Category Archives: Chemical Industry

Bye Bye JOC

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I’ve decided that I’m going to let my subscription to Journal of Organic Chemistry lapse. It’s getting too expensive and they’re accumulating in my house at an alarming rate. The spouse unit is beginning to dig in her heels. My kid thinks it’s normal to have chemistry journals and molecular models all over the house.

Instead, I’ve subscribed to Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries. Much of my time is taken up with process safety and reactive hazards these days, so I may as well accept the transition. I’ll probably subscribe to OPR&D as well. It feels strange, though. I’ve had a JOC subscription since  my junior year in college in ’82/’83.  Carrying around stacks of journals is like carrying around blocks of wood. And, after a while the collection gets a little … odd.

Reactivity and Risk. Gaussling’s 10th Epistle to the Bohemians.

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A chemical plant performing synthesis is a place where the materials in use are purposely selected for certain attributes of instability. Chemical stability refers to the tendancy of a substance to remain unchanged when exposed to some kind of stimulus. That stimulus may be exposure to heat energy, mechanical shock, or a more precise chemical attack on particular functional groups. Unstable substances have a low threshold to change. Stable substances require more stimulus to cause a change in composition.

Substances that are extremely stable are often not very useful in near-ambient temperature chemical synthesis, i.e., saturated hydrocarbons, metal sulfates, silica, etc.  The lack of lower temperature reactivity (say, up to 200 C) can be compensated for by application of high temperatures. Petroleum refineries take full advantage of high temperature reaction chemistry to alter the composition of otherwise stable hydrocarbons.

We choose stable substances for duty as solvents, diluents, carriers, etc., precisely because of their non-changeability or stability. “Inert” solvents allow chemists to bring molecules into solution for selective transformations. Of course, we all know that most solvents have some influence on the course of a transformation, the point is that we can transform solute materials without the fuss of altering the solvent too.

Chemical synthesis requires the manipulation of reactivity (and therefore stability) to perform useful transformations. Without well placed instability on a molecule, there cannot be efficient, directed synthesis. It is the job of the synthesis chemist to apply the knowledge of reactivity.

Because of the inherent instability of reactive and flammable materials, chemical plants must require that certain behaviors, procedures, and knowledge be set into a formal structure. Actions and conditions must give predictable consequences. This structure is comprised of a set of standard- operating procedures, equipment, test methods, and safety requirements.

It seems silly to go to the trouble of detailing the merits of running a safe plant, but it is worth pointing out the layers of requirements on an operating plant. 

  1. Preservation of life, health, and the environment
  2. Compliance with federal, state, and local regulations
  3. To provide for the uninterrupted flow of goods and services in the conduct of business
  4. To qualify for affordable business insurance
  5. To be a good neighbor and stable source of gainful employment for all concerned

A company in the business of manufacture is exposed to many kinds of liability. A chemical manufacturing plant is subject to modes of failure and liability that set it apart somewhat. 

One result of chemical manufacture that sets it apart from other forms of industry is the combination of unknown risk and dread fear. For communities in the vicinity of chemical operations, fear comes from the combination of the unknown as new risks, unknown effects, or delayed effects with the dreaded possibility of catastrophic or fatal consequences, inequitable consequences, involuntary effects, and high risk to future generations (see: Perilous Progress: Managing the Hazards of Technology, Edited by Kates, Hohenemser, and Kasperson, 1985, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, p 108. ISBN 0-8133-7025-6).

While the neighbors of a furniture factory may be annoyed by the presence of a nearby woodworking shop, it is unlikely that the neighbors will be stirred into existential dread by its presence. The hazards of a woodworking plant are easy to imagine and therefore, easier to rank into the grand list of life’s dangers.

Chemical and nuclear risk perception score at the extreme ranges of risk perception. Both domains involve an agent of potential harm that is poorly understood by most people. Ionizing radiation is inherently destructive to tissues, but the exact relationship between quality and dose to risk is fuzzy at low level exposure. And because it cannot be sensed directly, fear of it’s presence can induce disturbing excursions of imagination and dread.

Fear of chemicals is widespread in the industrialized world. The downside to chemical operations has been immortalized by numerous well known industrial calamities like Love Canal (Hooker Chemical), Bhopal, numerous dioxin fiascos, PCB’s, or occupational exposure to asbestos or chromium (VI). There are a great many chemical items of commerce that are unavoidably hazardous to health.

