ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News: April 2012

april 2012 CAnAdiAn ChemiCAl news 3

Departments

From the editor

Guest ColumnBy Emily Moore

Chemical news By Tyler Irving

society news

ChemFusion By Joe Schwarcz

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TAble oF ConTenTs

Featuresapril | avril Vol.64, no./no4

ChemisTry

ChemiCAl enGineerinG

business

Gasification redux a wealth of expertise and a plethora of biomass are spurring a renaissance in gasification on Canada’s West Coast.By Roberta Staley

Vive la crop!Nanotech venture Vive Crop protection of Toronto has done away with the need for volatile organic solvents while improving the delivery of pesticides.By Tyler Hamilton

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18 The Amazing Gene machineSenator Kelvin Ogilvie’s famous Gene Machine for synthesizing DNa and rNa kick-started a global biotechnology revolution.By Tyler Irving

Nex

Ter

ra

risk Assessment Coursemay 30-31, 2012

Calgary, Alta.september 19-20, 2012

Toronto, ont.

risk Concepts • integrated risk Management • risk Management process • Techniques for risk analysis • Qualitative Techniques: Hazard identification with Hands-on applications • index Methods • SVa, lOpa • Quantitative Techniques • Fault and event Trees • Fire, explosion, Dispersion Modeling • Damage/Vulnerability Modeling • risk estimation • risk presentation • risk evaluation and Decision-Making • risk Cost Benefit analysis • process Safety Management with reference to US OSHa pSM regulations • emergency Management with reference to environment Canada legislation • land Use planning • risk Monitoring • Stakeholder participation

Process safety Coursemay 28-29, 2012Calgary, Alta.september 17-18, 2012Toronto, ont.

accident Theory and Model • loss of Containment • physical and process Hazards • runaway reactions • Fire • explosion • Toxic exposure • Dust • equipment Failure • Human Factors inherently Safer Designs • engineering practices • plant and equipment layout • Facility Siting • relief and Blowdown • Circuit isolation • electri-cal area Classification • instrumentation and Safety instrumented Systems • Fire protection • process Safety Management • leadership and Culture • Hazard assessment and risk analysis • Operating procedures and Training • Management of Change • pre-Startup Safety review • Mechanical integrity • emergency preparedness • Management review and Continuous improvement

Advance your Professional knowledge and Further your Career

Course outline and registration atwww.cheminst.ca/profdev

Continuing professional Development presented by the Chemical institute of Canada (CiC) and the Canadian Society for Chemical engineering (CSChe).

Canadian Society for Chemical engineering

discount for CIC/CSChE

members


From The ediTor

exeCUTiVe DireCTOrroland Andersson, MCiC

aCTiNG eDiTOr roberta staley

eDiTOr (on leave)Jodi di menna

NeWS eDiTOrTyler irving, MCiC

CONTriBUTiNG eDiTOrSPeter CalamaiTyler hamiltonTim lougheed

arT DireCTiON & GrapHiC DeSiGNkrista lerouxkelly Turner

SOCieTy NeWSbobbijo sawchyn, MCiC Gale Thirlwall

MarKeTiNG MaNaGerbernadette dacey

MarKeTiNG COOrDiNaTOrluke Andersson

CirCUlaTiON michelle moulton

FiNaNCe aND aDMiNiSTraTiON DireCTOrJoan kingston

MeMBerSHip SerViCeS COOrDiNaTOr Angie moulton

eDiTOrial BOarDJoe schwarcz, MCiC, chairmilena sejnoha, MCiCbernard west, MCiC

eDiTOrial OFFiCe130 Slater Street, Suite 550Ottawa, ON K1p 6e2T. 613-232-6252 | F. [email protected] | www.accn.ca

[email protected]

SUBSCripTiON raTeSGo to www.accn.ca to subscribe or to purchase single issues. The individual non-CiC member subscription price for 2012 is $100 CDN. The institutional subscrip-tion price for 2012 is $150 CDN. Single copies can be purchased for $10.

ACCN (Canadian Chemical News/ L’Actualité chimique canadienne) is published 10 times a year by the Chemical institute of 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.

CHaNGe OF [email protected]

printed in Canada by Delta printing and postage paid in Ottawa, Ont.publications Mail agreement Number:40021620. (USpS# 0007–718)

indexed in the Canadian Business index and available online in the Canadian Business and Current affairs database.

iSSN 0823-5228

Visit us at www.accn.ca

exeCUTiVe DireCTOrroland Andersson, MCiC

aCTiNG eDiTOr roberta staley

eDiTOr (on leave)Jodi di menna

NeWS eDiTOrTyler irving, MCiC

CONTriBUTiNG eDiTOrSPeter CalamaiTyler hamiltonTim lougheed

arT DireCTiON & GrapHiC DeSiGNkrista lerouxkelly Turner

SOCieTy NeWSbobbijo sawchyn, MCiC Gale Thirlwall

MarKeTiNG MaNaGerbernadette dacey, MCiC

MarKeTiNG COOrDiNaTOrluke Andersson, MCiC

CirCUlaTiON michelle moulton

FiNaNCe aND aDMiNiSTraTiON DireCTOrJoan kingston

MeMBerSHip SerViCeS COOrDiNaTOr Angie moulton

eDiTOrial BOarDJoe schwarcz, MCiC, chairmilena sejnoha, MCiCbernard west, MCiC

eDiTOrial OFFiCe130 Slater Street, Suite 550Ottawa, ON K1p 6e2T. 613-232-6252 | F. [email protected] | www.accn.ca

[email protected]

SUBSCripTiON raTeSGo to www.accn.ca to subscribe or to purchase single issues. The individual non-CiC member subscription price for 2012 is $100 CDN. The institutional subscrip-tion price for 2012 is $150 CDN. Single copies can be purchased for $10.

ACCN (Canadian Chemical News/ L’Actualité chimique canadienne) is published 10 times a year by the Chemical institute of 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.

CHaNGe OF [email protected]

printed in Canada by Delta printing and postage paid in Ottawa, Ont.publications Mail agreement Number:40021620. (USpS# 0007–718)

indexed in the Canadian Business index and available online in the Canadian Business and Current affairs database.

iSSN 0823-5228

Visit us at www.accn.ca

Open any paper today and you’ll read about a new innovation

involving biotechnology. From gene therapy to hardier crops,

there are few areas of life that haven’t been touched by the biotech

revolution. The same is true of commodity chemicals: products once

derived from oil are now being made from biomass, thanks to designer enzymes,

genetically engineered organisms and advances in fermentation technology.

At its heart, biotechnology is about chemistry. There is no better illustration

of this than the long-lasting, international impact of a remarkable invention

by one of Nova Scotia’s distinguished sons, Senator Kelvin Ogilvie. At the

dawn of the 1980s, Ogilvie and a team of chemists built the Gene Machine,

the first device to provide fast and inexpensive synthesis of deoxyribonucleic

acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequences. As Ogilvie humbly admits

in Page 18’s story “The Amazing Gene Machine,” the invention launched the

global biotechnology revolution. Our conversation with Ogilvie is a respectful

look back at the roots of modern biotechnology and a lesson in how Canadian

innovation can change the world, if properly nurtured.

More Canadian chemical innovation can be found in the world of agricul-

tural crop protection. Contributing editor Tyler Hamilton writes about one such

innovator: nanotech venture firm Vive Crop Protection of Toronto. Vive Crop

invented a polymer particle it likens to a miniature FEDEX box to deliver farm

chemicals that fight fungi, weeds and pests. This eliminates the need for vola-

tile organic solvents — a significant green leap forward in a sector known for

chronic overuse of chemicals.

Finally, we look at the remarkable escalation of gasification on the West

Coast. The University of British Columbia is collaborating with Vancouver’s

Nexterra Systems to utilize the region’s abundance of biomass to generate clean

steam and electricity for powering not only UBC campus but a growing number

of businesses, local as well as international. This is yet another step forward in

the global clean-energy movement to help heal a polluted planet.

