Category Archives: Chemical Industry

Melamine Spill on Isle Five!

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The reality of melamine in animal feeds and milk products has crossed the ocean and landed on the shores of North America. Trace levels of melamine have been detected in certain baby formula products in the US.

The National Milk Providers Federation (NMPF) has responded with a statement on their position on adulterants. Having been in the milk processing business as a quality control chemist, I can add that my experience with the industry is consistant with the statement by the NMPF.

To understand the true level of confusion and diverse practices relating to this problem, it is important to note that the analytical methods used by US milk processors are insensitive to the presence of melamine itself. Here is why: Raw milk arriving to a processing facility is tested for the presence of antibiotics, fat content, flavor, pH, and total solids. To my knowledge, there is no batch QC protein analysis anywhere in the US manufacturing flow. In Asia, apparently protein analysis is common. 

The practical consequence of this analytical protein blindness in the US is that there is no benefit to adding melamine to milk because pricing is not determined by protein content. Milk is sold by the pound and its premium value is determined by the butterfat content.

Milk has been subject to many kinds of fraudulent modifications in the past. Sour milk has been neutralized with caustic. Today all milk is taste-tested for off flavor. Milk has been diluted for higher profit. Today all raw milk is tested for % solids and % fat to detect dilution. It should be above a certain minimum on both accounts. Cows have been milked abusively into chronic mastitis and given antibiotics. All milk is now tested for antibiotic residues via chemical and microbial assays. Finally, milk that contains an excessive microbial loading is rejected.

If Chinese milk processors adopted a similar testing protocol, the benefit of direct adulteration of milk with melamine would disappear. The effects of melamine-laced cattle feed is another issue. I have not heard of studies that connect ingestion of melamine contaminated feedstocks to milk contamination. Perhaps this has already been done.

According to the Wall Street Journal–

Dr. [Stephen] Sundlof said the melamine traces stemmed from the products coming in contact with the chemical during processing. The FDA approved melamine as a “food contact substance” about four decades ago.

The article continues-

The FDA said last month that it’s safe for consumers to eat most food with melamine below 2.5 parts per million, but infant formula was the exception. “FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns,” it said.

I am heartened to see that the FDA is reluctant to establish a threshold for safe consumption by infants. But at the same time, the matter of a 2.5 ppm threshold for everyone else amounts to a sh*t sandwich for the public.

The levels detected by US companies and agencies seems rather low. Again, from WSJ-

A spokesman for Mead Johnson Nutritionals, owned by Bristol-Myers, said the company’s own tests haven’t turned up any melamine, and the FDA tests turned up melamine levels “lower than the 0.25 parts per million limit that can be measured by the published FDA test method.” Mead Johnson, he said, maintains “stringent standards at all our manufacturing sites to ensure the high quality and safety of our products that our customers have come to expect.”

Dr. Sundloff said the melamine detected was tiny. Out of 87 samples, it found one sample with 0.137 parts per million and 0.140 parts per million on a verification test.

While toxicological threat to US consumers at the sub-ppm level is unclear at the moment, what seems to be lacking at FDA is a discussion as to the need to allow any level of melamine in any consumable.

Here is what is clear to Th’ Gaussling:

There is no overlap in the material streams of melamine or melamine resin manufacture with any dairy product. No dairy operation should reasonably expect to require containers of melamine monomer in its warehouse, nor should any supplier to dairy product manufacture.

Melamine contamination by contact exposure to melamine resin components can be averted by the use of many other food grade materials of construction, i.e., stainless steel.

If melamine is detected in food articles, it is the duty of the manufacturer to promptly audit all suppliers and eliminate the source of contamination.

Rather than tolerate and regulate the presence of a material whose only purpose is to perpetrate fraud, the FDA should ban food products containing detectable amounts of melamine. If the FDA goes forward with acceptable levels of melamine in dairy products, suppliers would begin to game the system. In a short time, ppm levels of melamine will be considered “normal” and suppliers of melamine contaminated feedstocks will be legitimized up to the regulatory threshold. 

A firm stand by regulatory agencies will strengthen the motivation of manufacturers to maintain strong audit trails and take away the financial incentive to use this fraudulent additive.

The Cost of Scientific Information. Who Pays and Who Gets Paid?

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For anyone outside of academia who has not actually received an invoice from Chemical Abstracts for literature retrieval services, let me assure you that literature searches will cost you real money.

CAS has weighted the basic search operations and defined them in a menu of task equivalents. When you subscribe, you purchase a bundle of tasks. Tasks can be used like a chit- they can be applied for a variety of search operations. Some search operations are assigned a higher value than others. Obviously, a group of big wheels at CAS sat down in a room and hammered out what they perceive the value of a given operation to be.

