March 16, 1998 -- Some of this week's stories
New process reduces cost of 'green' solvent
Millions of pounds of toxic industrial solvents -- many of
which wind up polluting the environment -- could be replaced by
"environmentally friendly" solvents
thanks to a new cost-cutting process developed by Argonne.
The environmentally benign solvent, ethyl lactate, has been
around for years, but until now the cost of producing it has been too high for
it to compete economically with lower-priced chemical solvents.
Ethyl lactate normally sells for $1.60 to $2 per pound, compared
to about 90 cents to about $1.70 per pound for conventional
chemical solvents. But Argonne's new production technology has
shattered the old price barrier.
"We believe our new process can cut the market price of ethyl
lactate to well below $1 per pound," said Jim Frank (ES). Frank
developed the process with Rathin Datta, Shih-Perng Tsai and Mike Henry (All ES).
"We've demonstrated the process in batches of several
kilograms," he said. "The result was a highly pure product of
commercial-grade quality."
NTEC, Inc., of Mount Prospect, Ill., is developing a commercial
demonstration plant that would produce about 10 million pounds
of ethyl lactate a year. Ultimately, Frank said, plants up to 10
times larger would be needed to meet a market projected to exceed one
billion pounds a year.
Chemical solvents are widely used as cleaners, degreasers
and product ingredients in such industries as electronics
manufacturing, adhesives, paints and other coatings, printing, de-inking, and
textile manufacturing.
They include such compounds as chloro-fluorocarbons,
which damage the earth's ozone layer, and volatile organic
compounds, such as chloroform and tri-chloroethylene, which is one of
the nation's most common ground-water pollutants.
Ethyl lactate, on the other hand, is both non-toxic and
biodegradable. It is so environmentally friendly that the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration long ago approved its use in food products.
It occurs naturally, for example, in beer, wine and soy products.
Each year, the United States uses more than 3.8 million tons
of toxic solvents. According to industry estimates, Frank said,
solvents made with ethyl lactate can replace more than 80 percent of these
applications, provided its price can be made competitive with that of
conventional solvents.
Argonne has reduced the cost by improving a number of steps in
the fermentation-based process used to manufacture it, he said. In
addition to improving the efficiency of the fermentation process,
Argonne has added an electrically driven, advanced membrane
separation step that eliminates an undesirable salt by-product.
"But our major breakthrough," Frank said, "is a new,
patented purification-separation system. This is the key technology that
we expect will significantly reduce the market price."
The fermentation process typically starts with a
dextrose-based feedstock, such as corn starch, which is fermented and
partially purified to produce lactic acid, a natural substance that is
found, for example, in milk. Then ethanol, which is better known as
grain alcohol, and a small amount of sulfuric acid are added.
The mixture is heated to about 100 degrees Celsius, the
boiling point of water. This temperature is much lower than that required
by other ethyl lactate production methods. At this point, the lactic
acid reacts with the other ingredients to produce the ethyl lactate.
"With conventional ethyl-lactate production methods, the
product isn't very pure," Frank said,
"and the presence of water, a by-product, limits the reaction to only
about 60 percent completion."
Argonne scientists overcame this limitation, he said, with a
proprietary purification-separation system that uses a membrane
to selectively remove the excess water. "As a result, we can bring
the reaction to nearly 100 percent completion with higher purity
and lower processing costs."
Argonne's improved method for producing ethyl lactate was
developed with funding from DOE's Office of Industrial Technologies.
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Snowstorm pummels lab;
weather day declared
Argonne-East's share of the late-winter snowstorm on March 9
was about eight inches of snow, whipped by winds gusting to 40 miles
per hour.
The laboratory closed at 3 p.m. to allow employees -- the few
who did make it to work -- to drive home in daylight.
The Argonne Info-Line, ext. 2-4636, was updated before 7 a.m.
with news that the laboratory would open as usual; it received more
than 3,300 calls. Argonne's World Wide Web home page was updated
with the same information before 8 a.m.
