ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News by Chemical Institute of Canada

l’actualité chimique canadienne canadian chemical news ACCN

OCTOBEr|OCTOBRE • 2010 • Vol. 62, No./n o 9

Liquid Natural Gas

Engineers Weigh in on How To Make it Safer

Green Chemistry gets real

Conclusion to a three-part series on innovation

AChemical PublicationInstitute of the Chemical Institute of Canada and its Constituent Societies / Une publication de l’institut de chimie du canada et ses sociétés constituantes of Canada

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october|octobre • 2010 • Vol. 62, No./n o 9

Contents

Features

12 Answering safe siting questions for LNG import terminals By Jerry Havens and Peter Lederman

15 27

30 One common genetic variant may reveal why some of us

Departments 5

From the Editor De la rédactrice en chef

Guest Column Chroniqueur invité

19 are still afraid of the dark Interview by Andrea Ozretic

Pour obtenir la version française de cet article, écrivez-nous à magazine@accn.ca

By Hadi Mahabadi

Chemical News Actualité chimique

Society News 27 Nouvelles des sociétés

Chemfusion

By Joe Schwarcz

green chemistry is becoming a much-needed viable 22 How model of technology transfer By Tim Lougheed

On the cover: An artist’s rendering of the completed Canaport LNG site in Saint John, N.B., commissioned just as construction was beginning in 2006.

From the editor De la rédactrice en chef

ACCN Executive Director/Directeur général Roland Andersson, MCIC Editor/Rédactrice en chef Jodi Di Menna Graphic Designers/Infographistes Krista Leroux Kelly Turner Editorial intern Andrea Ozretic Marketing Manager/ Directrice du marketing Bernadette Dacey Staff Writer/rédactrice Anne Campbell, MCIC

he liquid natural gas industry is an excellent example of how the chemical sciences and engineering responds to the needs of society. The growing number of LNG facilities in North America is in response to society’s demand for cleaner sources of energy. At the same time the safety concerns of the general public — partly fuelled by terrorism fears — have created the impetus for chemical engineers in North America to help step up the game to make the facilities as safe as possible. In this issue we excerpt a White Paper prepared by the CSChE and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) that does just that by advising policy makers on where gaps exist for safe siting of LNG terminals. In the spirit of Hallowe’en we delve into one aspect of brain chemistry and fear in our Q and A. And what better way to wrap up our special series on innovation than to examine how green chemistry is making strides toward better technology transfer? You can read all about it in Tim Lougheed’s report on page 22. ACCN I hope you enjoy the read!

Awards and Local Sections Manager/ Directrice des prix et des sections locales Gale Thirlwall Editorial Board/Conseil de rédaction Joe Schwarcz, MCIC, chair/président Milena Sejnoha, MCIC Bernard West, MCIC Editorial Office/ Bureau de la rédaction 130, rue Slater Street, Suite/bureau 550 Ottawa, ON K1P 6E2 T. 613-232-6252 • F./Téléc. 613-232-5862 magazine@accn.ca • www.accn.ca Advertising/Publicité advertising@accn.ca Subscription Rates/Tarifs d’abonnement Non CIC members/Non-membres de l’ICC : in/au Canada CAN$60; outside/à l’extérieur du Canada US$60. Single copy/Un exemplaire CAN$10 or US$10. ACCN (L’Actualité chimique canadienne/Canadian Chemical News) is published 10 times a year by the Chemical Institute of Canada / est publié 10 fois par année par l’Institut de chimie du Canada. www.cheminst.ca. Recommended by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE), and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT). Views expressed do not necessarily represent the official position of the Institute or of the societies that recommend the magazine.

Jodi Di Menna Editor

Write to the editor at magazine@accn.ca

Recommandé par l’Institut de chimie du Canada, la Société canadienne de chimie, la Société canadienne de génie chimique et la Société canadienne de technologie chimique. Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement la position officielle de l’Institut ou des sociétés qui soutiennent le magazine. Change of Address/ Changement d’adresse circulation@cheminst.ca Printed in Canada by Delta Printing and postage paid in Ottawa, Ont./ Imprimé au Canada par Delta Printing et port payé à Ottawa, Ont. Publications Mail Agreement Number/ No de convention de la Poste-publications : 40021620. (USPS# 0007-718) Indexed in the Canadian Business Index and available online in the Canadian Business and Current Affairs database. / Répertorié dans le Canadian Business Index et accessible en ligne dans la banque de données Canadian Business and Current Affairs. ISSN 0823-5228

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Bring In the Big Brains: How Highly Skilled Immigrants Will Help Fuel Canada’s Knowledge-Based Economy

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s today’s global economy is transitioning to a “knowledgebased economy,” Canada’s science and technology policies must be formulated to maximize economic performance and the well-being of Canadians. This means more effort towards growth in our high technology industries and an increase in the size of our highly skilled work force, which is needed to support such a growth. In this view, attracting and utilizing skilled immigrants is an essential part of a higher investment in a knowledge-based economy in this country. Due to Canada’s political and social stand and its geographical uniqueness, it is a preferred destination for many highly educated immigrants. For example, when I was ready to leave Iran in 1981, and after the revolution turned into a full scale repression, because of my desire to live and work in a country which had respect for freedom, human rights and other cultures, I decided to immigrate to Canada. There are many others who have done the same. Attracting the best and the brightest would not be a difficult task for the Canadian government. Canada could allocate a larger percentage of its immigrant quotas to highly educated newcomers in order to boost our knowledgebased resources. Unfortunately, due to the existing barriers, the expertise of many of these well-educated immigrants is unutilized. To improve this situation, both the government and new immigrants could play a role. The government should improve its policies to eliminate or minimize the barriers for highly educated newcomers to join the right workforce and skilled immigrants should make every effort to enter into their field of expertise. To do so, upon arriving in Canada they should evaluate their expertise and if needed, upgrade their knowledge and skills and learn more about the Canadian work environments and hiring practices. When I arrived in Canada with my pregnant wife and two-year old son, I was faced with significant financial hardship, a language barrier, and a lack of Canadian work experience. Despite these challenges I persisted in looking for a job where I could use my knowledge

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Hadi Mahabadi

and education. With a PhD in polymer engineering and experience as the chair of a department at a top Iranian university, I started as a researcher in the field of polymer chemistry with Xerox. There are many opportunities in Canada for a skilled immigrant to succeed in his or her own field and to contribute to the advancement of Canada’s knowledge-based economy. After joining Xerox Research Centre of Canada in 1981, with hard work and perseverance, I managed to demonstrate my qualifications and climb to Xerox’s highest research position in Canada as the vice president and director of the Centre. During my years at Xerox, I have been able to develop novel technologies which positively impacted Xerox’s bottom line and created many high quality research and development and manufacturing jobs in Canada. As a well-known scientist, an R&D executive, a science and technology thought leader, and a member of a few advisory boards and boards of directors, I have also been able to influence Canada’s science and technology direction. My journey is not unique. There are many other skilled immigrants who have had great success in their careers and have managed to contribute significantly to Canada’s knowledge-based economy. Skilled immigrants should be aware that cultural difference is an advantage, not a barrier. Many organizations in Canada have become aware of the importance of workforce diversity. A recent research study conducted across Canada by Xerox showed that over 90 per cent of working Canadians believe innovation helps business success and over 75 per cent believe diversity of thought plays an important role in innovation. This means diversity helps business success and this is why many organizations are looking to make their workforce more diverse. ACCN

Hadi Mahabadi was named one of the top 25 Canadian immigrants for 2010 by Canadian Immigrant magazine. He is currently Chair of the CIC.

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at magazine@accn.ca

OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 7

chemical News | actualitÉ chimique  Continuing Education for Chemical Professionals

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2010 Schedule

October 14 –15, 2010

Burnaby, BC

Registration fees

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he Chemical Institute of

Canada (CIC) and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT) are presenting a two-day course designed to enhance the knowledge and working experience of chemical technologists and chemists. This course will provide a range of material which will enable the participants to understand the transformations that take place in air when pollutants are present, and to familiarize themselves with the analytical techniques currently used for air testing. Upon completion of this short course, the participants will be able to perform some of the laboratory analyses for the major atmospheric contaminants as required by engineering consulting firms, private laboratories, and government laboratories involved in pollution analysis.

