Category: Green Chemistry

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Veteran Researcher Named State Pollution Prevention Scientist

Nandakishore Rajagopalan has been appointed the Illinois Pollution Prevention Scientist.

 

The new designation was established in August 2013 by the Illinois State Legislature to serve as the authoritative spokesperson on matters of pollution prevention fact and policy for the state.

 

The announcement of this appointment was made on Nov. 22 by Prairie Research Institute Executive Director Bill Shilts.

 

Rajagopalan is an Associate Director at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, a division of Prairie Research Institute, where he oversees the Applied Research on Industrial and Environmental Systems (ARIES) group. He has over 20 years of experience in plant operations, green process development, separation technologies, and pollution prevention research.

 

An active researcher, Rajagopalan holds three U.S. patents and has authored more than 30 peer reviewed journal articles. His research interests involve the integration of separations research to advance green process development with a special focus on membrane processes.

 

The Illinois Pollution Prevention Scientist also represents the state on national panels concerned with pollution prevention issues.

 

Shilts also appointed members of the Institute’s other divisions to serve as Illinois State Archeologist, Biologist, Climatologist, Entomologist, Geologist, and Hydrologist. It is another way in which the Institute marshals its expertise for the benefit of the state.

 

Nandakishore Rajagopalan

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Wood Biochar Offers Promise of Cheap Supercapacitors

ISTC is investigating wood-biochar’s use as a supercapacitor. The material offers equal power capabilities as activated carbon, but is much less expensive.

 

A team led by Senior Engineer Junhua Jiang published results in the journal Electrocimica Acta, demonstrating the natural microstructures of biochars can be provide effective surface area for electrodes. Currently supercapactitors are often manufactured with corrosive chemicals that create elaborate structures of out of activated carbon.

 

Such procedures are far more expensive and can have environmental consequences.
Supercapacitors are super because they have far greater surface area electrodes than regular capacitors, allowing the rapid collection and release of ions. Cousins of electrochemical batteries, supercapacitors do not yet store as much energy, but they can release energy very quickly, recharge quickly and have high cycling stability. In other words, supercapacitors permit much faster discharge and recharge cycles than a battery is capable of, as well as tolerance of a larger number of discharge/charge cycles.

 

The Illinois Hazardous Waste Research Fund and the HeteroFoaM Center (an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Research) supported this study.

 

For more on biochar supercapacitors, visit http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/article_5d819c9c-45b8-11e3-8549-001a4bcf6878.html

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Triclosan Shown to Trigger Resistance in Aquatic Ecosystems

A widely used compound to prevent bacterial contamination is persisting in the environment and creating antibacterial resistant strains of bacteria.

 

That is the conclusion of a study by researchers at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in Champaign, IL, Loyola University Chicago, and the Cary institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY. The study was published in Environmental Science and Technology a journal of the American Chemical Society.

 

Triclosan is a broad-spectrum anti-microbial compound used in a large variety of consumer products from soap to cosmetics to clothing. The Food and Drug Administration approved the substance and after reports of possible side effects, recently reviewed their own findings, announcing that there is not enough evidence to determine the substance is hazardous.
Meanwhile Proctor and Gamble announced recently they are phasing out the use of Triclosan in its products.

 

John Scott, ISTC’s senior chemist, was co-Principal Investigator with Loyola Biology Professor John J. Kelly in the research which confirmed the presence of Triclosan in stream sediment in the Chicago metropolitan region. Sources for Triclosan contamination includes domestic wastewater, traced to broken sewer pipes and releases of untreated wastewater during high rainfall events.

 

First they conducted field surveys which indicated Triclosan concentrations increased in more highly urbanized areas. They found a significant correlation between the concentration of Triclosan on the stream bottom and Triclosan-resistant bacteria present. Controlled experiments in an artificial stream confirmed the compound triggers resistance and shifts the diversity and composition of bacterial communities. The consequences of altered bacterial communities have not been determined.

 

 

Sphingobacteria
Sphingobacteria is one type most impacted for community composition by Triclosan.
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Engineer to Share Latest Research for Recycling LCD Screens

Old TVs and monitors are becoming old TVs and monitors at record rates as screen size and new capabilities grow and prices shrink. Most of their toxins build up in landfills where they can leach into the environment. If it works sell it or donate it. If it doesn’t,  check with a local repair shop to see if they will refurbish it. See if you can return it to the store where you purchased it, or watch for a recycling day from your local waste management service. Commercial electronics recyclers may charge you to drop off your old TV.

 

As researchers are constantly improving television technology they are also advancing technology for recycling their complex remains at the end of their lives. At noon this Thursday, Sept. 5, Dr. Fu Zhao, Associate Professor, School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University-West Lafayette will present “Recycling of Liquid Crystal Displays for Maximum Resource Recovery” as part of the ISTC’s Sustainable Technology Seminar Series “Sustainability in Action.”

 

Dr. Zhao will be speaking at ISTC with a live webinar of the presentation broadcast in Room 218 MEB).  You can also register at: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/428568375 to watch the broadcast live.

 

Here is Dr. Zhao’s abstract: “Hundreds of millions of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) will reach their end of life in the next few years, and most of them have cold cathode fluorescent lamps as the backlights. These mercury containing backlights bring challenges to the end of life treatment of LCDs. Communications with electronic waste recyclers indicate that recycling LCDs using available equipment and tools is not profitable in U.S. due to high equipment/labor cost. With the support of an EPA P3 Phase I grant, our team at Purdue University developed a four-step procedure for LCD disassembling. Appropriate tools for these steps have been designed and fabricated and the team was able to limit the total disassembling time to less than five minutes, the breakeven time suggested by e-waste recyclers. All the tools can be readily built using low-cost tools available on the market. The disassembling time can be shortened further after optimization. Toward the end of the talk, lessons learned from the project and challenges associated with developing sustainable electronic products will be discussed.”

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Celebrate National Pollution Prevention Week 2012

Today marks the first day of National Pollution Prevention Week. Pollution Prevention Week is annually the third week of September. Pollution Prevention Week is a time when businesses, environmental groups and citizens can join forces for a common cause. By sharing information about pollution prevention, businesses can become more competitive, businesses and government can realize cost savings, and environmental quality can be enhanced.P2 Week 2012 poster

The theme for Pollution Prevention Week 2012 is “Safer Chemicals for a Safer World,” which embodies a national effort for safer alternatives to chemicals of concern. This is to ensure the safety and health of workers and communities. Using safer chemical alternatives also provides companies with a marketing edge over their competitors.

For more information on P2 Week, see the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable web site at http://www.p2.org/p2-week/. See also the US Environmental Protection Agency P2 Week page, with tips on preventing pollution at work, home, on the road, and at school, as well as information on various P2 Week activities.

Read the text of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 here.

For further assistance, see the Great Lakes Regional Pollution Prevention Roundtable (GLRPPR) web site (GLRPPR is a project of ISTC), or the ISTC Technical Assistance program page.