Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division

WINTER/SPRING 1998 Newsletter

The I&EC Division remains in tune with many of the activities related to Technology Vision 2020: The U.S. Chemical Industry. The Division was a cosponsor of the Catalysis Roadmapping workshop in March 1997, which issued its report on research issues in the field of catalysis. ( A copy of this report may be obtained by emailing me at nbjacks@sandia.gov.)

Roadmap workshops are being planned for other technologies crucial to the chemical industry. (See box.) I&EC and the Separations Subdivision are co-sponsoring several of these roadmapping workshops. If you are interested in any of the scheduled topics, call either the point of contact person, or Bruce Cranford, AIChE, at 202-962-8696. Bruce, an I&EC member, is on leave from the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Industrial Technologies where he was the chemical industry program manager. He is presently located at the Washington, DC, AIChE offices, working with ACS, AIChE, the Council for Chemical Research, and others organizations to facilitate the development of Vision 2020 technology roadmaps which will be used to identify research needs in the next quarter century.

The I&EC Division is also a cosponsor of the 2^nd Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference to be held in Washington, DC, June 30-July 2, 1998. Topics will include biocatalysis, biosynthesis/bioprocessing, aqueous systems, solventless systems, environmentally benign solvents, design of materials, design of safer chemicals, reactor design, process analytical chemistry, and separations. For more information about technical content, contact one of the Conference Chairs: Paul Anastas ((202) 260-2257) or Barbara Karn ((202) 564-6824) both of U.S. EPA or Joe Breen, ACS Committee on Environmental Improvement. For information on registration, hotel, etc., contact the ACS Meetings Dept. - #416, 202-872-6286, or d_ruddy@acs.org.

Along with the ACS Environmental Division, the I&EC Division is cosponsoring a workshop which will bring together the researchers and the end users of technologies for cleaning up our nationís waste legacy from the cold war nuclear weapons production. The Environmental Management and Science Program (EMSP) is a DOE-sponsored program that is designed to address the technological problems found at the clean up sites.

The EMSP Scientific Workshop will be an informational meeting featuring a strong technical focus. The function will be technical information exchange rather than a detailed project review. The goals of the workshop include establishing a strong two-way communication between scientists and DOE cleanup sites to clarify high-priority needs. A lack of communication between these two groups has been an often-criticized aspect of the EMSP program. ACS hopes to support a meaningful and productive dialog between these two groups in an effort to facilitate the development of a potential pathway for the EMSP science research to progress from basic research to cross-cutting programs, to focus areas, and to useful deployment. Other goals of the workshop include providing a scientific exchange among the multidisciplinary range of attending scientists and establishing communications between the DOE EMSP program and the broader environmental science community.

In all three of these activities, the Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Division is supporting either industrial chemistry or engineering chemistry (nuclear waste clean up) or both (Vision 2020 and Green Chemistry). Since Vision 2020 will be used as a standard by the government and by many others for identifying the research needs that are required to create a prosperous future chemical industry, designing technologies roadmaps are of interest to our membership and is why the Division stays abreast of these activities. Regarding nuclear waste clean up, the sheer magnitude of the effort needed to clean up the nuclear waste sites will require a significant component of our nationís chemical engineering and separations expertise. I&EC is filled with people whose skills are invaluable to this clean-up effort. I hope that the Divisionís efforts will make it easier for you to take advantage of these opportunities and contribute to the shaping of your and your professionís future.

Design of a Chemical System with Target Properties

Vision Area: New Chemical Science and Engineering Technology, Computational Chemistry

Point of Contact: David Dixon, Associate Director, Theory, Modeling & Simulation Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, MS K1-83, Richland, WA 99352 USA; 509-372-4999; (FAX) 509-375-6631 da_dixon@pnl.gov,

Schedule 02/23-24/1998 Workshop, University of Maryland Conference Center

04/1998 Workshop report

Description - Survey the current state technology of molecular modeling and simulation; Identify promising opportunities through R&D; Provide basis for a roadmap; Range of size scale from quantum chemistry through atomistic classical molecular simulation, through course-graining techniques to the meso-scale, to full process scale

Electro Technologies in the Chemical Industry

Vision Area - New Chemical Science and Engineering Technology, Catalysis and Separations

Point of Contact - Ammi Amarnath, Manager, Process Industries, Electric Power Research Institute, 3412 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304-1395; 415-855-2548; (Fax)415-855-8574 aamarnat@eprinet.erpi.com,

Sponsoring Organization - Utility Industry

Schedule - 07/21/1997 Introductory Meeting; 04/06/1998 Workshop

Description - utility/chemical industry cooperative programs in energy efficiency, environmental, and process improvements

Measurements for Process Control

Vision Area - New Chemical Science and Engineering Technology, Chemical Measurements

Point of Contact - Hratch Semerjian, Director, Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, Physics B-310, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA; 301-975-3145; (Fax) 301-330-3447;

hratch@micf.nist.gov,

Sponsoring Organization - Council for Chemical Research.