If you want to share your thoughts on any article write to Roberta Staley at [email protected]

2013 AwArds

Nominations are now open for the Chemical institute of Canada and Canadian Society for Chemistry

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

deAdlineJuly 3, 2012 for the 2013 selection.

nominATion ProCedureSubmit your nominations to [email protected]

Nomination forms and the full terms of reference for these awards are available at:www.cheminst.ca/awards

alfred Bader award • Bernard Belleau award • Boehringer ingelheim (Canada) Doctoral research award Boehringer ingelheim (Canada) research excellence award • CCUCC Chemistry Doctoral award • Clara Benson award • e.W.r. Steacie award • Fred Beamish award • John C. polanyi award • Keith laidler award • Maxxam award • rio Tinto alcan award • r. U. lemieux award • Strem Chemicals award for pure or applied inorganic Chemistry • W. a. e. McBryde Medal

CiC award for Chemical education • Chemical institute of Canada Medal • environment Division research and Development award • Macromolecular Science and engineering award • Montréal Medal

Chemical institute of Canada | AwArds

Canadian Society for Chemistry | AwArds


The future of Canada’s chemical sector is bright

The year 2012 is a milestone for me — 20 years since gradu-ating from the Engineering Chemistry program at

Queen’s University and the year that I am president of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE). It’s one of those years where you look back to see how far you’ve come and ahead to try to envision where things will be in another 20 years.

I chose the Engineering Chemistry program because I thought polymers were fascinating. I was intrigued that you could design a material’s properties at the molecular level and also affect those properties by the way that you processed the material. At the time, there were only a handful of professors working in the area at Queen’s. Today there are more than a dozen, and the sophistication of the research area continues to amaze me. Twenty years from now, the polymeric materials and processes that are being developed in labs across the country will be used to improve our health, reduce our energy consumption and preserve our water.

For my doctorate work in the 1990s, I studied reaction kinetics in the phys-ical chemistry laboratory at Oxford. The lasers I used were massive, finicky things. The simulations I ran needed a dedicated workstation; today I could probably run them on my iPhone! The research studied a set of reactions important in atmospheric chemistry. At the time, the ozone hole was a topic of great worldwide concern, but today it seems largely a forgotten problem. The reason for this public amnesia is that the Montreal Protocol, first signed in 1987,

By emily moore

has been a huge science-based policy success. Data shows that the world has successfully reduced the amount of ozone-depleting substances in the atmo-sphere and the ozone layer is beginning to slowly recover. It is nice to imagine that in 20 years we will have been able to replicate that success with the species implicated in global warming.

After my doctorate, I spent more than 10 years as a researcher at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada. During that short time, nanotechnology went from being the latest fad to an estab-lished field and “green chemistry” from slogan to a driver of research direc-tions. The pace of change was at times astounding, as young PhDs joined the centre bringing with them the latest thinking from the research frontiers. I learned at that time that people are the only way to drive technology from university to industry — information can be passed easily, but knowledge transfer needs legs!

Today I work for Hatch Engineering, a firm in the mining and metals, energy and infrastructure sectors. I find the issues that we face fascinating: how can we apply the latest technologies to industry’s most pressing needs? In the resources sector, these challenges are fundamentally linked to our social license to operate. One need only look to the high standards that are being demanded of chemical engineers in the oil sands to see that solutions will take partnership, ingenuity and transparency to be achieved.

As the president of the CSChE, I feel I should be proposing some grand vision to direct us. But as I reflect on

the past 20 years, I can only conclude that any predictions that I make would be laughable. I could never have predicted the speed of computing, the accessibility of information and the new research areas that have emerged. However, I know that the journey will continue to be an exciting one as we make progress on present chal-lenges and new opportunities emerge. So my vision for Canadian chemistry and chemical engineering is simply that we are a world leader in this field, attracting the best and the brightest, with high levels of collaboration to tackle the challenges that face us: energy, water, food security and human health.

The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) must find new ways to catalyze this journey by connecting Canadian chemists and chemical engineers with each other and to the world. In recent years, we have seen exciting developments in our conferences and great improvements in our magazine and website. New topics are emerging and new channels of communication opening up, but we need to continue to work strenuously to connect our indus-trial and our academic populations and to reach out together to the public. Old models may have to be put aside and new ones developed, but we are blessed to have such a strong foundation to build from. I am sure that in 20 years the CIC will look decidedly different, but I am confident that it will still be

here to serve us.

Emily Moore, MCIC, is the president of CSChE and Director, Technology

Development, at Hatch Engineering.

GuesT Column

8 l’ACTuAliTé Chimique CAnAdienne aVril 2012

ChemiCAl newsBy Tyler irving

One of the hallmarks of alzheimer’s disease is the aggregation of a protein

called tau, which in turn gives rise to neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and

impairs brain function. a team of researchers from Simon Fraser University

has shown that a specific sugar molecule attached to tau might control its

aggregation and could lead to new therapeutics for alzheimer’s.

David Vocadlo and his lab have been studying the biological role of a sugar

molecule called O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNac), which is routinely

added and removed from many proteins in the body, including tau. The

team has developed small molecule inhibitors for the enzymes that add and

remove O-GlcNac from proteins and can thereby control its levels.

in their latest study, the team used the inhibitors to increase the levels

of O-GlcNac in the brains of mice that are genetically predisposed to

develop the symptoms of alzheimer’s. They then compared tau protein

aggregates in the brains of these mice with a control group. Mice with

higher O-GlcNac levels contained anywhere from 23 to 62 per cent fewer

aggregated proteins, depending on the part of the brain examined. They

also had 1.4 times the number of motor neurons and showed fewer symp-

toms of neurodegeneration. “This study is important because it validates

the practice of using inhibitors to increase O-GlcNac as an approach with

the potential to generate alzeheimer’s therapeutics,” says Vocadlo. along

with business partner ernest Mceachern, Vocadlo has founded a spin-

off company, alectos Therapeutics, to help commercialize his inhibitors.

if all goes well, inhibitors that can increase the levels of the O-GlcNac

sugar modification could be in the clinic within five years. The research is

published in Nature Chemical Biology.

Sugar molecule may be key to Alzheimer’s treatment

HEalTH

in these two sections of mouse brains, the red represents neurofibrillary tangles while the green represents the O-GlcNac modification. Mice treated with a chemical that increases O-GlcNaC had fewer tangles and showed less neurodegeneration than a control group.

Oxygen semiconducts at high pressures

Many undergraduates are surprised to learn that oxygen, which they think of as a colourless gas, is blue and magnetic when condensed into a liquid. Now, a group of researchers studying solid oxygen have learned that its properties at extremely high pressures are just as surprising.

Dennis Klug is a researcher at the National Research Council’s Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences in Ottawa. Along with an international team of collaborators, he’s been running detailed computer simulations of what happens to simple gases when they are subjected to pressures on the order of megabars — a million times higher than atmospheric pressure. The idea is that under these conditions, simple materials might gain interesting properties like superconduc-tivity. Some could even be quench-recovered, meaning they could be returned to normal pressures without losing their new characteristics.

Previous simulations have shown that there are at least five distinct types of solid oxygen, each with its own molecular structure. At about one megabar ,

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ChemiCAl newsCanada's top stories in the chemical sciences and engineering

First satellite study of oil sands air pollution

an international team of researchers led by environment Canada has published the first satellite-based study of air quality over alberta’s oil sands operation. it shows that levels of certain key gases are low compared to large cities, but that like oil sands development itself, they are increasing at a substantial rate.

Chris Mclinden, an expert in satellite remote sensing at environment Canada, led an international team which studied data from various atmospheric monitoring satellites, such as the Ozone Monitoring instrument (OMi). These satellites are equipped with absorption spectrometers which can measure the levels of air pollutants like NO2 and SO2 by analysing the wavelengths of light reflected from the earth’s surface. Over the oil sands mining region, an area about 30 kilometres by 50 kilometres, the maximum level of NO2 was 2.8 x 1015 molecules per square centimetre, while that for SO2 was 1.0 x 1016 mole-cules per square centimetre. Mclinden says that the NO2 levels are comparable to what one would find in a medium-sized city. “in another one of our studies we looked at some coal-burning power plants. The NO2 and SO2 levels we see over the oil sands regions are about the same as what we would see over a single large power plant,” says Mclinden.

