been financed from an international Marie Skłodowska-Curie reintegration grant under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

Juan C. Colmenares, Agnieszka Magdziarz, Anna Bielejewska. High-value chemicals obtained from selective photo-oxidation of glucose in the presence of nanostructured titanium photocatalysts. Bioresource Technology, 2011; 102 (24): 11254 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2011.09.101

Making chemicals from biogas instead of burning it

 Combustible gases generated by organic matter in landfill sites or from biomass are commonly burned to generate electricity. However, a Finnish team, writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Economy, suggests that such biogas might be more usefully used as an alternative feedstock for the chemical industry. They explain that using biogas in this way would reduce our dependency on oil and gas-derived products and is commercially and technically viable.

Jouko Arvola of the University of Oulu and colleagues there and at Oulu University of Applied Sciences point out that environmental pressure has turned our focus to reducing carbon emissions by the employment of renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels. Biomass can be readily converted to usable energy mostly in the form of methane through anaerobic fermentation, they point out. Rather than simply burning this biogas, the team suggests that at the local level it would be beneficial in terms of resources and pollution to utilise this valuable carbon source as an industrial feedstock. They have now examined the viability of such an approach to industrial sites in Finland and demonstrated, in theory at least, that this is a serious alternative to natural gas or oil-derived resources.

To initiate such a switch to biogas from landfill and other sources, there may have to be subsidies akin to those implemented in food production. However, as the price of raw fossil materials -- oil and gas -- continues to rise, biogas will become a more competitive alternative feedstock and government support could gradually be reduced.

"The use of biogas can be promoted by identifying existing industrial sites currently using fossil-based gas as raw material and by analysing whether they can utilise biogas," the team says. "By constructing biogas producing unit at industrial sites potentially enables development of other biogas applications. Building pipelines to other biogas users, or vehicle uses, are potential options," they add.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Inderscience, via AlphaGalileo.

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Going to extremes to find greener chemicals

That molecular sleuthing using DNA samples owes its success to an enzyme from a heat-loving bug that hangs out in hot springs and thermal vents. Because the enzyme can withstand high temperatures, we can use it in cycles of chemical reactions that multiply tiny amounts of DNA up into useful quantities, much like a molecular photocopier. Then the  DNA can be sequenced and, hopefully, the crime can be solved.

It’s an example of how the adaptations of ‘extremophiles’ that happily live in seemingly harsh environments can inspire useful chemical processes, and UCD researcher and Conway Fellow, Dr. Francesca Paradisi is on the case.

Her approach looks at ‘halophile’ organisms that can live in high salt concentrations such as the Dead Sea, and she’s working out whether some of their enzymes could help make chemical processes in industry greener.

Paradisi, who studied chemistry at Bologna in Italy, wasn’t familiar with extremophiles before she came to UCD to work with Professor Paul Engel just after she finished her PhD. But when she saw what his group was doing, she was intrigued by the possibilities.

Now a college lecturer at UCD School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, she has built up her own team and they have been meticulously screening various halophiles for a type of enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).

It’s an enzyme that many organisms - including ourselves - produce naturally, and it is used in chemical processes in the food and pharmaceutical industries. So why might an ADH from a salt-loving organism be particularly useful? 

“The idea is that enzymes that are produced by these halophiles, due to their particular high-salt environment, will be more likely to adjust to a solvent situation - when you have high salt you have less water around the enzyme,” explains Dr. Paradisi.

The trick is to find enzymes that tick several boxes: they are easy to purify from the organism, they are stable so they don’t need too much cosseting and their special properties can make a range of chemical processes greener.

So Paradisi’s team has been cloning, isolating and analyzing various ADH enzymes from three types of halophile to see what kinds of talented enzymes they produce naturally.

The lab has been focusing on three main organisms: Halobacterium salinarium, Haloarcula marismortui and Haloferax volcanii, explains Dr. Paradisi, but the initial work has been difficult because so little is known about how to purify the proteins.

