Minimizing environmental impact

Uses. Tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol is of interest in chemical and related industries where low toxicity and minimal environmental impact are important (134). For many years tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol has been used as a specialty organic solvent. The fastest growing appHcations are in formulations for cleaners (135) and paint strippers (136), often as a replacement for chlorinated solvents (137). Other major appHcations include formulations for crop sprays, water-based paints, and the dyeing and finishing of textiles and leathers. Tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol also finds appHcation as an intermediate in pharmaceutical appHcations. 

Rayon is unique among the mass produced man-made fibers because it is the only one to use a natural polymer (cellulose) directly. Polyesters, nylons, polyolefins, and acryflcs all come indirectly from vegetation they come from the polymerization of monomers obtained from reserves of fossil fuels, which in turn were formed by the incomplete biodegradation of vegetation that grew millions of years ago. The extraction of these nonrenewable reserves and the resulting return to the atmosphere of the carbon dioxide from which they were made is one of the most important environmental issues of current times. CeUulosic fibers therefore have much to recommend them provided that the processes used to make them have minimal environmental impact. 

The ceUulose polymer and its conversion routes have already proved to be capable of adaptation to meet a wide range of market demands. The advances being made in getting ceUulose into solution with minimal environmental impact augur weU for the development of streamlined routes from tree to fiber or fabric. 

The industrial economy depends heavily on electrochemical processes. Electrochemical systems have inherent advantages such as ambient temperature operation, easily controlled reaction rates, and minimal environmental impact (qv). Electrosynthesis is used in a number of commercial processes. Batteries and fuel cells, used for the interconversion and storage of energy, are not limited by the Carnot efficiency of thermal devices. Corrosion, another electrochemical process, is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars aimuaUy in the United States alone (see Corrosion and CORROSION control). Electrochemical systems can be described using the fundamental principles of thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport phenomena. 

The main purpose of pesticide formulation is to manufacture a product that has optimum biological efficiency, is convenient to use, and minimizes environmental impacts. The active ingredients are mixed with solvents, adjuvants (boosters), and fillers as necessary to achieve the desired formulation. The types of formulations include wettable powders, soluble concentrates, emulsion concentrates, oil-in-water emulsions, suspension concentrates, suspoemulsions, water-dispersible granules, dry granules, and controlled release, in which the active ingredient is released into the environment from a polymeric carrier, binder, absorbent, or encapsulant at a slow and effective rate. The formulation steps may generate air emissions, liquid effluents, and solid wastes. 

Some petroleum geologists believe that there may be more methane trapped in hydrates than what is associated with natural gas reserves. However, as an energy source, there is considerable uncertainty whether this methane can ever be recovered safely, economically, and with minimal environmental impact. The Russians have experimented with the use of antifreeze to break down hydrates at some onshore locations in Siberia. But perhaps a more promising approach would be to pipe warm surface water to the bottom to melt the hydrates, with a collector positioned to convey the gas to the surface. Another approach might be to free methane by somehow reducing the pressure on the methane hydrates. 

Chromium lignosulfonates are the biggest contributions to heavy metals in drilling fluids. Although studies have shown minimal environmental impact, substitutes exist that can result in lower chromium levels in muds. The less used chromium lignites (trivalent chromium complexes) are similar in character and performance with less chromium. Nonchromium substitutes are effective in many situations. Typical total chromium levels in muds are 100-1000 mg/1. 

Identify alternative products or modified products that minimize environmental impact through enhanced recycling potential or biodegradability... 

Intensify manufacturing processes, so that compact chemical plants can make required amounts of product efficiently, safely, and with minimal environmental impact. 

Seawater desahnation plants almost exclusively use surface water disposal, and they are often sited so that concentration may be discharged directly back to the ocean with minimal environmental impact. It is recommended that ocean discharges be located along open coast, as opposed to locations where there will be minimal water movement, such as estuaries (Watson et al. 2003). Ideal ocean bottom profiles are ones which achieve a sufficient depth quickly, as this reduces the require length of the outfall pipe and decreases costs (Mauguin and Corsin 2005). 