Given that NO2 and SO2 are common byproducts of hydro-carbon combustion, it’s not unexpected to find them near sites of industrial activity. Still, the study shows that in the period from 2005–2010, emissions of these two species increased by about 10 per cent a year. “Certainly we need to keep monitoring air quality, both from space and through other methods,” says Mclinden. Satellite monitoring will be part of the new oil sands monitoring plan currently being implemented jointly by the alberta and federal governments. The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

EnvIRonMEnT

oxygen turns into a superconducting, metallic solid. Klug and his team went be-yond this, reaching the kinds of pressures one would find at the centre of the earth. “Oxygen did two unexpected things,” says Klug. “First, it maintained its molecular form at pressures much higher than other simple gases, up to almost 20 megabars. Second, at pressures of about 20 megabars, it converts to a square spiral-like polymeric structure, very similar to solid sulphur. This structure has semiconducting properties.”

Other materials such as sodium can change their electrical conductivity at high pressures, but Klug says the finding was surprising because it was so different from other simple gases. “Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and hydrogen are all predicted to go to nice metallic structures, but we found that oxygen is a real oddball,” he says. Klug and his team are currently collaborating with other groups who could run high-pressure shockwave experiments to synthesize the structures they have predicted. The work is published in Physical Review Letters.

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This map was created with data from the Ozone Monitoring instru-ment (OMi) and shows the vertical column density of NO2 over western North america. The footprint of the oil sands extraction operations was created from mining permit data by Global Forest Watch Canada. The NO2 levels over the oil sands operations are comparable to those found over a medium-sized city.

Nitrogen Dioxide Total Column Density (x 1015 molecules/cm2)

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.75


ChemiCAl news

MaTERIalS ScIEncE

bIocHEMISTRy

a computer-generated image of the exterior of an HiV capsule.

Bacterial polysaccharide could lead to HIV vaccine

porous titanium leads to improved implants

The outer surfaces of human cells, bacterial cells and viruses often bear proteins that are glycosylated, that is, decorated with sugar mol-ecules called polysaccharides. an unexpected similarity between the surface polysaccharides of human immunodeficiency virus (HiV) and a plant bacterium could point the way toward the world’s first vaccine to prevent aiDS.

The surface of HiV has a glycosylated protein called gp120, which is heavily decorated with a type of polysaccharide called oligoman-nose. although some humans can produce antibodies that bind the oligomannose sugar molecules, most cannot. This is because oligomannose sugars on HiV are so similar to the surface polysac-charides found on human cells that the immune system does not recognize them as foreign. The goal of HiV vaccine researchers is to find or create a polysaccharide that is different enough from the

Titanium has long been used for medical implants due to its strength and biocompatibility. Now, researchers at the National Research Council’s Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI) have created a new type of microporous titanium that could lead to even more effective implants.

In 2003, Louis-Philippe Lefebvre was working on an NRC-IMI project to create metal electrodes with high specific sur-face areas. His team hit on a method of mixing powdered metals with a polymeric binder and a chemical agent that turns into a gas around 200 C. When heated, the foaming agent decom-poses and forms bubbles that are trapped by the thick polymer, like baking powder in a cake. The polymer is then removed by thermal decomposition and the resulting material heated up at

1,300-1,400 C to sinter the metal particles together and create a microporous material.

Although initially focused on nickel and copper, the team realized that microporous titanium would allow bone cells to grow into the spaces of the implant, resulting in a stronger bond. “Cells are about 30 micrometres in size, so we need to have pores between 50 and 500 micrometres,” says Lefebvre. It took several years to achieve the perfect pore size distribution, as well as to ensure that the overall mechanical strength of the material was adequate. Today the porous titanium is being used by the British company Orthomed for cruciate ligament repair in dogs.

Lefebvre is currently collaborating with Paul Martineau and Ed Harvey of McGill University’s Health Centre on implants for humans. One example is a screw that could be used to con-nect to broken parts of the scaphoid, a bone the size of a cashew in the human wrist. Scaphoid injuries often heal improperly, with the two halves of the bone failing to knit together. By us-ing a microporous titanium screw, the group hopes to improve the success rate of treatment. “We hope that within two years we’ll be ready for commercialization,” says Lefebvre.


ChemiCAl newsCanada's top stories in the chemical sciences and engineering

This x-ray shows a porous titanium metal screw hold-ing together two halves of the scaphoid, a bone in the human wrist about the size and shape of a cashew. By allowing bone cells to grow into its pores, the new material, which was developed at the National research Council's industrial Mate-rials institute, can improve the efficacy of various medical implants.

polysaccharides found on human cells to be recognized by the im-mune system, yet similar enough that the antibodies it generates will bind to oligomannose on HiV as well.

ralph pantophlet heads the laboratory of infectious Diseases im-munology in the Faculty of Health Science at Simon Fraser University, but his previous work involved studying surface polysaccharides in bacteria. acting on a hunch, he emailed some of his former colleagues asking if they had seen any bacterial surface polysaccharides that resembled HiV-oligomannose. By sheer coincidence, a researcher in italy named Cristina De Castro had recently isolated a new polysaccharide from a plant bacterium called Rhizobium radiobacter. De Castro sent a sample to pantophlet, who was surprised to discover that it was bound by a human antibody to oligomannose. “i thought we might find something that looked a bit like oligomannose on HiV, but that we would then need to chemically tweak it to make it more to our liking,” says pantophlet. “But to find a natural product that was so close was just amazing.”

pantophlet and his team have tried injecting heat-killed Rhizobium radiobacter into mice to see if they generate oligomannose-specific antibodies. They did, but although these antibodies can bind to gp120, they weren't capable of blocking HiV from infecting cells in subsequent laboratory tests. pantophlet hopes to improve the response by sepa-rating the polysaccharide from the bacterium and fixing it to another protein that can trigger the immune system to make better antibodies. if the new glycoprotein elicits the desired response, pantophlet hopes that a prototype vaccine could be created in three to five years. The research is published in Chemistry and Biology.

A group of researchers from Environment Canada has provided estimates of future climate warming based on anthropogenic activity that are more constrained than — and on the lower end of — those provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Nathan Gillett is a researcher at Environment Canada’s Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis. The centre has developed a model called CanESM2 which includes separate parameterizations for three categories of climate forcings: greenhouse gases, aerosols and natural phenomena such as volcanism and changes in solar radia-tion. Gillett and his colleagues ran the model with each of the forcings separately and compared the results with the actual temperature records from 1851-2010. They then scaled the response to each forcing according to how much the model overestimated or underestimated the actual temperature response. “The response to aerosols in our model is a cooling, and the response to greenhouse gases is a warming,” explains Gillett. “To give the best fit to the observed changes, we had to scale down both the warming due to greenhouse gases and the cooling due to aerosols.”

Previous groups had used the period 1900-1999 as a baseline but according to Gillett, the uncertainty in late 19th century temperature data is no greater than that in early 20th century data. Using their model, the researchers were able to come up with a value for transient climate response, which is the amount of warming at the time when CO2 concentrations reach double their preindustrial levels, which is expected to occur in the middle of this century. The value was 1.3 C to 1.8 C. “That narrow range is within the IPCC’s range of 1 C to 3.5 C for the transient climate response, but it's more closely constrained and toward the lower end,” says Gillett. He emphasizes that the calculations need to be repeated with more models. The work is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

refined global warming estimates on the low side

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Pesticides don’t have the best reputation when it comes

to their potential impacts on human health, but even

more concerning — for regulators especially — are the

volatile organic solvents frequently relied on to deliver

crop-protection chemicals to farmers’ fields.

The solvents themselves are often known carcinogens, not

the kind of thing we want on farmland that grows soy, corn and

wheat. And they’re not as effective as they could be. Farmers

tend to overspray to make sure enough of the active ingredients

in insecticides, fungicides and herbicides are dispersed across a

field to be effective.

It’s why Vive Crop Protection, a Toronto-based nanotech-

nology company specializing in crop protection, has been

attracting so much attention from some of the world’s biggest

chemical companies. Vive Crop (formerly Vive Nano, and

before that Northern Nanotechnologies) has done away with

the need for volatile organic solvents. It has also significantly

Nanotech venture Vive Crop protection of Toronto has developed a more eco-friendly way to keep pests, fungi and weeds out of farmers’ fields. and that’s just the beginning.