At this point, it is useful to remind folks that price is not properly based on cost, it is based on what the customer is willing to pay. CAS has an army of clerks punching abstracts into the database, so they do have some real overhead. While CAS honchos are mindful of paying the overhead, they are also trying to find a pricepoint for their information services. On this I do sympathize with them.

However, where I part ways with this organization relates to the monopolistic arrangement they have with information paid for by citizens of this country. The major pipelines of chemical research information seem to plumb directly into CAS and the ACS.  Research that does not get published by the ACS goes to a variety of private publishing houses. The common thread is the transfer of copyright to the publishing house. By turning over the copyright of publically funded research to these organizations, the public relenquishes the right to free access to results it has paid for.

In a very real way, the published results of our university research complex represents national treasure. What do we do with it? We hand it over to publishing organizations who print it in exchange for the copyright. In this way, we can keep paying for access indefinitely.

In fact, lets highlight some of the features of this transfer of wealth and the cost to society of scientific literature-

  1. Citizens and corporations pay taxes to support the various funding agencies like NSF, NIH, DoE, DoT, DoD, etc., as well as provide private grants.
  2. Funding agencies award grants to institutions and researchers to pay for the conduct of research.
  3. Researchers take a combination of funds and pay for stipends, fellowships, materials, and overhead to support the people who do research.
  4. Research is performed and results are communicated as publications.
  5. Researchers sign over the copyright to their work in exchange for publication.
  6. Publishers such as the ACS, Wiley, Elsevier, etc., then hold a copyright on the content in perpetuity.
  7. For the rest of time, the citizenry who paid for the results have to pay a fee to get a copy of the paper, or travel to the nearest University library and hope that the publication isn’t in deep archival storage and unavailable that day.
  8. Thanks to the Bayh-Dole Act, institutions can patent the results of federally funded work. This means that the hopeful citizens of the USA are barred from the practice of the art they paid for. In fact, they have to work out a license agreement which will include a royalty (with audit trail) and probably a hefty upfront, non-refundable, fee to get the ball rolling.
  9. Despite this royalties cash stream that universities have access to, tuition and fees continue to rise well above inflation.
  10. If you are a chemical scholar out of the cover of academic discounting, you face the full brunt of literature search costs yourself. A monograph or book on any given chemistry topic could easily cost $10,000 in non-academic SciFinder charges (ie., $68 per reaction search). A typical technical book may provide an author $3,000 to $10,000 in royalties over 5 years.

Well, you say, the benefit is to society as a whole. The science we pay for goes into society where, like an incoming tide, lifts all boats.

Nonesense! This tide lifts the good ship Elsevier and the USS Chemical Abstracts. It helps large universities get larger. The generation of information has become a cash cow for a handful of organizations who are subject to precious little scrutiny by those who freely supply the scientific content that keeps the system going.

Notes from the A.I. Meyers Symposium

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I was able to attend only the afternoon sessions of the AI Meyers Symposium, sponsored by the Chemistry Department at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. Peter Beak from the University of Illinois spoke about organolithium chemistry related to CIPE- Complex Induced Prioximity Effect. Along the way, Beak made a few comments about the state of the science of chemistry in America in terms of the lack of a unified voice. He pointed out that the astronomers seem to be quite successful in geting major projects funded because they band together and make a unified case for funding. Beak observed that during difficult times, chemists tend to “circle the wagons and shoot inwards”.

Beak made another point about the perpetually weak state of physical organic chemistry. He suggests that the norbornyl cation controversy between H.C. Brown and Saul Winstein in the 1960’s had a deleterious effect on the field. I have heard this argument elsewhere. I can only assume that Beak means that funding for physical organic research dried up.

Victor Sniekus, Alfred Bader Professor of Chemistry at Queens University, spoke about his work with orthometallation in various projects. Daniel Comins, a Meyers post-doc, talked about alkaloid synthesis.  Much of the work from the Meyers labs was related to directed metallation or pre-coordination of R-Li with a substrate to accomplish some kind of selectivity. It was AIM’s habit to prove the merit of a transformation with an application to some kind of natural product synthesis- usually an alkaloid. I spent a year and a half struggling unsuccessfully with tylophorine and crypotpleurine.

The afternoon was rounded off with talk by Paul Reider, formerly a VP of Process Research at Merck and now teaching at Princeton University. Reider spoke in his typical entertaining manner.  What stands out above the technical details is a statement he made in regard to getting buy in for a process. He was trying to get somebody to try a reaction series-“I said it with such sincerity, they went ahead and did it! ” This is funny because you don’t get the idea that Reider or any of his colleagues are easily swayed by sincerity.