Schedule - 03/06/1998-03/07/1998, Workshop preceding AICHE Spring Meeting in New Orleans

Polymer recovery

Vision Area - New Chemical Science and Engineering Technology, Process Science and Technology, Chemical Synthesis

Point of Contact - Donald McLemore, 517-631-6483 (Mich); (Fax)216-447-6482

dmclemor@concentric.net or Earl Beaver, Monsanto, 800 North Lindbergh, St. Louis, Missouri 63167 USA, 314-694-6087; (Fax)314-694-8820; ERVEAV@ccmail.monsanto.com,

Sponsoring Organization - AICHE-CWRT, AICHE-Separations Division, ACS-Separations Subdivision, ACS-Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division, CCR, Center for Waste Reduction Technologies (CWRT), AIChE

Schedule - Integrated Polymer Recovery Workshop held in Chicago on November 5, 1997 at the ARC Conference.April 1998 Workshop; 07/1998 Workshop Report; 08/1998 Draft Roadmap for review; 09/1998 Roadmap issued.

Description - Focuses on Distillation, Crystallization, and Hybrid Systems

Separations #1

Vision Area - New Chemical Science and Engineering Technology, Process Science and Technology, Chemical Synthesis

Point of Contact - Jack Weaver, Director AIChE Center for Waste Reduction Technologies, American Institute for Chemical Engineers, 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017 USA, 212-705-7462; (Fax) 212-752-3297/4

Sponsoring Organization - AICHE-CWRT, AICHE-Separations Division, ACS-Separations Subdivision, ACS-Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division, CCR, Center for Clean Industrial and Treatment Technologies (CenCitt), Center for Waste Reduction Technologies

Schedule - 02/04/1997 to 02/06/1997 Workshop, New Orleans, LA; 05/1998 Workshop Report; 06/1998 Draft Roadmap for review; 07/1998 Roadmap issued.

Description - Focuses on Separative Reactors, Adsorption, and membrane processes

Separations #2

Vision Area - New Chemical Science and Engineering Technology, Process Science and Technology, Chemical Synthesis

Point of Contact - Earl Beaver, Monsanto, 800 North Lindbergh, St. Louis, MO 63167 USA; 314-694-6087; (Fax) 314-694-8820; ERVEAV@ccmail.monsanto.com,

Sponsoring Organization - AICHE-CWRT, AICHE-Separations Division, ACS-Separations Subdivision, ACS-Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Division, CCR.

Schedule - April 1998 Workshop; 06/1998 Workshop Report; 07/1998 Draft Roadmap for review; 08/1998 Roadmap issued.

Description - Focuses on Distillation, Crystallization, and Hybrid Systems

 I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the symposium organizers over the past few years. Your hard work, dedication, understanding, and ability to get those abstracts in on time has enabled I&EC to maintain strong National Meeting Programming. I have enjoyed my tenure as Program Secretary for the Division, although I am certainly ready to pass the responsibilities along as I prepare for my new role as Chair-Elect!

There is no doubt in my mind that programming is one of the strongest aspects of the I&EC Division. It draws people to our sessions and facilitates the personal interactions which characterize national meetings. You are encouraged to suggest new symposia for programming and you will even get help in finding organizers if you don't want that responsibility.

Programming in I&EC serves a dual role. First it is the common factor which draws people together and allows us to keep up with the latest developments in the field. There is also a more selfish reason the Division needs strong programming. We need the new membership that would be attracted by our programs. Membership in general is declining, although not seriously so, but our membership and the dues generated are what allow us to have high quality programming. Thus, faced with a Catch-22 situation, we must be vigilant to simultaneously attract high quality programs and new members.

The I&EC Division does not have a 'hot' name to attract new members. We thus need each of our current members to actively promote the division. Let others know what type of people we have, what types of programs are forthcoming, and just invite people to join. Its really a painless, low pressure process. Let others know that I&EC is a Division where you can learn the culture of applied chemistry and engineering. You can meet practitioners in the field and you can come to understand the problems facing government and industry.

Let this serve as your personal invitation to participate!

Thanks to Robin Rogers, the I&EC Division now has a page on the World Wide Web. It carries future programs and other Division news. It can be reached from the ACS Home Page at http://www.acs.org/. It can also be reached directly via http://www.radar.ch.ua.edu/~acsiec/.

