February | février 2012
Canadian Chemical News | L’Actualité chimique canadienne A magazine of the Chemical Institute of Canada and its Constituent Societies | Une magazine de l’institut de chimie du canada et ses sociétés constituantes
Into the
Deep
Mining the World's Oceans
Rare Earth Race Howard Alper on Innovation
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Chemical
Table of Contents
February | février Vol.64, No./No 2
Features Chemical Engineering
chemistry
12
18
Into the Deep
Vancouver’s Nautilus Minerals prepares to mine the depths of the southwestern Pacific Ocean in search of gold and copper. By Richard Littlemore
business
22
The Bumpy Road to Chemical Innovation
A conversation with Howard Alper, chair of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council, about the future of chemical innovationin Canada. By Tyler Irving
Departments
The Race for Rare Earths
Avalon Rare Metals of Toronto is one of many companies worldwide mining rare earth elements for use in energygeneratinggreen technologies. By Tim Lougheed
5
From the Editor
7
uest Column G By Philip Jessop
8
hemical News C By Tyler Irving
29
Society News
30
ChemFusion By Joe Schwarcz
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 3
Chemical Institute of Canada
Canada
“ Green, Clean and Sustainable” Seminar and 2012 SCI/CIC Awards Dinner Thursday, March 29, 2012 Hyatt Regency Toronto
The Canadian section of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) will be hosting an afternoon seminar series followed by the annual awards ceremony and dinner. The seminar will feature leaders from industry who will speak on a range of topics relating to green chemistry and engineering, followed by an awards dinner in recognition of those who have made outstanding achievements in service, industry and leadership. Join us to participate in the seminar series and to celebrate the success of the 2012 award winners.
To register, please visit:
www.cheminst.ca/sci_awards For more information, please contact scidinner@cheminst.ca or call Michelle Moulton at (613)232-6252 ext. 229.
FRom the editor
Executive Director
Roland Andersson, MCIC
ACTING EDITOR
Roberta Staley
Editor (on leave)
Jodi Di Menna
news editor
Tyler Irving, MCIC
contributing editors
Peter Calamai Tyler Hamilton Tim Lougheed
art direction & Graphic Design
Krista Leroux Kelly Turner
Society NEws
Bobbijo Sawchyn, MCIC Gale Thirlwall
Marketing Manager
Bernadette Dacey
Marketing Coordinator
Luke Andersson
Circulation
Michelle Moulton
Finance and Administration Director
Joan Kingston
Membership Services Coordinator
Angie Moulton
Editorial Board
Joe Schwarcz, MCIC, chair Milena Sejnoha, MCIC Bernard West, MCIC
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Subscription Rates Go 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 subscription 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.
A
s the world’s population continues its exorable upwards climb, the pressure on land-based resources to feed, clothe and provide energy for more than seven billion people has become relentless. This has made the resource potential of the oceans more important, giving rise to the term ‘blue economy.’ With 70 per cent of the Earth’s crust under water, it is reasonable to think that 70 per cent of its resources are still waiting to be tapped. Nautilus Minerals of Vancouver has embraced the blue economy and is poised to become the first company in the world to mine the ocean floor. As you can read on Page 12, Nautilus is preparing to operate a fleet of remotely operated vehicles to collect valuable copper and gold-rich sulfides. However, the hydrothermal vents that have spawned such chemicals also nurture the richest biohabitat in the deep sea. Humans have a poor track record of oceanic husbandry: fisheries have emptied the oceans, big sea predators and whale populations are at risk, massive oil spills, wellhead failure and plastic refuse have created a watery garbage dump. This highlights the ethical imperative for mining, petroleum and industrial enterprises like Nautilus to ensure that future endeavours preserve underwater habitat. Another feature focuses on the efforts of Toronto-based Avalon Rare Metals to mine rare earth elements like samarium, praseodymium and dysprosium, which are found near Yellowknife in the Canadian North. These deposits are becoming more valuable, thanks to a new generation of consumer products that depend upon such elements. The technical innovation that is exhibited by companies like Avalon and Nautilus seems to buck a Canadian trend. As Howard Alper, chair of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Council, points out on Page 18, Canada ranks low among G8 nations when it comes to research and development by industry — something that needs to be addressed as a nation.
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february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 5
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Canadian Society for Chemical Technology
Adding fuel to fracking Laboratory Safety course May 28–29, 2012 Calgary, Alta. September, 17–18, 2012 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.
discount members for CIC/CSCT
Course outline and registration at
www.cheminst.ca/profdev Continuing Professional Development presented by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the CanadianSociety for Chemical Technology (CSCT).
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février 2012
In last month’s story, “Fracking Furor: The Science and Politics of Fracking,” neither the politics nor the science was adequately reported. Salient facts about fracking from last April’s US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Report, “Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracturing,” include: • Between 2005 and 2009, 14 oil and gas service companies used 2,500 hydraulic fracturing additives containing 750 chemicals, a total volume (exclusive of water added) of 780 million gallons. • In the same period, fracking used 93.6 million gallons of 279 products containing undisclosed chemicals. • Some disclosed components used such as silica, salt, gelatin and citric acid seem harmless. • Others, such as methanol, isopropanol and ethylene glycol are not harmless. Others, such as 2-butoxyethanol (2-BE), used as a foaming agent or surfactant, are easily absorbed in humans following exposure. Exposure to 2-BE can cause hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells) and damage to the spleen, liver and bone marrow. • Some chemicals used are or may be human carcinogens: diesel fuel, benzene, naphthalene and acrylamide. Others such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride are toxic. The Committee on Energy and Commerce remarks: “Hydraulic fracturing has opened access to vast domestic reserves of natural gas that could provide an important stepping stone to a clean energy future. Yet questions about the safety of hydraulic fracturing persist, which are compounded by the secrecy surrounding the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. “Groundwater contamination doesn't necessarily come directly from injecting fracking chemicals deep into shale rock formations well below water aquifers but from waste water evaporation ponds and poorly constructed pipelines taking the waste water and chemicals to processing facilities.” Water contamination is not the only problem. In the town of Dimock, Pa., 13 water wells were contaminated with methane (one blew up) and the gas company, Cabot Oil & Gas, had to construct a pipeline to bring in clean water. Some countries, like France and South Africa and provinces such as Quebec and Nova Scotia have banned or delayed permission to proceed with fracking. Frank R. Smith, FCIC Retired professor, Chemistry Department, Memorial University of Newfoundland
guest column
Are you ready for a green wave?
