David Howe writes:
Bruce, Remy, etc.,
Bruce wrote below:

   "Naturally you cannot get more energy out that is put in unless you
    create a type of vacuum that draws energy out to the ground like
    Tesla did"

This type of stuff is written by free energy people who are just smart
enough to understand that claiming a direct violation of the First Law
of Thermodynamics (conservation of energy) destroys one's credibility
before he's even finished uttering the statement.  "Nope, we're not
creating energy.  We're tapping into a huge unknown reservoir that we've
discovered."

[ Ok, what do you know about bioelectromagnetism. Have you read all the
studies about the transmutation of elements in the human body? These are
real medical studies, done by major Universities. They acknowledge the fact
that there are energy anomalies in living systems. If indeed we were smart
enough to understand them, it wouldn't be such a mysterious subject clouded
by "believers" and "non-believers". Your argument is an old argument. It's
stereo-typical of the debunking crowd. I personally don't have time for this
sort of thing. Take it to Infinite Energy magazine or New Energy News. There
is such a thing as the zero-point in physics. There is such a thing as the
Casimir effect. There are "anomalies" and things we don't understand. If
your stance is that all this research is futile, then why bother us? ]

In my tiny "linear" way of thinking, claiming to tap a heretofore
unknown reservoir of energy, such as ZPE or your "vacuum that draws
energy out of the ground", is just as good as claiming to produce energy
out of nothingness.

[ Your nothingness is an another man's void, is another man's aether. These
again are old arguments. Read some Eastern texts. For your information
physicists trained in India for example have a lot less resistance to
"comprehending" the Tao of physics "thing". We're not limited to four
dimensions you know. ]

Either way, I suspect that claim would satisfy the
requirements of any number of skeptical "free energy challenge" prizes.
And tiny infinitesimal forces such as the Casimir experiment don't
count.

[ And why not? First a trickle, then a torrent. Things have to start
somewhere. Casimir is a window. Don't just look in, step inside! ]

We need proof of something on the order of magnitude required to
make the claims work (e.g. hundreds or thousands of Watts).

Bruce also wrote:

    "Inventors have disappeared who have tried to market high milage
     carbs like Art Fisher."

This is another excuse

[ It's not an excuse. There are many cases of inventors getting in trouble
with the law for one thing or another. A good example of this is Wilhelm
Reich. Madness & Genius come with the territory. It's a very fine line. One
that needs to be nurtured to foster the mother of invention. ]

offered up by virtually all supporters of free
energy claims to explain why there is no evidence of these claims.  It
only goes to further damage your credibility.

[ ET doesn't need credibility with the scientific community. It needs
credibility with its readers for following through on all potential leads
for answers and solutions to the transportation crisis. We NEVER had
credibility with the automobile industry to begin with for creating a
magazine solely dedicated to EVs. Now the automobile industry comes to us
for marketing strategy! How times have changed. I came on board with ET and
Bruce because I saw in ET an opportunity to finally create a magazine
dedicated to EVs which will rank along with Car & Driver or Motor Trend. We
have a long way to go, but we're way ahead of anybody else out there. ]

Initially, I thought Electrifying Times was a reputable magazine for
the electric vehicle industry.

[ It still is. Are you going to tell me Popular Mechanics is no longer
popular with mechanics because it's written about UFOs at AREA 51? ]

But my opinion changed when I saw the
article at http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/australianinventors.html
This article ends with "Subscribe to Electrifying Times to learn all
the details of this earthshaking discovery!"

[ Bruce has been doing stuff like this for years. I hate it myself. It's an
overstated sales pitch. It's kinda crass. It's like selling Ginsu knives or
thigh masters. But hey, so what? It works. People click and buy
subcriptions, which keeps the magazine going. I just wish Bruce and the ET
staff would get a little bit more sophisticated. The New York Times does the
same thing, it's just a lot more insidious. Read AdBusters and Vance Packard
books if you have a problem with marketing tactics and how publicity warps
public will. ]

Perhaps you should also include a link to:
http://www.skeptics.com.au/features/spoon/bs-lutec.htm
to show that this device *was* investigated and found to perform a
little differently than Britts and Christie claimed.

[ ALL the folks at those skeptical societies remind me of Asimov, who jobbed
his books out to a staff of dozens of unpaid interns and never gave them any
credit for their labor! Their arguments, like yours, lack nuance, and
distort the issues as much as the Gong Ho FE new age gullibles. The truth
lies somewhere in between. ]

You do your
readers a great disservice to only publish the fantasy hype, and leave
out the scientific investigation.

[ Then write a proper letter to the editor, and it will be included in the
next print issue. ]

But I guess you're looking to sell
subscriptions.

[ If selling subcriptions was our only motive, we'd be selling SUVs. Give us
at least more credit than that. ET's purpose is to find alternatives to the
internal combustion engine, or at least to dirty carbon based fuels. Don't
be an arm-chair critic. Contribute research and let the market do its thing.
Someone comes to us with something, we give them a forum. If the thing
doesn't work, it doesn't work. On to the next thing. But let the readers
decide, not some panel of stuffy shirts bummed out by time or stigmatized by
convention. We won't know until we try. You just assume from the start that
things won't work. With that kind of attitude, EV drag racing would still be
a fantasy as well. Remy C. ]

Sorry about that.  I wasn't watching the headers.