 The Spring meeting in Dallas will feature five programming themes:

• Catalysis
• Petroleum Chemistry
• Environmental Issues
• Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer
• Women and Minorities in Chemistry

Since not everyone attending the meeting will be from the Southwest nor necessarily interested in the focal areas cited, Divisions are not limiting their programs to these focal areas. The I&EC Division, for example, will host two symposia honoring ACS Award winners: the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry honoring Stanley I. Sandler of University of Delaware; and the E. B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management, honoring Joseph A. Miller of DuPont. The Division is cosponsoring with Analytical Division a symposium honoring Barry Karger, winner of the Separations Science and Technology Award.

The other I&EC Division symposia are: Surfactant-Based Separations; Applications of Spectroscopy to Superconducting Materials; Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Forms; and Poster Papers.

 In mid-November 1997, the IEC Division / Separations Subdivision sponsored a two-session symposium at Cancun on the future of separations science. Ten well-recognized speakers from the USA, Canada and Mexico gave an overview of their research and offered their views on where the

field was going. The talks themselves were outstanding. But what I found most interesting was the reception that those talks received. Both sessions were very well attended with 40-60 attendees at each

talk. There were also quite a few scientists there that I knew by their reputation and who came to the symposium just to learn what was going on in separations science. Many participated by asking questions of the speakers. The attendance and participation reflect very well on the work the Division is doing in bringing to the forefront research that goes on in applied chemistry and chemical engineering. The programming done reaches into the general chemical community at both national and international meetings.

 There is always room for creative ideas in programming and each member is encouraged to get involved in organizing symposia. Getting your ideas recognized is as simple as contacting the program chair or program secretary; those individuals (Ralph Gatrone and Robin Rogers) as well as anyone else on the Executive Committee that you would like to contact, are listed in this newsletter.

 The effort in programming, though not insignificant, is rewarded with an enthusiastic turnout for this important area of chemistry. It is something that is not only worthwhile but an awful lot of fun. If you think that you don't know where to start, well, not to worry: Wally Schulz has written an outstanding booklet for symposium organizers that is invaluable. Additionally, Robin has put most (if not all) of the information on the division's web site. It's allthere for the asking. Get involved - it's your Division.

Greetings.

 As this issue indicates, the Dallas program has finalized into an outstanding program for the American Chemical Societyís meetings and events. I wish to thank those organizers who took on the responsibility of providing this outstanding agenda for us. For those of you who have never been to an ACS meeting, this might be the one to make, because of the diverse nature of the programming being offered.

 At this time, the I&EC Program Committee and another group of symposium organizers are working very hard on future programs. Boston, Anaheim, and New Orleans are shaping up very nicely. Also at this time, the Program Committee finds itself in the very unusual position of having an opening for someone to champion the program for our automation area. Dr. Kathleen Schulz has occupied this role for the last several years and has provided us with several interesting symposia, including a superbly successful experiment with a nontraditional poster session at the last meeting in Anaheim. If you are interested in being the Program Committeeís lead contact for this area of industrial and engineering chemistry, please stop by the Program Committeeís Monday morning meeting in Dallas and ask what the role requires. It might be easier for you to accomplish than you might believe.

 The Committee also wishes to welcome two new members to its ranks. Amy Manheim will be the lead contact for a new area of interest: "Chemical Industry Vision." Larry Pedersen will assist Michael Gula in "Organic Processes." We look forward to seeing both at the meeting in Dallas.

 For those of you who do not know, I have changed positions (again) and am now the Chairman of the Physical Sciences and Chemistry Department at Troy State University in Troy, Alabama. My mailing address is:

The ACS national meeting in Las Vegas attracted about 8400 registrants and a total attendance of around 10,000 people. The registration was somewhat lower than predicted. The weather was extremely hot and the sounds of casino gambling emanated from the well-lit hotel lobbies all night long without a lull.

 The Council meeting was fast-paced and relatively uneventful in terms of controversial and time consuming action. Council voted to recommend to the ACS Board of Directors a $15 increase in member advance registration fees for 1998 ACS national meetings to $225. We also recommended approval by the Board of the national meeting sites and dates for 2008; April 6-11 in San Antonio and August 17-22 in Philadelphia. In addition, we adopted a resolution declaring January 5 as an annual day of recognition for the renowned agricultural chemist George Washington Carver. Adoption of a similar resolution by the Board at their December meeting paves the way for the Society to proceed with efforts to get the states to adopt Jan. 5 as a day to honor Carver.