By Tyler hamilton

ViVe lacrop!


business | CrOp prOTeCTiON

improved how pesticides are

delivered, to the point where

fewer active ingredients are

needed to do the same job.

In both cases, impact to the

environment and human

health is reduced.

At the heart of Vive Crop’s

technology are polymer

particles the company has

trademarked under the name Allosperse, which measure less

than 10 nanometres in size. It describes these particles as ultra-

small cages — or “really tiny little FEDEX boxes” in the words of

CEO Keith Thomas — which hold active pesticide ingredients

and are engineered to disperse evenly in water.

Even and thorough dispersal is critical. Avinash Bhaskar, an

analyst at research firm Frost & Sullivan who has followed Vive

Crop closely, says one of the biggest problems with pesticides is

they tend to agglomerate, resulting in uneven, clustery distri-

bution on fields. “You want uniform distribution on the soil,”

Bhaskar says. “Vive Crop’s technology prevents agglomeration

and this is a key differentiator in the market.”

How Vive Crop chemically engineers these Allosperse

particles is the company’s core innovation. It starts by

dissolving negatively charged polymers in water. The like

charges repel so the polymers spread out in the solution. Then

positively charged ions are added to the mix. These ions

neutralize the charge around the polymers, causing the poly-

mers to collapse around the ions and create a kind of nano

cage — the Allosperse.

The company then filters out the positive and negative ions

and loads up the empty cages with molecules of active pesti-

cide ingredients. The cage itself is amphiphilic, meaning it

has both water-attracting and water-repelling areas. In this

case, the outer shell attracts water and the inner core doesn’t.

“While in water the active ingredient, which also hates water,

stays inside (the cages),” explains Vive Crop chief technology

officer Darren Anderson. Because the outside of the cages like

water, the particles freely and evenly disperse. “Once sprayed

on the crop, the water droplets evapo-

rate and the active ingredient gradually

disperses from the particles that are left

behind.” How does Vive Crop assure

that the Allosperse cages are amphi-

philic? “I can’t tell you the answer,” says

Anderson. “It’s part of our secret sauce.”

What the company can say is that the

polymer cages themselves are benign.

Vive Crop makes them out of chitosans,

found naturally in the shells of shrimp

and other crustaceans, and polyacrylic

acid, the super-absorbent material

found in baby diapers.

“They’re all approved by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency and

if they’re safe enough for kids’ diapers

they’re safe enough for crops,” says

Thomas. “The end result is that the nasty

solvents are gone.” The approach could

just as easily work for delivering dyes,

fragrances and drugs — all markets that

Vive Crop will explore down the road.

Crop protection was chosen as the

quickest path to market for a number

of reasons. Field trials with a crop are

much easier and take far less time — as

little as a month or even a few days —

compared to doing multi-year trials to

test, for example, delivery of chemo-

therapy drugs. “It’s the same insect we’re

killing whether it’s in the lab or in the

field, but with drug delivery you’re going

from petri dish to mouse to human,”

says Thomas.

The core technology was devel-

oped in the early 2000s by Jordan

Dinglasan, a chemistry student from

the Philippines who took up graduate

Vive Crop protection CeO Keith Thomas.

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e Cr

Op


refined its business model and opened up dialogue with some

of the world’s largest chemical companies.

“They have so much potential,” says Jon Dogterom, who

leads the clean technology, advanced materials and engi-

neering practice at MaRS, an innovation “incubator” in

Toronto that counts Vive Crop as one of its early clients. “A lot

of what’s going for this company is its people and with Keith at

the helm, it gives me a lot of confidence in what they’re doing.”

The company now has about 30 employees, with

Dinglasan in the role of research and development coor-

dinator and Goh, who is still a professor at the university,

acting as company adviser. Vive Crop has so far raised

about $8 million from the private sector, on top of another

$8 million in grants from provincial and government

bodies, including the Ontario Centres of Excellence and

Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

“We were very lucky in terms of the equity we’ve been able

to raise and other financing. We’re sitting on a good amount

of cash right now, but we’re not self-sustaining yet,” says

Thomas. “We’re currently developing products in conjunc-

tion with, you name it… .” He stops short of saying exactly

studies at the University of Toronto.

Dinglasan and fellow researchers at U of

T’s Department of Chemistry, including

Anderson and chemistry professor

Cynthia Goh, decided in 2006 that

they wanted to reach beyond the walls

of academia and create a company to

commercialize the technology.

Thomas, 47, a seasoned entrepreneur

who had just sold his IT firm Vector

Innovations, was on the prowl for a new

venture to invest in and, after seeing

a presentation from Dinglasan and

colleagues, found himself impressed by

what the team had developed. He decided

to take the researchers under his wing.

“I’m the grey hair on the team,” he jokes.

But a bit of grey hair is exactly what

this team of talented researchers, with

no prior business experience, needed.

Thomas focused the company’s efforts,

Vive Crop co-founder and r&D coordinator Jordan

Dinglasan (centre ) devel-oped the company's core

technology. He is flanked by formulations chemist anjan Das and research

assistant Danielle Norton.


which companies. But those close to Vive

Crop say it’s a Who’s Who of the industry: Dow

Chemical, BASF and other giants looking to reduce

the environmental and health impacts of their products.

“We’re not ever going to be distributing our own products,”

says Thomas. “We work with the majors and in some cases

with generic manufacturers. We get the active ingredients

from these customers, and then do the work to enhance the

delivery of that ingredient for them.”

Thomas stresses that no commercial products based on

Vive Crop’s technology have yet hit the market, though

expects that 2013 will be a breakout year after regulatory

approvals have been obtained. “But in field trials it works

and it works really well.”

Those field trials have been done in two stages. One involves testing of the

product in greenhouses at Ontario’s University of Guelph, which works in

collaboration with Vive Crop. Greenhouses offer a more controlled environment

without surprises from Mother Nature, such as unexpected wind gusts and rainfall.

The second stage moves the technology from the greenhouse to the farmer’s

field. The company works with a third-party research organization, which to date

has run several independent tests on dedicated plots of land in the American

southeast, as well as in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and some tropical locations

outside of North America.

There’s no doubt in the minds of Vive Crop’s founders that the technology is

going to have a major impact on the industry. “I expect the technology to be a

game-changer in the agricultural sector,” says Anderson, who was the company’s

founding president before Thomas joined. “Eventually, I expect products like ours

will represent the majority of products on the market.”

Frost & Sullivan honoured Vive Crop with a technology innovation award in

2010. At the time, Bhaskar said the company had a head start in the market.

“Competing solutions are still in their respective research stages, waiting for cred-

ible evidence on the impact of their technology,” he said then. Pose the question

today and Anderson says the company still has a healthy market lead. “We think

we’re at least two years ahead of most of our competitors.”

The fact it has stayed focused — that

90 per cent of its activities are devoted

to agri-chem development — has

helped it maintain that lead. But the

company has its eye on other markets

as well. It sees itself developing gold

and magnetic nanoparticles that can

enhance diagnostic processes in life

sciences and other nanoparticles being

used to make advanced coatings.

Another potential application is

light-activated photocatalysts that

can be used for water remediation or to

break down pollutants that accumulate

on the outside of buildings and bridges,

helping to keep them clean.

What Bhaskar likes about the

company is that it’s capable of creating

nanoparticles for most chemicals on

the periodic table and it can manu-

facture its product in large volumes.

“Further, the technology does not need

a dedicated plant and is easy and cost-

effective to implement.”

In this sense, Vive Crop is more than

just a farmer’s field of dreams and a

nightmare for pests and weeds.

Loaded Allosperse particle*

*For Illustrative purposes only; particle may not be exactly as shown

TM

Vive's polymer particle, trademarked under the name allosperse, are less than 10 nanometres in size and they hold active pesticide ingredients.

ViV

e Cr

Op

Chemical Institute of Canada

ReCRuItment Zone!