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8 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

OCTOBRE 2010

Canadian Scientist Accused of Espionage A former Canadian scientist accused of illegally sending trade secrets worth $300 million to China and Germany was ordered detained in September on rare charges of economic espionage. A federal indictment unsealed in Indianapolis alleges that 45-year-old Kexue Huang passed on proprietary information about the development of organic pesticides to Hunan Normal University while he worked as a researcher for Dow AgroSciences in Indiana from 2003 to 2008. Dow Agrosciences is a subsidiary of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co. Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Ridgeway said Huang, a Canadian citizen who was born in China and had permanent U.S. resident status, used a “patient and calculated” plan to drain the Indianapolis-based company of technology that took 20 years to develop. The indictment alleges that Huang published a paper in China about the organic pesticides and also directed students at Hunan Normal in further research. FBI Special Agent Karen Medernach testified that emails showed Huang was developing an operation to market the pesticides in China, where he stood to make millions of dollars. She said the agency believed that Huang stole samples of the bacterial strain used in the pesticides and smuggled them to China in his son’s suitcase. The indictment also included a vague reference suggesting Huang also transported stolen material to Germany, but the document didn’t go into detail. The gallery in federal court was occupied by about a dozen of Huang’s neighbours from his former home in the affluent Indianapolis suburb of Carmel and his current home in Westborough, Massachusetts. Huang, clad in a jail uniform with grey and white stripes, was silent during the two-hour hearing. Defence attorney Michael Donahoe called the alleged scheme “hypothetical” and said Huang maintained his innocence. The indictment, which had been kept secret since it was filed June 16, charged Huang with 12 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets to benefit a foreign government under the Economic Espionage Act. He also was charged with five counts of foreign transportation of stolen property. The economic espionage charges are each punishable by up to 15 years in prison while the lesser counts could each land him in prison for 10 years. The Economic Espionage Act was passed in 1996 after the U.S. realized China and other countries were targeting private businesses as part of their spy strategies. Canadian Press

Youth Compound

The human quest for longer life may be one step closer, thanks to research from Concordia University. A new study is the first to identify the role of a bile acid, called lithocholic acid (LCA), in extending the lifespan of normally aging yeast. The findings may have significant implications for human longevity and health, as yeast share some common elements with people. “Although we found that LCA greatly extends yeast longevity, yeast do not synthesize this or any other bile acid found in mammals,” says senior author Vladimir Titorenko, Concordia University Research Chair in genomics, cell biology and aging and a professor in the Department of Biology. “It may be that yeast have evolved to sense bile acids as mildly toxic molecules and respond by undergoing life-extending changes. It is conceivable that the life-extending potential of LCA may be relevant to humans as well.” Titorenko and colleagues screened more than 19,000 small molecules to test their ability to extend yeast-lifespan. Under both normal and stressed conditions, LCA had a major impact. “Our findings imply that LCA extends longevity by targeting two different mechanisms,“ says first author Alexander Goldberg, a Concordia doctoral student. “The first takes place regardless of the number of calories and involves the day-to-day or housekeeping proteins. The second system occurs during calorie-restriction and involves stressor proteins.“

OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical Newsâ&#x20AC;&#x201A; 9

chemical News | actualitÉ chimique  Continuing

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Laboratory Safety course

2010 Schedule

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October 4 –5, 2010

Calgary, AB

Registration fees $550 CIC members $750 non-members $150 student members

he Chemical Institute of Canada

(CIC) and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT)

are presenting a two-day course designed to enhance the knowledge and working experience of chemical technologists and chemists. All course participants receive the CIC’s Laboratory Health and Safety Guidelines, 4th edition. This course is intended for those whose responsibilities include improving the operational safety of chemical laboratories, managing laboratories, chemical plants or research facilities, conducting safety audits of laboratories and chemical plants. During the course, participants are provided with an integrated overview of current best practices in laboratory safety.

For more information about the course and locations, and to access the registration form, visit

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 10 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

“Regardless of their triggers both of these mechanisms work to suppress the proaging process,” he continues. “Although we have an overall idea how LCA works to extend longevity in yeast, we still need to determine if this is the case for other species,” says Titorenko. “We do know from previous studies, however, that bile acids are beneficial to health and longevity. For example, they have shown to accumulate in the serum of long living mice and play a role in improving rodent liver and pancreatic function.” “This leads us to believe that bile acids have potential as pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of diabetes, obesity and various metabolic disorders, all of which are agerelated,” continues Titorenko. “They may indeed offer hope for a healthy aging life.”

OCTOBRE 2010

Concordia University

Alectos Therapeutics Inc. announced a research collaboration with Merck in August to identify and develop compounds that modulate O-linked N-acetylglucosaminidase (O-GlcNAcase), an enzyme that is believed to be involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease and potentially other disorders. The agreement provides Merck with a worldwide, exclusive license to research, develop and commercialize compounds that modulate this target. Under the terms of the agreement, Merck has paid Alectos an upfront payment and will fund research to include study of Alectos’ existing portfolio of compounds targeting Alzheimer’s disease. Alectos is eligible to receive a total of US $289 million in an upfront fee, research, development and regulatory milestones and tiered royalty payments on sales of any products resulting from this collaboration. Alectos and Merck will collaborate on discovery efforts and preclinical development. Merck is responsible for clinical development and will have worldwide marketing and commercialization rights to any resulting products. “Effective medicines to treat the devastating consequences of Alzheimer’s disease are greatly needed,” says Darryle D. Schoepp, senior vice-president and Franchise Head, Neuroscience, at Merck Research Laboratories.

Discovery On the Dot

Alectos

The piezoelectric effect has a wide range of applications ranging from everyday items such as watches, motion sensors and precise positioning systems. Researchers at McGill University’s Department of Chemistry have now discovered how to control this effect in nanoscale semiconductors called “quantum dots,” enabling the development of incredibly tiny new products. A quantum dot has a diameter of only 10 to 50 atoms, or less than 10 nanometres. The McGill researchers have discovered a way to make individual charges reside on the surface of the dot, which produces a large electric field within the dot. This electric field produces enormous piezoelectric forces causing large and rapid expansion and contraction of the dots within a trillionth of a second. Most importantly, the team is able to control the size of this vibration. Cadmium selenide quantum dots can be used in a wide range of technological applications. Solar power is one area that has been explored, but this new discovery has paved way for other nanoscale device applications for these dots. This discovery offers a way of controlling the speed and switching time of nanoelectronic devices, and possibly even developing nanoscale power supplies, whereby a small compression would produce a large voltage. “The piezoelectric effect has never been manipulated at this scale before, so the range of possible applications is very exciting,” explained Pooja Tyagi, a researcher in Patanjali Kambhampati’s laboratory. “For example, the vibrations of a material can be analyzed to calculate the pressure of the solvent they are in. With further development and research, maybe we could measure blood pressure non-invasively by injecting the dots, shining a laser on them, and analyzing their vibration to determine the pressure.” Tyagi notes that cadmium selenide is a toxic metal, and so one of the hurdles to overcome with regard to this particular example would be finding a replacement material. ACCN McGill University

Chemical News Actualité chimique

OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 11

chemical engineering: LNG

Location, Location, Location

ANSWERING SAFE SITING QUESTIONS FOR LNG IMPORT TERMINALS Jerry Havens and Peter Lederman

n June of 2009, the first liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Canada became operational in Saint John, N.B. The milestone is in keeping with a quickening pace of development for LNG facilities across North America, driven in part by the pursuit of cleaner petroleum alternatives. But the trend has its share of stumbling blocks. Community misgivings about the safety of the facilities present serious challenges to applications for new terminals. According to a group of Canadian and American chemical engineers, the concerns are not entirely unfounded, as despite laudable safety records, LNG facilities present major hazards. In a recent white paper, excerpted here, members of the CSChE and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) point out some of the issues that merit consideration when deciding where to locate future LNG terminals. 12 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

OCTOBRE 2010

The role of liquid natural gas (LNG) in delivering energy world-wide is growing, with a surge of activity in North America over the past five years. Several new LNG import terminals are operational in the United States and Canada, with others in planning stages. At the same time, LNG import terminal siting applications appear to be facing serious challenges in satisfying community concerns for public safety. The traditional process for balancing risks to public safety with social benefits, made more contentious by perceived terrorist threats, grows more difficult.