Because of the risks associated with toxicity or exposure to hazardous energy from machines, chemicals, radiation, heat, noise, gravity, sharp implements, etc., the many layers of government have established agencies and a regulatory structure to diminish risk exposure to workers specifically and citizens generally.

The purpose of the chemical industry is to produce goods and services for people who want or need the value of it’s output. Like the ad says- “We don’t make the surfboard, we make it better”. Well, making the surfboard better inevitably requires that certain kinds of hazards be unleashed and managed. The expectation that hazardous materials can be eliminated in manufacturing is a fantasy. The manipulation of instability is inherent to chemical transformation. Zeroing out hazards has to come from the demand side of the market.

Chemist Alert! NFPA 400 to be posted in May 2009.

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The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention of fire related incidents. The have recently pitched a set of regulations as NFPA 400 pertaining to the storage of hazardous materials. The comment period is long over and soon the rules will be issued as a published document.  While the NFPA is not a regulating body, their rules are widely adopted by government organizations and promulgated.

If you have not taken the chance to review some of these documents, it is well worth your time as a chemical professional to do so. Why? Because the practice of chemistry is being dramatically necked-down in terms of the kinds of chemistry that can be practiced and the manner in which materials are stored. Not only is your local fire marshal packing a stack of NFPA based fire codes, but a whole host of federal regulators are armed with regulations from Homeland Security, EPA (i.e., TSCA), DOT, REACH, and an alphabet soup of regulatory coverage aimed at every conceivable substance.

Organizations that oversee chemical operations include the chemical industry, hospitals, agriculture, mining, and academia. All organizations are under the obligation to provide a safe workplace for the employees. It makes sense to minimize employee exposure to risk. But the web of applicable regulations for any given chemical operation is expanding by the day.

Not only is an organization obliged to conduct business in compliance, but quite often there is the requirement of self-reporting of noncompliance. An organization finding itself out of compliance is an organization in need of legal representation. The nuances relating to most any kind of regulation are such that your average company president will generally be unwilling to settle the malfeasance with the regulatory agency without the help of an attorney. This is the point where a jet of cash starts flying out of the company coffers.

So, the question of the effect on academic chemistry arises.  Academic chemistry departments are seeing increased coverage under the regulatory umbrella as well. Should academic research labs have some sort of dispensation given the nature of the activity? Given that OSHA regulations may not be applicable to students, academic labs are already under somewhat less scrutiny. More to the point, how much government intrusion should researchers accept in relation to the kinds of chemicals they work with and store and the kinds of risks that are taken during research?

This is important for a very good reason. The issuance of proposed rules by organizations like NFPA results in regulatory pressures that eventually find their way to individual researchers. But the researchers don’t hear about it directly from NFPA. The University Health and Safety department hears about the regulations (or guidelines) and they apply requirements on chemistry departments. Faculty being faculty, they’ll perform a gritching ritual and eventually comply.

Generally, the arrival of new regulations results in new constraints. The end result is that the department has to spend more to operate the labs and students receive less experience with interesting chemistry. This whole unfortunate trend of increasing government oversight of all things chemical will eventually neuter US chemical education and industry leaving a bland and uncompetitive culture averse to risk.

I hate to be critical of fire safety people. But I also hate to see chemical education and research hamstrung by well intended parties who have devised highly detailed and extensive rules that will seep into every aspect of the chemical sciences. I am aware of absolutely no pushback of any kind when it comes to this matter.

Flux-O-Links

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The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission website offers a downloadable set of documents pertaining to Fire Dynamics along with a few spreadsheets and loads of worked problems. The set of documents is quite well done in my estimation and is entirely suitable for we industrial chemists. My operating principle is that it never hurts to keep learning about fire phenomena when you work around flammable materials.

Gotten a little rusty in your welding theory?

An affordable spectrum analyzer is just what a fellow needs for the radio observatory.

Need pure Astatine, see p 19.  Light up the accelerator and dial up the proton current.

Spoolhenge

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Unlike many of my colleagues in the Chemical Industry, say in New Jersey for instance, Th’ Gaussling is able to enjoy a pleasant country drive to and from work every day. Among the many sights to enjoy is Spoolhenge. This curious archeological artifact is thought to have been constructed by ancient electricians in the early Cupracene Age of the Sparkezoic Era.