Chemical institute of Canada | Career SerViCeS

Presented at the national Job Fair and training expoApril 4–5, 2012metro Toronto Convention Centrewww.thenationaljobfair.com

• Ontario's largest, most established and comprehensive recruitment event• Résumé assessment • New Canadians employment consulting• Career presentations • Entrepreneurship seminars• Career services pavilion • Training and education pavilion• Employment pavilion

The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the CIC Toronto Local Section have teamed up with the National Job Fair and Training Expo to create the Chemical Institute of Canada Recruitment Zone. Chemists, chemical engineers and chemical technologists will be able to meet with a broad range of recruiting chemical companies as well as 150+other companies at the fair. Mark the dates on your calendar and stay tuned for more information!

Interested in exhibiting? Contact [email protected]

Canadian Society for Chemical Technology

laboratory safety Course

discount for CIC/CSCT

members

Course outline and registration atwww.cheminst.ca/profdevContinuing professional Development presented by the Chemical institute of Canada (CiC) and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT).

may 28–29, 2012 september, 17–18, 2012Calgary, alta. Toronto, Ont.For chemists and chemical technologists whose responsibilities include managing, conducting safety audits or improving the operational safety of chemical laboratories, chemical plants and research facilities.

advance your professionalKnowledge and Further your Career

Chemical institute of Canada

The 2013 Canadian Green Chemistry and engineering network (CGCen) Award

Canadian Green Chemistry and engineering network Award (individual)Sponsored by GreenCentre Canada

ontario Green Chemistry and engineering network Award (individual)Sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of the environment

ontario Green Chemistry and engineering network Award (organizational)Sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of the environment

The awards will be presented at the 62nd Canadian Chemical engineering Conference in Vancouver, BC on October 14–17, 2012 and will showcase top performers in green chemistry and engineering.

Deadline: Wednesday, July 4, 2012 for the 2013 selection.

For details visit:www.cheminst.ca/greenchemistryawardsnominations for these awards are being accepted now. For more details contact [email protected].

The Canadian Green Chemistry and engineering Network is a forum of the Chemical institute of Canada (CiC).


&AQ

By Tyler irving

a look back at the Canadian roots of the biotechology revolutionThe AmAzing gene mAchine

there are few better examples of Canadian chemical inno-

vation than that of Kelvin Ogilvie. A Nova Scotian by

birth, 69-year-old Ogilvie has been a chemistry professor

at the University of Manitoba, McGill University and

Acadia University, serving as president of the latter from

1993 to 2003. In 1981, Ogilvie was part of the team that

created the Gene Machine, the first device to provide accu-

rate, fast and inexpensive synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid

(DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequences. He was

appointed to the Canadian senate in 2009 and inducted

into the Canadian Science and Technology Hall of Fame in

late 2011. ACCN spoke to Ogilvie about how his innova-

tion started the biotechnology revolution, and what today’s

researchers can learn from his experience.

ACCn What was the field of DNa synthesis like when you got started?

ko By the 1970s, biologists had figured out how to use enzy-

matic tools in bacteria to cut open their DNA and to splice

in genes from other organisms. The problem was that they

couldn’t get their hands on synthetic genes. You had to

somehow isolate a gene from a natural source, which was very

complicated. It would be much easier if you could simply push

a button and make the gene you wanted. But the methods

we had were very inefficient. They were low-yield and time-

consuming, with some steps taking as long as 24 hours. To put

Kelvin Ogilvie in his chemistry lab at acadia University in 1988. Ogilvie served as president of acadia from 1993–2003.


ChemisTry | DNa SyNTHeSiS

it in perspective: putting together a 12-unit piece of DNA

would have taken a team of highly trained post-docs roughly

three to six months. Even the smallest genes have more than

100 units in them. Those methods would clearly not be the

ones that would ultimately allow scientists to synthesize DNA

and RNA sequences of any length.

ACCn How did you approach the problem?

ko I started by looking at RNA. Its monomer units are similar

to those of DNA, but it has an extra hydroxyl group in the

2’ position of the ribose sugar. Because of that, RNA is harder

to synthesize and less stable than DNA. I knew that if I found

a highly efficient way of putting RNA units together, DNA

would be a piece of cake.

The big issue was the problem of finding a protec-

tion system for the various functional groups of the RNA

monomer units, for example, to keep that problematic

2’ hydroxyl group from reacting until it was the right time.

I identified alkylsilyl protecting groups that were really effi-

cient and stable and yet easily removed at the end without

degrading the RNA chain. The group of choice for me was

a tertiary butyldimethylsilyl protecting group. We attempted

to use that with various coupling methods for the monomers

that were being developed in different laboratories. Robert

Letsinger from Northwestern University had come up with

a phosphate coupling procedure for putting DNA units

together and I instantly recognized that it would be compat-

ible with my silyl protecting group system. We tried it with

RNA and it was a beauty.

ACCn What happened next?

ko Once you are able to put those units together in very

high yield and in the correct order, what you’re really doing

is carrying out a lot of repetitive steps, so the idea of auto-

mation is always in the back of your mind. We got a team

of people together, including a really exceptional entrepre-

neur named Robert Bender. He had the idea of trying to

find a way to automate DNA synthesis and RNA synthesis

independently, but he needed our methods, including these

new protecting groups. So he put together the resources and

developed instruments around this particular chemistry and

the outcome was the Gene Machine, which we demonstrated

live on TV in 1981.

ACCn Did you have trouble getting people to believe that you had accomplished what you said you had?

ko Absolutely. I remember that we went to the major

biotechnology conference in San Francisco and set up a

booth with the machine. We had cards that scientists could

fill out with up to a 12-unit sequence that they would like to

have. That was the length of segment that you could use to

probe living systems for a particular gene, so a 12-unit piece

was an extremely important scientific tool at the time.

We promised that the president of the conference would

draw the winning sequence on a Thursday morning and we

would deliver the completed sequence anywhere in North

America the following Monday. I don’t think there was a

single scientist who filled out one of those cards who believed

there was any hope of it happening; they knew it was impos-

sible to do that in a weekend. Nevertheless, hundreds of cards

were filled out and on Thursday morning, the president drew


the winning sequence from a laboratory

in upstate New York. It was delivered

to them on Monday morning, they

used it and it appeared in a publica-

tion a number of months later. In one

dramatic example, it transformed the

thinking of scientists dealing with

the manipulation of cellular organ-

isms. To be frank, it launched the

biotechnology revolution.

ACCn Can you give us one or two examples of products or techniques made possible by your innovation?

ko Prior to biotechnology, insulin was

extracted from the pancreases of human

cadavers. This was inefficient and you

had the possibility of extracting toxic

materials along with it. With the gene

machine, it was possible to create a

synthetic gene, put it in an E. coli cell

and give it instructions to make lots

of copies. You could then build up

a huge fermentation tank of E. coli

cells, all of which are now producing

human insulin along with other protein

molecules. The human insulin is then

extracted from the final mixture. Not

only does this produce human insulin

free of any of the problems associated

with extracting it from cadavers, but

it also creates an unlimited supply.

Within a few years, most countries in

the industrialized world passed laws

to ensure that the only human insulin

that could be sold on the market was

that produced from biotechnology.

You can now do that for any protein

Besides the Gene Machine, Senator Kelvin Ogilvie’s knowledge of rNa synthesis led to the development of Ganciclovir, an important antiviral drug used to treat numerous infections. For his success in translating scientific discover-ies into the marketplace, Ogilvie received the prestigious Manning principal award from the ernest C. Manning awards Foundation in 1991. One year later, he was inducted into the Order of Canada. Ogilvie currently chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Social affairs, Science and Technology.

like many observers, Ogilvie is concerned about the so-called innovation gap in Canada. “We should be very proud of the tremendous strength we have in our research institutes, but we should be ashamed of how poorly we have done in translating technology into social and economic benefit,” he says.

Ogilvie believes that one of our biggest problems is geography: Canada is 35 million people spread over the second-largest landmass of any country. according to Ogilvie, innovation works best when there is critical mass in specific clusters, where people from related companies and organizations can meet and exchange ideas. He cites the development in the 1980s of the National research Council’s Biotechnology research institute (NrC-Bri) in Montreal, where he played a key role. NrC-Bri pro-vides laboratory space, access to fermenters and other research infrastructure to small technology companies, which in turn feed a community of spin-offs and sec-ondary industries. Ogilvie would like to see other NrC institutes follow this model. “i would argue the NrC has gotten a long way from its original mandate and essen-tially attempted to become another academic research institute. The NrC should be a collaborator with university researchers, not a competitor.”