The traditional process for balancing risks to public safety with social benefits, made more contentious by perceived terrorist threats, grows more difficult. In August 2009 a technical conference held in Montréal as part of the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering assembled experts from industry, government, consensus standards organizations, consulting organizations, and universities to provide an updated view of siting challenges, political and technical, faced by the LNG industry. The primary goals of the meeting were to identify areas of uncertainty in technical data and information required for rational decision making and to recommend actions necessary to enable government to provide satisfactory assurance of public safety. Here, the issues identified at the conference as meriting priority consideration are summarized. The conference began with an industry (Shell Global LNG) perspective describing the global nature of today's LNG business. The industry has facilities worldwide in a range of climates — from Arabia to Australia to Sakhalin Island (Arctic Siberia) — with new facilities continuing to be developed. Most future gas is expected (by Shell) to come from offshore, presenting new and different challenges of processing at sea. Significantly, increasing numbers of proposals are for unloading offshore, with transport as liquid or gas to onshore storage. Some of

these offshore unloading proposals appear to be made, at least in part, to address public safety concerns associated with passage of LNG carriers in close proximity to populated areas. Indeed, unloading with immediate regasification offshore appears to be gaining favour to allay public safety concerns about LNG vessels nearing populated areas as well as storage of large amounts of LNG onshore near populated areas. The regulatory approach differs significantly in the U.S. and Canada. In Canada, while the government has the lead role in enforcing the regulations, the development of the regulations appears to be largely the responsibility of the Canadian Standards Association. In the U.S., a developer/operator deals primarily with three agencies — the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Agency (PHMSA) in the Department of Transportation and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in the Department of Homeland Security. Although there are some areas of contention regarding jurisdiction (PHMSA or USCG) at the land/sea boundary, for example, in cases of near-shore LNG carrier offloading with liquid LNG piped to shore, the regulations state that PHMSA has jurisdiction of the facility extending

UNCERTAINTY REMAINS More effort is required to address uncertainties identified at the conference requiring improved technical data and analysis techniques required to meet those challenges: Land Side » Resolution of issues surrounding definition of maximum credible spills; » Resolution of modeling issues for vapour dispersion, including source (evaporation

rate) models that are critical inputs to dispersion modeling; » Resolution of modeling issues for fire radiation, including the applicability of LNGFIRE to elevated (tank-top) pool fires and satisfactorily conservative specification of the fire surface radiative fluxes (damage criteria) used; » Consideration of the survivability of LNG tanks to fire exposures that are assumed to determine radiation exclusion zone(s); » Improved understanding of the limiting conditions for vapour cloud explosion.

to the last valve on land while the USCG has jurisdiction of the vessels and lines from the last valve on land. The USCG has sole authority over the LNG marine carriers (ships), shipping lanes and offshore facilities, as well as affected navigable waterways. The majority of operating or proposed facilities in North America are in the U.S.; these require approval-tosite by FERC and USCG as well as continuing operational oversight by both agencies and PHMSA. The burden placed on USCG to put in place and maintain “adequate” security for LNG carriers in transit to and from the terminals appears potentially onerous and merits careful and continuing evaluation. It is not clear what the overall economic impact to the industry or to government will be of future requirements to provide security against perceived terrorist threats, nor do there appear to be agreements in place directing the distribution of such costs between affected sectors. State and local authorities are pressing for larger roles in the LNG terminal siting process. Already, states have “veto” power on some siting issues in some locations, and the concerns of these authorities for the interests of their constituents are likely to increasingly impact LNG import terminal siting decisions. In Oregon, where three import terminals are being considered, these concerns include — in addition to public safety impacts — potential environmental impacts and secondary impacts on land owners distant from the facility (pipeline issues). In the public safety area the states’ concerns include — in addition to provision of safe separation distances to protect the public — provision of adequate fire and medical emergency services (such as burn centres), whether in rural or populated areas. Finally, it was pointed out that while FERC may have the primary federal siting authority, the state and/or local governments have final authority to grant construction/ operating permits which are critical to facility operation.

Marine Side » Consideration of correct specification of the fire surface radiative flux to be used in defining safe separation distances, similar to the Land Side issue; » Resolution of questions affecting the determination of maximum credible spill size, primarily the potential for increasing the size of credible spills by cascading failures on LNG carriers • due to brittle fracture, • due to vulnerability of insulation systems, • due to local explosions.

VAPOUR CLOUD EXCLUSION ZONES When 49 CFR 193 was promulgated, the spill event prescribed to determine the (largest, controlling) vapour cloud exclusion zone separation distance was a guillotine rupture of the largest operating line carrying LNG in the land-based facility, with full flow maintained for 10 minutes (or a shorter time if approved by the DOT with demonstration by the applicant that the line could be shut down in the shorter time period). In a

OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 13

chemical engineering: LNG

There is a growing world-wide need in the energy management area for a risk/benefit procedure agreed to by all major parties for siting LNG facilities. Such a procedure should have applicability to and be consistent with procedures for siting any energy facility posing risks to the public. The organizers of the August 2009 conference believe that the results of the meeting could be helpful in addressing a growing world-wide need in the energy management area for a risk/benefit procedure agreed to by all major parties for siting LNG facilities. Such a procedure should have applicability to and be consistent with procedures for siting any energy facility posing risks to the public. In that light, although the conference was designed to focus on the North American picture for LNG, the conference invited speakers from Europe and consulting organizations specializing in quantitative risk assessment (QRA) to describe a representative international approach — focusing on a QRA-driven example of LNG import terminal siting at Hoek van Holland, where two LNG import terminals will be located at the mouth of the main ship channel to Rotterdam. That licensing process, performed mainly in 2005, was divided into two parts. The first studied the relation between movement and potential consequences, resulting in the development of an optimum routing system to minimize risks of ship movements in the harbour. The other part of the application process included a QRA of hazards that could result from unplanned releases of LNG. The principal hazards considered were vapour cloud (gas dispersion) fire and pool fire radiant heat hazards. The scenarios studied included maximum credible accidents (MCA), maximum non-credible accident risk (MNCA), and potential “domino” effects to nearby facilities. Non-credible risks identified included terrorist acts as well as crash of aircraft into a storage tank. The closest residences

typical import terminal this line was (is) the ship unloading line (SUL) which typically flows approximately 60,000 gpm LNG. The SUL spill thus became the spill (~60,000 gpm for 10 minutes = 600,000 gallons) which determines the controlling (largest) vapour cloud exclusion zone required to protect the public. The vapour cloud dispersion exclusion zone is determined for a pool of LNG which evaporates due to heat transfer from the spill impoundment where it is captured (approximately 600,000 gallons LNG). The rate of evaporation must be specified for input into a regulation specified vapour dispersion model,

14 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

which outputs the maximum extent of the 2.5 per cent gas concentration in the cloud. In 2000, DOT changed the “design spill” required under 49 CFR Part 193 to the “single accidental leakage source” specified in NFPA 59A. It was pointed out at the conference that in eleven LNG Import Terminal Siting Draft and Final Environmental Impact Statements reviewed up to 2005 the “design spills” proposed by applicants for analysis included, along with the guillotine SUL breakage, a variety of guillotine breakages of smaller (such as instrumentation)

OCTOBRE 2010

to either of these facilities are more than 1,600 metres distant. The risks were determined to satisfy the Dutch risk acceptance criteria — less than one in a million for individual risk and less than one in 100,000 chance of greater than 10 fatalities to residents and people in surrounding plants. The QRA model identified uncertainties remaining in determining appropriate dispersion separation distances recognizing that no large-scale validation test results are available. For explosion effects associated with delayed ignition (vapour cloud explosion) the QRA study was based on statements in a report prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Sandia report SAND2004-6258) that overpressures will arise only when a cloud is confined and obstacles to a propagating flame are present. In this regard more than one presenter reminded the conference audience of the December 2005 tank farm explosion in Buncefield, England as an example of the potential violence associated with a cloud containing light hydrocarbons such as butane. In contrast to the quantitative risk assessment process just described, the regulatory requirements in the U.S. presently are consequence-based, in that a buffer zone distance from the LNG facility is mandated to keep the public out of harm’s way. There is no statutory requirement for quantitative determination of the risk (probability) of a hazardous event occurring. Although procedures for licensing LNG facilities in the U.S. frequently do contain appeals to consideration of the probability of a (hazardous) event’s occurrence, such appeals are not sufficiently quantitative to satisfy the requirements of rigorous quantitative risk analysis — instead using categorization of events (such as amount of LNG spilled, or the seriousness of an ensuing fire) as “high,” “moderate,” or “low” with no quantitative measures specified to justify such categorization. There is reason to believe that such introduction of “measures of risk” without supportable quantification may be responsible for some of the contention surrounding the determination of safe separation distances required by U.S. regulations. Non-governmental organizations are playing increasingly important roles in the U.S., and the conference identified potential problems in the “joint/cooperative” preparation and promulgation of standards and regulations governing LNG siting approval by the Department of Transportation (49 CFR 193) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 59A). To understand better how these difficulties may have arisen, a brief history of the federal regulatory process in the U.S. is helpful. Prior to the 1980s there was no federal government

lines — with ten minute duration spills ranging from 28, 900 gallons to 812, 000 gallons. This marked inconsistency in design spill selection, due in part to differences in transfer line lengths, diameters, flow rates and branch connections in the various applications for import terminals — but primarily to changes from full pipe rupture to failure of small diameter pipe attachments, led directly to similar variation in the resulting vapour cloud exclusion zone distances. In April 2007, the Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) issued the report “LNG Source Term Models for Hazard Analysis:

A Review of the State-of-the Art and an Approach to Model Assessment. “This was followed in March 2009 by the FPRF report “Evaluating Vapour Dispersion Models for Safety Analysis at LNG Facilities.” Both of these reports were done at the request of the National Fire Protection Association’s 59A Technical Committee to provide evaluation tools and criteria for their decision-making process for referencing models in the 59A standard. In January 2009, the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) completed a review, funded by DOT, of the LNG Source Term and Vapour Dispersion Model Evaluation Protocols (MEP) issued by the

regulation specifying safety requirements for LNG facility approval, and NFPA 59A (Standard for the Production, Storage, and Handling of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)) was typically prescribed. In the early 1980s the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) promulgated 49 CFR 193 (Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities: Federal Safety Standards), from which time forward this federal regulation directly specified the requirements to provide assurance of public safety for LNG import terminal siting permits. 49 CFR 193 continued to make reference to certain requirements specified in NFPA 59A, and NFPA 59A was formally incorporated in the federal regulation (49 CFR 193) in the late 1990s; this incorporation continues. The U.S. Federal Regulation (49 CFR 193) was developed, at least in part, in response to congressional requirements in the 1978 Energy Act for consideration of remote siting of LNG import terminals. The methodology chosen (by the responsible agency, DOT) to meet those “remote siting” requirements was, and remains, requirement for safe separation distances between the facility and the public sufficient to keep the latter out of harm’s way. The primary hazard of concern to the public was identified as fire (as opposed to explosion) resulting from unintended release (spillage) of LNG. The fire hazard could be realized in two ways; a “pool fire” if the spilled LNG was immediately ignited, or a “vapor cloud fire” if the spilled LNG evaporated and formed a cloud which ignited as it drifted downwind. The size (extent) of these two hazard zones, defined as “exclusion zones” (from which the public is forbidden), are determined for “design” spills required by 49 CFR 193. The vapour cloud exclusion zone is defined as the maximum distance, for a specified “design spill,” determined with a regulationprescribed mathematical model, that could be reached by an LNG vapour cloud before it falls below a time average concentration of 2.5 per cent by volume (one half of the lower flammable limit concentration for methane). (SEE SIDEBAR, page 13) The fire radiation exclusion zone is defined as the maximum distance, from a specified “design spill fire,” determined with a regulation-prescribed mathematical model, to which a person, at ground level, would be exposed to a thermal radiation flux of 5 kW/m2 (a thermal radiation flux, applied to bare human skin, which will cause second-degree burns in approximately 30 seconds). (SEE SIDEBAR, page 15) Presentations at the conference identified other areas of uncertainty that could potentially impact credible/acceptable determinations of exclusion zones (safe separation distances). (SEE SIDEBAR, page 13)

FPRF and NFPA 59A. NASFM found that, in general, the MEP approach was “useful and valuable and will promote a global drive towards better quality modeling approaches.” However, the NASFM panel also felt that the use of the MEP required clarification and further guidance to be useful for the fire service, emergency responders, AHJs and regulators. In June 2009, the NASFM issued its review of the FPRF report “Evaluating Vapour Dispersion Models for Safety Analysis of LNG Facilities.” The Vapour Dispersion Model MEP and the Source Term Assessment reports prepared by FPRF for the NFPA 59A Technical Committee are publicly available and were

the subject of considerable discussion at the conference. An important finding regarding evaluation of the SOURCE5 (vapour source model routinely used in vapour cloud exclusion zone determinations filed with FERC in the U.S. for import terminal siting permits) is summarized in the following statement, quoted from the report: “Finally, a prototypical assessment is carried out of the ... SOURCE5 source term model using the developed assessment methodology. SOURCE5 ... has limited scope, but also its scientific basis, especially for pool spreading, is quite unphysical. Furthermore, the prescription of SOURCE5 that the cloud formed in a dike should

The three storage tanks at Canaport’s LNG Terminal in Saint John, N.B. (top) each hold 160,000 cubic metres of LNG at 162 degrees Celsius. The tanks are constructed with an outer concrete shell, an interstitial space filled with Perlite and an internal tank made of nine per cent nickel steel which contains the LNG. The roof is made of carbon steel. Bottom, an LNG tanker docks at an undisclosed location, with a liquefaction plant in the background.

not disperse or dilute at all until the pure vapour has accumulated in the dike to the level of top of the wall is unphysical and is likely to lead to very optimistic (non-conservative) hazard predictions.”

ACCN

FIRE RADIATION EXCLUSION ZONES Determination of the controlling fire radiation exclusion zone is presently based on the assumption of a fire atop the primary LNG concrete full-containment vessel (increasingly the type of containment proposed). The exclusion zone thus determined is typically about 1000 feet. It

was pointed out that the LNGFIRE model (prescribed by 49 CFR 193) may not be appropriate for this use because it had not been verified for fires greater than about 35 metres diameter (a full-containment tank diameter could be approximately 85 metres). It was further pointed out that the LNGFIRE model has not been verified for tank-top fires of any size, as it was developed for use in determining fire radiation exclusion zones for fires resulting from ignition of LNG spilled into ground level impoundments. The liquid level in such a tank (the height of the base of the fire above ground level) could be approximately 35 metres.

OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 15

Ichikizaki Fund for Young Chemists The Ichikizaki Fund for Young Chemists provides financial assistance to young chemists who show unique achievements in basic research by facilitating their participation in international conferences or symposia.

Eligibility: • • • •

be a member of the Canadian Society for Chemistry or the Chemical Society of Japan; not have passed his/her 34th birthday as of December 31 of the year in which the application is submitted; have a research specialty in synthetic organic chemistry; be scheduled to attend, within one year, an international conference or symposium directly related to synthetic organic chemistry. Conferences taking place in January to March of each year should be applied for a year in advancein order to receive funding in time for the conference.

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16 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

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chemical engineering: LNG On the marine side, extensive analyses have been carried out by the Sandia National Laboratory to establish the consequences of containment breaches from LNG carriers. LNG carriers are becoming larger, with capacities already in excess of 250,000 cubic metres. The LNG carrier fleet utilizes two basic designs. The traditional MOSS ships typically carry LNG in four or more aluminum spheres (typically 25,000 cubic metres each, prior to the introduction of the larger carriers) that are supported independently from the ship’s hull. The other (MEMBRANE) design utilizes thin stainless steel tanks that are supported by the hull structure. Sandia has carried out detailed analyses to evaluate the effects of breaches of the LNG tanks both near-shore and off-shore. Sandia’s analyses indicated that a fire following rapid release of 12,500 cubic metres (half the volume of one “typical” MOSS tank) through a five square metre area hole onto water could expose people to second degree burns (heat flux of 5 kW/m2) approximately one mile distant from the centre of the fire. Vapour dispersion distances (to 5 per cent methane) for the same quantity spilled (but not immediately ignited) were said to be two to three miles. Sandia has since updated these predictions to account for the doubling in size of ship containments now in service (the largest carriers in operation are 265,000 cubic metres). Sandia has stated that the increases in distances (predicated on rapid release of one-half of one typical tank) for the larger ships were generally less than 10 per cent. Since 2005 another potentially important area of uncertainty affecting rational estimation of the consequences (i.e. damage distances) for LNG spills onto water have been highlighted by requirements for research (currently contracted to Sandia) by the U.S. Congress — the potential for cascading events, that is “knock-on” or “domino” effects that could result in damage to the ship so severe that further releases could be caused, possibly resulting in complete failure and burning of the ship’s contents. Sandia described ongoing work on both the large fire radiation flux uncertainty and better quantification of the potential for cascading failures. Both programs are expected to be complete in early 2010, with reports available within a year afterwards. The best available information suggests the present status of the tests as follows. Pool fires on water have been produced with diametres approaching 100 metres (the goal of the test program). Cascading failure tests are in progress to evaluate two potential marine (ship) failure modes; brittle fracture of structural steel due to contact with LNG, and insulation (material) failure due to fire exposure from enveloping fire such as could occur from the 12,500 cubic metre spill already “established” by Sandia as credible.

