The Environmental Challenge

For many years the need to have environmentally friendly products and processes was seen by many chemical companies as a necessary, but additional, cost to be borne by the business. Whilst there is still a cost, it is now more often seen as beneficial to the business and indeed to offer financial opportunities, if the challenge is accepted in an innovative fashion. 

An early example of this type of beneficial research was described by ICI [D-5]. Tioxide, then one of the subsidiaries of ICI but now part of the Huntsman Group, which makes titanium dioxide pigments, invested some 200 million over four years to reduce the environmental impact of its manufacture. One of the aims was to turn wastes into saleable products. 

Liquid acidic wastes from the process were neutralised to form solid gypsum that was then sold to the building, paper and farming industries. The gaseous effluent, carbon dioxide, was sold to the beer and beverage industries. Finally, the iron salts were isolated and sold to the water treatment industry. In 1994 some 580000 tonnes of these products were sold to these industries. 

The environmental issues are providing an exciting opportunity for R D to make a significant contribution, not only to the health of the local community but also the financial health of the company. Some of the major areas for study by R D are catalytic solutions, solvent replacement, novel reactors, such as microreactors, as well as considering the product design carrying out life cycle assessments and the use of alternative feedstocks. This area has become known as Green Chemistry [D-6]. 

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Sharratt, P.N., 1996. Crystallization Meeting the environmental challenge. Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 74, 732-738. 

Marine mammals have adapted to an aquatic or semi-aquatic lifestyle with such features as reduced or eliminated limb structures, a blubber layer for thermoregulatory, nutritional, buoyancy and locomotory roles, and reproductive strategies conducive to fitness in a given biogeographic zone (habitat). The environmental challenges faced by newborn marine mammals at birth may explain there largely precocious nature and the apparent maturity of the immune system of newborn marine mammals [1],... 

A K Gupta and D G Lilley Review The environmental challenge of gas turbines. Journal of the Institute of Energy 65 106 (1992)... 

Klarer, J. and Moldan, B. (Eds.). (1997). The Environmental Challenge for Central European Economies in Transition, John Wiley and Sons London. 

USEPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) (1990a) Meeting the Environmental Challenge EPA s Review of Progress and New Directions in Environmental Protection, EPA, 21K-2001. 

Climate change considerations must always be considered. Any response must be affordable and provide the basis for sustainable development, by addressing ongoing economic and social requirements as well as the environmental challenge. 

Of the several species and strains of LAB that have been investigated and utilized as commercial starters for malolactic fermentation (MLF), only strains of Leuconostoc oenos appear to have the physiological properties to consistently tolerate the environmental challenges of wine and produce sensorially desirable results in a time frame that is generally acceptable to the winemaker. Lactobacillus and Pediococcus sp. have also been used to induced MLF, but with limited success. 

O. oeni has the ability to metabolize mahc acid found in grapes to form lactic acid through MLF (Sections 2.4.3 and 6.4.2). Though other species of lactic acid bacteria have been investigated and used as commercial starters for MLF, strains of O. oeni appear to have the physiological properties to consistently tolerate the environmental challenges of wine while producing desirable results within an amount of time acceptable to the winemaker. 

Kingsbury, E., and Vadori, L., The Refinery of the Future , paper presented at the seminar on Transportation Fuels and the Environmental Challenges , Toronto, Prince Hotel, November 8, 1990. 

Jenkins, E. W., Pell, R. G. (2006). Me and the environmental challenges A survey of English secondary school students attitudes towards the environment. International Journal of Science Education, 28, 765-780. 

Charles, H.K. Sinnadurai, N. Microelectronics, Rising to the Environmental Challenge ... 

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