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green wave is coming. A wave of young chemists who are strongly motivated by and interested in helping the environment. As they find their way into industry and academia, they will change the way that chemical research and development decisions are made. They will spend more thought on the environmental consequences of their choices and spend more time on the discovery and development of greener technologies. Those new technologies will make their employers more efficient and more competitive. But first, let me tell you where this wave is coming from. The wave starts in school. Far more of the present curriculum focuses on the environment than when I went through the system. In Ontario, the No. 1 goal of Grades 9-10 science curriculum is “to relate science to technology, society and the environment.” The Grade 9 science curriculum specifies that students must learn about the environmental impacts of chemical production and use. Grade 10 science and Grade 11 chemistry cover how chemistry can be used to address environmental challenges. Grade 12 chemistry requires students to “propose a course of action to reduce the use of compounds that are harmful to human health and the environment.” That students get charged up about helping the environment is evident from their participation in environmental clubs and green school programs. In university, far more students are getting excited about environmental topics. Universities used to be hotbeds of activism for women’s rights, peace, or other topics. Now it is the environment. Enrollment in environmental courses is higher than ever. At Queen’s
University, our Environmental and Green Chemistry course always reaches the enrollment cap. Queen’s School of Environmental Studies has seen its undergraduate enrollment triple since opening in 2005. New programs are being created, including the University of Western Ontario’s Green Process Engineering Program, Dalhousie University’s Environment, Sustainability and Society program, and the Master’s program in Applied Sustainability at Queen’s (although, despite the central role of chemistry in protecting or harming the environment, none of these programs is hosted by chemistry departments). The wave now reaches up into graduate school, post-docs and is starting to reach the faculty level. When I moved back to Canada in 2003, only one professor was promoting green chemistry research. A quick Internet search shows that there are now more than two dozen chemistry and chemical engineering faculty identifying their research as green, plus many more doing green chemistry without using that terminology. All of these new environmentally conscious students, postdoctoral fellows and professors will discover and invent green technologies, which bodes well for the environment and the competitiveness of the companies that adopt these technologies. Is society ready for this wave? Are our students, who will be getting jobs designing chemicals for society, being taught anything about how to design safer chemicals? Do our universities have relevant courses such as Green Chemistry or Toxicology for Chemists? (Answer: no, with a few exceptions). Do our professors and students
By Philip Jessop
understand what they need to do to protect their ideas? Do we have the commercialization pathway perfected yet, or is the commercialization gap still a big impediment? It’s still a problem, which is why GreenCentre Canada — a partnership between academic researchers and industry partners based at Queen’s — was created. Are our companies willing to share their problems with young professors so that the faculty know what is needed? Are faculty in biology or environmental studies who have identified environmental problems talking with chemistry faculty about solutions? I suggest that we are not ready. And if we don’t get ready, the wave is going to pass us by. Students will obtain chemistry degrees without learning about toxicology or how to do chemistry while protecting the environment. Applied research designed to develop greener technologies will miss the mark because of a lack of communication between the disciplines or between academia and industry. Neither the environment nor the economy will benefit. Let’s get ready for the wave. Let’s educate students on green chemistry. Let’s bring in guest speakers from toxicology departments to speak to chemistry classes or require discussion of toxicology in the organic chemistry curriculum. Let’s educate graduate students on innovation. Industry representatives, talk with young faculty. Faculty and students who want to help the environment, find out what chemical problems are really hurting the environment and then choose those as research challenges. Philip Jessop is the Canada Research Chair of Green Chemistry at Queen’s University and the Technical Director of GreenCentre Canada.
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 7
Chemical News
By Tyler Irving hydrocarbons
New antifreeze for natural gas pipelines Inspired by nature, which has a head start on humans when it comes to creating antifreeze, a team at the University of Ottawa has created a new molecule that prevents the formation of a special kind of ice — clathrate hydrates. Clathrate hydrates form when water molecules crystallize into a cage-like structure that can contain one or more molecules of natural gas or other hydrocarbons. This happens only under low temperatures and high pressures, such as those found in deep ocean sediments, but also in pressurized gas or oil pipelines during a Canadian winter. Clathrate hydrates can plug pipes and lead to unpredictable pressure fluctuations. Currently, chemicals like methanol or high molecular weight polymers are used to prevent their formation. However, relatively high concentrations are required for these antifreeze molecules to be effective. Robert Ben and his group in the Department of Chemistry have been studying natural antifreeze molecules found in organisms like fish and insects that live in cold environments. These molecules are high molecular weight glycoproteins and figuring out how they function is time-consuming. “We’ve been working in this area for more than a decade,” says Ben. “We’ve made many different molecules, but it’s really trial and error. It hasn’t been until the past two years that we’ve dialled into the structural criteria you need to get potent activity in a smaller molecule.” Using a technique called differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Ben’s team has demonstrated that certain small molecules can prevent clathrate formation at one third the concentration of commercial products. The new antifreezes are non-toxic and simple to make, so scaling up production should be straightforward. Working with GreenCentre Canada, Ben has applied for a patent and is looking for companies to produce the chemicals, which he thinks could be in commercial use within two to three years. materials science
Efficiency record for flexible OLEDs
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university of toronto
University of Toronto researchers used a thin layer of tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) to increase the external efficiency of an organic light-emitting diode backed with flexible plastic.
Imagine a TV you can roll up and put in your pocket or wallpaper that provides energy-efficient lighting. That has been the promise of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) but so far most practical OLEDs (such as those found in mobile phone displays) have been flat and inflexible. This could change thanks to a recent innovation at the University of Toronto. OLEDs consist of a light-emitting organic layer sandwiched between two electrodes. The best modern OLEDs are nearly 100 per cent electron efficient; they produce one photon for every electron introduced. However, not all these photons reach the surface. The internal layers have high refractive indices (RI), while the transparent flexible plastics proposed for the outer layer have low RIs. This mismatch, along with the fact that the thickness of the device is similar to the wavelengths of visible light, leads to internal reflection. To solve this problem, manufacturers must use high-RI glass rather than plastic, or increase the thickness of the device. “The recent advancements are really great, but they’re no longer compatible with a flexible substrate,” says Michael Helander, a graduate student in Zhenghong Lu’s lab in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at U of T. Helander, Zhibin Wang and the team created a new type of OLED with an upper electrode made of a thin, semitransparent layer of gold, followed by one of molybdenum oxide (MoO3). To allow the light out, the team used a very thin layer of tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) which has a very high refractive index. The system worked well enough that, even when coated on flexible plastic rather than glass, the maximum external efficiency reached 60 per cent, a new record for flexible OLEDs. “Now we can go back to making devices that are flexible without losing all the innovations we’ve developed over the past 10 to 15 years,” says Helander. The research is published in Nature Photonics.