However, despite the newness of the area, already they are turning up promising candidate enzymes, and soon the group will publish the first of the findings in the journal Extremophiles.

Their approach is also attracting the interest of industry: Dr. Paradisi’s group has an ongoing collaboration with Spanish biotech company Arquebios, and she is in talks with other potential partners.

She stresses that the organisms used in this process are safe. “These organisms are completely harmless, and they are generally growing in a highly-salted environment so as soon as you put them in water in the sink they burst.”

So what is the ultimate goal? To develop a system where a specially engineered bug can produce useful amounts of one or more useful enzymes like a biological printing press, explains Dr. Paradisi, whose work has received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, Science Foundation Ireland, IRCSET and Merck.

“Enzymes are a little different from small chemicals that you would find in nature - they are quickly reproduced and we can clone them,” she says. “So we are looking to use a host cell that can be engineered in such a way that it produces a higher amount of the extremophile enzymes.”

More information: 'Characterization of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH12) from Haloarcula marismortui, an extreme halophile from the Dead Sea'

Provided by University College Dublin

New method cleans up textile industry's most dangerous chemicals

Textile dying is one of the most environmentally hazardous aspects of the textile industry. During dying, harmful chemicals that are difficult to break down are released, all too often into rivers and agricultural land. However, Maria Jonstrup, a doctoral student in Biotechnology at Lund University, has developed a new, environmentally friendly purification process which leaves only clean water. The findings are presented in Maria Jonstrup's thesis.

The research is so far only research, and has therefore only been tested in the laboratory, but Maria Jonstrup is optimistic about its future potential.

"In the long term it should be possible for textile factories in India, China and Bangladesh to use the technique. If it works on a laboratory scale it is quite likely that it will also work in a real-life situation", she says.

While working on her thesis, she has conducted experiments with both fungal enzymes and bacteria from the drains at textile industry and municipal wastewater treatment plants. However, it was only when she combined two different types of purification process, one biological and one chemical, that the breakthrough came.

"First, microorganisms break down the dyes in a reactor. This biological step is the most important. However, to be certain that the water is completely purified, I also use some chemicals. Small amounts of iron and hydrogen peroxide in combination with UV light break down even the most difficult structures", she explains.

A combination of both biological and chemical purification is already used in some places, but these methods are rarely effective, which means that large quantities of hazardous chemicals are released.

Soon, two Master's students will be taking over the baton. They will spend a year testing the technique in larger volumes of water, which more closely reflect the conditions in real textile factories. Their challenge will be to study how the UV light in the chemical stage could be replaced with normal sunlight. Maria Jonstrup will be their supervisor. After that it is hoped that the technique will be tested 'live', in a real factory.

"Through contacts with the Swedish clothing company Indiska Magasinet and their suppliers, we have already taken samples and performed tests at a factory in India. Because clothing manufacture has received quite a bad reputation over recent years, it can otherwise be quite difficult to gain access to the factories", she explains.

One obstacle on the path to implementation is legislation. The law only stipulates that the water is to be clean. This has made it legally permissible to filter out large amounts of environmentally hazardous mud and dump it on agricultural land and elsewhere – since the water itself is clean!

"But sometimes factories don't bother to clean the water at all and only do it when the inspectors come round", she says.

Provided by Lund University

New method cleans up textile industry’s most dangerous chemicals

 Textile dying is one of the most environmentally hazardous aspects of the textile industry. During dying, harmful chemicals that are difficult to break down are released, all too often into rivers and agricultural land. However, Maria Jonstrup, a doctoral student in Biotechnology at Lund University, has developed a new, environmentally friendly purification process which leaves only clean water.

The findings are presented in Maria Jonstrup's thesis. The research is so far only research, and has therefore only been tested in the laboratory, but Maria Jonstrup is optimistic about its future potential.

"In the long term it should be possible for textile factories in India, China and Bangladesh to use the technique. If it works on a laboratory scale it is quite likely that it will also work in a real-life situation," she says.