Employees who were scheduled to work but unable to get to
the laboratory due to the weather will be paid for the day. Time for
this weather day on time sheets shold be shown in the absence
column under the code "W."
Regular part-time employees who were scheduled to work will
be paid according to their schedules. Special term appointees and
temporary services employees will be paid only for the actual time worked.
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Computers disrupted via Internet
Argonne is one of many government and academic
institutions hit by continuing "denial of service"
computer disruptions coming via the Internet from an
unknown person or persons.
Computers at both Argonne sites have been affected.
The culprit attacks Windows 95 and Windows NT systems
by sending a barrage of invalid data to computers via the
Internet. Assaulted computers devote increasing amounts
of memory and processing power to the invalid data until
they slow to a crawl or stop working. Rebooting solves the
problem, but data on the screen at the time of the attack is
usually lost.
The attacker's intent seems to be disruption rather
than data theft, said Paul Krystosek (ECT), part of the team
of Argonne's computer experts attempting to stymie
the hacker's efforts. ECT employees spent several late
nights monitoring Argonne's network for intrusions and
preventing many of the attacks from affecting employees' computers.
Software "patches" are available to help protect
computers from these disruptions. For more information,
employees should contact their system administrators,
computer protection representatives or the ECT Consulting Office
at ext. 2-6969.
As of press time, the offenders had not been
caught. Attacks were continuing, although at a much slower
pace than before.
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Travel office
to change its
location in 201
The Travel Office in Argonne-East's Building 201 will move
from its current location to the front of the building, facing the lobby.
The Travel Office will continue to take reservations, issue
tickets and distribute travel packets at its current location until it closes at
1 p.m. on Friday, March 20. The office will reopen at 8:30 a.m.
Monday, March 23, in its new location.
Effective March 23, BTI Americas, the third-largest travel
services company in North America, will provide travel services for
both Argonne sites.
Employees at Argonne-East will continue to mail and fax travel
authorizations to the Building 201 location, and pick up travel
packets there. To make a reservation, call BTI's Northbrook office at (800)
355-8313.
Argonne-West travelers should call Tammie Hubler at ext.
3-7342 during regular hours.
At both sites, travelers can call (800) 888-8225 for off-hour
and weekend service.
Detailed information on the laboratory's new travel services
will be distributed to all travelers at both sites in the near future.
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Deadline for
flex accounts
is March 31
The deadline for submitting requests for 1997
reimbursements under the medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts
is Tuesday, March 31.
For more information, call Human Resources at ext. 2-2991
(Argonne-East) or ext. 3-7227 (Argonne- West).
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Golf league plans lunchtime meeting
The Argonne Engineering Golf League will hold an
organizational meeting Wednesday, March 18, in Argonne-East's Building
401, Room A1100, from noon to 1 p.m.
All employees are invited to bring their lunches to the
meeting, which features a raffle with door prizes.
The league plays individual competition on Wednesdays
at Carriage Greens Golf Course in Darien. Tee times are from 4
p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
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Stroke of luck wins
'office golf' tournament
Frank Rotella (CMB) won the indoor office golf putting
tournament Feb. 25, acing the fourth hole to win by a single
stroke over Matt Elliott (TD), who finished with a 13.
Rotella represented Argonne at the Chicago-area finals
on March 4 at Chicago's Fairmont Hotel.
The five-hole course was laid out in the Advanced
Photon Source gallery in Argonne-East's Building 402. The event
was sponsored by Argonne Club and Argonne's golf leagues.
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Mail Services
web page
includes hours
Argonne-East's Mail Services home page on the World
Wide Web includes locations, hours and mailing information.
The page can be reached through the Plant Facilities
and Services World Wide Web site at:
http://www.anl.gov/PFS/pfshome.html.
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New electronic
packaging
to be displayed
The latest developments in electronic packaging will be on
display in the Schroff "Infomobile" in
Argonne-East's Building 213 parking lot on Thursday, March 19, from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Items on display will include desktop and rack mount
cases, cabinets, subracks, backplanes and assembled systems.
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