Chemical News Canada's top stories in the chemical sciences and engineering health
Study links BPA and toddlertantrums A recently published study has linked increased pre-natal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) to changes in the behaviour of young girls, adding fuel to the debate over whether or not the chemical should be banned in consumer goods. The data comes from an initiative called the Health Outcomes and Measures of the Environment (HOME) study, the first to compare BPA exposure data (via urine samples) from about 240 expectant mothers with behavioural assessments on their children over a period of three years. Previously published data from the HOME study suggested a link between greater BPA exposure and externalizing behaviours such as aggression and hyperactivity in two-year-old children. The data were discussed by BPA experts in Ottawa in 2010 at a World Health Organization meeting. At that same gathering, other researchers showed data that suggested pre-natal BPA exposure in rats may result in increased anxiety of their pups, although this is hard to measure in rodents. This intrigued Bruce Lanphear, an epidemiologist in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and one of the HOME study’s co-authors. “One of the things we look for is concordance with animal toxicology studies,” says Lanphear, “so immediately we started to look at anxiety in the HOME study cohort.” BPA concentrations measured in maternal urine typically vary from a few parts per billion to about ten times that. By examining a subset of the data on externalizing behaviours, Lanphear and his colleagues showed that this 10-fold increase was associated with a rise in anxiety, hyperactivityand depressive symptoms in three-year-old girls. His team accounted for possible confounding effects such as the level of maternal education. However, says Lanphear, there is the possibility that unmeasured confounders exist, necessitating further research. “I can’t say that we have definitive evidence that BPA is toxic to humans. What we do have is suggestive evidence and, given the history of chemicals like PCBs, lead and tobacco, people need to be able to reduce their exposure.” The research is published in Pediatrics.
Biochemistry
Targeting telomerase to trump cancer In a discovery that could have implications for new cancer therapies, a team of researchers led by Pascal Chartrand at Université de Montréal’s Department of Biochemistry have obtained the first real-time images showing the activity of a molecule called telomerase. Each time our chromosomes replicate, some deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is lost from each end. To deal with this problem, nature has evolved chromosomes capped with telomeres, regions of non-coding DNA that act as a buffer. In most cells, telomeres get depleted with each cycle of DNA replication until the cell eventually dies. But in some, stem cells and cancer cells for example, telomeres are replenished through the action of telomerase, an enzyme that has both protein and ribonucleic acid, or RNA, components. As a result, these cells can continue to divide indefinitely. Working with yeast cells, Chartrand and his team developed a way to add multiple fluorescent markers to the RNA component of telomerase without impacting its function. This gave them a signal bright enough to visualize individual telomerase molecules in real time during cell division. They saw that telomerase only moved close to the telomeres during a specific phase of the cell cycle. That contradicted a previous theory that suggested that telomerase is always present at the telomeres, but only activated during chromosome replication. Telomerase is already targeted by some anti-cancer drugs, but success has been mixed. Chartrand’s results could point to a new way forward. “It could be possible to target a protein that regulates telomerase, or one that is involved in the recruitment of telomerase to the telomere,” he says. “That could lead to drugs that would be toxic for cancer cells, but less toxic for normal cells.” The research is published in Molecular Cell.
pharmaceuticals
Antibiotic treatment for leukemia Even with chemotherapy, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) kills more than half of those afflicted. Now, researchers from the Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) have identified an antibiotic molecule that could also work as an AML therapeutic. The team, led by OCI’s Aaron Schimmer, assembled a list of 500 compounds already approved as drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They then used a high-throughput screen to test them for effectiveness against both lymphoid and myeloid leukemia stem cells. A prime candidate emerged in the form of tigecycline, an antibiotic normally used to treat skin and abdominal infections. As an antimicrobial agent, tigecycline is known to inhibit bacterial protein synthesis by binding to their ribosomes. In human cells, mitochondria have their own ribosomes that are similar to those found in bacteria. “We demonstrated that in leukemia cells, tigecycline is inhibiting mitochondrial protein synthesis, which ultimately causes cell death by depriving them of an energy source,” says Schimmer. Leukemia cells have greater mitochondrial mass and a greater dependence on this energy source. This makes them more sensitive to this type of disruption and allows tigecycline to selectively kill leukemia cells without destroying normal ones. “Inhibiting mitochondrial protein synthesis would really be a first-in-class therapy for leukemia,” Schimmer says. Schimmer and his colleagues have already started a Phase 1 trial, but he cautions that the formulation, dose and schedule have yet to be optimized. Additionally, Schimmer believes it’s possible that chemists could design tigecycline analogues that would be more potent or more selective of mitochondrial ribosomes over bacterial ones. “That’s something we’re actively engaged with.” The research is published in Cancer Cell.
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 9
Chemical News water
Caffeine used to track sewage pollution Those who study water pollution often use the presence of bacteria known as fecal coliforms to measure contamination by human sewage. But according to a recent study completed at the Université de Montréal, caffeine may be a better indicator. The standard test for fecal coliforms involves adding a sample of water to an agar plate, incubating for 24 hours and counting the number of colony forming units (CFU). Anything above 200 CFU/100 mL of water is too polluted for humans to swim in. But some CFUs come from domestic animals and wildlife like birds and raccoons. “If they have been around water, they can contribute a fecal coliform,” says Sébastien Sauvé, professor in the Department of Chemistry at Université de Montréal. “But they don’t drink coffee.”
Sauvé and his colleagues measured caffeine and CFU/100 mL in small streams, collectors and storm sewer outfall pipes from across the island of Montreal. They found that any time the concentration of caffeine was above 400 ng/L, the CFU/100 mL count was also above 200. While it’s possible to get more than 200 CFU/ 100 mL solely due to animal contamination, the data show that caffeine is a reliable tool for distinguishing between the two. “The correlation that we got is somewhat stronger than what’s been used in the past,” says Sauvé. “It gives a much clearer picture of when human sewage is the contributor and what proportion of cases is attributable to wildlife.” That and the fact that the test for caffeine doesn’t require a 24-hour waiting period makes it a valuable tool for pollution prevention and control. The research is published in Chemosphere.
climate change
In January 2011, Cameron and Jane Kerr alleged that CO2 from a nearby experimental carbon storage project was leaking onto their farm near Weyburn, Sask. A year later, two independent investigations have concluded that this is not the case. The project consists of piping CO2 from a coal gasification plant in North Dakota into an oil field operated by Canadian oil company Cenovus. Last summer, Cenovus contracted TRIUM Environmental to undertake extensive soil and surface water sampling operations on the property. The results, delivered last November, show CO2 concentrations consistent with what is commonly found in prairie soil gas in summer. Moreover, carbon levels were inversely correlated with oxygen levels, a sign that the CO2 was produced by biological respiration. Finally, the presence of unstable 14C indicated a young carbon source. Since 14C has a half-life of about 5,730 years, it would have been absent in CO2 from the several million-year-old coal deposits. Last December, a second report was published by the Regina-based International PerformanceAssessment Centre for Geologic Storage of CO2 (IPAC-CO2). The group also found inversely correlated oxygen and CO2 levels as well as noble gas signatures consistent with surface-generated gas. IPAC-CO2 explained some of the other phenomena on the Kerr farm, such as a blue, silvery sheen on a pond that was produced by bacteria and algae, not leaking petroleum. Carmen Dybwad, CEO of IPAC-CO2, says that the findings should instil confidence in the industry. “We can’t say definitively that no CCS project will ever leak,” Dybwad says. “What we can say that we now have a protocol to assess whether or not any carbon dioxide is natural or anthropogenic in source.” IPAC-CO2 has developed what it hopes will be a global standard by which to assess future CCS projects. In a media release, Ecojustice lawyer Barry Robinson, who represented the Kerrs, accepted the IPAC-CO2 study’s findings while emphasizing its necessity, saying that “without a full scale investigation, it has been impossible until now to rule out CO2 contamination.”
