Scientists Invent Hydrogels for Repairing Human Tissue
 University of Delaware scientists have invented a biomaterial with surprising antibacterial properties that can be injected as a low-viscosity gel into a wound where it rigidifies nearly on contact – opening the door to the possibility of delivering a targeted payload of cells and antibiotics to repair the damaged tissue.
Regenerating healthy tissue in a cancer-ridden liver, healing a biopsy site and providing wounded soldiers in battle with pain-killing, infection-fighting medical treatment are among the myriad uses the scientists foresee for the new technology.
The patented invention by Joel Schneider, UD associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Darrin Pochan, associate professor of materials science, and their research groups marks a step forward in the development of hydrogels for medical applications. Formulating hydrogels as delivery vehicles for cells extends the uses of these biopolymers beyond soft-contact lenses and into a realm once viewed as the domain of science fiction, including growing bones and organs to replace those that are diseased or injured.
Hydrogels are formed from networks of super-absorbent, chain-like polymers. Although they are not soluble in water, they soak up large amounts of it, and their porous structure allows nutrients and cell wastes to pass right through them. Schneider and Pochan and their research teams have been focusing on developing peptide-based hydrogels that, once implanted in the human body, will become scaffolds for cells to hold onto and grow--cells such as fibroblasts, which form connective tissue, and osteoblasts, which form bone.
Emerson Acquires Decision Management International
Emerson has acquired Decision Management International, Inc. (DMI). DMI has become part of Emerson Process Management, adding software and expertise, including electronic management of workflow, materials, equipment, personnel and documentation, to expand Emerson’s real-time manufacturing solutions. The acquisition includes all DMI technologies, applications, services and employees.
Compliance Suite by DMI software is tightly integrated with Emerson’s DeltaV Batch software as part of PlantWeb digital architecture. The comprehensive technology provides high data integrity in paperless manufacturing solutions and an integrated, electronic batch record that improves overall cycle times and reduces manufacturing costs. Data integrity is a critical part of operations for manufacturers that must comply with requirements in regulated industries, such as life sciences, specialty chemical and food and beverage production.
Emerson and DMI have had a close relationship since 2002, delivering integrated manufacturing solutions to process facilities. With the added capabilities of DMI software, Emerson’s automation solutions encompass the entire spectrum of process facility operations – everything from customer order receipt through production, warehousing and shipment. The comprehensive automation extends into production recipes, materials, equipment trains and overall site documents.
Researchers Use Malvern Spraytec in Dusty Plumes
 A research team led by Professor John Dodds at the RAPSODEE research centre, Ecole des Mines in Albi, France, is using a Malvern Spraytec particle size analyzer as part of a project to better understand the mechanics of powder handling. The system will be used to examine dust emissions from powder streams in order to assess the risk of dust exposure.
This project, which is part of a research program managed by the French National Institute of Research and Security (INRS), seeks to quantify potentially hazardous dust emissions. A key task is to investigate the effect on dust formation of powder properties and powder geometry. Using the Spraytec, mean concentration and particle size distribution data, critical elements in the work, can be generated without disturbing the powder flow.
The team at the Ecoles des Mines was one of the first to use the new generation Spraytec system. This laser diffraction-based analyzer is designed for the measurement of particle size in aerosols and sprays. Two features make it especially suited for this application. The first is its ability to measure aerosol distributions over a wide range of particle sizes, ensuring that all particle information is captured. Secondly, the Spraytec’s large working range allows measurement of particles even if they are at a distance from the detector, so the powder plume can be analyzed easily without risk of contaminating the optics. This, coupled with a versatile bench design, is allowing real time measurement of dust production during powder flow from silos.
USCAR’s VRP Contracts with ECO2 Plastics to Explore “Rinse and Recycle” Applications
The United States Council for Automotive Research's (USCAR) Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP), composed of researchers from DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation, is taking a leadership role in optimizing the recycling of all materials in shredder residue, regardless of their source.
As part of its work, the VRP recently contracted with ECO2 Plastics, Inc. to evaluate its proprietary polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic recycling technology. The ECO2 technology removes substances of concern from plastics recovered from “shredder residue” - the material left when end-of-life vehicles (ELV), household appliances and other large items are "shredded" by a large, grinding hammer-mill, or shredder, as part of their recycling process.
While the US automakers have worked diligently to eliminate substances of concern (SOCs) from general vehicle content, some SOCs can still be found in shredder residue, which contains materials from a combination of automotive and non-automotive sources. These materials come from such non-automotive sources as appliances, building demolition materials and commercial and industrial waste. Therefore, the US automakers, in their continued efforts to optimally recycle all of the materials in end-of-life vehicles, have taken on a broader environmental leadership role in dealing with SOCs regardless of their source.
ECO2 Plastics is one of several private industry innovators working with the VRP and its partners to develop shredder residue recycling solutions. The shredder residue plastics are cleaned in an environmentally friendly process, which uses no water and deploys a biodegradable solvent and liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) to remove the substances of concern so that the plastic can be more readily reused.
Currently, more than 84 percent, by weight of materials, of each ELV in the US is recycled, with 95 percent of all vehicles going through the existing infrastructure. ECO2’s proprietary recycling process addresses the plastics found in the unrecycled portion. If successful, such a system will enable recovered plastics to be more easily reused.
“Sustainable end-of-life vehicle recycling is a global issue,” said Rod Rougelot, CEO of ECO2 Plastics. “ECO2’s recycling process has been found to clean the plastics recovered from shredder residue to a level that meets the regulatory guidelines, allowing it to be reused as recycled plastic content for new automobile manufacturing.”