While working on her thesis, she has conducted experiments with both fungal enzymes and bacteria from the drains at textile industry and municipal wastewater treatment plants. However, it was only when she combined two different types of purification process, one biological and one chemical, that the breakthrough came.

"First, microorganisms break down the dyes in a reactor. This biological step is the most important. However, to be certain that the water is completely purified, I also use some chemicals. Small amounts of iron and hydrogen peroxide in combination with UV light break down even the most difficult structures," she explains.

A combination of both biological and chemical purification is already used in some places, but these methods are rarely effective, which means that large quantities of hazardous chemicals are released.

Soon, two Master's students will be taking over the baton. They will spend a year testing the technique in larger volumes of water, which more closely reflect the conditions in real textile factories. Their challenge will be to study how the UV light in the chemical stage could be replaced with normal sunlight. Maria Jonstrup will be their supervisor. After that it is hoped that the technique will be tested 'live', in a real factory.

"Through contacts with the Swedish clothing company Indiska Magasinet and their suppliers, we have already taken samples and performed tests at a factory in India. Because clothing manufacture has received quite a bad reputation over recent years, it can otherwise be quite difficult to gain access to the factories," she explains.

One obstacle on the path to implementation is legislation. The law only stipulates that the water is to be clean. This has made it legally permissible to filter out large amounts of environmentally hazardous mud and dump it on agricultural land and elsewhere -- since the water itself is clean!

"But sometimes factories don't bother to clean the water at all and only do it when the inspectors come round," she says.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations ) from materials provided by Lund University.

Scientists develop new approaches to predict the environmental safety of chemicals

 Baylor University environmental researchers have proposed in a new study a different approach to predict the environmental safety of chemicals by using data from other similar chemicals.

For many chemicals in use every day, scientists do not have enough information to understand all of the effects on the environment and human health. In response to this, the European Union enacted the REACH regulation, which places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. The Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances (REACH) regulation was enacted in 2006 and requires manufacturers and importers to gather information on the properties of their chemical substances and to register the information in a central database. Regulators say the goal of REACH is to improve the protection of human health and the environment through better and earlier identification of the harmful properties of chemical substances.

In the Baylor study, researchers suggest using data from other chemicals, such as what concentrations can cause toxicity in aquatic organisms to predict the toxicity of another chemical that scientists expect causes toxicity in the same way.

"This study proposes one approach to advance the three R's of sustainability -- reduce, replace, refine -- for studying biological impacts of chemicals in the environment," said study co-author Dr. Bryan Brooks, associate professor of environmental science and biomedical studies and director of environmental health science at Baylor. "Identifying, testing and implementing new approaches to leverage available information to support better environmental decision-making remains a critical need around the world."

Baylor researchers used statistical and mathematical techniques called chemical toxicity distributions to understand the relative potency of two groups of chemicals. They then used these findings to develop environmental safety values, which they hope will help determine the environmental impacts of chemical substances without unnecessary testing on animals.

"The biggest hurdle we face when protecting public health and the environment is the general lack of information," said study co-author Dr. Spencer Williams, a research scientist at Baylor. "The approach we propose should help prioritize the selection of chemicals and organisms for additional safety assessments. Instead of having to test similar chemicals on many organisms over and over again, scientists could estimate safety levels using fewer tests, which could be more efficient without compromising environmental safety."

The study appears online in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations) from materials provided by Baylor University.

Journal Reference:

E. Spencer Williams, Jason P. Berninger, Bryan W. Brooks. Application of chemical toxicity distributions to ecotoxicology data requirements under REACH. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2011; 30 (8): 1943 DOI: 10.1002/etc.583

E. coli metabolism reversed for speedy production of fuels, chemicals

In a biotechnological tour de force, Rice University engineering researchers this week unveiled a new method for rapidly converting simple glucose into biofuels and petrochemical substitutes. In a paper published online in Nature, Rice's team described how it reversed one of the most efficient of all metabolic pathways -- the beta oxidation cycle -- to engineer bacteria that produce biofuel at a breakneck pace.

