Category Archives: Chemistry

BLOOMFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

VeruTEK® Technologies, Inc. (VTKT), a provider of patented Green Chemistry technologies for environmental remediation and enhanced oil recovery, announced today a Certificate of Completion (COC) has been issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) for the successful cleanup of a New York City brownfield.

The site, located along the East River in Hunters Point, Queens, NY will be redeveloped for a new branch of the Queens Public Library and a New York State Parks ranger station. VeruTEK successfully implemented its patented Surfactant-enhanced In Situ Chemical Oxidation (S-ISCO®) technology at this former industrial site to remediate contamination from coal tar repurposed from Manufactured Gas Plants (MGPs) for use in the production of roofing products.

This S-ISCO remediation marks the first time a Green Chemistry solution of this kind has been used to remediate MGP-related contamination in New York City and sets a precedent for the use of innovative technologies to achieve a COC within the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program.

S-ISCO provided a low-impact solution that benefits the health and safety of the community and environment. Specifically VeruTEK’s innovative treatment:

Destroyed contamination in place, avoiding digging and hauling thousands of truck-loads of contaminated soil through the community while preserving the stability of the subsurface and high-rise buildings on adjacent parcels; Prevented surrounding businesses and residents from being exposed to dust and emissions related to large scale excavation, and also reduced soil gas contamination; Took place during a short time frame (five months), without disturbing the community; and Provided a permanent solution to site contamination, preparing the site for safe and productive reuse.

Arana Hankin, President of Queens West Development Corporation (QWDC), the New York State public authority responsible for the development of the Queens West project, said, “Issuance of a Certificate of Completion for this brownfield site is an exciting milestone in the redevelopment of Queens waterfront property. We look forward to beginning the next phase of redevelopment, construction by the City of New York of a state-of-the art public library on the site, which was cleaned up with virtually no disruption to the community.”

At this urban site, VeruTEK conducted S-ISCO injections to treat more than 50,000 pounds of coal tar contamination in the soil by destroying in-situ (in place underground) over 90% of the combined polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and BTEX compounds, including 95% of the naphthalene. VeruTEK’s novel S-ISCO technology combines patented plant-based surfactant and co-solvent mixtures (VeruSOL) with free-radical oxidant systems to safely release (desorb) and destroy recalcitrant contaminants from the soil. VeruTEK’s S-ISCO technology destroyed the primary source of contamination, yielding a permanent solution for the site.

VeruTEK’s S-ISCO technology was selected by Fleming Lee Shue, a New York City based environmental management and consulting company which was commissioned to design and manage the cleanup effort by QWDC and a leading national developer and manager of high quality apartment communities. The S-ISCO treatment was augmented by Wavefront Technology Solutions US Inc’s (Wavefront) Primawave pressure-pulsing technology, as well as the RemMetrikSM process to quantify subsurface contamination, optimize its treatment and measure effectiveness.

Arnold Fleming, President of Fleming Lee Shue, added, “Our firm identifies and commissions innovative technologies which deliver cost effective and thorough environmental cleanup. We were very impressed with the results of VeruTEK’s S-ISCO technology implementation. Compared to full-scale excavations conducted on similar nearby sites, VeruTEK’s remedy not only reduced the project cost by over $5 million dollars but also avoided the release of dust and odor, prevented disruption to the community, and reduced the carbon footprint of the clean-up. The project was done cost effectively, completed on-time, under-budget and resulted in a Certificate of Completion.”

Dan Socci, VeruTEK’s CEO, praised the work of the combined Fleming Lee Shue and VeruTEK team that designed and implemented the S-ISCO remedy, as well as the results achieved, stating, “We are proud of the outcome of this project and had a very positive experience collaborating with Fleming Lee Shue. We look forward to repeating this project’s success and bringing a safe, effective and environmentally preferable solution to other brownfield sites, enabling their return to productive use.”

VeruTEK has successfully implemented S-ISCO at locations worldwide to treat former MGP sites, chlorinated solvents contamination—including industrial cleaning and dry cleaning chemicals, home heating oil spills, and gasoline station tank leaks. The successful destruction of MGP-related coal tar at the Hunters Point brownfield site in Queens, adjacent to the East River and in a densely developed urban setting, demonstrates the ability of S-ISCO to achieve contaminant source destruction in-situ quickly and safely for the benefit of the community and the environment.

About VeruTEK Technologies, Inc. (www.verutek.com)

VeruTEK®is a green chemistry company with a new, field-proven approach to addressing difficult environmental issues. The company has developed innovative, patented, time-controlled chemistry to deliver safe, high performing and lower cost remediation solutions. VeruTEK's technology platform addresses a broad range of applications including soil/groundwater remediation and enhanced oil recovery as well as industrial cleaning products for surface cleanup of oil spills and PCB contamination. VeruTEK is publicly-traded under the symbol VTKT.