ZONING IN ON EXCLUSION ZONES Some areas of uncertainty that could potentially impact credible/acceptable determinations of exclusion zones include:

» Data from fire test programs reported to date are limited to pool fires of approximately 20 metres diameter on water and 35 metres diameter on land. A primary result of these test programs is data specifying the thermal energy flux radiated from the surface of the fire. There remains

important uncertainty regarding the extrapolation of the radiative fluxes from these (small) test fires to much larger fires that are considered credible from LNG ship releases. Important uncertainty exists in the accurate quantification of the fluxes that would be experienced from the surface of such large fires, where reduction by smoke obscuration could be expected to reduce (by masking) radiation from the fire surface. » As previously stated, determination of the controlling fire radiation exclusion zone is presently based on the assumption of a fire atop the primary LNG concrete full-containment vessel (increasingly

LNG will be an increasing source of carbon-based fuel in the next decades as the mix of conventional and alternative sources of energy are challenged to meet the needs of ever-growing demands for energy.

Notwithstanding the laudable safety record of the LNG industries, LNG import terminal operations — involving as they do concentration of immense quantities of energy in storage and in transport — are considered potential major hazard activities. Notwithstanding the laudable safety record of the LNG industries, LNG import terminal operations — involving as they do concentration of immense quantities of energy in storage and in transport — are considered potential major hazard activities. Quantification of acceptability of risk attending LNG import terminal ventures will pose continuing questions of low risk/high-consequence occurrences that will require significant effort to provide for quanti fication and prevention-from-realization in a manner acceptable to all stakeholders. Thus siting and operating LNG facilities to meet public concerns for safety will be a continuing challenge. ACCN

This text has been adapted from a White Paper developed from the Second American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)/CSChE LNG Technical Conference at the 8th World Congress of Chemical Engineering held in Montréal, Que., from August 24-26, 2009. For those who wish to consider the conference presentations in detail, a complete record of the presentations is available at the AIChE website at www.aiche.org/ Conferences/CoSponsored2009/LNG/presentations.aspx

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at magazine@accn.ca

the type of containment proposed), with a typical exclusion zone extent of about 1, 000 feet. It was pointed out that such a fire, if burning atop a full tank (suffering a roof collapse), could not be extinguished and would have to burn itself out, a process that could require tens of hours. The duration of such a fire, with attendant severe exposure of the concrete tank structure, raises questions about tank survival that do not appear to have been considered. » The unexpected catastrophic vapour cloud explosion that occurred at Buncefield, England in 2005 in a rather open space, now hypothesized by some

parties to have been caused by flame acceleration due to shrub lining along a roadside, showed that uncertainties remain in the potential for damage from large hydrocarbon cloud explosions. The conference noted that FERC appears to have failed to consider important evidence (from Buncefield) regarding unconfined vapour cloud explosion potential. Note: The FERC representatives at the conference, in reviewing this report, stated that FERC requires applicants to address vapour cloud explosions for facilities such as NGL extraction trains and determine over pressures related to partial confinement.

OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 17



Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

Nominations are now open for

The Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

2011AWARDS Act now!

Do you know an outstanding person who deserves to be recognized?

The Bantrel Award in Design and Industrial Practice is presented to a

The Process Safety Management Award is presented as a mark of

Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada for innovative design or production activities accomplished in Canada. The activities may have resulted in a significant achievement in product or process design, small or large company innovation, or multidisciplinary designdirected research or production. The achievement will relate to the practice of chemical engineering and/or industrial chemistry whether in research and development, process implementation, entrepreneurialism, innovation, production or some combination of these. It may be via a well-known, long-standing reputation for translating chemical engineering principles into design and industrial practice and, through this, contribute to the profession as a whole. Sponsored by Bantrel. Award: A plaque and a cash prize.

recognition to a person who has made an outstanding contribution in Canada to the Process Safety Management (PSM) Division of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering recognizing excellence in the leadership and dedication of individuals who have led Canada in the field of process safety and loss management (PSLM). Sponsored by AON Reed Stenhouse Inc. Award: A framed scroll and a cash prize.

The D. G. Fisher Award is presented to an individual who has made substantial contributions to the field of systems and control engineering. The award is given in recognition of significant contributions in any, or all, of the areas of theory, practice, and education. Sponsored by the department of chemical and materials engineering, University of Alberta, Suncor Energy Foundation, and Shell Canada Limited. Award: A framed scroll, a cash prize and travel expenses.

The Syncrude Canada Innovation Award is presented to a resident of

18 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

OCTOBRE 2010

The R. S. Jane Memorial Award is presented to an individual who has made new significant contributions to chemical engineering or industrial chemistry in Canada. Sponsored by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. Award: A framed scroll, a cash prize and registration fee to the CSChE Conference.

Canada who has made a distinguished contribution to the field of chemical engineering while working in Canada. Nominees for this award shall not have reached the age of 40 years by January of the year in which the nomination becomes effective. Sponsored by Syncrude Canada Ltd. Award: A framed scroll and a cash prize.

Deadline

The deadline for all CSChE awards is December 1, 2010 for the 2011 selection.

Nomination Procedure Submit your nominations to: Awards Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering 130 Slater Street, Suite 550 Ottawa, ON K1P 6E2 Tel.: 613-232-6252, ext. 223 Fax: 613-232-5862 awards@cheminst.ca

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CHEMISTRY: biochemistry

QA &

Q & A with

Francis S. Lee

Fear Factor interview by Andrea Ozretic

One common genetic variant may reveal why some of us are still afraid of the dark.

rancis Lee, MD, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College. His most recent research uncloaks some of the mystery surrounding fear related disorders.

ACCN: In February of this year, you published research on BDNF Val66Met, a genetic variant related to fear. Can you tell me about that? F. L.: We became very interested in the molecular phenotype that results from this common human variant in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is part of a growth factor involved in learning and memory. This polymorphism in the human gene leads to an amino acid change in BDNF. We were working on the cell biology of this molecule, and decided, in order to understand its in vivo impact we would knock it into a mouse. My lab did a series of analyses of this mouse and published a paper in 2006 in Science showing that the mice were anxious. We wanted to refine this anxiety phenotype further by trying a more refined behavioural analysis. We did studies both in mice and in humans. We knew what the in vitro impact of the variation was on neurons, but we wanted to know what its effects on circuitry were. Our recent study shows that if you make a single amino acid change from valine to methionine at position 66 it leads to a decrease in the amount of BDNF that gets secreted. It essentially prevents it from getting out of the neuron, which means it is no longer available. We went further to figure out that the molecule, called sortilin, that normally binds to that region is involved in efficient trafficking of BDNF to the circuitry pathways. It normally binds to BDNF and targets it to the special dense core vesicles, which then secrete it once the neuron is activated. Every protein essentially has a zip code with which it gets trafficked to the right place within the neuron. By changing this one letter from valine to methionine you make the zip code less efficient so it can’t get to the right place. Twenty-five percent less of it got secreted on average. And we showed it in the mouse too. We cultured neurons out of this knock-in mouse and can show that there is 25 per cent less BDNF secreted every time you stimulate a neuron. ACCN: Does that mean that some people are more genetically susceptible to fear than others? F.L.: The human fear conditioning experiment suggests that everyone was able to learn. It wasn’t as if the people with the met allele had higher sweat response, it’s just that they couldn’t learn something new. It was that they couldn’t learn that a previously dangerous thing was no longer dangerous. Their fear lasted longer essentially. OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 19



Canadian Society for Chemical Technology

Nominations are now open for

The CanadianSociety for Chemical Technology

2011AWARDAct now!

Do you know an outstanding person who deserves to be recognized?

The Norman and Marion Bright Memorial Award is awarded to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in Canada to the furtherance of chemical technology. The person so honoured may be either a chemical sciences technologist, or a person from outside the field who has made a significant and noteworthy contribution to it advancement. Award: A certificate and a cash prize.

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Deadline

The deadline for this CSCT award is December 1, 2010 for the 2011 selection. Nomination forms and the full Terms of Reference for this award is available at  www.chem-tech.ca/awards.