Just how fast are Rice's single-celled chemical factories? On a cell-per-cell basis, the bacteria produced the butanol, a biofuel that can be substituted for gasoline in most engines, about 10 times faster than any previously reported organism.

"That's really not even a fair comparison because the other organisms used an expensive, enriched feedstock, and we used the cheapest thing you can imagine, just glucose and mineral salts," said Ramon Gonzalez, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice and lead co-author of the Nature study.

Gonzalez's laboratory is in a race with hundreds of labs around the world to find green methods for producing chemicals like butanol that have historically come from petroleum.

"We call these 'drop-in' fuels and chemicals, because their structure and properties are very similar, sometimes identical, to petroleum-based products," he said. "That means they can be 'dropped in,' or substituted, for products that are produced today by the petrochemical industry."

Butanol is a relatively short molecule, with a backbone of just four carbon atoms. Molecules with longer carbon chains have been even more troublesome for biotech producers to make, particularly molecules with chains of 10 or more carbon atoms. Gonzalez said that's partly because researchers have focused on ramping up the natural metabolic processes that cells use to build long-chain fatty acids. Gonzalez and students Clementina Dellomonaco, James Clomburg and Elliot Miller took a completely different approach.

"Rather than going with the process nature uses to build fatty acids, we reversed the process that it uses to break them apart," Gonzalez said. "It's definitely unconventional, but it makes sense because the routes nature has selected to build fatty acids are very inefficient compared with the reversal of the route it uses to break them apart."

The beta oxidation process is one of biology's most fundamental, Gonzalez said. Species ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings use beta oxidation to break down fatty acids and generate energy.

In the Nature study, Gonzalez's team reversed the beta oxidation cycle by selectively manipulating about a dozen genes in the bacteria Escherichia coli. They also showed that selective manipulations of particular genes could be used to produce fatty acids of particular lengths, including long-chain molecules like stearic acid and palmitic acid, which have chains of more than a dozen carbon atoms.

"This is not a one-trick pony," Gonzalez said. "We can make many kinds of specialized molecules for many different markets. We can also do this in any organism. Some producers prefer to use industrial organisms other than E. coli, like algae or yeast. That's another advantage of using reverse-beta oxidation, because the pathway is present in almost every organism."

Provided by Rice University (news : web)

New way of synthesizing organic chemicals mimics nature

Organic chemists have found a new way of synthesizing multiple complex organic molecules that until now have needed to be synthesized using time-consuming methods. The new strategy, which mimics natural biosynthesis methods, could provide a way to speed up the synthesis of chemicals for use in the laboratory and for testing for possible therapeutic effects.

Chemists can synthesize almost any complex organic chemical in small quantities in the laboratory, but the process can be extremely time consuming and expensive, and difficult or impossible to translate to large-scale production. It is also difficult to synthesize families or related molecules using traditional methods because each has to be synthesized individually.

The new method was developed by researchers from the Merck Center for Catalysis at Princeton University in the U.S., led by organic chemist David MacMillan. The strategy combines two techniques that mimic methods used by living systems to synthesize organic molecules (those based on chains of carbon atoms or carbon rings): organocascade catalysis and collective synthesis. Combining these two techniques for the first time allowed MacMillan and colleagues to considerably speed up the synthesis of a group of six related alkaloids.

The alkaloids the team manufactured were akuammicine, aspidospermidine, kopsanone, kopsinine, strychnine, and vincadifformine.

The new strategy, which the team calls “collective total synthesis,” makes it possible to synthesize useful amounts of related, complex molecules from a “common molecular scaffold,” and is much less time-consuming. The synthesis of strychnine, for example took place in only 12 stages, which is the shortest ever reported.

Traditional methods of synthesizing such chemicals have involved using chemical reactions to produce each individual intermediate and then isolating it and using the intermediate in the next reaction, and repeating this process until the target molecule is finally produced.