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VeruTEK Inc.: Queens, New York Brownfield Site Goes Green, Saves Millions

AMSTERDAM, February 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Professor Dr. Manfred T. Reetz honored for his work on synthetic organic chemistry

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announces that leading German scientist, Professor Dr. Manfred T. Reetz (Emeritus) of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Kohlenforschung and Hans Meerwein Research Professor at Philipps-Universität, Marburg, has been awarded the 2011 Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry.

The Executive Board of Editors of Elsevier's Tetrahedron Publications selected Professor Reetz for his many outstanding contributions to synthetic organic chemistry, especially for his work on enantioselective catalysis to control stereoselectivity. He has been prominent in the discovery and development of enzyme catalysts for asymmetric reactions. These enzyme catalysts can be developed in the laboratory to suit a specific reaction using a process of directed evolution: repeatedly selecting and growing the host organism which shows the highest yield of the enzyme required.

"Winners of the Tetrahedron prize are leaders in their field. They are the scientists who, through their outstanding creativity in organic chemistry, have moved the field in a new and significant direction. Elsevier is proud to recognize this creativity by the presentation of this prize," Diddel Francissen, Executive Publisher for the Tetrahedron Publications at Elsevier, said of the annual prize.

Elsevier's Tetrahedron Prize consists of a gold medal and a monetary award. Established in 1980 to honor the memory of the founding co-Chairmen of the Tetrahedron Publications, Professor Sir Robert Robinson and Professor Robert Burns Woodward, it is awarded for creativity in Organic Chemistry or Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. Previous recipients include: Albert Eschenmoser, Elias J. Corey, Gilbert Stork, Arthur J. Birch, Michael J.S. Dewar, William S. Johnson, Ryoji Noyori;  K. Barry Sharpless, Alan R. Battersby;  A. Ian Scott, Samuel Danishefsky, Stuart L. Schreiber, David A. Evans, Teruaki Mukaiyama, Henri B. Kagan, Peter B. Dervan, Yoshito Kishi, Kyriacos C. Nicolaou, Robert H. Grubbs, Dieter Seebach, Koji Nakanishi, Bernd Giese, Hisashi Yamamoto, J. Fraser Stoddart, Larry E. Overman, Steven V. Ley and Satoshi ?mura.

The Tetrahedron Prize will be presented to Professor Reetz at the Fall 2012 American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia, USA.

For more information on the Tetrahedron Prize please click here.

About Tetrahedron Publications 

Elsevier's Tetrahedron cluster of journals consists of: Tetrahedron, Tetrahedron Letters, Tetrahedron Assymetry, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters. All these journals provide an international forum for the publication of research in all areas of (bio)organic and medicinal chemistry.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact
Diddel Francissen
Elsevier
+31-20-4852588
d.francissen@elsevier.com

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Leading German Researcher Awarded Elsevier's 2011 Tetrahedron Prize

CAMBRIDGE, MA--(Marketwire -02/28/12)- Cambridge NanoTech, the world leader in Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) science and equipment, has completed delivery of its 300th system to the Institute of Coal Chemistry (ICC) in Shanxi, China. Marking as a milestone for the company, Cambridge NanoTech's ALD systems have become an important strategic solution for researchers and manufacturers that require digital control for a variety of materials such as oxides, nitrides, sulfides, and metals.

The Institute of Coal Chemistry is a high-tech research and development institution affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The Savannah will be the first ALD tool in their diverse R&D facility. "We chose the Savannah ALD system because we found that it was easy to get precise, uniform films, especially when trying new and novel precursors," explained Dr. Yong Qin, professor at State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, ICC. "We plan to use the Savannah for the ALD of supported nanocatalysts for applications in industrial catalysis. We expect the Savannah to be the workhorse of the lab, allowing us to run thermal process with little to no maintenance." The ICC will be working with a number of different materials including, TiO(2), SnO(2), VO(x), Pt, and Ru.

Cambridge NanoTech first introduced the Savannah ALD system nine years ago and has since expanded the world's most popular ALD system into three models: S100, S200, and S300. As a leader in the ALD industry, Cambridge NanoTech has expanded its product offerings to include the Fiji plasma-enhanced ALD systems for R&D and the Phoenix and Tahiti systems for batch and large area production needs.

"The widespread adoption of this technology, proliferation of the Savannah system and growth of ALD applications are helping accelerate the transformation of everyday products," said Jill Becker, CEO and founder of Cambridge NanoTech. "Six continents and thousands of research papers later, the Savannah ALD system has grown to become to gold standard for thermal ALD systems. Our team could not be more proud of this delivery as it is a testament to our systems, the versatility of ALD, and the market demand for this technology."

