The Urban Challenge

Catalytic incineration has been appHed in the abatement of chlorinated VOC emissions in the pharmaceutical industry. The major compounds in the emission mixture are dichloromethane, perchloroethylene, dimethylformamide, oxitol, and toluene. The incinerator operates normally at 400-500 °C, but when emissions contain perchloroethylene the temperature is increased up to 500-600 °C. The emission mixture also contains water, which pushes the selectivity further toward HCl formation instead of formation of CI2. After oxidation, the product gases are washed with NaOH scrubbers. The purification level of over 99% can be achieved with the incinerator, the activity of which has been shown to be very stable after one year of continuous operation [69-71]. 

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Vairavamoorthy K. 2011. The urban challenge. The water, energy and food security nexus. The Water Energy and Food Security Nexus - Solutions for the Green Economy , 16-18 November, 2011, Bonn, Germany. 

The major trends in the chemical industry are likely to continue over the next years. Globalization will go on, and the huge Asian market will provide further opportunities but also challenges (see Chapters 7, 32, and 33). GDP growth in Asia will lead to a bigger market, but also to higher salaries, at least in the urban centers. Growth in traditional markets will be very limited. 

We must be aware, however, that widening development gaps, the collapse of public health infrastructure, poverty, urbanization, civil strife, environmental change and degradation, and the globalization of travel and trade can contribute to the new challenges posed by epidemic-prone and emerging communicable diseases worldwide. 

After a few months in Washington, Wolfrom moved in September, 1927, to New York City in order to work in the laboratory of P. A. Levene at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Levene, the outstanding master on the North American continent in the young discipline of biochemistry, was an ardent genius with a remarkable capacity for hard work, an urbane and cosmopolitan personality, and a warm interest in all of those who worked with him. In his contact with Levene, Wolfrom was able to assimilate at firsthand some of the valuable aspects of the European traditions in science that Levene was able to convey to his coworkers at the Rockefeller Institute, and he was simultaneously exposed to the enormous challenge to the structural chemist offered by the seemingly hopeless slimes and mucins that... 

Green, Charles, ed. 1997. Globalization and Survival in the Black Diaspora The New Urban Challenge. New York State University of New York Press. 

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