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Ecojustice
Weyburn CO2 leak a false alarm
discount members for CIC/CSChE
Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering
Advance your professional knowledge and further your career Risk Assessment Course Process Safety Course May 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
May 28-29, 2012 Calgary, Alta. September 17-18, 2012 Toronto, 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 • Electrical 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
Course outline and registration at
www.cheminst.ca/profdev Continuing Professional Development presented by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE).
Into the Vancouver’s Nautilus Mineralsis poised to become the first company in history to mine the ocean floor for gold- and copper-rich ores.
By Richard Littlemore
rom a miner’s perspective, the prospect is elegantly simple: instead of blasting and crushing your way through rock, then laboriously scraping off the elements of value, you inject or infuse an ore body with leachate — something as simple as water, perhaps pushed by temperature and pressure to a supercritical state. Your leachate then dislodges the least stable elements, which by happy coincidence are also the most valuable: everything from copper and gold to manganese, silver and zinc. Then, when you have a sufficient quantity of these elements concentrated in a solution, you expose your leachate to a change in pressure and temperature and/or to an element such as oxygen that causes your target elements to precipitate, or fall out in one handy location. After that, all you have to do is scoop up your prize, having reaped maximum value with minimum physical disruption. It’s almost perfect. Of course, as with many of the best ideas in chemistry, nature thought of it first. This is a rough description of something that
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Chemical Engineering | Deep Sea Mining
A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) manipulator — about the size of a human arm — carries a chimney sample found in the Bismarck Sea.
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 13
has been happening since the beginning of time in the watery fissures that commonly develop around volcanic activity. Hot springs and geysers have long been known in the geological community as likely locations for high mineral concentrations. Some of the greatest known ore bodies on the planet are fossil hot springs: think of Mount Isa in central Australia or Britannia Beach on the British Columbia coast north of Vancouver. The problem, so typical of applications that seem simple on the surface, is that these chemical refineries are not on the surface. They are burbling on the ocean floor at an average depth of 2,000 metres. Wherever tectonic plates are shifting apart, thus generating volcanic activity, seawater is sucked into a hydrothermal system that develops in the nearby faults, fissures and porous sediments. This water, frequently recorded at temperatures up to 407 C — well above supercritical levels — can effuse through the surrounding rock, dissolving and carrying off unstable sulfides of gold, copper, silver, manganese and zinc, (among others) the way supercritical carbon-dioxide can be used to strip caffeine from coffee beans. The solution then sprays into the ocean through hydrothermal vents, called ‘black smokers.’ These ebony clouds are full of sulphur-bearing minerals that precipitate, forming chimneys reaching heights of 60 metres. The concentration of sulfides in and around these chimneys is frequently 10 times higher than that typically found in surface ore bodies. For a company such as Vancouver-based Nautilus Minerals, this offers a potential bonanza. Nautilus is about to become the first organization in history to mine the deep ocean floor. (There are subsea diamond ‘mines’ off Africa, but these are essentially dredging operations, collecting river sediment in the coastal shallows.) In Nautilus’s Solwara 1 claim in the Bismarck Sea off Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Ocean, a seafloor “surface mine” covering just over a tenth of a square kilometre, the company has calculated an ore body of more than three million tonnes, including 200,000 tonnes of copper and 480,000 grams of gold. Admittedly, this mother lode is 1,600 metres below sea level, but as Nautilus vice-president of Investor Relations and Communications Joe Dowling points out, oil and gas engineers and the intercontinental cable-laying industry already have considerable experience moving materials on (and off) the deep ocean floor. Nautilus has commissioned construction of a series of remote vehicles that will cut, crush
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and collect Solwara’s massive sulfides, which will then be pumped to the surface and dewatered on a ship that is also currently under construction. The water will be piped back into the ocean at a depth below 1,300 metres to minimize the spread of sediment and the ore will be barged to a land-based refinery. Although some of the equipment Nautilus has commissioned is being repurposed, “it is not revolutionary technology,” says Dowling. Nautilus, which is set to begin operations in 2013, has already identified a second mine, Solwara 12, just 25 kilometres northwest of Solwara 1. Early prospecting shows a potential resource of 230,000 tonnes, grading 7.3 per cent copper and 3.6 grams per tonne of gold. (For comparison, ore from currently economic surface often runs at 0.5 per cent copper.) Given the extent of the potential resource, a gold rush could soon break out in the ocean depths. The University of Ottawa’s Goldcorp Chair in Economic Geology, Mark Hannington, recently signed off as lead author on a paper, “The Abundance of Seafloor Massive Sulfide Deposits,” published in last fall’s Geology. Hannington says that there are an estimated 500 to 5,000 vent fields in the world’s oceans. Not all of these fields feature a valuable resource. Of 300 sites identified since the discovery of black smokers in 1977, Hannington says only 165 have massive sulfide deposits. But he also notes that 70 per cent of the earth’s crust is covered by water, which suggests that 70 per cent of its resources are under water. And in a resource-depleted world, they are all deposits that have yet to be tapped. Not surprisingly, the mining community is watching Nautilus with interest.
1
(1) Towering cylindricalchimney structures from half a metre to more than 15 metres high are formed near hydrothermal vents. When super-heated water contacts near-freezing ocean water, the minerals precipitate out to form particles that accumulate in stacks. (2) Nautilus Minerals will use remotely operated seafloor production tools similar to these machinesthat have been designed based on existing offshore mining and oil and gas industries technology. They include an auxiliary cutter, bulk cutter and a collecting machine.
And others are already fossicking in the as-yet loosely regulated Area Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association is looking to the Southwest Indian Ridge and the Russian Federation is concentrating on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
On the (ever-deceiving) surface, this may seem like a minor threat. Black smokers exist in what is arguably the most inhospitable location on the planet. Often anaerobic, the areas around hydrothermal vents are either so hot or so cold as to completely defeat most living organisms. They’re also pitch black and as almost all life on earth is dependent upon photosynthesis for cell construction, you might not expect that a little bashing and crushing on the ocean floor would cause a problem. As Cindy Lee Van Dover is eager to point out, you would be wrong. Van Dover is director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory and author of the only existing university textbook on hydrothermal vents, The Ecology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal 2
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News   15
production support vessel (PSV)
riser and lifting system (RALS)
1600 metres
subsea slurry
lift pump (SSLP)
seafloor production
tools (STPs)
The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) manipulator breaks off the top of a cylindricalchimney that is then carried to a sample bin for transportation to the surface for analysis.