In addition to this milestone, earlier this month Cambridge NanoTech launched their first webinar series titled "What is Atomic Layer Deposition and Why Should You Care?" The first series of webinars focused on ALD basics and was attended by over 275 participants from 32 countries. "Modern technologies are dramatically changing the way we share information," explains Becker. "We are excited to be at the forefront of these social technologies, evangelizing Atomic Layer Deposition and providing people with tools that enable their material science solutions." Cambridge NanoTech's future webinars will feature topics ranging from the benefits of plasma ALD to the growth of self assembled monolayers. For more information on upcoming Cambridge NanoTech webinars, visit http://www.cambridgenanotech.com/seminars.

About the Institute of Coal Chemistry
The Institute of Coal Chemistry (ICC) is one of the high-tech research and development institutions affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). ICC mainly conducts basic and applied research in three academic scopes such as energy and environment, advanced materials and green chemistry.

About Cambridge NanoTech
Cambridge NanoTech delivers Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) systems capable of depositing ultra-thin films that are used in a wide variety of research and industrial applications. Our manufacturing ALD systems are used in the production of semiconductors, flat panel displays, and solid state lighting. Cambridge NanoTech research systems are used by world class scientists on five continents to study superior ALD film properties such as electrical, anti-bacterial, UV-blocking, and anti-reflection. To learn more about Cambridge NanoTech, please visit http://www.cambridgenanotech.com.

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Major Milestone for Cambridge NanoTech: 300th ALD System Shipped

US biotech – and Sanofi subsidiary – Genzyme has confirmed plans to close its R&D site in Cambridge, UK, by the end of 2012 putting 60 jobs under threat. The firm started the consultation process back in November 2011, when it said it was looking to consolidate its R&D structure geographically at four research hubs: one in Germany, one in France, one in Boston, US, and one somewhere in Asia. Sanofi says that it ‘remains committed to keeping its strategic presence in the UK’. It adds that it is ‘looking at options to minimise the number of job losses, either through transfer of roles within the Sanofi group or through assisting impacted employees in finding alternative employment’. The two other UK sites – a manufacturing site in Haverhill and an R&D site in Oxford – will remain.

French drug maker Sanofi bought Genzyme in February 2011 for $20 billion in one of the biggest biotech deals the industry has seen.

Are you affected by the closure? Let us know what you think…

Andrew Turley

                  

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Chemistry certainly has its share of happy accidents. Perkin tried for quinine but got a dye (and his fortune); while Wilbrand tried for a dye and ended up with high explosive… TNT. Simon Cotton tells the story in this week’s Chemistry in its element podcast.

                  

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The AAAS meeting rounded off with a look at how on Earth we’re going to feed increasing numbers of people who are developing a greater taste for pork, chicken and beef. Currently, livestock takes up 30% of the world’s farmland – both in grazing land and crops for feed – and with global consumption of meat expected to almost double by 2050 a solution is urgently needed. That’s where Mark Post, professor of angiogenesis in tissue engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, steps up. He wants to use tissue cultures to turn a mush of cells into a product that’s indistinguishable from a 16oz steak. However, steaks are complex with their taste and texture depend on a complex mix of a good blood supply and exercise to create firm, lean muscle tissue. As steak is a tough place to start, Post has been trying to make sausages, which he says are ‘barely recognisable as a meat product!’. He’s also looking at creating burgers using his tissue culture technique. He thinks that one of the first burgers he’ll make will cost $200,000 – a bit pricey for all but Bill Gates, but he’s sure that this price tag can be driven down.

Later in the afternoon Bob Root-Bernstein at Michigan State University gave a great presentation on the origins of life. He talked about the idea of molecular complementarity being the chemical starting point that helped put inanimate molecules on the road to forming life. Molecular complementarity is where two distinct chemicals, which could be very different, can reversibly to bind to each other. Root-Bernstein says that when people think of molecular complementarity they often think of large molecules like DNA. He says that when we think about the origins of life we need to think about small molecules coming together; and when they come together they can raise or lower the activation energy of reactions. Glutathione, for instance, can bind to glycine-glycine and protect it from destruction by UV light. These types of reactions could link up to form modules, and he theorises that these modules may have led to certain chemicals being favoured over others in the primordial soup. He points out that hints that this occurred throughout the evolution of life can still be seen today. Insulin, which regulates glucose, has motifs that allow it to bind to the sugar. Insulin can also aggregate into a hexameric barrel, and this could have been the genesis of the first glucose transporter. Even today, similar glucose-binding motifs to those found on insulin can be seen on glucose transporters and receptors. Clearly there’s lots of ifs and maybes here, but it’s a fascinating theory nonetheless.

Root-Bernstein says that he now hopes to search for chemical modules by re-running the Miller-Urey experiments, but increasing their complexity and bringing analytical tools to bear on the products that just weren’t available 60 years ago.

Patrick Walter

                  

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