MacMillan said the new method represents a new way of thinking for organic chemists. Reducing the number of steps required to synthesize molecules reduces the time required and can also reduce the cost and wastage. Their approach can also produce a number of related molecules at the same time, which could reduce the time and cost of producing and testing chemicals to find the most bioactive drug candidates.

MacMillan and the team suggest the collective total synthesis strategy could be used to manufacture other families of molecules that until now have had to be synthesized individually. They say the approach of combining the two techniques of organocascade catalysis and collective synthesis could be applicable for many other groups of molecules besides alkaloids.

The paper, the first to be published describing this approach to synthesis, is published in Nature.

 

Comparing apples and oranges: Handheld technology detects chemicals on store produce

Purdue University researchers recently took their miniature mass spectrometer grocery shopping to test for traces of chemicals on standard and organic produce.

In the technology's first venture out of the lab, it successfully identified specific chemical residues on apples and oranges in a matter of minutes right in the produce section without having to peel or otherwise prepare a sample of the fruit.

R. Graham Cooks, the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Zheng Ouyang, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, led the team that used the miniature mass spectrometer - that some have likened to Star Trek's "tricorder" - to test for a fungicide on oranges and a scald inhibitor on apples.

"We're trying to take powerful, sophisticated instruments out of the lab and into the real environment where they could help monitor fresh produce all along the supply chain from production and supply to the consumers," said Cooks, who is co-founder of Purdue's Center for Analytical Instrumentation Development. "This technology has the capability of testing for bacteria as well, like E. coli or salmonella, and it only takes a matter of minutes as opposed to hours or even days for a standard laboratory test."

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A miniature mass spectrometer invented by Purdue scientists can almost immediately detect contaminants in the field including E. coli, pesticides and other chemicals. Using the mobile device is faster than sending specimens to labs for testing.

Mass spectrometry is a commonly used analysis method known for its sensitivity and accuracy; however, most available mass spectrometers require that a sample be specially prepared and placed in a vacuum chamber for analysis. Cooks and his team developed a technique, called ambient ionization, that allows critical steps to be performed in the air or directly on surfaces outside of a mass spectrometer. Molecules from the sample's surface of the sample are then vacuumed into the equipment for analysis.

Conventional mass spectrometers also are cumbersome instruments that weigh more than 300 pounds. The miniature mass spectrometer Cooks' team developed, called the mini 10.5, is a handheld device roughly the size of shoebox that weighs 22 pounds.

"Accuracy is the price we pay for a much faster, cheaper and easier technology that can be taken out into the field almost anywhere," Cooks said. "The minis are not as precise as a standard mass spectrometer, but it would be a good first line defense to indicate when additional testing is necessary."

Fred Whitford, coordinator of the Purdue Pesticide Programs, said the ability to sample food quickly would be a great benefit to the regulation industry.

"Sometimes a test result comes too late and the food is already out, which can be a serious problem," Whitford said. "Currently only about 2 percent of the food is pulled and tested, and perhaps a faster and cheaper test would allow more samples to be taken."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's most recent report stated that chemical residues exceeded the legal limits on 0.3 percent of the samples tested and 2.7 percent of the samples tested were found to have pesticides not approved for that crop, Whitford said.

"Chemicals can be misused in a variety of ways," he said. "Sometimes they are applied in the wrong amounts, sometimes the crop is harvested too soon after chemical application and sometimes a chemical is used that is not approved."

Graduate student Santosh Soparawalla and postdoctoral researcher Fatkhulla Tadjimukhamedov performed the grocery store field tests, which were limited to detecting the fungicide benzimidazole on oranges and the scald inhibitor diphenylamine on apples. Scald is a brown discoloration that appears on apples during storage.

"We could easily distinguish between treated produce, which had a strong signature for the chemicals, and organic produce, which showed no chemical residue on its surface," Soparawalla said. "This could be the first step toward a day when everyone will have the ability to make an informed decision of what they want to purchase and eat based on an analysis of the specific items."

In addition to the pilot test to validate the technology in the field, the team evaluated the quantities of diphenylamine, or DPA, present in a treated apple. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's limit for the concentration of DPA on an apple is 10 parts per million.