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Vents. She is also clearly in love with the organisms that survive and thrive nowhere else on earth. “They’re just beautiful,” she says. It turns out that the regions surrounding hydrothermal vents are teaming with life: vent zones have a density of organisms 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than the surrounding sea floor. That’s thanks to micro-organisms that use chemosynthesis, rather than photosynthesis, to produce biomass from single carbon molecules. These chemosynthetic bacteria are happiest in the rich hydrogen sulfide current arising in black smokers and they attract a huge predator community of animals like tube worms and — a Solwara native — hairy snails. So the principal target areas for seafloor miners also turn out to be the richest biohabitat in the deep sea, setting up what might seem like an inevitable conflict. (Van Dover has expanded upon this issue in an article in last February’s Nature, “Tighten Regulations on Deep-Sea Mining: Extracting minerals from sea-floor vents should not go ahead without a coherent conservation framework.”) The good news, for would-be seafloor miners and for hairy snail aficionados alike, is that regulatory authorities are ahead of the curve. While the United National Convention on the Law of the Sea emerged in 1982 — centuries after humans had begun exploiting the oceans’ biological bounty — the International Seabed Authority (ISA) was founded in 1994, well before the initiation of seafloor mining. Based in Jamaica, the ISA has been collaborating with people like Van Dover and Penn State biologist Chuck Fisher to work on guidelines and regulations for mineral exploration and exploitation. As the ISA’s regulatory reach extends only to the seabed beyond national jurisdictions, (the ABNJ), the authority has been working closely with countries such as Papua New Guinea and specifically with Nautilus Minerals to offer guidance and to better understand the implications of mining. ISA scientific affairs officer Adam Cook says the organization has “a good relationship” with Nautilus, which has been sharing information and which participated as a presenter in the ISA’s most recent Workshop on Environmental Management Needs for Exploration and Exploitation of Deep Seabed Minerals. Nautilus’s Dowling says, “We are in uncharted waters, and we are working hard to ensure that we manage all of the environmental and social impacts to create a sustainable industry.” And while mining will level the landscape and disrupt the existing biota, Van Dover points out that it will not necessarily close off the vents, which will continue to deliver life-giving nutrients to a population that is already somewhat mobile — riding ocean currents from one vent to the next. But having consulted directly for Nautilus, Van Dover passes the baton to Fisher for comment on the company’s performance. Fisher concludes: “I am encouraged to see that Nautilus is planning on careful monitoring during and after mining to determine empirically what the impacts are, their footprint, and recovery trajectory. The results from these studies will be very informative and allow responsible decisions to be made concerning future individual mining plans and the cumulative effects of continued mining in the deep sea.”
février 2012
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february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 17
QA &
The bumpy road to Chemical Innovation In Canada’s ever-changing science and technology landscape, the best strategy is to support excellence, wherever it is found.
By Tyler Irving
H
oward Alper, OC, FRSC, HFCIC, is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Ottawa and chair of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Council (STIC), which advises the federal government. Over the past year, a series of reports from the STIC and other bodies such as the Expert Panel Review of Federal Support to Research and Development (known as the Jenkins Report after its author) have examined Canada’s performance in research and development, and recommended changes to Canada’s funding strategies. ACCN spoke with Alper to find out how Canada ranks internationally and what the proposed changes might mean for chemists.
ACCN When it comes to science, technology and innovation, how does Canada stack up against the rest of the world? HA If you look at the overall results, we stack up pretty well;
we’re not at the top and we’re certainly far from the bottom. There are some areas where we perform very well, for instance, publicly funded research. Within the G8, Canada has ranked No. 1 since 2003 in terms of percentage of GDP devoted to support for colleges and universities. Then there are areas where we’re only satisfactory and areas with some deficiencies. The most pronounced, and that which has received a lot of media attention, is the low rate of research and development performed by industry. Compared to OECD countries, we are underperforming to a very significant degree, with the exception of certain industries. We really are not doing well in that regard and it needs attention by all sectors, not just by government, but by industry itself.
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ACCN How are we doing in terms of chemistry? HA In the State of the Nation 2010 – Canada’s Science,
Technology and Innovation report, there’s no single sector called chemistry or physics. Rather, chemistry is interwoven into many sectors. There are industries that have substantive chemistry content: oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, materials science, automobile, aerospace, timber and pulp and paper. This last one, which is significantly associated with chemistry, is doing well. Pharmaceuticals have had challenges, not just in Canada but worldwide, principally driven by mergers and acquisitions. Materials
Chemistry | Innovation Policy
science-based industries such as auto and aerospace are doing reasonably well. The main point is that because chemistry permeates so much of our industry in Canada, you can’t make one comment on how chemistry is performing. Chemists need to educate and inform both the public and decision-makers, much more aggressively than they have, that chemistry is central to most industry sectors, and indeed society as a whole.
worldwide. But it’s not just money, it’s making industry and academia aware of the pathway through to commercialization. This varies by sector; for example, the time and investments required to bring a new material for an automobile dashboard to market are different than those for a new antibiotic. We need to improve in terms of commercialization, but it is primarily industry’s role to do so.
ACCN Does it matter whether research and developmentis done by academia, government, or privatecompanies?
ACCN The federal government does support some privatesector research, but primarily through tax creditsas opposed to direct funding. How does this compare to other countries?
HA It does matter in that they have different roles and func-
HA Canada is No. 1 in the world in tax credits, but near
tions. The role of academia is to educate and train the next generation of leading chemists and chemical engineers. Research is absolutely key in providing students with the challenges and opportunities they need to be wellpositioned and flexible enough to succeed. For industry, research is needed to bring the next set of products to commercial reality and that is key to the viability of the company. Government laboratories have many roles: for example, no one but government should be responsible for national standards and measurement. They address fundamental issues of relevance to the mandate of government departments, such as health and agriculture. But they are also there to help facilitate industry and research and development. An example in Canada is the wind tunnel laboratory at the National Research Council (NRC), which is used for testing by different companies as well as by government itself. All sectors have great value to society.
the bottom in direct support. Let’s take the United States: a generation ago, 80 per cent of government support to industry was through tax credits and 20 per cent through direct support. The latest figures show almost the exact opposite. In one generation, the U.S. totally reversed itself and you see that for many countries, the ratio is about two direct funding dollars to every one dollar of indirect funding. Both are important, but what this pattern shows is that we need to move to a better equilibrium between direct and indirect support. This includes peer-reviewed grants to industry. At the same time, tax credits do have value, especially to smalland medium-sized enterprises. So yes, that’s a key issue that needs attention in the near future.
