Green Chemistry Awards

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Green Chemistry Awards
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2005 Crystal Faraday Green Chemical Technology
Awards

• The Crystal Faraday Awards celebrate outstanding
  achievement in the commercialisation of Green and
  Sustainable Chemical Technology.
• The award winner was announced at the IChemE
  Awards Dinner on 29 September 2005 at the Royal
  Courts of Justice, by Boris Johnson MP.
• Davy Process Technology Limited received the
  award for their green process for ethyl acetate
  production. This is a commercially successful
  process only 5 years after work began, Sasol has
  a commercial 50,000m tpa plant in operation and a
  Chinese plant with double the capacity under
  construction. Davy Process Technology Ltd is a UK
  company that provides licences to operate
  advanced process technologies related to the
  manufacture of oil and gas, petrochemicals,
  commodity chemicals, fine chemicals and
  pharmaceuticals. Other short listed entrants
  included Cardiff University in collaboration with
  Johnson Matthey Catalysts and Pfizer Global RD

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Davy Process Technology for Ethyl Acetate
production

• Ethyl Acetate
• Davy Process Technology has developed a process
  that enables ethyl acetate and a valuable
  hydrogen by-product stream to be produced
  directly from ethanol.  The process takes
  advantage of the current industrial focus on
  renewable resources and the expansion in
  fermentation ethanol production and breaks the
  feedstock link to volatile oil prices.

Dry ethanol is dehydrogenated to produce a crude
ethyl acetate stream. This is selectively
hydrogenated to remove certain by-products that
cannot be separated by distillation. The
innovative refining section then splits the
azeotrope to produce a high purity ethyl acetate
product. Unreacted ethanol is recycled to a
dehydration unit where it is combined with fresh
ethanol and dried. This process, which has
been recognised by a number of awards including a
Kirkpatrick Honour Award, produces a high purity
product.  By-product hydrogen can
provide producers with a key feedstock for
further downstream processes, the purity and
pressure being adjusted to meet downstream
requirements. A 50,000 TPA plant is in
operation in South Africa and a further plant
using fermentation ethanol feedstock is in the
design phase.
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UK AWARDS FOR GREEN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGYEDDS a
Readily Biodegradable Chelant that can directly
replace EDTA and phosphonates

• EDDS A Biodegradable Alternative
• EDDS (EthyleneDiamineDiSuccinate) (Figure 1) is a
  naturally occurring
• chelant2 and is a structural isomer of EDTA that
  possesses two chiral centres
• that are the key to its biodegradability. EDDS
  consists of two aspartic acid
• units linked by an ethylene bridge and can exist
  as four stereoisomers. The
• only stereoisomer that is readily biodegradable3
  is the S,S form that is based
• on the naturally occurring amino acid L-aspartic
  acid (Figure 2).

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UK AWARDS FOR GREEN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGYEDDS a
Readily Biodegradable Chelant that can directly
replace EDTA and phosphonates

• Chelating performance
• EDTA and phosphonates are very effective chelants
  that form stable
• complexes with a range of transition metals. EDDS
  and other biodegradable
• chelants have to match this performance in the
  end application and the
• particular combination of metals.
• As illustrated (Figure 3), EDDS is more effective
  at chelating transition metals like iron, copper
  and zinc than with alkali metals like calcium and
  magnesium.
• This means that EDDS is preferred where selective
  chelation of transition
• metals is required in the presence of alkali
  metals. As metals are present in
• varying amounts in different applications it
  means that research is required on each system to
  find the optimum conditions.

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UK AWARDS FOR GREEN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGYEDDS a
Readily Biodegradable Chelant that can directly
replace EDTA and phosphonates

• Domestic Applications
• In domestic applications, all the chelants are
  disposed via the drains to the
• sewage system and then into watercourses. As EDTA
  is not biodegraded in
• municipal waste plants, it all ends up in the
  water system. For this reason
• there are concerns about the domestic use of
  EDTA. EDDS in contrast is
• completely biodegraded/mineralised to carbon
  dioxide, water and nitrates in
• the waste plant.
• UK AWARDS FOR GREEN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY
• Octel Performance Chemicals Page 6 of 10 UK GCT
  Awards Ver 1
• Laundry Detergents
• A solution of the tri-sodium salt of EDDS under
  the name Octaquest E30
• was initially developed for the laundry detergent
  market. This has been used
• to replace phosphonates in this market. It has
  successfully been used since
• launch in 1996 and in 2002, the plant passed the
  cumulative total of 10,000
• tonnes produced - a significant milestone for any
  chemicals production.
• EDTA is no longer used for domestic laundry
  detergents in Western Europe,
• though it is present in other household
  detergents and 2,619 tonnes1 were
• used in 1999.
• Hard Surface Cleaners

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UK AWARDS FOR GREEN CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGYEDDS a
Readily Biodegradable Chelant that can directly
replace EDTA and phosphonates

• Personal Care
• EDTA is extensively used in the personal care
  industry and can be found on
• the ingredient list on many personal care product
  bottles. 756 tonnes1 of
• EDTA were used in 1999. All the ingredients from
  these products ultimately
• end up in the environment through the drain and
  sewage system.
• EDDS ability to chelate with transition metal
  ions means that it is particularly
• suitable for stabilising peroxide solutions for
  hair products. Transition metals
• can also catalyse the oxidation of olefins
  leading to rancid smells and
• discoloration that can be prevented by the use of
  chelates. Octaquest E30
• was commercialised with shampoo formulators in
  Europe during 2000 and
• new customers are coming on stream.
• EDDS acts as a potentiator for many common
  biocides used in personal care.
• EDDS significantly enhances the effectiveness of
  biocides and can lead to
• reductions in MIC (Minimum Inhibitory
  Concentration) of over 90. This has
• the potential to significantly reduce the levels
  of biocides used in personal
• care products and the amounts of biocide released
  into the environment