Chemical Institute of Canada

Get Involved in IYC 2011 now! Share your ideas with the Chemical Institute of Canada Contact your Local Section Talk to your local industries and to departments at universities and colleges Touch base with your local high schools Think of media in your area that might be interested For details about IYC in Canada, visit

www.cheminst.ca/iyc CIC

20 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

OCTOBRE 2010

ACCN: Your suspicion is that humans with the Val66Met variation may be more susceptible to fear related disorders than others? F.L.: That was the original hypothesis yes. We’re in the process of testing it right now. We first had to do a control study, and this is what was published this past February. These were healthy, normal volunteers. These people, as best as we could tell, never had traumatic experiences. We’re testing the baseline and even at the baseline we were able to find differences, which is very surprising to us. We’re doing clinical studies now where we’re looking at patients with PTSD and we’re going to try and see whether or not this polym orphism predicts the rate of PTSD and also possibly whether or not they respond differentially to treatment. A lot of people can develop PTSD but given the right types of therapy and the right types of medications they can recover fairly rapidly too. We wanted to know whether or not this thing would either predict who would get it, or who would be a good responder or a bad responder to the established treatments for this disorder. ACCN: What’s going on in the brain that’s making it hard for people to unlearn these fears? F.L.: No one really knows exactly. The prefrontal cortex is a top-down cortical region that is supposed to help you suppress fearful memories, or make you learn new memories. For example, to learn that a previously dangerous cue is no longer dangerous. In post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there is essentially an overactive fear circuitry that cannot be suppressed by the normal cortical methods. In our PTSD clinic they screened everyone who was at the site of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and only 20 per cent of them have PTSD. It’s unclear why some people seem to be resilient to these types of events while others seem to be much more vulnerable to it and that was one of the nuggets of the idea of trying to find a genetic polymorphism that might explain why certain people are more at risk or more protected from these types of events. If, for example, you were going to send people off to war you would like to know whether or not they are more vulnerable or less vulnerable to these types of fear conditions.

to be an anti-tuberculosis drug, which was found to cause enhancement of cognition. When you take it a half hour before you do some type of learning task you do better on the learning task. What they’re doing now is they’re giving it to PTSD patients before they do exposure therapy so they learn more rapidly that a previously dangerous scenario is no longer dangerous.

ACCN: Why is it important to understand fear? F.L.: It is important for two reasons. I think there are specific disorders that are completely fear based such as PTSD. It is one of the prime symptoms that most of the patients have. It is a tremendously debilitating disorder and the fact that because of the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan the rates of PTSD at least in that population are continuing to rise. It’s an interesting historical fact, how as certain technological advances happened in war, like for example body armor has gotten much better, you will survive things that you normally would have never have survived back in the First World War. But, by doing so you create new problems such as traumatic brain injury and also PTSD. You have people coming back that normally wouldn’t have survived the tremendous assaults or witnessed what they have seen, or experienced things such as being burned. And then they come back and they have tremendous memories of these horrific events. They then have to unlearn those. Not only in these extreme circumstances but in most of the affective disorders such as anxiety disorder or even depression, there’s always a fear component. Understanding this circuitry is very important. Lastly, unlike many other areas of psychiatry this is one circuitry that is well established in model systems and rodents and also in primates. We have a circuitry that we can start to manipulate and understand in a way that lets us get to the mechanism or the pathophysiology of these disorders. ACCN

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at magazine@accn.ca

ACCN: How could this information help develop better drug treatments for patients that have fear related disorders? F.L.: One thing that is being tested right now by the Department of Defense and by certain National Institutes of Health studies here in the United States are cognitive enhancers that are in clinical trials right now. They are going through this other neurotransmitter system called the glutamate receptor system. The one that I’m referring to is a drug called d-cycloserine. It goes by its trade name, Seromycin. It used OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 21

industry: innovation

Doing Well while Doing Good How green chemistry is becoming a much-needed viable model of technology transfer ike Biblical commandments, the principles of green chemistry appear to be all too straightforward and obvious. You may wonder why it took until the 21st century for them to come into vogue. But as with those ancient rules of behaviour, stating them aloud is not quite as significant an accomplishment as acting on them. In fact, at the level of an individual research laboratory, many green chemistry directives — in addition to being green — just make good administrative sense. There may be environmental virtue attached to designing operations for energy efficiency or adopting renewable feedstocks, but these measures are cost effective as well. The real challenge comes when you begin to alter the approach of entire lines of business, rather than tidying up discrete facilities. Virtue at the factory level can impose a hefty price tag that should be offset by rich environmental, as well as economic, rewards. “Basic green chemistry doesn’t help the environment,” says Philip Jessop, who holds a Canada Research Chair in the subject at Queen’s University. “Green chemistry is not worth anything unless you get something out to the industrial level.” He is now uniquely poised to do just that. Jessop has become the technical director of GreenCentre Canada, a research and commercialization site that will serve as a clearing house for novel green chemistry discoveries from across the country. Based in Kingston, Ont., and occupying a refurbished building leased from aluminum giant Novelis, GreenCentre was spawned nearly two years ago by PARTEQ Innovations, the Queen’s technology commercialization unit. A splashy opening ceremony in mid-August, attended by representatives from industry and all levels of government, marked the arrival of what Jessop and his colleagues regard as a new way of bringing scientific insights into the marketplace.

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Tim Lougheed

Rui Resendes, Executive Director of GreenCentre Canada, speaks at the centre’s official launch in Kingston, Ont. on August 19. “The process of trying to commercialize discoveries arising from university research has its many frustrations,” says PARTEQ president and CEO John Molloy. Having been part of that process since Canadian universities introduced technology transfer offices in the early 1980s, he has endured more than his share of those frustrations. These institutions now conduct a national total of no less than $6 billion worth of research every year, he explains. “We’re wasting a tremendous national asset if we do not find a better way to capture economic value from this investment.” GreenCentre is intended to showcase that better way. For one thing, although it is located only a few kilometres from the Queen’s campus, it has been soliciting submissions from researchers everywhere. They have already arrived from more than two dozen institutions across Canada, overcoming a problem that typically afflicts a university-based commercialization arm: lack

“Basic green chemistry doesn’t help the environment. Green chemistry is not worth anything unless you get something out to the industrial level.” of sufficient input to justify the human and physical resources of an independent office. An even more fundamental problem encountered by researchers, says Jessop, is the difficulty of scaling up from a laboratory setting to the volumes demanded by industrial partners for reviewing a new product. The implications of this difficulty often go

unappreciated until universities and companies are excited enough about a discovery to take this essential step. “Then they find out you don’t know how to make more than 10 grams,” he says. “And you have no idea how much it’s going to cost to make it on a larger scale. Then the interest somewhat subsides. You stop getting the phone calls. The technology dies. That application is not followed through, and you go on with your research. An opportunity has been missed.” The GreenCentre Canada facility has been designed to overcome this stumbling block. Its state-of-the-art laboratory facilities include scale-up capability. Large tanks are being installed to store sizeable amounts of candidate chemicals produced on-site, enough to confirm their commercial potential for interested firms. “We don’t work at 10 grams,” says Eric Kelusky, Vice-President of Technology for Nova Chemicals Corporation. “The last plant we built operates at 50,000 kilograms per hour. Ten to 50,000 is a big jump, and it is in fact the crux of the problem.” His company has demonstrated its faith in GreenCentre’s ability to address this problem by becoming the centre’s first industrial partner. After providing part of the organization’s initial funding, Nova is gaining exclusive access to incoming information in two key areas of interest, olefin and styrene manufacturing. In this way, it has bought first dibs on findings that are initially known only to a researcher and perhaps a small number of graduate students. The company will then be in a position to secure the associated intellectual property, which is far preferable to learning about a discovery in the scientific literature, knowing that such prior disclosure all but eliminates the prospect of obtaining a patent. Nevertheless, this approach does not gainsay publication, which Jessop regards as a crucial stage in the academic enterprise. GreenCentre would merely postpone this stage until an industrial partner can lay claim to any intellectual property. He found himself in this very situation after discovering an extraordinary class of twophase solvents and surfactants in 2005 (SEE SIDEBAR, page 25), but says the commercial promise justified the wait. “If that means delaying publication three months or six months, I’m willing to live with that,” he says. “We don’t want to never publish, that’s not acceptable; but some small delay is fine.” Seven other firms have provided initial funding to GreenCentre on the same terms, each partner retaining its own distinct field of prepublication access from among the incoming submissions. According to Executive Director Rui Resendes, this arrangement mitigates the financial risks of assessing scientific information without compromising its commercial potential. Companies once held a much higher tolerance for those risks by investing in original research in-house, through sometimes lively wings known as “skunkworks.” In some cases, these internal corporate branches became the focal point for cutting edge research that outshone many academic institutions. Nevertheless, not all of this highly original work added to a company’s bottom line, and a high volume of such activity could be financially unsustainable. Where such work is done now, it often amounts to little more than honing original work carried out elsewhere in order to improve the efficiency of a process or cut costs; more dynamic expressions of research and development are all but extinct. “What we’re trying to do is bring back that model, some of it in a virtual capacity,” explains Resendes. Canada’s many university

Chemical commandments The notion of green chemistry emerged in the early 1990s, entering mainstream discussion with the publication of Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 1998), by two American chemistry professors, Paul Anastas and John Warner. There they framed this new field with the 12 principles outlined below, adding a new dimension to a well established scientific discipline. 1/ Methods that prevent waste are superior to those that deal with it afterward. 2/ Wherever possible, methods should maximize the incorporation of input materials in a final product. 3/ Wherever possible, methods should use and yield substances with minimal environmental toxicity. 4/ Effective products should have minimal environmental toxicity. 5/ Wherever possible, auxiliary substances for chemical reactions should be eliminated, or employed in a form that is environmentally benign. 6/ Methods should take into account the environmental and economic role of energy. 7/ Wherever possible, feedstocks should be renewable. 8/ Wherever possible, the use of derivative agents should be avoided or minimized. 9/ Methods based on catalytic reactions are superior to those based on stoichiometric reactions. 10/ Products should be designed to become environmetally benign after completing their designated function. 11/ New analytic methods should improve realtime monitoring and control of hazards. 12/ Products should be chosen or designed to minimize the potential for environmental accidents.