ACCN Canada seems to have a problem translating discovery into the marketplace; do you agree? HA Even in the best countries, it’s only a very small propor-
tion of discovery that becomes commercial. Many startup companies are created, most fail. Failure is not an embarrassment; instead it spurs creativity for new success. It requires seed money and venture capital. Finding those has been a major challenge in Canada in recent years and indeed
ACCN If more direct investments are made, how do we ensure they benefit all Canadians, not just the companies involved? HA The key is to have systems and programs that are peer-
adjudicated. These are not donations to industry, they have to be awarded by competition. The question is: is it excellent or not? If the quality is exceptionally high and the operation of the programs is done in a transparent manner, the public will accept direct support. ACCN Given our unique geography, does Canada need to develop specialized research clusters, as recommendedin the recent reports? HA Clusters are not new. In Montreal, there are aerospace
and pharmaceutical clusters with a strong chemistry component. The same is true of the oil and gas sector in Alberta, which involves chemistry and chemical engineering to a large
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 19
degree. The oil sands are very important to our economic future as a nation, but there are still major challenges in the oil sands that need to be addressed by industry, academia and so on. One is the amount of water needed to produce a barrel of oil from the oil sands, another is the fact that there are many byproducts which we must convert to value-added or innocuous material. But the oil sands constitute a cluster and we need to use it to solve these problems. The idea of having a critical mass in a particular area addressing major challenges is highly worthy of support. We should nurture very potent clusters led by industry, in partnership with universities and government where appropriate. Clusters by definition do not involve 50 to 100 entities, rather we’re talking about five to 15. It is not a wholesale enterprise, but a selective number of clusters, dealing with issues that are key to economic advancement and enhancing quality of life. ACCN The Jenkins Report released last October
recommendedevolving the NRC institutes into clustersin this way. What do you think of this recommendation? HA It would certainly be a significant break with the past.
I really think NRC has been a gem from an historical perspective. I mentioned the aerospace lab but, for example, the Institute for Research in Construction is the role model globally in that sector. Then there’s the Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences that does the most basic research, some of which feeds the work within the other institutes. At this point, government is now considering the various recommendations, so we’ll have to wait and see.
development. It means areas that need accelerated advancement. Moreover, these change with time. One needs to reassess priorities every four to five years. In 2002, I served on a group advising former prime minister John Howard in setting national research priorities for Australia. That exercise transformed Australia, which at the time was far behind Canada in many areas. The government invested in basic research across the board, as well as in the priority areas and it was of great benefit to all sectors. So when one judiciously deploys resources to support the best, irrespective of area, and at the same time sets aside funding to accelerate advancement in certain areas of high priority to the country, one benefits enormously. ACCN What is the role of the Chemical Institute
of Canada(CIC) in these developments? HA The CIC is an excellent organization that has within
it members from industry, academia and government. It has a key role to play in educating and informing these sectors about where the opportunities lie, where the needs are and how we can do better. It also has a role to play in terms of linking to schools. Chemistry is something to nurture in the high school system and even earlier. One way to do this is through inquiry-based science education: learning concepts by doing experiments rather than just by memory. This is now practiced in a majority of countries in the world and is a highly successful pedagogical method to engage young people. Finally, it could benefit the chemical community by reaching out to other sectors where there is a desire for partnership, for example, the biological societies, physics and engineering.
ACCN The case is often made that using government to direct innovation is ineffective, because we can’t predict where the next big breakthrough will come. What’s your take on that?
ACCN Given our changing science and technology landscape, what advice do you have for students enteringthe workforce or academia?
HA What you need is a balance, such that the majority
HA I’ve had more than 200 co-workers in my laboratory
investment is for the best research ideas, irrespective of area. At the same time, you need to create support for areas that are of high priority and which build on the assets within the country. Usually, about two-thirds of the funding is awarded regardless of area. But even within the one-third dedicated to priority areas, it means a spectrum of research from basic to applied research. Priority does not necessarily mean only
over the past 30 years and I’ve always given them the same advice: choose the projects and research areas that are most appealing to you. Do the best you can do and if you succeed, you will end up somewhere satisfying. You may change jobs, but if you are satisfied in your career and always aim for the highest, you can achieve more than you ever dreamt you could do.
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Chemical Institute of Canada | Career Services
Admission $4.95
Chemical Institute of Canada
Recruitment Zone! Presented at the National Job Fair and Training Expo April 4-5, 2012 Metro Toronto Convention Centre www.thenationaljobfair.com
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 info@cheminst.ca
• Ontario's largest, most established and comprehensiverecruitment event • Résumé assessment • New Canadians employment consulting • Career presentations • Entrepreneurship seminars • Career services pavilion • Training and education pavilion • Employment pavilion
The Race for Rare
Rare earths are where you find them, and for Avalon Rare Metals that has turned out to be near Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. These cabins on the company’s developmentsite make for an iconic Canadian outpost. 22 L’Actualité chimique canadienne
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e
Business | this text changes each issue
earths By Tim Lougheed
Toronto’s Avalon Rare Metals has joined the global race to extractrare earth chemicals - key elements in many energy-generatinggreen technologies.
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 23
H
umanity’s longstanding love affair with gold may not have waned, but we are being wooed by some serious rivals in the periodic table. They are the rare earths, which are actually metals and not all that rare. These 17 elements are appearing in more and more of our high technology hardware, particularly the latest generation of green energy-generating technology. And with more than 95 per cent of the world’s rare earth production taking place within China, which has announced its intention to reserve that supply for its own growing use, the hunt is on to diversify the world market for these hot commodities. Such dramatic attention to rare earths is comparatively recent. They have often been regarded by prospectors as little more than a nuisance, comparatively useless materials that interfere with the refining of tantalum or niobium, the kinds of metals that really make money. In fact, until the 1980s the world’s largest source of rare earths was a mine in California’s Mojave Desert, which was shut down as demand tapered off. By 2010, however, Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman had introduced American legislation that would brand rare earths as economically strategic. “Our nation must act to protect our security interests with regard to rare earth elements,” Coffman said last year. “China is neither an ally of the United States nor is it a reliable trade partner when it comes to these strategic metals.” Dubbed RESTART, for Rare Earths Supply-Chain Technology and Resources Transformation Act, the proposal would promote the development of all relevant exploration, mining and processing capacity. The move parallels the revival of output from the Mojave Desert mine, which is expected to ramp up sharply in the next few years. Meanwhile, companies are scouring obscure corners of the globe elsewhere to investigate other sources of rare earths. One of the most promising of those sites is near Great Slave Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Known formally as the Nechalacho Rare Earth Elements Deposit, it is located at Thor Lake, about 200 kilometres east of Yellowknife. The site was initially surveyed in the 1930s, when all that was in evidence was a large body of granite and gabbro, a form of igneous rock comparable to basalt. By the 1970s, aerial surveys with a gamma ray spectrometer showed high radiometric values raised the possibility of uranium. The readings were
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actually caused by thorium, which turned out to be affiliated with a substantial collection of rare earths. That survey and the ensuing discovery was made by Highwood Resources, a predecessor to Vancouver-based Beta Minerals, which held the mining lease on the property. Over the next 30 years, it would invest some $12 million to assess the rare earths potential of Thor Lake, sinking some 200 test holes. Nevertheless, there was little incentive for more ambitious development while the price of most rare earths remained low and the logistics of extracting them from such an isolated location remained daunting. By 2005, representatives of Toronto-based Avalon Rare Metals were prepared to adopt a different perspective and the company acquired the title to Thor Lake from Beta. This move was spearheaded by Avalon CEO Don Bubar, who has subsequently been lauded for his prescience with regard to the demand for rare earths. Among those at the heart of this strategic acquisition is Bill Mercer, who has headed up the Thor Lake project for Avalon since 2007. He explains that in just a few years, the demand for rare earths has been nurtured by a new generation of consumer products that take advantage of these elements. A typical example is an innovative electric motor introduced by the U.K.-based firm Dyson, which has used it
Business | Rare earths
1
(1) Senior geologist and camp managerChris Pedersen considers some of Avalon Rare Metals’ collection of earth samples with project geologistMartin Heiligmann. (2) An Avalon geologistlogs information collectedfrom drill cores. 2
to transform such mundane products as vacuum cleaners and table fans. The motor boasts remarkable speed and efficiency because its electrical contacts are suspended by powerful magnets, made from the rare earth neodymium. The ionic properties of that element, as well as samarium, praseodymium and dysprosium, make for some of the strongest known magnets, including some that function at temperatures high enough to remain viable in harsher settings like automobile engines. Such properties also make it possible for at least 11 rare earths to enhance the optical amplification by materials that generate laser beams. This technology, which a few decades ago would have been a rarity outside of a formal research setting, now crops up in all manner of electronic appliances, from children’s video games to office projector displays.