The team estimated a concentration of 15 parts per million of DPA was present on an apple, but the margin of error for the test is large enough that the concentration could easily be within the regulated limits, Soparawalla said.

"These tests of apples demonstrate how this technology could be a part of a larger regulatory system. The experiments were not a robust scientific examination of the levels of chemicals present on produce," Cooks said. "The test is what's called a factor of two test, meaning the actual concentration could be half or could be twice as much as the approximation. The results were not statistically above the legal limit, but it is food for thought."

The team also examined the distribution of the chemical in a cross section of the apple and found DPA throughout, with the greatest concentrations in the skin and near the core of the apple, Cooks said.

"It appears that washing or peeling an apple may not reduce one's exposure to the chemical much," Cooks said. "If the approximate levels held true, eating one apple a day would bring a person to the daily limit of exposure to diphenylamine."

The team found that benzimidazole was limited only to the skin of the orange.

The team tested two ambient ionization methods. Both involve ionizing molecules on a sample's surface. This ionization step gives charge to the molecules and allows them to be identified by the mass spectrometer.

In the first method, called paper spray ionization, a sample is wiped with a common lens wipe wet with alcohol. A small triangle is then cut from the wipe and placed on a special attachment of the miniature mass spectrometer where a high voltage is applied. The mixture of alcohol and residues from the sample's surface become fine droplets containing ionized molecules that pop off of the wipe and are vacuumed into the mass spectrometer for analysis.

In the second method, called low temperature plasma ionization, a special probe sprays a collection of charged particles onto the sample's surface using a slow stream of helium gas. The charged particles ionize molecules on the sample's surface, which then bounce off the surface and are vacuumed into a mass spectrometer for analysis.

This work was presented on Tuesday (June 7) at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry annual meeting in Denver. Funding from the National Science Foundation and Thermo Fisher Scientific supported this work.

The paper spray ionization method is licensed to the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Development at Purdue University, and the low temperature plasma ionization method is licensed to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

Provided by Purdue University (news : web)

Special Eurobarometer report published on the consumer perception of chemicals

05-20-2011: Eurobarometer findings show that most people in the EU are unable to identify everyday household chemicals as potentially hazardous and rarely follow safety instructions. The understanding of chemical products and public awareness of how to use these safely varies considerably from one country to another.

EU citizens are generally more inclined to characterise chemical products as 'dangerous' or 'harmful to the environment' rather than 'useful' or 'innovative'. While the majority say that they have used chemical products at work, a large number of people are unable to identify everyday household chemicals as "chemical products". Many read safety instructions before using household chemicals but the attention paid to such instructions is higher only for certain types of products like pesticides and detergents. The level of understanding about chemical products differs considerably from country to country.

These findings were published today in a 'Special Eurobarometer' survey report which has assessed consumers' perception of chemical products, and judged how those perceptions differ when people are in regular contact with them. The survey also looked at people's attitudes in dealing with safety instructions and illustrated their understanding of the hazard symbols and safety language (as provided by the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP Regulation) which entered into force on 20 January 2009).

This survey has been conducted for the first time in Europe and is part of a project conceived by ECHA to implement the requirement in the CLP Regulation on carrying out the communication study (Article 34). ECHA has joined forces with DG Joint Research Centre - Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC) to prepare this special Eurobarometer Survey undertaken by TNS Opinion & Social Network for DG Communication of the European Commission.

The second and final part of the project is a piece of qualitative research to examine consumers' opinions and behaviours related to chemicals outlined in the Eurobarometer Survey results in more detail.

ECHA will submit the final report of the study to the European Commission by January 2012 and will provide recommendations on how to further improve hazard communication on chemicals aimed at the general public.

View the original article here

Fracking controversy: Using water, sand and chemicals to extract natural gas from shale

The turmoil in oil-producing nations is triggering turmoil at home, as rising oil prices force Americans to pay more at the pump. Meanwhile, there's a growing industry that's promising jobs and access to cheaper energy resources on American soil, but it's not without its controversy.