The USCAR VRP currently is engaged in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council to address the sustainable recycling of current and future materials from ELVs. This is the third CRADA established among the participants since the inception of the VRP in 1991.
As part of the CRADA team, the VRP is collaborating with private industry and government to discover and implement innovative recycling solutions to enhance the current market-driven US vehicle-recycling infrastructure.
ECO2’s PET plastic recycling technology has the potential to be one of several positive recycling solutions for shredder residue that fits within the current US recycling infrastructure.
Nano-Boric Acid Makes Motor Oil More Slippery
 One key to saving the environment, improving our economy and reducing our dependence on foreign oil might just be sitting in your mother's medicine cabinet.
Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have begun to combine infinitesimal particles of boric acid, known primarily as a mild antiseptic and eye cleanser, with traditional motor oils in order to improve their lubricity and by doing so increase energy efficiency.
Ali Erdemir, senior scientist in Argonne's Energy Systems Division, has spent nearly 20 years investigating the lubricious properties of boric acid. In 1991, he received an R&D 100 award for showing that microscopic particles of boric acid could dramatically reduce friction between automobile engine parts. Metals covered with a boric acid film exhibited coefficients of friction lower than that of Teflon, making Erdemir's films the slickest solids in existence at that time.
“Ali was looking at large, micron-sized, particles,” said George Fenske, who works alongside Erdemir at Argonne. “He was just sprinkling boric acid onto surfaces.”
But, driven by a conviction that he could fashion boric acid into an even better lubricant, Erdemir continued to chase the ultimate frontier: a perfectly frictionless material. Glimpsing the potential of nanotechnology, Erdemir went smaller, 10 times smaller, and was astonished by the behavior of much thinner boric acid films. “If you can produce or manufacture boric acid at the nanoscale, its properties become even more fantastic,” he said.
Reducing the size of the particles to as tiny as 50 nanometers in diameter — less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair — solved a number of old problems and opened up a number of new possibilities, Erdemir said. In previous tests, his team had combined the larger boric acid particles with pure poly-alpha-olefin, the principal ingredient in many synthetic motor oils. While these larger particles dramatically improved the lubricity of the pure oil, within a few weeks gravity had started to separate the mixture. By using smaller particles, Erdemir created a stable suspension of boric acid in the motor oil.
In laboratory tests, these new boric acid suspensions have reduced by as much as two-thirds the energy lost through friction as heat. The implications for fuel economy are not hard to imagine, Erdemir said. “You're easily talking about a 4 or 5 percent reduction in fuel consumption,” he said. “In a given day, we consume so many millions of barrels of oil, and if you can reduce that number by even one percent, that will have a huge economic impact.”
Argonne is currently in talks with materials and lubricant manufacturers to bring boric acid technology to market, Erdemir said. While these new additives need to pass a battery of environmental and safety tests, they will probably be available within two years.
In his first experiments with boric acid, Erdemir demonstrated that the compound not only proved an effective lubricant but was also every industrial technologist's dream: It came from naturally abundant minerals, was cheap to manufacture, and posed no health hazards or environmental threats.
Boric acid owes its lubricious properties to its unique natural structure. The compound consists of a stack of crystallized layers in which the atoms tightly adhere to each other. However, these layers stack themselves relatively far apart, so that the intermolecular bonds, called van der Waals forces, are comparatively weak. When stressed, the compound's layers smear and slide over one another easily, like a strewn deck of playing cards. The strong bonding within each layer prevents direct contact between sliding parts, lowering friction and minimizing wear.
Until recently, most of Erdemir's work in boric acid lubrication had been restricted to motor oils, principally because of the relative bulk of the larger particles. The move to the nanoscale, however, has opened up other possible uses of the chemical. Through a simple chemical reaction, nano-boric acid can be transformed into a liquid relative of boric acid that has shown potential to increase fuel lubricity.
Using this liquid analog of solid boric acid as a fuel additive on a large scale could greatly benefit the environment, both because it would help to increase fuel efficiency and because it would replace existing fuel lubricants that are potentially harmful to the environment, Erdemir said. By themselves, most fuels, especially diesels, contain some sulfur and other special chemical additives to boost lubricity. When burned, however, some of these additives along with sulfur may cause harmful emissions and acid rain. However, the lack of a suitable alternative complicates efforts to cut sulfur content.
The substitution of liquid boric acid for sulfur-containing additives preserves the health of the car as well as that of the environment. Sulfur exhaust gradually coats the surface of a car's catalytic converter, the part that helps to reduce the toxicity of a car's emissions. Eventually, the converter becomes so choked with sulfur that it is no longer able to process any more exhaust.
Even though he has just begun to unleash the potential of boric acid, Erdemir believes that nanoscale synthetic compounds may prove to be even more effective lubricants. “The next step is to use the basic knowledge that we have gained out of this particular compound to come up with more exotic compounds that will work even better,” he said. |
IDES, Inc., home of The Plastics Web, 
Anyone who examines their monthly gas bill has noticed that prices have dramatically increased over the past three years. The rise in natural gas prices is due to increased demand in industrial and consumer applications. This epidemic has challenged the entire natural gas gathering industry to increase production levels at all costs. To improve productivity, companies have had to dramatically expand production intervals, placing tremendous strain on operating equipment. To maximize their overall equipment investment, companies are consulting lubricant manufacturers to formulate a strategy for optimizing equipment performance, efficiency, and life. 
formulation effectively removes water from the crankcase, significantly minimizing the opportunity for rust to form. “Using ROYCO 889, we doubled our operating intervals between overhauls, increased production by $9,000 a month, and kept the crankcase looking brand new,” says Michalevich.