A fundamental problem encountered by researchers is the difficulty of scaling up from a laboratory setting to the volumes demanded by industrial partners. The implications of this difficulty often go unappreciated until universities and companies are excited enough about a discovery to take this essential step. OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 23



Funding Chemical Education

Call for Proposals

Deadline: December 15, 2010

The CIC Chemical EducationFund (CEF) is looking to support original and innovativechemical-related educationalprojects. The CEF has sponsored studentconferences, science fairs, chemical outreachprograms, a Summer Institute, and more.

For more information, contact info@cheminst.ca or visit

www.cheminst.ca/cef.

24 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

OCTOBRE 2010

laboratories offer the initial phase of this lost skunkworks capability, which will be complemented by more specifically directed investigations completed at GreenCentre and then turned over to partner firms. “If we’re handing them developed technologies that validate applications at the customer base,” he says, “it fits very nicely with their core expertise and their appetite for risk.” Resendes understands this appetite first-hand, having worked for the German chemical firm LANXNESS before joining GreenCentre in 2007. Since then he has been building up a staff that will establish the value of GreenCentre in the eyes of both academic and corporate partners. “You need to build that technical credibility with the research community,” he says. “It’s important that the kind of people we brought in not

only had the ability to don the development hat when needed, but had the ability to don the research hat and really talk to the researchers.” As Molloy acknowledges, the concept of green chemistry is easy enough to appreciate, but turning it into viable products and services has remained an elusive goal, one that may finally be within reach. “What we have here is unique, and the rest of the world is really watching,” he says. “The model is working, probably even better than anyone expected. I can say this with confidence because people around the world are telling us that they want to participate.” ACCN Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at magazine@accn.ca

Bernard Clark

What we have here is unique, and the rest of the world is really watching, The model is working, probably even better than anyone expected.

Tim Clark, senior product development scientist at GreenCentre, checks setup of a rotary evaporator.

Hitting the switch As commercially viable products begin to emerge from GreenCentre Canada, some of the first are likely to be based on a class of two-phase solvents and surfactants developed by Philip Jessop. Dubbed switchable,” they have the ability to change their properties simply by adding CO2. First identified by him in 2005, these agents set the stage for some enticing environmental applications. One of Jessop’s favourites improves the extraction of oil from soybeans. Normally this process calls for flammable hexane, which is later removed through an energy-intensive distillation. Now, however, the oil can be extracted with a nonflammable switchable solvent. When a soda poplike mixture of CO2 and water is added to the oil/solvent mix, the solvent “switches,” separating from the oil. In this way, the oil extraction and the subsequent solvent removal are safer and require less energy.

Summer student Brian Molloy examines one of the gloveboxes in GreenCentre Canada’s newly opened lab. OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 25

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Society News Nouvelles des sociétés Conferences

Thinking Green

On the first morning of the conference, delegates (from left to right) Philip Jessop, conference chair, Bernard West, Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network co-chair, Hamdy Khalil, global director of corporate research and product development for Woodbridge Foam, Hadi Mahabadi, CIC chair, Roland Andersson, CIC executive director and John Gerretsen, then-Ontario minister of the environment, gather to exchange greetings.

On the “Road to Greener Industry” some 320 registrants gathered at the 3rd International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry for three days in Ottawa this August. Talks spanned a range of topics from policy to renewable feedstocks, synthesis, energy, education and engineering, as well as a hard-hitting industrial program. On the morning of the first day the Honourable John Gerretsen, then-Ontario Minister of the Environment presented the Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an individual to Leo W.M. Lau of the University of Western Ontario and the Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an Organization to Woodbridge Foam Corporation. Chao-Jun Li of McGill University later received the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an individual at the closing banquet held at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The mood of the proceedings was positive and forward-looking. Robert Magee, Chairman and CEO of Woodbridge, noted during his award lecture that there exists “a natural, healthy conscience in the majority of technical graduates. They inherently want to do the right thing.” In an interview following his lecture, he implored “It is really important that we make people believers that the world isn’t coming to an end. We have the power to green the world.”

Advocacy

CSC Opposes Changes to Ontario Engineering Act The CSC was part of a group of societies that jumped to action in late August when it became known that approval of legislation threatening the ability of natural scientists to practice their professions was eminent. In the early 1990s, natural scientists and engineers in Ontario negotiated an exemption in the Professional Engineers Act for anyone holding “a recognized honours or higher degree in one or more of the physical, chemical, life, computer or mathematical sciences, or who possesses an equivalent combination of training and experience” from requiring supervision from an engineer. Revised legislation, which went to its third and final reading at the end of the summer did not include the exemption because Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) thought its wording was too vague. The removal of the exemption would have made it impossible for many natural scientists to work without being supervised by an engineer in industry, government, and universities, a prospect that could have had a major negative impact on Ontario and was potentially precedentsetting, with implications across Canada. Currently, similar legislation in British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia does not include an exemption clause for natural scientists. According to one observer, this has had a noticeable “stalling” effect on research in those provinces. The CSC, along with the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP), the Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario (ACPO), the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) and the Canadian Organization of Medical Physicists (COMP) brought the issue to the immediate attention of Christopher Bentley, Ontario Attorney-General. The societies also encouraged their membership and other concerned parties to write to key individuals in support of opposing the proposed changes. The Attorney-General’s office received more than 600 letters within just a few days, prompting the office to request a halt to the flood of objections and to raise the matter directly with the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO).

On September 2, 2010, a CAP-led team of representatives from the natural science societies met with the PEO’s President, Diane Freeman, and CEO/Registrar, Kim Allen, to discuss the matter. As a result of the discussion, an agreement in principle was reached between the societies and the PEO to introduce an exemption for natural scientists by modifying the regulations (rather than amending the legislation) in the Professional Engineers Act. These modifications will define a class of persons — natural scientists — that are exempt from being prevented by the Act from carrying out any act (including management) that requires the application of scientific principles, competently performed. The authorization for recognition of individuals that are in the category of “natural scientists” will reside with the respective scientific societies covered under the agreement. This agreement remains to be ratified by the councils of the various parties. The Attorney General's Office of Ontario will be monitoring developments in this matter until an agreement is concluded to the satisfaction of all parties. At press time, a memorandum of agreement between the PEO and the societies was being finalized.

Just Deserts for B.C. Chemists The professional status of chemists in British Columbia took an important step forward this summer after the government endorsed bylaw changes that finalized their membership as a parent organization in the Contaminated Sites Approved Professionals (CSAP) society. In late August, after the Association of the Chemical Profession of British Columbia (ACPBC) received approvals from the Ministry of Environment and the Register of Societies accepting the bylaw changes, ACPBC members became eligible as professional chemists to apply and take the examination as a Contaminated Sites Approved OCTOBER 2010 Canadian Chemical News 27

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Society News Nouvelles des sociétés Professional in British Columbia, making them the full equals of engineers, geoscientists, agrologists and biologists. CSAP administers and recommends certificates of compliance and other authorizations to the Ministry of Environment. The change comes following an 18-month process with ratification at a June AGM of the CSAP society. Raising the profile of the chemist as a professional in the province, and representations from ACPBC members were crucial in achieving success. “I welcome the collaboration of the natural sciences and engineering professions in this important area affecting human health and the environment in British Columbia,” says Paul West, FCIC and president of the ACPBC. The ACPBC is a member organization of the National Advisory Committee for the Profession of Chemist in Canada (NACPCC) which is organized under the CSC. According to West, sharing information and experiences from established associations across Canada through the NACPCC has been vital in the growth of the ACPBC and in its success in achieving new professional opportunities for chemists in British Columbia.