Deborah Kittner, a University of Cincinnati doctoral student in geography, presents, "What's the Fracking Problem? Extraction Industry's Neglect of the Locals in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Region," at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Kittner will be presenting April 14 at the meeting in Seattle. She is part of a large contingent of UC researchers to be presenting at the conference.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves using millions of gallons of water, sand and a chemical cocktail to break up organic-rich shale to release natural gas resources. Kittner's research examined the industry in Pennsylvania, known as the "sweet spot" for this resource, because of the abundance of natural gas. Pittsburgh has now outlawed fracking in its city limits as has Buffalo, N.Y., amid concerns that chemical leaks could contaminate groundwater, wells and other water resources.

The EPA is now doing additional study on the relationship of hydraulic fracturing and drinking water and groundwater after congress stated its concern about the potential adverse impact that the process may have on water quality and public health. Kittner attended an EPA hearing and also interviewed people in the hydraulic fracturing industry. She says billions of dollars from domestic as well as international sources have been invested in the industry.

The chemical cocktail used in the process is actually relatively small. The mixture is about 95-percent water, nearly five percent sand, and the rest chemical, yet, Kittner says some of those chemicals are known toxins and carcinogens, hence, the "not in my backyard" backlash from communities that can be prospects for drilling. The flow-back water from drilling is naturally a very salty brine, prone to bacterial growth, and potentially contaminated with heavy metals, Kittner says. In addition, there's the question of how to properly dispose of millions of gallons of contaminated water, as well as concerns about trucking it on winding, rural back roads.

Based on her research, Kittner says that many in the industry are "working to be environmentally responsible, and become frustrated at companies that do otherwise."

"I think that the study that the EPA is doing is going to be really helpful, and the industry -- however reluctant to new regulations -- is working with the EPA on this," Kittner says.

Kittner has lived in Ft. Thomas, Ky., for two decades, but is originally from Warren, Pa. Her research took her to an EPA public meeting in Canonsburg, Pa., where she audio-taped 114 people presenting public statements of what they wanted the EPA study to examine. That study is expected to be completed in 2012 and will include an examination of what to do with millions of gallons of contaminated flow-back water.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations) from materials provided by University of Cincinnati.

Scientists call for 'swifter and sounder' testing of chemicals

Scientific societies representing 40,000 researchers and clinicians are asking that federal regulators tap a broader range of expertise when evaluating the risks of chemicals to which Americans are being increasingly exposed.

Writing in a letter in the journal Science, eight societies from the fields of genetics, reproductive medicine, endocrinology, developmental biology and others note that some 12,000 new substances are being registered with the American Chemical Society daily. Few make it into the environment, but the top federal regulators, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, often lack information about the hazards of chemicals produced in high volumes.

"The need for swifter and sounder testing and review procedures cannot be overstated," the letter states.

Patricia Hunt, a professor in the Washington State University School of Molecular Biosciences and corresponding author of the letter, said the FDA and EPA need to look beyond the toxicology of substances to the other ways chemicals can affect us.

"One of the problems they have is they look at some of the science and don't know how to interpret it because it's not done using the traditional toxicology testing paradigm," she said. "We need geneticists, we need developmental and reproductive biologists and we need the clinical people on board to actually help interpret and evaluate some of the science."

"As things stand now," she added, "things get rapidly into the marketplace and the testing of them is tending to lag behind."

Hunt said the letter was driven in particular by growing concerns about chemicals like the plasticizer bisphenol A, or BPA, subject of more than 300 studies finding adverse health effects in animals. Because such chemicals look like hormones to our body, they're like strangers getting behind the wheels of our cars, Hunt said.

"Hormones control everything—our basic metabolism, our reproduction," she said. "We call them endocrine disruptors. They're like endocrine bombs to a certain extent because they can disrupt all these normal functions."

Hunt's testimony last year helped make Washington the fifth state to outlaw BPA in children's food containers and drinking cups.

Provided by Washington State University