Also, by ballot vote, Council selected five members to the Council Committee on Committees, four members to the Council Policy Committee and four members to the Committee on Nominations and Elections, all for 1998-2000 terms. These newly elected or re-elected people join others on these committees. None of those elected are councilors from I&EC, although two of our four councilors (John Massingill and Kathleen Schulz) serve on the Committee on Committees. All of ACS governance work gets done on the various committees of the Board, the Council, and the Board-Council joint committees. Most of these committees are looking to increase their representation of industrial chemists and being a councilor is not always a prerequisite, so, if any of you with an industrial background have any desire to serve your society in a very interesting way, contact John or Kathleen.

One item was somewhat controversial and I report it because I think it is a good example of how consensus either is or isnít achieved. Here is the background, as I understand it. Since the ACS had not issued a statement on immigration policy since the early 1980ís, and there was some agitation to change it, the Board created a Task Force on Immigration Policy in March 1996 and charged it to study immigration and naturalization regulations and make recommendations for updating society policy. The task force was made up of representative members of relevant committees of the Council and it made a report to the board at San Francisco in April but asked for more time to review feedback from committees it had sought advice from. The Board, seeing that consensus was going to be difficult and perhaps with an unexpected (or unwanted) outcome, passed a motion informing the task force that it had the option of recommending that no policy statement be issued.

At the Las Vegas meeting of the Board, the task force passed up that option and instead recommended that ACS endorse stricter enforcement of current immigration and naturalization regulations relating to employment. Thereupon the Board passed two motions; first, that the Society would not adopt an official position on immigration and, second, discharging the task force.

Later that week, at the Council meeting, a motion was made, asking the Board to reconsider this action. This motion passed almost unanimously and with very little discussion. At its most recent meeting in December, the Board has confirmed again that the Society will not adopt an official policy statement on integration. However, in recognition of the differences of opinion on adopting such a statement it agreed to ask for further study by some of the committees.

My feeling is that most us are in a world of hurt, trying to understand the pros and cons of this controversy. I have no idea what the argument could be for not wanting to "endorse a stricter enforcement of current regulations". I would like a more open and candid debate on issues affecting ACS policy but maybe I just havenít been paying attention.

As for paying attention, did any of you notice the announcement in C&EN, Dec. 15, p 12 that the ACS Board of Directors voted to present the next ACS Public Service Award in 1998 to Senators Phil Gramm(R-Texas) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn) for "their bipartisan legislation calling for a doubling of federal research funding over the next decade"? Well, like my kids would say, "It does not take a Rocket Scientist to figure out what the policy of the American Chemical Society is with regard to public support of (unspecified) research."

While the ACS Board struggles with policy statements reflecting the views of its 156,000 members, the I&EC Executive Committee has been struggling with the problem of decreasing attendance at its Special Symposium held each year in September. Starting out in 1988 under the title of Emerging Technologies for Hazardous Waste Management, it was successful from the start. For a number of years, it was wildly successful, each year outdoing the previous. Attendance started to decline when the venue had to be shifted away from Atlanta to Birmingham because of the Olympic Games. Following a disappointingly low registration for the ninth symposium of the series in Sept. 1997, it has been decided to discontinue the Special Symposium format for the time being. This symposium, with the same title, will be held within the I&EC Divisionís regular program at the ACS meeting in Boston, August 23-27, 1998

Along a different track, I would like to report some data from the Department of Career Services of the ACS. At the Las Vegas meeting 888 members registered in the National Employment Clearing House. In addition, 376 members had their résumés reviewed by Career Consultants and 71 members applied for "mock interviews", also conducted by Career Consultants. During 1997, 274 members made use of the one on one service provided by the cadre of Career Consultants. These numbers get larger each year as more members become aware of and make use of this free service. This program is highly regarded by those who have made use of it. If anyone is considering a mid-career change or needs help selecting a career path or faces a career crisis, dial 1-800-227-5558 and ask for Career Services.

As the number of members utilizing the services provided by the Career Consultants increases, as noted above, there is a need for more members to become Career Consultants. Currently there is a special need for people with a background in one of the areas of biotechnology, biochemistry, pharmaceutical/medicinal, toxicology and computational chemistry. Personally, I have found this service to be extremely rewarding and would highly recommend it as an important way to serve the profession.

HELLO OUT THERE. I got no response to my discussion last time about "scientific literacy" and I didnít get around to talking about it this time. Iím still working on it though. Iíll leave you with this thought. Roughly one in a thousand adults in the U.S. is a member of the American Chemical Society. This seems to me like a lot but when you think of it the other way, it is 999/1000 that are not. Most of us would agree that we are not as scientifically literate as we would like. So what is it that we want for those other 999/1000 to be and if we can figure that out, how do we get them to be that way?