In recent years, several initiatives have been launched to establish or strengthen surveillance systems, both in EU member states and at an international level, to monitor the presence of these residues in environmental matrices. When implementing measures, water bodies relevant for drinking water should receive priority. Furthermore, research is required to determine whether observations made from regional sample sets are representative of environmental concentrations nationwide [3], being essential to perform contamination maps and implement surveillance models, needed for the establishment of a sustainable strategy, to minimize environmental impact of medicines. 

Unlike common industrial parks where factories are selected simply on the basis of their willingness to share the real estate, environmentally balanced industrial complexes (EBIC) are a selective collection of compatible industrial plants located together in a complex so as to minimize environmental impacts and industrial production costs [24,33]. These objectives are accomplished by utilizing the waste materials of one plant as the raw materials for another with a minimum of transportation, storage, and raw materials preparation costs. It is obvious that when an industry neither needs to treat its wastes, nor is required to import, store, and pretreat its raw materials, its overall production costs must be reduced significantly. Additionally, any material reuse costs in an EBIC will be difficult to identify and more easily absorbed into reasonable production costs. 

Abstract The telomerization of butadiene with alcohols is an elegant way to synthesize ethers with minimal environmental impact since this reaction is 100% atom efficient. Besides telomerization of butadiene with methanol and water that is industrially developed, the modification of polyols is still under development. Recently, a series of new substrates has been involved in this reaction, including diols, pure or crude glycerol, protected or unprotected monosaccharides, as well as polysaccharides. This opens up the formation of new products having specific physicochemical properties. We will describe recent advances in this field, focusing on the reaction of renewable products and more specifically on saccharides. The efficient catalytic systems as well as the optimized reaction conditions will be described and some physicochemical properties of the products will be reported. 

While a significant portion of the elemental sulfur moving in world trade is handled, shipped and stored in the liquid form, the bulk of the export shipments, especially from Canada, Poland and soon from Saudi Arabia, move in the solidified state. The last decade has seen some important changes in the form of the solidified sulfur partly to improve handling characteristic but, more importantly, to minimize environmental impact. 

Friedheim, J.E. and Pantermuehl, R.M. (1993) Superior performance with minimal environmental impact a novel non-aqueous drilling fluid. SPE 25753 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference 23-25 February 1993, Amsterdam. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Richardson, TX, pp. 713-726. 

Norman, M Ross, S., McEwen, G. and GetlifF, J. (2002) Minimizing environmental impacts and maximizing hole stability - the significance of drilling with synthetic fluids in New Zealand. New Zealand Petroleum Conference Proceedings 24—27 February 2002. 

The tradition in agriculture has been to maximize production and minimize the cost of food with little regard to impacts on the environment and the services it provides to society. As the world enters an era in which global food production is likely to double, it is critical that agricultural practices be modified to minimize environmental impacts even though many such practices are likely to increase the costs of production. (Tilman 1999)... 

Tires should be utilized to minimize environmental impact and maximize conservation of natural resources. This means reuse or retreading first, followed by reuse of the rubber to make rubber products or paving, and then combustion and disposal. At present, the preferred uses do not accommodate all the tires, and disposal must be utilized to a large degree. 

The authors further explored the optimum heating temperature and found that heating the tertiary soil at 400-500°C enhanced the adsorbent s fluoride removal capacity. Moreover, a preliminary column experiment showed that 4.0 kg of 400°C heat-treated soil could treat more than 300 L of 5 mg/L fluoride feed water before the effluent fluoride concentration of 1.0 mg/L was reached. To minimize environmental impact of the used material, a cost-effective regeneration technique was devised and it involved rinsing the soil with sodium carbonate solution, followed with dilute HCI and finally twice with distilled water. 

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