There was a fair turnout of Meyers alumni, post-docs and grad students as well as folks from other groups in the department.

Gaussling’s 9th Epistle to the Bohemians. The Cardinal of Chemistry

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In the fabulous world of industry there are many, many job descriptions held by many, many people. The practical consequence of this is that there are a great number of channels in which the river of your career can flow. Opportunities come and go like eddies in the stream. We advance and sometimes retreat.  Our enthusiasms can reach flood stage or can reduce to a trickle in draught. Our intentions can be muddy or clear.

In the end, though, all rivers run into the sea. Careers can flow narrow and fast or broad and slow. But the unique social status and circle we enjoy in this stream of time is eventually lost into the brackish waters of retirement. 

For academicians and industrialists alike, a PhD buys a seat as a lower level dignitary- a prince. For the academic prince, with hard work and luck, one rises through rank and tenure to become a lord or cardinal living the courtly life of intellectual privilege under the glow of eternal admiration. A prince of academe has but to walk into a classroom to gather the attention and fear of post-pubescent underlings. Through midterms, they hang on your every word. You are golden, and every year brings a new crop of young admirers.

In industry, the fierce hydraulic pressure of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately constantly tips the crown from your head. An industrial prince or princess can be expected to labor in a more diverse variety of capacities. Negotiating raw material prices, feasting with customers, or building a corporate trebuchet. Ominously, an industrial prince may find him/herself in oversight of activities that might one day be filmed by helicopters from a safe distance up wind.

An industrial prince can find himself suddenly in full battle dress swinging an axe from a wounded horse. The Viking warlords of mergers and aquisitions will storm the palace with their corporate siege engines and announce a restructuring of the kingdom. Programs throughout the principality will be halted. Serfs will lay down their scythes in the field and let the barley rot where it stands. Lesser princes will be sacrificed to Odin and upper middle-age cardinals will be sent to the moors in the north to live in sanctuary with the Brothers of Eternal Consternation.

What remains will be a thinner core of chastened cubicle-courtiers huddling behind the organizational battlements. Survivors of the siege. One day the new archbishops and cardinals will arrive in their red silk vestments during the antiphon, bearing their strange implements and unfamiliar liturgy. Thus begins a new age.

Thermite Sparking

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Until recently I was blissfully unaware of the possibility of something called Thermite Sparking. It is a variety of the classic Thermite reaction, only it can happen inadvertently in the workplace by mechanical friction.

Thermite sparking is a circumstance wherein an aluminum part smartly strikes an oxidized iron component generating a momentary and highly localized spot of very hot metal. Normally, the thermite reaction is limited to the small mass of material in the impact zone and does not progress further.

What is useful to know is that aluminum and iron together constitute a sparking pair of materials and could serve as an ignition source for flammable liquids and vapor in the area. An aluminum cart or component could suffer an impact while in motion and provide an ignition source for a fire.

Spandex- Chemistry’s Gift to Mankind.

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A trip to Las Vegas serves to remind one of the very important contribution that chemistry has made to the well being of mankind. I’m not talking about pharmaceuticals or some such pedestrian material. I refer to the marvel of Spandex/Lycra. This form fitting wonder fiber continues to serve our collective betterment. It makes me proud (*sniff*) to be in this field of chemistry where our labors can make such a difference. God Bless this Land, this America!

NEP on Dust Explosion Hazards

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Earlier in 2008 OSHA issued directive CPL-00-008, Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program. This program is meant to induce industry to develop a greater awareness of dust explosion hazards via the threat of greater scrutiny by OSHA inspectors.

Dust explosion hazards have been poorly appreciated by plant operators in a wide range of industries. The recent explosion at Imperial Sugar in Port Wentworth, GA, on February 7, 2008, has helped to raise awareness both from regulators and plant operators. Part of the problem has to do with a poor understanding of the explosibility of dusts generally, and with the lack of data on the explosibility of a great many common products in particular. Safety consultants I know have been busy with clients from the sugar refining field. It caught their attention.

A.I. Meyers Symposium, 2008

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A symposium in honor of the late Professor Albert I. Meyers is being held at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins on Friday, 24 October, 2008, in the late afternoon and all day Saturday, 25 October, 2008. The symposium speakers are Clayton Heathcock, Peter Beak, Daniel Comins, Kyoshi Tomioka, Daniel Romo, Victor Snieckus, Jeff Seeman, and Paul Reider. I look forward to attending.

