- Email: [email protected]
Paul Hugh Emmett
208 Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Studies
&AAS Report on R. and D. in the U.S.A.
An item in Chem. Eng. News (63 (1985) No.7, p.27) describes a research effort to be undertaken by ii industrial and university laboratories (12 projects) under the sponsorship of the Department of Energy's Pittsburgh Energy Technology Centre. The aim is to find new ways of converting coal to highquality transportation fuels, the emphasis being on indirect liquefaction, the coal being converted first to synthesis gas. Four of the projects will be carried out by industries (Signal UOP, American Cyanamid, Air Products and Chemicals, and Union Carbide) and will explore new catalysts and process options. The total contribution from the department will be $6.65 million and some of the costs will also be paid by the laboratories.
The Intersociety Working Group of the {merican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recently published a report on the planned federal reseach and development funding in the U.S. for the fiscal year 1986. In a chapter dealing with Materials Science and Engineering, it is estimated that funding for this area will be down approximately 5.5% compared to ]985. This is due largely to cuts in the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Mines and NASA; in the latter, materials programmes are cut by 13%. Healthy increases are planned in the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and the National Bureau of Standards. The total expenditure planned is estimated as approximately one billion dollars. Catalysis is mentioned implicitly in two sub-programmes of the Department of Energy: Energy Conservation and Industrial Process Efficiency. In a chapter dealing with the chemistry budget, increases in funding are reported for all agencies, the largest, 39.6% over 1985, being reported for National Bureau of Standards programmes which traditionally support chemistry. The outlook for basic research in chemistry, particularly that conducted at academic institutions, is reported as being favourable "considering current budget pressures". There is to be a 10.3 % increase for programmes in solidstate chemistry funded by the National Science Foundation while the main science programme of the same agency is to be increased by 7%. Catalysis again features implicitly in the Department of Energy programmes, there being continued emphasis on (but a similar level of funding for) subjects such as coal chemistry and catalysis. An increase of 61% in the budget of the Environmental Protection agency for acid-rain research is noted, the aim here being "to provide a better understanding of man-made emissions, atmospheric processes, terrestrial and aquatic effects and to establish a monitoring network for dry deposition".
Paul Hugh Emmett As readers will now be aware, Professor P.H. Emmett died on April 22 at the age of 84. An appreciation of his achievements appeared in the last issue of Applied Catalysis. However, at the time of publication, no photograph of Professor Emmett was to hand. This can now be rectified with the accompanying portrait, kindly supplied by Professor B u r t r o n H. D a v i s .
Hydrodeoxygenation We have all heard of and probably even worked on the topics of HDS and HDN but HDO (hydrodeoxygenation) is a relatively recent addition to the stable of reactions studied academically. The HDO
W
~
--Volume 18, No. 1 -September 1985
&AAS Report on R. and D. in the U.S.A.
An item in Chem. Eng. News (63 (1985) No.7, p.27) describes a research effort to be undertaken by ii industrial and university laboratories (12 projects) under the sponsorship of the Department of Energy's Pittsburgh Energy Technology Centre. The aim is to find new ways of converting coal to highquality transportation fuels, the emphasis being on indirect liquefaction, the coal being converted first to synthesis gas. Four of the projects will be carried out by industries (Signal UOP, American Cyanamid, Air Products and Chemicals, and Union Carbide) and will explore new catalysts and process options. The total contribution from the department will be $6.65 million and some of the costs will also be paid by the laboratories.
The Intersociety Working Group of the {merican Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recently published a report on the planned federal reseach and development funding in the U.S. for the fiscal year 1986. In a chapter dealing with Materials Science and Engineering, it is estimated that funding for this area will be down approximately 5.5% compared to ]985. This is due largely to cuts in the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Mines and NASA; in the latter, materials programmes are cut by 13%. Healthy increases are planned in the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and the National Bureau of Standards. The total expenditure planned is estimated as approximately one billion dollars. Catalysis is mentioned implicitly in two sub-programmes of the Department of Energy: Energy Conservation and Industrial Process Efficiency. In a chapter dealing with the chemistry budget, increases in funding are reported for all agencies, the largest, 39.6% over 1985, being reported for National Bureau of Standards programmes which traditionally support chemistry. The outlook for basic research in chemistry, particularly that conducted at academic institutions, is reported as being favourable "considering current budget pressures". There is to be a 10.3 % increase for programmes in solidstate chemistry funded by the National Science Foundation while the main science programme of the same agency is to be increased by 7%. Catalysis again features implicitly in the Department of Energy programmes, there being continued emphasis on (but a similar level of funding for) subjects such as coal chemistry and catalysis. An increase of 61% in the budget of the Environmental Protection agency for acid-rain research is noted, the aim here being "to provide a better understanding of man-made emissions, atmospheric processes, terrestrial and aquatic effects and to establish a monitoring network for dry deposition".
Paul Hugh Emmett As readers will now be aware, Professor P.H. Emmett died on April 22 at the age of 84. An appreciation of his achievements appeared in the last issue of Applied Catalysis. However, at the time of publication, no photograph of Professor Emmett was to hand. This can now be rectified with the accompanying portrait, kindly supplied by Professor B u r t r o n H. D a v i s .
Hydrodeoxygenation We have all heard of and probably even worked on the topics of HDS and HDN but HDO (hydrodeoxygenation) is a relatively recent addition to the stable of reactions studied academically. The HDO
W
~
--Volume 18, No. 1 -September 1985