These new applications have expanded the market for rare earths, although Mercer points out that it remains much smaller than more primary metals such as copper. The latter might see annual global production of 15 million tonnes of production, while rare earths would be about one per cent of that volume. However, these elements could fetch a price that is 10 times higher, which is one of the key factors behind Avalon’s push in Thor Lake. Even so, Bubar suggests that the site may not be delivering any product until 2016, although he noted that the company would like to accelerate that timeline if possible. The wait reflects the challenges posed by rare earths, which cannot only be difficult to find, but even more difficult to extract in a usable form. “These elements tend to be stored in very refractory minerals,” says Jim Franklin, an exploration
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 25
Energy production
Energy reduction
Energy efficiency
lifestyle
Petroleum Refining
UV Filters in Glass
Generation Vehicles
Colous Screen LCDs/PDPs
La
Ce
Nd Sm
High-Powered Electric Motors
Reducing Fuel Consumption
Rechargeable Batteries
Components to Hardware
Nd
La
Nd
New Generation Vehicles
Lighter Vehicles Improved performance
Energy-Efficient Lighting
Medical Services
La
Dy
Dy
Nd
Tb
Pr
Eu
Eu Tb
Y
Rare earth elements are especially useful in a new generation of consumerproducts to boost speed and efficiencyas well as improve product efficacy.
Nd Gd Medical Services
La (Lanthanum) Nd (Neodymium) Dy (Dysprosium) Tb (Terbium) Ce (Cerium) Sm (Samarium) Pr (Praseodymium) Eu (Europium) Y (Yttrium) Gd (Gadolium)
Rare idiosyncrasies
Most of the rare earths consist of the elements between the lanthanum (atomic number 57) and lutetium (atomic number 71), with two outliers: scandium (atomic number 21) and yttrium (atomic number 39). In spite of their collective name, most of them are as plentiful in the earth’s crust as copper. However, they are much more widely dispersed, seldom occurring in concentrations that would allow for easy detection or high-volume extraction. Such dispersal is related to the accepted account of their origins, which begin hundreds of kilometres deep in the earth’s mantle, from which they are thrust up at high velocity. This rapid flow spreads them thinly near the surface, where they can occupy mineral bodies that are a kilometre or more across. In addition, many of those minerals are refractory, a quality that determines how readily they break down under chemical or physical action. A typical example is zircon, which resists erosion so well that it is often used to calibrate measurements of 'deep time,' which determine the age of geological features. Rare earths accommodate such minerals because of their signal feature, an unexpected decrease in the radii of the ionic forms of these atoms. This results in those rare earths with lower atomic numbers and atomic weights actually having larger atoms than elements that are higher in the periodic table. Consequently, the heavier a rare earth, the more tightly it will bind to other atoms and the more difficult it will be to separate them.
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Ce
geologist who spent much of his career with the Geological Survey of Canada. “They just don’t dissolve very easily. As a result, a standard analysis that involves an acidic dissolution of the rock doesn’t necessarily break them down.” According to Franklin, commercially viable techniques for analyzing these minerals did not appear until the 1990s, with the advent of induction coupled plasma emission spectroscopy. This approach is now regularly used to identify the presence of rare earths at levels as low as parts per trillion, at a cost of less than $100 per sample. Even so, Mercer adds that life remains complicated when it comes to extracting and refining individual rare earths. Avalon expects the Thor Lake development to include froth floatation, a process for separating these metals from the surrounding material based on its tolerance for the presence of water. It can be a messy business, one that has been met with new environmental regulations in the United States. However, he and Franklin remain confident that a steady market pull will ensure that these restrictions do not restrain the company’s efforts; the find is simply too rich to ignore. “It has all the rare earths, but it also has what geologists call high field strength elements, which are zirconium, niobium, hafnium, and tantalum,” says Mercer. “Gallium also tends to be enriched in it.” Moreover, the concentration of rare earths at this site is as much as three orders of magnitude greater than those found in the Chinese deposits. That bodes well for responding to observers who fear that there simply will not be enough rare earths around to go into the growing assortment of devices that rely on these elements. And Franklin insists that neither these devices nor the metals will ultimately become priced out of reach, now that the rush for rare earths is on. “For varying reasons, commodities have this cyclical approach,” he says. “Uranium goes through cycles; gold is clearly well up in one right now. It’s a supply and demand thing. Right now people are worried about the supply. We will find lots of rare earths,” he says.
Society news recogNition
Driving science policy On Nov. 18, 2011 at the 3rd Annual Canadian Science Policy Conference, the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) hosted a plenary panel discussion titled, “Drivers of Innovation in the Chemical-Related Industry Sector.” Panelists from various trade associations discussed the strengths and weaknesses of policies and regulations reflected in industrial-based innovation. Former CIC chair and moderator Bernard West, MCIC, began the session with a special presentation on the accomplishments of the International Year of Chemistry. This was followed by discussion among panelists including Avrim Lazar of the Forests Products Association of Canada, Craig Crawford with the Ontario BioAuto Council, David Yake of DuPont Canada and Dave Collyer, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Membership
CSCT membership has its benefits The Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT) recently renewed several memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with other society to provide additional benefits to its members. The first, with the Canadian Technology Accreditation Board (CTAB), describes the CSCT’s participation in accreditation of chemical technology programs across Canada. An agreement with the New Brunswick Society for Certified Engineering Technologists and Technicians (NBSCETT) extends benefits between the CSCT and this provincial society. The CSCT is working to renew a similar agreement with the Ontario Association of Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT) and with other provincial societies. These MOUs will improve mobility of chemical technologists between provinces. INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF CHEMISTRY
High school students compete Last November, in celebration of the International Year of Chemistry, the Erindale Chemical and Physical Sciences Society (ECPS) at the University of Toronto Mississauga launched the two-part High School Science Competition 2011 to raise public awareness of the importance of chemistry. The first event, Science Showcase, took place Nov. 4 at the Mississauga Valley Community Centre, drawing Grade 11 and 12 students from across Mississauga. The students set up science booths and gave presentations. Topics included the effect of temperature on the pH of fruit juices, how yeast leavens bread and the prevalence and health hazards of bisphenol A. The public voted on the top presentations. The second event, Science Appreciation, was held at the University of Toronto Mississauga on Nov. 10. The high school students gave presentations about their topic to a panel of judges. The judges’ marks were combined with the public’s votes from the first round and the winners announced. Prizes included gift certificates. Milestones
100 years young Canada’s first female chemical engineering graduate, Laura Melba Greer, has turned 100. Greer, who was born Nov. 22, 1911, graduated from U of T in 1934, despite difficulties from professors who felt that she did not belong, reports The Voice, the publication of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. Upon graduation, Greer joined Canadian Aircraft Instruments and Accessories as its chief inspector, later becoming the control chemist at the Toronto Filtration Plant. She went on to develop recipes as an analytical chemist at Weston’s Biscuits.