Big Pots and Pans

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Chemical reactors come in a variety of designs. Ordinarily, they range from bullet shaped pressure vessels to a pipe for plug flow reactions to a variety of cylindrical vessel designs.  A big metal reaction vessel has several names- a pot, kettle, or reactor. Reactors can be customized with add-on components to suit specific requirements for agitation efficiency. Reactors can be used for continuous reaction as in the case of a CSTR, or for batch and semi-batch operations.  Custom reactors may be built to provide unique performance specifications.

General purpose reactors can be purchased new or used. They come in a variety of materials of construction. Glassed reactors have a layer of vitreous glaze on the interior walls- often blue in color- and are resistant to corrosion, but may be harmed by thermal shock or electrostatic discharge.

Steel and stainless steel reactors come in a variety of alloy compositions. Hastelloy reactors can be acquired for enhanced resistance to corrosive materials, but at a steep price premium. Vessels with various types of cladding are available- Zr, Ni, Ti, Monel, Inconel, Hastelloy, Cupro Nickel.  It is possible to obtain titanium or tantalum condensers for pots with particularly harsh duty.

Processes that require highly specialized materials of construction are usually more expensive. This can put considerable constraints on the process economics, since it is desirable to have the product requiring the specialized materials pay off the extra costs in a reasonable time period. This pay-off is in the form of a product price premium and/or depreciation. Taking on a project requiring specialized equipment often requires the cost analysis skills of an engineer to throw together a business case study. Perry’s Chemical Engineers Handbook is an excellent resource for this kind of activity.

Agitators are a very important part of the reaction vessel system. Motors, gear boxes, and impellers of various performance specs can be mixed and matched for projected requirements. Impellers are power absorbing implements. They absorb power from the drive motor. The job of an impeller is to dump the required number of watts per kilogram of solution into the reaction mixture to provide satisfactory shear. The energy required depends upon the geometry of the impeller and the density and viscosity of the mixture.

When trying to simulate a reaction on the bench top, it is critical to reproduce the big reactors shear at the smaller scale. Very often, this means that the rpm must be adjusted upwards to get the proper energy transfer. A great resource for this kind of work is the Pilot Plant Real Book, by Francis McConville.

The art of the tip

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Savoir faire is one of those ethereal attributes that a lucky few are born with and something that most of the rest of us have to constantly work on. The world of sales and business development folk very often involves a business dinner in a fine dining establishment. Very often dinner is a prelude to the next days work, so dining is a great opportunity to get to know the customer.  

It is important to realize when taking a potential client out for dinner, one is very much under inspection. A client can be put off in many ways. Poor table manners, boorish behavior, poor listening skills, and shabby taste in restaurants can turn the dinner from a plus plus into a minus minus.

Here is how you make a big impression on a client. I learned this from a professor at Denver University’s hotel & hospitality school. Go to the restaurant the day before and meet the maitre d’. You introduce yourself and explain that you have an important engagement the next night. Give him/her a business card and a several $100 bills. Explain that you want to be addressed by name as you enter the restaurant.

Next, you find the waiter and repeat the instructions. You want to be greeted by name as you are seated. You don’t want their life story, you just want them to be efficient and scarce. Finally, you go into the kitchen and greet the chef. Explain that the next evening is important and ask if he/she has any items that are not on the menu. Thank the chef profusely and go about your business.

The next evening after dinner, overtip the staff. Throwing around a few hundred dollars will get peoples attention and should get you a better table and better service. Doing it ahead of time invests the staff in the gig and will be gratefully appreciated.

I couldn’t help but reprint this list of Tips on Tipping from Bruce Feiler at Gourmet.com. His 3 page essay on learning how to get a table in a posh restaurant and how to tip in advance is quite well written and should encourage the socially inept to give it a try.  Remember, don’t fumble with your wallet fishing for a crumpled note. Have the note neatly folded and ready for a discrete handoff. Show a little style for cryin’ out loud.

Tips on Tipping

  1. Go. You’d be surprised what you can get just by showing up.
  2. Dress appropriately. Your chances improve considerably if you look like you belong.
  3. Don’t feel ashamed. They don’t. You shouldn’t.
  4. Have the money ready. Prefolded, in thirds or fourths, with the amount showing.
  5. Identify the person who’s in charge, even if you have to ask.
  6. Isolate the person in charge. Ask to speak with that person, if necessary.
  7. Look the person in the eye when you slip him the money. Don’t look at the money.
  8. Be specific about what you want. “Do you have a better table?” “Can you speed up my wait?” A good fallback: “This is a really important night for me.”
  9. Tip the maître d’ on the way out if he turned down the money but still gave you a table.
  10. Ask for the maître d’s card as you’re leaving. You are now one of his best customers.