A publication of
The Illinois-Iowa Section of
The American Chemical Society
 

If you have items to be included in the next newsletter, submit the items by October 20^th to the Secretary.
For the latest information about upcoming events, visit our website at http://membership.acs.org/I/ILIA/

DIRECTIONS TO LORAS

Traveling Hwy 20 East into Dubuque:

• Take the Grandview Ave. exit.
• Travel through the 1st stoplight.
• Turn left at the 2nd stoplight onto Grandview Ave.
• Travel through one stoplight and two stop signs.
• Turn right at the next stoplight onto Loras Blvd.
• Travel 4 blocks, and Loras College will be on your left.
• Turn left onto Cox street and park in the lot on your left

• Take the Grandview Ave. exit.
• Turn left onto Grandview.
• Travel approximately 14 blocks through two stoplights and two stop signs.
• Turn right at the next stoplight onto Loras Blvd.
• Travel four blocks and Loras College will be on your left.
• Turn left onto Cox Street and park in the lot on your left
• The campus center is at the corner of Cox and Loras and has a parking lot at that corner, the entrance is from Cox Street. The ballroom is located on the 4th floor.

ABSTRACT

Energy from biomass has an exciting future, but the wild claims of those who think that it can replace much of our dependence on foreign oil are appalling. It is naive to view biomass as the panacea for the coming energy crisis because there is not enough in practical locations and its costs will be relatively high. The world will not run out of energy, but cheap energy may disappear. The exact economics are clouded by a myriad of subsidies for all of the competing energy sources and by world politics. Biomass feedstocks of most interest are sugarcane, corn, trees, and algae. Algae grow rapidly but require flat land for ponds, and such lands with plentiful water command top prices for agriculture. Sugarcane and corn exhaust the soil and require fertilizer and expensive cultivation. Trees are attractive because forests are sustainable and trees can do well on abandoned farms that could not compete with the fertile lands of the mid-western states.This assessment of biomass supply and conversion technologies provides global perspectives and exposes some alternatives as so impractical as to be almost fraudulent. Burning of wood has shifted from a prominent source of energy a century ago to a small but important contributor today. There will always be simple combustion of biomass with attractive economics where natural gas, coal, or petroleum are not readily available. Making gas or oil from biomass can only have tiny margins of profit because of intense competition from conventional producers. Biomass refining to furnish liquid motor fuels and byproduct chemicals is already practical and can be scaled up many fold. The upshot is that hydrolysis of biomass to its component sugars (and a major byproduct, lignin) should lead to a profitable, environmentally benign new fermentation industry while having a small but significant impact on overall consumption of energy.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Emeritus Professor Henry Bungay has held positions at Eli Lilly (Indianapolis) and Worthington Biochemical Corporation (Freehold, NJ), the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, and was a professor Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Clemson University before coming to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He coordinated a U.S./U.S.S.R. cooperative program for enzyme technology and has visited India, Brazil, and Indonesia as part of National Academy of Sciences teams on biomass. His honors include the James Van Lanen Distinguished Service Award and the Marvin Johnson Award from the Biotechnology Division of the American Chemical Society, and is a Fellow of the AIChE. He has over 200 publications and has authored five books including ENERGY, THE BIOMASS OPTIONS that received an award as best technical book from the American Association of Publishers

CALL FOR OFFICERS

It is time to elect 2006 officers for the Illinois-Iowa Section of ACS. If you are interested in serving, especially Chair-elect, please contact Dr. Brian Mundell brian@bio-researchprod.com, or Dr. Mel Peterson, chpeterson@augustana.edu.

NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS

Salutes to Excellence is an award program that gives ACS members an opportunity to conduct an event within their communities that recognizes the positive impact on everyday life made by a product of chemistry, a practitioner of chemistry, or a place of importance in chemistry. A central part of the event is the presentation of a commemorative plaque, furnished by the Office of Community Activities (OCA), for the honoree(s) for the chemistry achievement being honored. The local section is now searching for nominees for this prestigious award for 2006.

Please submit the following information by mail to Jerod Corbin, Sethness Products, Inc. Beaver Channel, Clinton, IA 52732 or by email to CorbinJ@SethnessClinton.com by November 1, 2006

• Your name, address, preferred phone number, and email address
• The nominee's name/company name/product name/location
• A brief description (approximately 100 words) of the positive impact over several years that this product, practitioner, or place of importance in/of chemistry has had on the local section and the cause of chemistry

We are also soliciting nominations for Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher. Please send nominations to Jerod Corbin, Sethness Products, Inc. Beaver Channel, Clinton, IA 52732 or by email to CorbinJ@SethnessClinton.com by November 1, 2006

UPCOMING MEETINGS

The November will be held at St. Ambrose University. Please check the website for details

NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK

October 22-28 is the week set aside for NCW. The theme is "Your Home-It's All Built on Chemistry." This would be a great opportunity to investigate adhesives, insulation, building materials and other household chemicals. This link will lead you to an ACS publication, "Celebrating Chemistry" with some ideas for activities. There is also a NCW Poster Contest again this year.

The section does have monies allocated to help support your activities. Please submit your request to Rick Rogers or any exec committee person (see below) by October 1st. This request should include what are your planned activities, how much money you need, and how you plan to spend it. Be sure to include all pertinent contact information as well. We will notify you by email by October 6th and let you know if your proposal has been accepted and how much the section will be sending to you. The section will be obtaining a case of the young person's magazine "Chem Matters" as well as some other NCW goodies like balloons, pencils, and zipper pulls. Please let Rick Rogers know how many of each you would like or if there is something else you think the section should obtain for all to use. The section will also run some public service ads on local TV stations advertising NCW and we are trying to set up a demonstration on the "Paula Sands Live" show to further promote this worthwhile endeavor. Feel free to use any local contact to help promote your own activity.

To keep up with what this Section is doing please visit the following website. As always, whether you receive funding or not for your activity, please document what you do in writing and with suitable pictures and forward them to Rick Rogers as you have them.

BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM THE OFFICE OF LOCAL SECTION ACTIVITIES

The Office of Local Section Activities has put together a newsletter. Topics include call for papers, Regional and National meeting activities, Education programs, This Month in Chemical History, thoughts to ponder, etc. If anyone is interested in the entire newsletter from the Office of Local Section Activities, it can be accessed here.

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