 Let me hear from you. My e-mail is rstow@NORTHLINK.NET and I can sometimes be reached by phone at 616-526-5078. Call first if you want to fax me, and Iíll turn on the fax machine. Otherwise, snail mail will still come to northern Michigan. Write to Robert A. Stowe, 5680 Chippewa Dr., box 173, Cross Village, MI 49723.

In our Winter/Spring 1996 issue, we reviewed the Doctor of Chemistry program at University of Texas-Dallas. We were moved to do so not only by the vigor and persuasiveness of Lynn Melton, one of its leaders, but by the explicit attention the program gives to preparing chemists to work productively and with enjoyment in industry.

 That article has stimulated GMI Engineering & Management Institute (formerly the General Motors Institute), to bring to our attention its program with a similar intent. GMI offers a bachelors program in environmental chemistry. It is a cooperative program over a five year period. The students spend the first four years alternating between the campus and working full-time with employers in 12-week periods. In the fifth year, each student undertakes a project -- developed cooperatively by the employer, the Institute, and the student -- culminating in the preparation of a published thesis.

 GMI has 550 industrial and governmental sponsors that students can work for. Each sponsor usually contracts with students in pairs, so that there is always one student at the work site -- an educational variant of job-sharing. The sponsors not only get technical work done at an attractive cost, but they get first shot at the graduates as prospective employees. The students get to earn a substantial portion of their college costs but also have an inside track in their post-graduation job search. For more information, contact Daryl Doyle at 800-955-4464, extension 7928 or by e-mail at ddoyle@nova.gmi.edu

This symposium will focus on the application of calixarene derivatives to chemical separations. Topics appropriate to this symposium include synthesis and purification of calixarenes important to separations, studies of calixarene-substrate binding, demonstration of specific separations using calixarenes, and development of separation technologies based upon calixarenes.

 Abstracts should be prepared according to the standard ACS Abstract Form, available over the internet at http://www.acs. org/meetings/abstract/abinfo.html. Completed abstracts should be submitted to G. J. Lumetta at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P. O. Box 999, MSIN P7-25, Richland, WA 99352 (or by e-mail to gregg.lumetta@pnl.gov) or to R. D. Rogers at Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 (or by e-mail to rdrogers@bama.ua.edu). Deadline for abstract submission is October 15, 1998.

To achieve the high chemical and radionuclidic purity needed for radiopharmaceuticals, rapid and selective chemical separations methods are required. The objective of this symposium is to identify and discuss needs within existing and proposed radiopharmaceutical preparation processes and to highlight advances in separations chemistry that are of interest to the radiopharmaceutical industry. Accordingly, papers discussing the use of chemical separations with the goal of providing high-purity radionuclides for use in medical imaging and/or therapy will be accepted.

 Of particular interest are novel separations media and conventional liquid/liquid and solid/liquid separations processes exhibiting enhanced selectivity, extraction kinetics, or radiation and chemical stability. The program will include both invited and contributed papers as well as a poster session. A limited number of overview lectures will also be presented.

 Authors should forward three copies of an abstract (one on original ACS form) to Andrew H. Bond by April 1, 1998. Proceedings of this symposium will be published.

 The organizers are: Andrew H. Bond, Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, 630-252-0957, 630-252-7501 (Fax), email: bond@anlchem.chm.anl.gov; Mark L. Dietz, Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, 630-252-3647, 630-252-7501 (Fax), email: mark_dietz@qmgate.anl.gov; Robin D. Rogers, Department of Chemistry, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, 205-348-4323, 205-348-9104 (Fax), rdrogers@bama.ua.edu.

This symposium, which has been held apart from ACS national meetings for several years will be held as part of the national ACS meeting in Boston. Those wishing to participate should submit standard ACS one-paragraph abstracts to D. W. Tedder, School of Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100 by March 1, 1998

 The ACS, Canadian Society for Chemistry, Chemical Society of Japan, New Zealand society for Chemistry, and the royal Australian Chemical Society will cosponsor, with participation from other societies located in Pacific Rim countries, the fourth in the "Pacifichem" series. The submittal form and instructions are available from ACS Meetings Department by mail, by e-mail at pacifichem @acs.org, and on the Web at http://www.acs.org/meetings/.

TOTAL ASSETS 90,196.92

TOTAL LIABILITIES 9,756.90

CAPITAL FUNDS 80,440.02

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND CAPITAL 90.196.92

(Note: The above figures are not reconciled or audited and are therefore subject to change.)

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This page is maintained by Dustin K. James, Information Provider for the I&EC Division on the Web. Send questions, comments, or other info to dustin@rice.edu

Updated 16 September 2002