Much has been written in the past year about Canada’s Science and Technology strategy. a number of reports have advocated reform, such as streamlining the Scientific research and experimental Development (Sr&eD) tax credit, or providing more direct funding for industrial research and development. Ogilvie believes these are important, but feels we also need to develop an innovation-oriented entrepre-neurial class and receptor capacity for innovation in existing industries, along with critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, many prominent scientists have argued against changes to govern-ment funding of basic research, as the next breakthrough cannot be predicted. Ogilvie sees the competition between fundamental and applied research as a false dichotomy. He cites the example of louis pasteur, who made many important dis-coveries, both fundamental and applied, with funding from private sources. “every good scientist has an idea of why they’re trying to pursue their area of research and where it might ultimately have benefit in some way,” he says. “it’s critical for us to get over our parochialism, and invest in supports for technology development, regardless of who comes up with it.”

nurturing home-grown biotech innoVation


molecule that you consider important, provided you know

what the gene sequence is. Today, we can produce a myriad

of proteins including human growth hormone to treat many

different diseases.

Another example is the genetic engineering of plants

and microorganisms to produce large quantities of

isobutanol. This chemical can be dehydrated to form

isobutylene, which is a major component of synthetic

rubber. Creating these genes and putting them into

organisms allows us to bypass the petrochemical route

to produce a molecule that’s tremendously important in

making polymers.

ACCn Who owns the Gene Machine now?

ko The company went through all of the stages from angel

investing through venture capital, and ultimately a listing

on the TSX and on NASDAQ. Unfortunately, it ran

into serious management problems as it moved into large

commercial stages and was purchased in a reverse takeover

by another company. Its technology was eventually lost to

Canadian commercial development.

Other companies came along using

similar technologies, patents expired

and today companies providing DNA

synthesis equipment are common.

The reality is that you rarely

have one individual who can take a

company from an embryonic concept

into a major producing corporation. It

takes different skills at different stages

of corporate development and in those

days Canada did not have a lot of that

kind of experience.

ACCn When you look at the modern biotech industry, what do you see?

ko Today, biotechnology is a huge,

global industry with an enormous

range of products that emerge from

our knowledge and understanding of

cellular systems and our ability to manipulate them. A lot of

that knowledge came from being able to make any sequence

of DNA or RNA in order to probe living systems and figure

out how they worked. Anytime you are looking at studying

life at the molecular level, you’re dealing with chemistry.

So we chemists have made an important contribution and

many of us in the 1960s and 1970s could imagine this kind

of world. To see it coming to fruition is very satisfying .

(l to r) Kelvin Ogilvie, instrumentation specialist peter Duck, and entrepreneur robert Bender pose in front of the Gene Machine in 1980. The machine had just demonstrated the first fully automated synthesis of a 10-unit sequence of DNa.

CaN

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during the 18th century’s chemical revolution, chem-

ists first realized that air was not merely an element

but a mixture of many gases. It followed that the gases

could be captured, manufactured, purified and used

for a variety of purposes, morphing quickly from scientific

discovery into a utility. By the 19th century, combustible

gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen and ethylene

were in wide use as a source of energy for heating and illu-

mination, casting somber pools of light not only on the

fictional exploits of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson but

the real-life horror of Jack the Ripper’s murderous rampage

upon the demimonde of London.

The source of combustible materials for manufacturing

gas during the Victorian era and into the early 20th century

was diverse and included biomass such as wood, coal and

oil. Wood gasification was embraced by farmers to run their

internal combustion engines, especially during the fuel

shortages of the early 20th century and, later, the Second

World War. But a heady era of cheap oil and gas followed

and gasification, except for some specialized applications,

was relegated to the back burner. Now, however, with the

spectre of peak oil looming, a renais-

sance in gasification is brewing.

And the epicentre of this redux is —

perhaps not surprisingly — Canada’s

West Coast, with its seemingly endless

supply of biomass from vast forests and

British Columbia’s lumber and pulp

and paper industries. This includes

huge amounts of wood waste: bark,

sawdust and tree trimmings, as well

as about 17.5 million hectares of dead

timber killed by pine beetles.

Nestled between pine and Pacific

shoreline is The University of British

Columbia (UBC). Here is found

the cramped office of John Grace, a

chemical engineering professor in

the Department of Chemical and

Biological Engineering. Grace, the

Canada Research Chair in Clean

Energy Processes, says that the renewal

“As the gleam of the street-lamps flashed upon his austere features, I saw that his brows were drawn down in thought and his thin lips compressed. I knew not what wild beast we were about to hunt down in the dark jungle of criminal London… .” - “The Adventure of the Empty House,” The Best of Sherlock Holmes.

a renaissance in gasification is brewing thanks to a partnership between The University of British Columbia and Nexterra Systems Corp. redux

Gasification

By roberta staley


ChemiCAl enGineerinG | GaSiFiCaTiON

gas burner or an internal combustion engine. According to

Grace, this can lead to greater efficiency than burning solid

particles from coal or wood. The cleanup step cuts down on the

emissions of secondary pollutants derived from impurities in the orig-

inal wood or coal. Another option is that that instead of being burned, syngas can

also be converted to larger molecules via the Fisher-Tropsch process, creating

liquid fuels or commodity chemicals like methanol, ethanol and alkanes.

Today, gasification is considered to be one of most versatile and efficient ways

to convert low-cost wood waste and other biomass fuels into thermal energy or

electricity. It is also a key technology in helping to achieve global greenhouse

gas-emission reduction objectives, says Grace, who is chair of the 3rd International

Symposium on Gasification, held in conjunction with the 62nd Canadian

Chemical Engineering Conference Oct 14-17 in Vancouver. “Our dependence

on fossil fuels is still so great that we must find ways to decarbonize them and

reduce emissions associated with their usage,” Grace says. He points to global

trends indicating rising fossil-fuel consumption due to improved living standards

in developing nations, increasing populations, as well as the West’s reluctance to

trim its prodigious energy appetite. “We need to manage our carbon better and

find alternatives — preferably renewable energy resources.”

Grace’s scholarship includes the study of fluidized bed gasification, a technology

dating back to the 1920s. Along with a UBC team that includes Tony Bi, Naoko

Ellis, Jim Lim and Paul Watkinson, Grace is seeking fluidized bed reactors that

can do more with less. One example is a dual fluidized bed steam gasification

system. Most gasifiers contact fuel with a sub-stoichiometric amount of air, which

is mostly nitrogen. The inert nitrogen dilutes the final gas stream, decreasing

its calorific value. Replacing the air with steam leads to a better final product,

process flow illustration of the CHp gasification system with the Ge Jenbacher engine at The University of British Columbia.

of interest in gasification is driven

by several key concerns: the need to

reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emis-

sions and the rising demand for cleaner

burning fuels which produce fewer

secondary pollutants like nitrogen

oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx).

A third factor is the growing energy

demand among developing countries

for liquid and gaseous fuel. In China,

for example, oil is in short supply, but

coal is abundant. Gasifying this coal

creates a number of advantages over

burning it directly.

At its core, gasification is the process

of reacting carbon-based fuels at high

temperatures and low oxygen to create

synthesis gas, also known as syngas, a

mixture of mainly carbon monoxide

and hydrogen. After being cleaned up,

syngas can be fired into a conventional

Nex

Ter

ra


but steam gasification is endothermic

and requires an external heat source.

The UBC group’s challenging solu-

tion is to combine a steam gasifier

with a seperate combustion chamber

that burns the char left over from

the original fuel. By recirculating hot

solids from the combustion chamber

back to the gasifier, the heat balance is

satisfied, allowing the system to make

better use of the same fuel.

A further innovation being explored

involves circulating solid sorbents like

calcium oxide (CaO) through both cham-

bers. In the gasifier, CaO reacts with CO2

molecules to become calcium carbonate

(CaCO3). The carbonation reaction

is exothermic so it also provides heat to

the gasifier as well as shifting the water

gas shift equilibrium to produce more

hydrogen. In the combustion chamber,

the higher temperature decomposes this

sorbent material back into CaO and

CO2, thus regenerating the sorbent and

creating a relatively pure CO2 stream that

can be compressed and sent to storage.