upcoming events
March 24, 2012
Southern Ontario Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (SOUSCC} University of Guelph Contact: gpenner@uoguelph.ca
March 29, 2012
SCI/CIC Seminar and Awards Dinner Toronto, Ont. www.cheminst.ca/sci-awards
April 29‒May 2, 2012
World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing Orlando, Florida www.bio.org
May 26‒30, 2012
95th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition Calgary, Alta. www.csc2012.ca
October 14‒17, 2012 62nd Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference Vancouver, B.C. www.csch2012.ca
August 18‒23, 2013
9th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (WCCE9) Seoul, South Korea www.wcce9.org IN MEMORIAM
Peter Korol, MCIC and a 50-year member of the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), died Dec. 1, 2011 in Victoria. Donald R. Muir, FCIC, age 82, died Oct. 19, 2011 in Calgary. Les Shemilt, HFCIC, former editor of the Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, professor and dean emeritus of the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University, died age 91 on Dec. 20, 2011 in Hamilton, Ont. Derwyn Smith, MCIC and a 50-year member of CSC, died Dec. 2, 2011 in Welland, Ont. Ian C. Twilley, FCIC and a 50-year member of CSC, died Aug. 4, 2011 in Chesterfield, VA. Full obituaries received by ACCN can be seen at www.accn.ca/inmemoriam.
february 2012 CAnadian Chemical News 29
Chemfusion
Plastics are a girl’s best friend
I
f you were a fashionable lady in the 1950s, you sported shoes with heels made of acrylic or, to be more specific, polymethyl methacrylate. The common name for this plastic, depending on the company that manufactured it, was Lucite, Perspex or Plexiglas. Acrylic is clear and resembles glass, so shoes that featured a see-through heel looked unusual and appealing. In a classic scene from the movie How to Marry a Millionaire, Marilyn Monroe shows off her shapely legs as she sun bathes wearing Lucite shoes. Don’t get the wrong mental image, though. Monroe is also wearing a bathing suit. As early as 1877, German chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig helped polymerize methyl methacrylate, a colourless liquid, into polymethyl methacrylate, a solid. But it wasn’t until 1936 that commercial production began under the name Plexiglas, with both the process and name patented by the German chemist Otto Rohm. During the Second World War this novel plastic, being clear and stronger than glass, found all sorts of applications ranging from submarine periscopes to fighter plane canopies and gun turret enclosures on bombers. And that had an interesting spin-off. Airmen who got shards of Plexiglas in their eye from shattered airplane canopies fared better than those who were injured by glass splinters. Acrylics turned out to be more compatible with human tissue than glass and did not cause as much inflammation. This observation led to the use of acrylics in the first hard contact lenses.
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Acrylics also turned out to be ideal for dentures and found a use in composite dental fillings. Hockey was also a beneficiary; the protective Plexiglas around the rink was far better than netting. But because the plastic doesn’t have much give, it has mostly been replaced by tempered glass. Acrylic paints also appeared, consisting of pigments and polymethyl methacrylate suspended in water, so there was no worry about solvent vapours. And then along came acrylic fingernails. There are two types. One is made of polymethyl methacrylate and is glued on to the fingernail with cyanoacrylate, another type of acrylic polymer. The gel type is painted on the fingernail and hardened by exposure to ultraviolet light. That involves some interesting chemistry with the polymerization actually taking place on the finger. This kind of a reaction is initiated by the formation of free radicals. Once formed, a free radical adds to a molecule of methyl methacrylate, which then becomes very reactive and adds to another molecule to form a dimer that then latches on to another monomer. Soon the original monomers are zipped into a long chain. You now have a hardened acrylic nail. The whole process begins with the acrylic-covered nail being exposed to an ultraviolet lamp. Ultraviolet light is energetic enough to break chemical bonds, which is exactly what it does to a photoinitiator that is incorporated into the mix. Under the effect of UV it breaks apart into free radicals. These then start
février 2012
By Joe Schwarcz
the cascade of reactions resulting in a polymer. Of course ultraviolet light is energetic enough to break other chemical bonds as well, including those in DNA. That’s why excessive exposure to the sun causes skin cancer. And that brings up an interesting question. Is there a risk of cancer by exposing the skin on the hands to ultraviolet light while waiting for the acrylic gel to harden? The risk, statistically, is very low. Ultraviolet light-cured acrylic nails have been popular for some 20 years with millions of women using them. Any significant risk of skin cancer on the hands would have already been noted epidemiologically. Calculations show that exposure from a nail lamp is equivalent to spending an extra 1.5 to three minutes a day in sunlight between salon visits, the time depending on whether the lamp has one or two bulbs. The time spent under the lamps just isn’t long enough to present a significant risk. So there’s no need to fret about acrylic fingernails, at least not because of UV exposure. However, in addition to the acrylic monomers and photoinitiators, there are cross-linking agents, reaction accelerators, plasticizers and pigments. So irritation and allergic reactions are always a possibility. Of course Lucite heels can be worn safely. And they’re still kicking around, in more shapes and styles than ever. Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. Read his blog at chemicallyspeaking.com.
Chemical Institute of Canada
Nominate Your Faculty Advisor Has your faculty advisor taken an active role in working with your Student Chapter throughout the year? Why not recognize him or her with one of the Faculty Advisor Awards? Three awards are given annually, one per Society.
Nominations due: March 30, 2012 Terms of Reference are available at:
www.cheminst.ca/faculty_advisor
Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering
2012 CSChE Chemical Engineering Local Section Scholarships The Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering offers two CSChE Chemical Engineering Local Section Scholarshipsannually to undergraduate students in chemical engineering at a Canadian university. Sponsoredby the Edmonton CSChE, Sarnia CIC, and London CIC Local Sections.
Deadline: April 30, 2012 For details visit:
www.chemeng.ca/ls_scholarships