Who were these people? What strange rituals did they perform in this maze of paleospools? Only a few crude wirenuts fashioned out of elk antler remain in the soil surrounding these ruins.

Writer and amateur paleophrenologist Anders van der Klopp suggests the ruins may have been part of a temple built by ancient astronauts who crash landed on earth in the distant past. Van der Klopp’s panspermia theory is not taken seriously by mainstream paleophrenologists who balk at the idea of electricians in space. Perhaps one day we will solve the mystery.

Spoolhenge

Spoolhenge

Chemical Art in the Public Domain

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For the last few years I have been attempting to work with a full professor of chemistry who holds a named chair. He is fast approaching emeritus status and in addition to the other maladies of aging, he tends toward spontaneously bureaucratic demands and is rather hard of listening. His secretary types his correspondence which is written in the officious, pseudo-legalese tone remniscent of a 19th century divorce decree.

Recently, while discussing chemistry with the “judge” by email, I suggested that he look at the patent literature for clues to synthetic procedure. Procedures found in patents may have a general utility and are not automatically claimed. Minimally, a dip in the patent literature broadens ones knowledge of the prior art. Certainly, art found in expired patents has a high likelihood of being up for grabs.

My clumsy and sophomoric attempt at helpfulness sparked a multiparagraph recitation in reply on the anticipatory nature of content in patents and how “such material” is unacceptable for “we in academe”.

Suit yourself, says I. But like any prospector knows, gold is where you find it. And this brings me to a point.

Every week some number of US patents expire or lapse. This continuous stream of expiration represents a situation much like the periodic deposit of placer gold after the spring runoff.  Gold veins in the walls of the canyon spall and fracture allowing gold nuggets and dust to tumble into the creek.  Prospectors who know what to look for can pick up the occasional nugget of art that has fallen into the public domain.

Granted, expired art may be 17 years out of date, but many kinds of compositions and transformations in chemistry are not subject to the expiration of utility. Many kinds of oxidations, reductions, alkylations, halogenations, functional group transformations, etc., remain quite useful over time. What changes over time are the economic and regulatory compliance issues. It is possible to make C-C bonds without a platinum group metal, triflate, and boron.

The value of expired patent art is well known by the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma companies will fight like wounded bears to get extra days added to their patents or otherwise attempt to extend claimed art as far into the future as possible with formulation or other schemes. They know that the day after a cash cow drug goes off patent, there will be generic versions on sale by opportunistic producers.

Prior to June 8, 1995, utility and plant patents were allowed for a period of 17 years with the 17 year clock starting from the application date and the period of enforceability beginning on the issuance date. From June 8, 1995 onward, utility and plant patents are valid for 20 years.

It is in the nature of scientifically minded folk to be forward looking and lavish extra attention on the latest techniques.  In our enthusiasm for the new and exciting, we may forget the vast storehouse of knowledge accumulated over the last 100 years of chemical research.

There is an ever increasing store of public domain art at the patent office waiting to be extracted by those who have the interest to do so. If you do decide to adopt some expired art, it is worth paying attorneys fees to make sure your judgement is sound and to look for related patents that may be problematic. Due diligence is money well spent.

It is true that patents are written by lawyers with little interest in providing too much enablement to the public. But these lawyers also know that playing games with enablement is contrary to the intent of the sworn statements in the application and may ultimately weaken a patent during litigation. A patent isn’t a peer reviewed paper. But, to Phosita, it can be a rich source of clues on how to perform some particular expired art that may serve as the basis of a product or process.

Infrastructure

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I often feel badly for people who join large organizations. They miss out on so much excitement.  The benefits of joining large organizations are many, so why question doing it? What is wrong with driving up to a large campus-like facility every day and pass through security with your card to your quiet work area?  Nothing, really.

Yes, there is infrastructure and funding to provide support for business activity. Yes, there is prestige in professional association with certain large organizations. And, yes, you do get to be involved with large scale projects.

But unless you participate in forming a new business division at your MegaCorp, you’ll miss the chance to construct infrastructure from scratch.  I don’t mean bricks and mortar.  I refer to the actual standard operating procedures, work instructions, job descriptions, accounting procedures, customer lists, databases, and other fundamental structure relating to the conduct of business.