Another project, supported by an

NSERC grant and a collaboration with

the universities of Toronto and Calgary,

is investigating the co-feeding of

different fuels, for example, combining

biomass with coal and coke. Finally,

Grace is a member of a $52-million

research endeavour backed by Carbon

Management Canada (CMC) and

including contributions from univer-

sities from across the country. That

project will create a pilot plant at

UBC’s Pulp and Paper Centre that will

integrate carbon capture into the gasifi-

cation process.

UBC researchers are also collaborating

with the dynamic young Vancouver-

based company Nexterra Systems

Corp. on another ambitious gasification

project that is sure to turn heads when

it officially opens in mid-year. Nexterra

and GE Energy of Mississauga, Ont.

partnered to create a combined heat

and power (CHP) system for generating

steam and energy on campus. The CHP

system marries Nexterra’s gasification

and syngas cleanup and conditioning

technologies with a GE high-efficiency

internal combustion engine built by

Jenbacher, a world leader in specialty gas

engines. Woody biomass will be gasified

and converted into clean syngas that

will be directly fired into the gas engine.

Nexterra CEO Mike Scott says that he

expects that the engine will perform

at the same level as if it was fuelled by

natural gas.

The process will significantly

reduce UBC’s annual carbon foot-

print, creating two megawatt electrical

(MWe) and three megawatt thermal

(MWt) of steam, equivalent to taking

1,000 cars off the road, Scott says. UBC

consumes about 40 MWe a year and the

institution is looking to become even

more self-sufficient. “They have been a

fantastic partner in this whole process,”

Scott says from the 13th floor of his

Vancouver office, which looks out on

a downtown core hooded by low-lying,

slate grey rain clouds. “This biomass

research project is one of the lynchpins

of their living lab concept.”

Scott says that Nexterra researchers

are collaborating with Grace and one

of his master’s students to advance this

technology even further, upgrading

clean, engine-grade syngas into pure

hydrogen. “To go from biomass into

green hydrogen and make it part of the

hydrogen economy — that would be

remarkable,” Scott says.

Nexterra’s large-scale gasifiers have

sprouted up at other institutions and

(1) Nexterra Systems’s 5 MWt thermal gasification energy system at the University of Northern British Columbia in prince George, B.C. (2) Nexterra's bioenergy project at The University of British Columbia will generate clean steam and electricity. (3) University of Northern British Columbia president George iwama lights up the Nexterra gasification system that supplies heat for the prince George campus.


in other industries. The University of Northern British

Columbia (UNBC) Prince George, B.C. campus is bene-

fitting from a $15-million retrofit that was launched in

January 2011 as an alternative to natural gas. Fuelled by

wood waste from a local sawmill, the system was forecast

to save the university $850,000 a year in natural gas,

Scott says. (Recent record low natural gas prices have

reduced that initial estimate.) The project netted UNBC

first place — shared with Harvard University — for

Campus Sustainability Projects in North America from

the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in

Higher Education.

Gasification does have challenges to overcome. The

low cost of natural gas and the operational hurdles associ-

ated with switching to biomass gasification are deterring a

nation-wide embrace of the process. “It simply isn’t as easy

as using natural gas,” Scott admits. Nevertheless, Nexterra

has had significant success selling gasification engines to

institutions and industries across North America with the

foresight to prepare for long-term energy needs. Just down

the road in New Westminster, B.C. is Kruger Products Mills,

the first pulp and paper mill to fire syngas from a Nexterra

system directly into a boiler. Other clients include the U.S.

Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory

in Tennessee, which projects reductions of greenhouse gas

emissions by 20,000 tonnes a year, equivalent to taking

4,500 cars off the road. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center

in Michigan is also adopting a Nexterra system that is

projected to reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint by 14,000

tonnes annually, equal to parking 2,500 cars, Scott says.

It is unlikely that early proponents of biomass gasification

envisioned that the process would have the potential to outlive

the global dependence upon fossil fuels. However, gasification,

thanks in larger part to researchers like Grace and companies

like Nexterra, are helping forge a path into a brave new world

of clean and sustainable energy for the planet.

3

1

2

Nex

Ter

ra


soCieTy news

The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) award winners will be honoured at either the 95th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Calgary May 26-30 or the 62nd Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference Oct. 14-17 in Vancouver.

The CIC winners are:

John Grace, FCIC, University of British Columbia, Montreal Medal, sponsored by the Montreal CIC Local Section and the CIC, for his contri-butions to the chemical community. Grace was chair of the CIC and president of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE), an adviser to Natural Resources Canada, as well as chairing NSERC Committees and participating on the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. He was editor of Chemical Engineering Science and participated on other editorial boards.

raymond J. Andersen, FCIC, University of British Columbia. CIC Medal, sponsored by the CIC, for his research in chemistry of biologi-cally active marine natural products.

Charles mims, MCIC, University of Toronto. Catalysis Award, sponsored by the Canadian Catalysis Foundation for his investigation of catalytic and surface reaction mechanisms of significance to the energy sector.

dietmar kennepohl, FCIC, Athabasca University. Award for Chemical Education, sponsored by the CIC Chemical Education Fund, for his commitment to excellence in post-secondary education. Kennepohl’s research in chemical education extends outside the classroom, with concentration on the use of innovative online and distance delivery methods.

Jon Abbatt, University of Toronto. Environment Division Research and Development Award, sponsored by the CIC Environment Division, for his research in atmospheric chemistry with a focus on aerosol chemistry.

Françoise winnik, Université de Montréal. Macromolecular Science and Engineering Award, sponsored by NOVA Chemicals Corp., for her research in amphiphilic polymers.

The CSC winners are:

yvan Guindon, FCIC, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal. Alfred Bader Award sponsored by Alfred Bader, HFCIC, for his research on synthesis of natural products of the polyketides family.

Frank van Veggel, MCIC, University of Victoria. Award for Research Excellence in Materials Chemistry, sponsored by the CIC Materials Chemistry Division, for his research on luminescent nanoparticles.

Todd lowary, MCIC, University of Alberta. Bernard Belleau Award, sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Canada) Inc., for his

research in synthetic chemistry with a particular emphasis on carbohydrate chemistry.

david marcoux, MCIC, for research carried out at Université de Montréal under adviser André Charette FCIC, now at Harvard University. Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Doctoral Research Award, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., for grad-uate work focused on the synthesis and use of tetrarylphophonium salts as a solubility control group in organic chemistry.

louis barriault, University of Ottawa. Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Research Excellence Award, sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd., for his research in asymmetric synthesis, development of new synthetic methods and total synthesis of complex natural products.

Charles yeung, MCIC, for research carried out at University of Toronto under adviser Vy Dong, now at Harvard University. Canadian Council of University Chemistry Chairs (CCUCC) Chemistry Doctoral Award, sponsored by the CCUCC, for graduate work focusing on the development of new catalytic methods using carbon dioxide as an organic feedstock.

rina Carlini, MCIC, Xerox Research Centre of Canada. Clara Benson Award, sponsored by CCUCC, for her research in processes for preparation of nanopigments.

Janusz Pawliszyn, FCIC, University of Waterloo. E.W.R. Steacie Award, sponsored by the following CIC divisions: Analytical; Physical, Theoretical and Computational; Inorganic and Organic, for research in the design of highly automated and integrated instrumentation for the isolation of analytes from complex matrices and the subsequent separation, identification and determination of these species.

dennis salahub, FCIC, University of Calgary. John C. Polanyi Award, sponsored by the Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division, for his contributions to the development of quantum chemical methodology and its applications to systems of ever-increasing complexity.

Aicheng Chen, MCIC, Lakehead University. Keith Laidler Award, sponsored by the Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division, for his research on structure and reactivity of nanostructured catalysts at the molecular level.

Pierre Thibault, MCIC, Université de Montréal. Maxxam Award, sponsored by Maxxam Analytics Inc., for his research in bioanalytical chemistry and mass spectrometry.

stephen loeb, FCIC, University of Windsor. Rio Tinto Alcan Award, sponsored by Rio Tinto Alcan, for his research in supermolecular chemistry.