CIC Helps Make a Case for Research In August, 2010, the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE), with input from the CIC, submitted a pre-budget parliamentary brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, recommending that the government: • Compete aggressively for global research talent by establishing programs to bring international students to Canada and by providing expanded opportunities for Canadians to study abroad; • Make data generated from federally funded research freely available online and provide the capacity to ensure data stewardship and preservation in the long term; • Establish a centre for engineering and technology in the North to support innovation and sovereignty in Canada’s Arctic regions. PAGSE is an association of over 25 professional and scientific organizations — including the CIC — representing some 50,000 members from academia, industry and government. The association regularly submits briefs to parliament to recommend ways in which government can support research and innovation in Canada. “The chemical science and engineering community will be required to play an increasingly important role in societal challenges such as energy, climate change, environment, and healthcare,” says CIC executive director, Roland Andersson. “For this reason, the CIC is an active, participating member of PAGSE and uses it to get out our research and innovation message to the federal government through the annual Brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.” The report to the House of Commons details arguments to support each of its three main recommendations. On the subject of capitalizing on the international knowledge economy, the report argues that “changes to our environment that impact our health and economic well being, competition for talent and resources from abroad, especially the emerging economic powers of China, Brazil and India, and incursions on our sovereignty, particularly in the North” all pose a threat to education and innovation, which the report states have been key to Canada’s economic growth for the past decade. Since the problems are global in nature, an internationally-oriented response is required, namely by capitalizing on “the increasing mobility of talent and creativity to attract the best minds to Canada and to provide our own students with international opportunities they would not otherwise get.” To that end,

the report suggests that the government should continue to support programs like the Vanier Scholars and Banting Fellows, and provide supplements to principal investigators to offset higher tuition fees for international graduate students. In turn, the government should also fund “return grants” for scholarships to allow Canadian students to spend a portion of their study period in an international lab or institute, and a portion in Canada. The report then delves into the issue of access to publicly funded research data. “The federal government often pays for the generation of science and engineering data through investments in the federal granting agencies or directly through departmental science activities,” it says. “Some of that investment is being lost as there are no national standards or policies governing preservation or accessibility of data. Too often, data remains on an individual’s hard drive, which means other researchers, industry, and stakeholders lose opportunities to view, reanalyze and get additional value from the data. This could lead to costly duplication of efforts in regenerating data or, in a worst-case scenario, to important information related to the health and safety of Canadians being missed or lost.” The solution, the report goes on to say, is to make this data freely accessible online and to have a national policy on data accessibility and management, comparable to those already in place in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union, noting that money would also need to be spent on stewardship of a national data repository. The final recommendation in the briefing addresses the need for improved infrastructure and innovation in the North, where environmental and economic conditions are rapidly changing, particularly under the pressures of climate change. Establishing a centre for engineering and technology in the North that focuses on building design and construction, road and airfield infrastructure, communications, marine traffic impacts on oceans and wildlife, small port construction, and sealift technologies would “contribute to economic development of indigenous people and communities and … provide a physical and intellectual base to promote innovation and technological sovereignty in the North,” the report argues. The report concludes on a persuasive note. “Commitments to strengthening our domestic research environment … are crucial. Our ability to lead in the knowledge economy depends on it.” PAGSE will present their recommendations to the Finance Committee at a meeting in October. For more information, visit www.cheminst.ca/pagse2010

Staving Off Mediocrity The CIC is also an active member of the Canadian Consortium for Research (CCR) which advocates for research funding and support for post-secondary education. In its own Brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in August, the CCR asks “Can Canada maintain, or even improve, its current standard of living — its prosperity, its social programs, its environment — in coming years and decades? Or will we face a slow decline into mediocrity?”, suggesting that innovation will be a key foothold against such a slide. The report recommends that: • The federal government augment the basic (curiosity-driven) research portion of the Granting Councils’ budgets by five per cent; • Additional graduate level scholarship programs be developed and sustained over the long term to support emerging researchers, as current stimulus programs expire; • The funding for the indirect costs of university research rise over the course of the next five years to represent 40 per cent of the direct costs funded by the granting councils. ACCN

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Chemfusion Joe Schwarcz

For the Love of Magic (and Critical Thought)

love magic. And, like all chemists (well, almost all), I love critical thinking. Therefore I worship Harry Houdini. The great magician, escape artist and scourge of the charlatans passed away on Halloween in 1926, but never really left us. His exploits spawned numerous books, movies and plays and inspired countless youngsters to take up the engaging hobby of prestidigitation. My interest in Houdini actually stems more from his tireless efforts to foster critical thinking than from his magic or his incredible escapes. It was his mother’s death in 1913 that launched Houdini on a second career that would intertwine with his magical performances right up to his premature death from peritonitis at age 52. The magician had been extremely close to his mother and was utterly devastated when he received the telegram informing him of her death. “A shock,” he sighed, “from which I think recovery is not possible.” Although he was the son of a rabbi, Houdini had no religious convictions and

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had never expressed any belief in an afterlife. But desperate people do desperate things. A distraught Houdini began to seek out mediums who claimed to be able to contact the dead. Instead of finding solace in the darkness of the séance room, though, Houdini found rampant fraud. Tables moved, trumpets floated in the air and bells mysteriously rang, supposedly signaling the presence of spirits. While many sitters were amazed by these phenomena, Houdini was greatly angered. He knew exactly what was going on, for the simple reason that he had performed similar effects on the stage himself. Levitations and apparitions are classic magic effects and are produced by perfectly explicable scientific means. A livid Houdini now saw his beloved art being used to defraud vulnerable people of their money and resolved to unmask the charlatans. Houdini began to lecture on the fraudulent methods used by mediums and introduced an exposé of psychics into his full evening show. The audience was first treated to magic, then to some amazing escapes, and finally, to a séance where the methods commonly used by mediums were exposed. This was a bit of a touchy business, given that Houdini served as president of the American Society of Magicians, an organization that had a cardinal rule to never expose magic tricks. But the greater good of protecting the public from scams warranted an exception, Houdini argued. In any case, he maintained that he was only revealing effects that were used in the total darkness of a séance, and therefore not of much use on the stage. In 1924, Scientific American, the leading science magazine of the time, established a committee to investigate purported paranormal phenomena. By this time Houdini had established himself as an expert debunker of nonsense and was asked to sit on the committee. A prize of $2,500 was offered to the first person who under test conditions could produce an “objective psychic manifestation of physical character.” Had it not been for Houdini, Nino Pecoraro, an Italian medium may have walked off with the prize. The magician was away on a lecture tour the first time the committee tested Pecoraro, and in spite of his hands and feet being effectively bound, the medium was able to produce the usual séance manifestations. Trumpets sounded, a bell bafflingly flew through the air, and dollar bills materialized seemingly out of nowhere. When Houdini heard about these wonders he cancelled his

tour and returned to New York to take part in the Italian’s next test. As the world’s foremost escape artist, Harry knew that “tying up” could not be left to amateurs. The use of short ropes was critical because long ones inevitably introduced the potential for some slack. Under Houdini’s guidance Pecoraro’s hands were placed into gloves that were then sewn to his underwear. His coat sleeves were also sewn to his trousers and then he was securely tied with numerous short ropes. After Houdini finished his handiwork, the committee members sat back and waited for the appearance of the spirits. It was a futile wait. There were no physical apparitions either. No mystifying bell ringing. And consequently, no prize money awarded! Many other exposés followed, but neither Houdini nor others who followed in his footsteps were successful in preventing people from believing the unbelievable. That’s why psychics like Sylvia Browne can still take advantage of the desperate. Appearing on the Montel Williams Show, Browne told the grandmother of a missing girl that she was alive, but had been sold into white slavery in Japan. Sadly, as it turned out, the girl had been murdered in Texas. This know-it-all seer also failed to predict the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the most significant event of our era. Sylvia Browne has been repeatedly challenged by James Randi, à la Houdini, to prove her psychic abilities under controlled conditions. He has a standing offer of a million dollars to anyone who can do so. Sylvia has three times on network television agreed to be tested, but Randi is still waiting. She claims he doesn’t really have the money. Well, if she were such a great psychic, she would know that the money is there, locked in an escrow account. And now, I’ll make a prediction. Sylvia Browne will never agree to a test, because she knows where her talents really lie: an amazing ability to convince people that she is an authentic psychic in spite of the lack of any evidence! Oh what fun Houdini would have had with her! ACCN

Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. Read his blog at chemicallyspeaking.com.

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