It is messy, contentious, confusing, and exhausting. It happens in successive approximations. Careers can be spent trying to get an organization moving in the best direction.You’ll make lifelong friends and enemies. You will see both the best and the worst in people bloom before your eyes.

Not everyone likes to do this. In fact, you might even say that very few people are willing to do it. If you are a chemist, you probably prefer to do chemistry rather than monkey with chemical business structure. That’s fine.

Having participated in this kind of work, and, speaking only for myself, I must say that I have a better appreciation for the accomplishments of others. To a large extent, civilization is about the establishment of infrastructure in its many forms. Business isn’t “just business”, it is part of civilization. While few of us will be able to help construct a granite monument or edifice, we can more readily participate in the conduct of our institutions.

Receding Tide Strands All Boats

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Wow. Major dose of reality. For Th’ Gaussling, this economy fiasco just went from made-for-TV to in-your-face reality. Big chemical producers are pitching 10 % chunks of resourceful humanity overboard. They are burning down inventory levels, pushing back raw material purchases, and stopping capital projects. The reciprocal of the old saw about “a rising tide lifting all boats” is in effect.

Well, everywhere except government. Government seems to continue to build up debt obligations into the tens of terabucks range. Now is a good time to have defense related products- things that have MIL SPEC on them.

But now is when it really sucks to be in advertising, RV sales, and office supplies.  Advertising budgets are among the easiest to cut when the flancing of blubber begins. 

This is a great time to hire. Lots of job candidates out there with degrees. I’ve been getting Hail Mary resumes from people wildly disconnected from chemistry.

If you are a well paid 50-something, golly, you might as well put a target on your back. This is one of the ways companies can re-jigger their staff to be rid of those expensive, middle aged folk who burden the health insurance pool with those costly diseases. In a recession, a company can use the situation to reset the payroll and have a chance to restaff with cheaper worker bees when things pick back up. That is, if there is anybody left.

The Chemical Entrepreneur. Part 2.5.

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There are as many ways of starting a chemical business as there are people starting them. Entrepreneurs range in profile from smooth talking slicksters to sober, ROI-calculating engineers. Entrepreneurs can also be rather unruly folk. It is not automatically true that business founders are inherently talented at designing and running orgainzations. In fact, they are frequently poor at it.  But, successful founders are usually highly focused and are able to attract resources.

A common motivation for starting a business is that the founder is possessed with existential certainty that he/she can operate a business venture better than, say, a former boss or rival. A business founder may be a free spirit, refractory to sensible advice, or may be a solemn Harvard MBA operating by the book. It is not uncommon for a founder to have had several previous failed ventures prior to a successful one.

And make no mistake, the sense of power that a founder feels in the execution of a business plan can be as addictive as heroin or crack. Once a person has had the experience of successfully gathering resources and then allocating them to leverage progress to a goal, they are forever changed. Whether or not they continue the role of managing funds or personnel, their eyes have been opened to the real meaning of power.

Power is the ability to allocate resources.

No matter what kind of chemical business one wishes to start, it is crucial to understand that it will require the accumulation of some kind of resource that you can apply to a problem. That resource can range from your technical reputation, 30 days net of commercial credit, VC monies, or a chemical processing plant. It is all a form of leverage toward the greater goal converting streams of goods and services into streams of cash.

Try to get cash flowing from sales as early as possible. Choosing a Market-Pull activity is the best way to do this.

A chemist starting up a business is able to choose several kinds of general business activities.  If you want to be a consultant, you must determine the boundaries of your knowledge and then find demand for that expertise.  If you are truly an expert in a field, then more likely than not you know who might buy your services.

If you choose a Technology-Push approach, try to target customers who are willing to be early adopters.

A chemist may be well situated to start an operation offering analytical services. In that case, the enterprising analyst needs to know about underserved demand out in the marketplace. You need to offer a service that prompts people to send a purchase order to you.

If your startup is a one-act pony, it is critical that the pony actually be able to jump through the flaming hoop as advertised. Try to avoid one-act pony business plans.  Find Market-Pull products to pay the bills while your Technology-Push products are under development.