CiC and CsC 2012 award winners

awards


soCieTy news

The CIC Chemical Education Fund has awarded a $5,000 grant to Attraction chimique, a travelling exhibit that aims to reverse the sometimes-negative view that the public has about chemistry. Created by the Département de chimie de l’Université Laval, its goal is to have people appreciate this thrilling science as essential to everyday life.

Attraction chimique was officially launched last August at the Pavillon des sciences (Science Pavillon) of Expo Québec 2011 in Québec City. To date, the exhibit has travelled to about 20 events in and around Québec City, including the Salon Éducation Emploi.

The exhibit illustrates the role of chemistry by presenting entertaining and interactive workshops. Visitors become a ‘chemist-for-a-day’ and perform real experiments. While partic-ipants range from the very young to the very old, children and teenagers are especially drawn to the exhibit.

Attraction chimique is divided into themes: the chemistry you eat; the science of fireworks; CSI: Québec and radioactivity and chemistry in Canada. This summer, a new theme, materials chem-istry, will be added. Events are also being planned for Ontario and New Brunswick with a translated version of Attraction chimique. No dates have yet been set for outside Québec.

In addition to the grant, Attraction chimique is supported by the Ministère du Développement Économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation du Québec (MDEIE) and La Boîte à science.

mario Pinto, FCIC, Simon Fraser University. R. U. Lemieux Award, sponsored by Gilead Alberta ULC, for his research in bioorganic chemistry, providing potential applications for the control or treat-ment of bacterial and viral diseases.

mark stradiotto, MCIC, Dalhousie University. Strem Chemicals Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry, sponsored by Strem Chemicals Inc., for his research focusing on the development of highly effective ancillary ligands for use in challenging cross-coupling reactions.

yingfu li, MCIC, McMaster University. W.A.E. McBryde Medal, sponsored by AB Sciex, for his research on aspects of aptamer and DNAzyme based biosensors.

new CiC FellowsThe Chemical Institute of Canada has awarded 2012 Fellowships to three individuals:

Catherine Cardy, FCIC, Imperial Oil (CSCT)Ajay dalai, FCIC, University of Saskatchewan (CSChE)Pierre beaumier, FCIC, CanAlt Health Labs (CSC)

Fellowships are awarded annually in recognition of CIC members who have made outstanding contributions in their field.

MEMbERSHIp

half a century with CiCCongratulations to those who have achieved 50 years of membership the CIC.

Joseph Atkinson, FCIC, Torontohans baer, FCIC, Ottawadouglas brewer, FCIC, FrederictonJohn dalton, MCIC, Kelowna, B.C.Jacques desnoyers, FCIC, Québec Citymorris Givner, FCIC, HalifaxJ. hardy, MCIC, Vegreville, Alta.rainer minzloff, MCIC, Dartmouth, N.S.robert nelson, MCIC, Richmond, B.C.walter sowa, MCIC, Torontootto strausz, FCIC, Edmontonrobert Thompson, FCIC, VancouverZdenek Valenta, FCIC, FrederictonGalen Van Cleave, MCIC, Victoria

REcognITIon

eiC honours CsChe membersTwo CSChE member were recently honoured by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) at its annual awards dinner, held late February in Ottawa. Phillip (Rocky) Simmons, MCIC and CEO of Eco-Tec Ltd. of Pickering, Ont. was awarded the K. Y. Lo Medal, given annually to an individual and member of the Engineering Institute of Canada who has made outstanding contributions internationally in the field of engineering. Marc Arnold Dubé, FCIC and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Ottawa, was among the members inducted as fellows of the EIC for exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada.

ouTREacH

Attracted to chemistry

actor Martin pelletier of Québec City plays the French chemist

antoine laurent de lavoisier at Attraction chimique.


ChemFusion

Murder most chemically foul

The rosary pea plant is a

perennial that grows in trop-

ical and subtropical areas of

the world. It twines around

trees and shrubs and is easily recog-

nized by its seeds, which are usually

black and red and resemble a lady bug.

Their striking appearance has led to

their use in jewelry and in prayer beads,

hence the name “rosary pea plant.”

Prayer beads are a symbol of devotion

to a deity and a celebration of life, but

when they are made of the seeds of the

rosary pea, they can harbour death.

The seeds contain abrin, a toxin so

potent that three-millionths of a gram

circulating in the bloodstream can be

fatal. But the poison, a type of protein

known as a lectin, must enter the

bloodstream to do damage. Once in the

blood, it can be transported into cells

where it gums up the protein-making

machinery. Since life depends upon

protein synthesis, exposure to lectins

can be lethal. However, swallowing

a whole rosary pea seed is unlikely to

cause any harm because the hard shell

prevents any of the contents from being

released. Chances are the bead will

make its exit after traversing the diges-

tive tract in the same form it went in.

But if the seed is chewed, the results are

very different. Vomiting and diarrhea

ensue, followed by seizures and death.

The difference between swal-

lowing the whole seed or chewing it

was exploited by Venetian courts in

the Middle Ages. In the case of people

accused of murder, God supposedly

would make the judgment. His verdict

was revealed by the effect upon the

accused of swallowing a rosary pea plant

seed. The innocent were unaffected,

the guilty suffered an agonizing death.

Of course, it was not God but the courts

who made the judgment. The effects

depended on whether the accused was

told to swallow the seed or chew it. If the

judges believed the accused to be guilty,

they would be told to chew the seed; if

deemed to be innocent , they would be

told to swallow the seed whole.

A toxin so potent as abrin can be

expected to have appeal as a murder

weapon as well as a chemical warfare

agent. Extracting abrin from rosary pea

seeds and processing into a powder that

can then be used to contaminate food

or water does not require great exper-

tise in chemistry. In the powdered form,

abrin can also be dispensed into the air

where it can be inhaled. There is no

documented evidence of abrin having

been used as a murder weapon, but it

is certainly a possibility. A very similar

lectin, ricin, isolated from castor beans,

was used in the famous 1978 “umbrella

assassination” of Georgi Markov, a

Bulgarian dissident in London. While

waiting at a bus stop, Markov was

injected with a tiny ricin-containing

pellet propelled from a specially

designed umbrella.

As far as we know, no murderer has

used abrin in the real world, but it has

reared its head in the world of fiction.

Kathy Reichs is a celebrated mystery

writer and forensic anthropologist who

inspired the television show Bones,

about a forensic scientist much like

herself. Reichs works as a producer and,

in the 2011 episode “Flash and Bones,”

introduces abrin as a murder weapon

and gives a detailed and correct descrip-

tion of its properties.

Abrin is also discussed in

The Poisoner’s Handbook, authored by

Maxwell Hutchkinson in 1988. In this

88-page publication, Hutchkinson

provides various recipes for poisoning

people, including the use of abrin. The

book is scientifically weak and is more

or less the rantings of a lunatic who

thinks it is the duty of Americans to

dispatch “foreign devils” with “speed

and vigor.” Hutchkinson is no fan

of Catholics and proposes a way to

dispense of them by using rosaries made

of the seeds of Abrus precatorius, the

rosary seed plant. “Wearing leather

gloves, very carefully puncture about

a dozen minute holes in each bean on

a rosary,” Hutchkinson writes. “Then

spray the string of beads with dimethyl

sulfoxide which will dissolve and carry

the abrin through the skin.” Dimethyl

sulfoxide, or DMSO, does enhance

the absorption of chemicals through

the skin and there are stories floating

around about people stringing rosary

pea seeds for jewelry accidentally

sticking themselves and succumbing to

the poison. But whether Hutchkinson’s

formula for murder would work is highly

debatable. What isn’t debatable is that

nature is full of all sorts of powerful

toxins that have the potential to kill.

Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

Read his blog at chemicallyspeaking.com.

By Joe schwarcz

Canadian Society for Chemical engineering

www.csche2012.ca

62nd Canadian Chemical engineering Conferenceincorporating the 3rd international symposiumon Gasification and it's applications

CAll For PAPersOpens: mArCh 15, 2012 ClOses: mAy 31, 2012Vancouver, bC, CanadaoCTober 14–17, 2012Energy, Environment and Sustainability

ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News: April 2012

Documents

Transcript of ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News: April 2012