A chemist is in a great position to get into formulations.  While this might not be strictly a “chemistry’ activity, the walking-around-knowledge of chemicals that a chemist might have probably well exceeds the basic chemistry knowledge of many “experts” in the formulations business. However, a chemists general knowledge may not be applicable for direct application to formulations. A formulator must accumulate specialized knowledge and analytical methods for the materials they handle, including things like rheology, cloud and pour points, fungal contamination, and miscibilities. The level of infrastructure for doing formulations can be dramatically less stringent than chemicals manufacturing as well, requiring less startup capital. That said, formulations may be in demand at the large scale. Puttering around at only the less-than-drum scale may have no future.  Again, to be a formulator you need to know what is in demand.

Remember-Sometimes it is dumb to be too smart about things. Be customer oriented. Be honest about strengths and weaknesses.  Learn the difference between smart and cagey. Dick was a cagey businessman. Don’t be a Dick.

Fine chemicals manufacture has many success stories.  Alfred Bader started his Aldrich empire making what we now call Diazald. Bader was extremely customer service oriented and I believe this was the key to his success. He visited laboratories and asked workers what they needed. If the request was reasonable, he would put the material in the catalog collection. If the chemist-entrepreneur desires to start a catalog fine chemical company to sell reagent chemicals and widgets, then I would advise making a study of that business arena.

An understanding of the regulatory compliance world is critical as well, especially relating to the Toxic Substances Control Act, TSCA. A company may have to start out as being a provider of ‘R&D Only’ products. To freely sell commercial quantities of specialty and fine chemicals, a substance must be on the EPA’s public or confidential lists. If not, then permission must be granted by EPA. This will require a special filing which discloses its manufacturing and/or use process, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), fugitive dust and corresponding controls on exposures to workers and the environment, vapor releases and method of control, a disclosure of how much of the New Chemical Substance (NCS) gets into the environment, any and all available toxicity data, a Safety Data Sheet, physicochemical data, waste NCS disposal, batch size and yearly production. For less than or equal to 10,000 kg per year a Low Volume Exemption (LVE) can be filed. This is an abbreviated version of a Pre-Manufacturing Notification (PMN) filing which will be examined in greater detail and will take much longer for EPA to complete. EPA has the right to require the submitter to collect certain kinds of toxicological data at the submitters expense. These tests are standardized and are performed by certified labs.

Most advisors to entrepreneurs will say that the prospective businessperson is well advised to put down a written plan. This is important on many levels. The act of writing a business plan is useful to the entrepreneur in several ways.  It causes the writer to focus his/her ideas and energy as well as to clarify the goal and how to track towards it. A well written business plan is critical if you need to attract funds to get the operation started. Investors and bankers need a document to study and to bring before others for analysis and buy-in. Just gotta have it.

Starting a drug company is going to be quite difficult for a few isolated chemists to do. It is a complex and insanely expensive and risky business that requires a wide diversity of players to be on board and committed. Somewhere you have to get an MD or MD/PhD, finance people, former pharma executives, regulatory affairs peoples, etc., on the board to add gravitas to your plan. A whole circus of expensive prima donnas. Sounds like a nightmare to me.

New Job Description- Negativist

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Getting buy-in from a diverse cast of characters is one of the between-the-lines features of  my job description. Everyone has this problem to some extent. I will admit that I’m quite lucky- Instead of having a single type of difficult character, I have a wide variety of  them. I should feel blessed.

Problem solving is one of the activities where divergence commonly occurs. I’m pushing for this, you are pushing for that. The usual stuff. You advance your arguments and they stand or fall on their merit. But in the end, there has to be convergence. We all have to agree on a path forward.

But what to do if you are the only one trotting out ideas? What if there is another form of problem solving where one person advances an idea and everyone else spends their creative faculties lobbing bombs at it and citing reasons why it shouldn’t be tried? Rather than posing alternatives, the negativist op-poses but is unable to pro-pose.

I will confess that this relates to one of the great disappointments of adult life.  A lot of ones adult cohorts reach a tidy level of comfort early in their lives and stay there for the duration. Many people are terrified to leave their comfort zone and take a walk on the wild side. Wading into unfamiliar territory and trying to build a structure amidst the reeds and swamp creatures. Intellectual land lubbers are fearful of residing outside of known space.

I have have a long list of  weaknesses and  limitations as well. I doubt that I’ll be quitting my job to live in a hut in Phuket and tend bar, fun as that might be.