In your next issue can we expect a Britts/Christie follow-up article
that references the Australian Skeptics investigation at
http://www.skeptics.com.au/features/spoon/bs-lutec.htm and
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/orthogonal/skep/lutec1.pdf?
The "LUTEC Inventors' Response" at the end of that .pdf article is
hilarious.  Including such a followup would go a long way toward
demonstrating that the editorial board at Electrifying Times is
interested in providing factual information.

Please.  Electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, hybrid gasoline/electric
vehicles, etc., are the way of the future.  Don't taint them by
including transparent scams like LUTEC in your publication.  You only
do yourselves, and your readers, a major disservice.



>From: "Remy C." <remyc@...>
>Reply-To: "Remy C." <remyc@...>
>To: "David Howe" <dhowe17@...>, <etimes@...>,
><ETList@yahoogroups.com>, <free_energy@yahoogroups.com>
>CC: <JCarey9622@...>, <jbryan4@...>
>Subject: Re: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator
>Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 10:22:00 -0500
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Received: from [207.115.63.101] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id
>MHotMailBDC90614006A400431E3CF733F65E1C80; Sat, 24 Nov 2001 07:21:57 -0800
>Received: from remy (A010-0537.SMFR.splitrock.net [209.254.138.29])by
>pimout2-int.prodigy.net (8.11.0/8.11.0) with SMTP id fAOFLrM349878;Sat, 24
>Nov 2001 10:21:53 -0500
>From remyc@... Sat, 24 Nov 2001 07:22:12 -0800
>Message-ID: <004701c174fb$c49fb9e0$1d8afed1@remy>
>References: <F243Ae3NCnvgZlEdOcW0000f241@...>
>X-Priority: 3
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
>X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
>
>David,
>No need to double cc your replies to me and Bruce if you send to the ET
>list.
>That's what the list is for.
>Thanks.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "David Howe" <dhowe17@...>
>To: <etimes@...>; <ETList@yahoogroups.com>;
><free_energy@yahoogroups.com>
>Cc: <remyc@...>; <JCarey9622@...>; <jbryan4@...>
>Sent: Friday, November 23, 2001 2:33 PM
>Subject: Re: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator
>
>
>Bruce, Remy, etc.,
>
>Bruce wrote below:
>
>   "Naturally you cannot get more energy out that is put in unless you
>    create a type of vacuum that draws energy out to the ground like
>    Tesla did"
>
>This type of stuff is written by free energy people who are just smart
>enough to understand that claiming a direct violation of the First Law
>of Thermodynamics (conservation of energy) destroys one's credibility
>before he's even finished uttering the statement.  "Nope, we're not
>creating energy.  We're tapping into a huge unknown reservoir that we've
>discovered."
>
>In my tiny "linear" way of thinking, claiming to tap a heretofore
>unknown reservoir of energy, such as ZPE or your "vacuum that draws
>energy out of the ground", is just as good as claiming to produce energy
>out of nothingness.  Either way, I suspect that claim would satisfy the
>requirements of any number of skeptical "free energy challenge" prizes.
>And tiny infinitesimal forces such as the Casimir experiment don't
>count.  We need proof of something on the order of magnitude required to
>make the claims work (e.g. hundreds or thousands of Watts).
>
>Bruce also wrote:
>
>    "Inventors have disappeared who have tried to market high milage
>     carbs like Art Fisher."
>
>This is another excuse offered up by virtually all supporters of free
>energy claims to explain why there is no evidence of these claims.  It
>only goes to further damage your credibility.
>
>Initially, I thought Electrifying Times was a reputable magazine for
>the electric vehicle industry.  But my opinion changed when I saw the
>article at http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/australianinventors.html
>This article ends with "Subscribe to Electrifying Times to learn all
>the details of this earthshaking discovery!"
>
>Perhaps you should also include a link to:
>http://www.skeptics.com.au/features/spoon/bs-lutec.htm
>to show that this device *was* investigated and found to perform a
>little differently than Britts and Christie claimed.  You do your
>readers a great disservice to only publish the fantasy hype, and leave
>out the scientific investigation.  But I guess you're looking to sell
>subscriptions.
>
>
>
>
> >From: "bruce meland" <etimes@...>
> >To: <ETList@yahoogroups.com>, <dhowe17@...>
> >CC: "Remy C." <remyc@...>, <JCarey9622@...>, "John Bryan"
> ><jbryan4@...>
> >Subject: Re: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator
> >Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 10:20:25 -0800
> >MIME-Version: 1.0
> >Received: from [207.69.200.148] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id
> >MHotMailBDC7DDFC008640043155CF45C89421A90; Fri, 23 Nov 2001 10:18:36
>-0800
> >Received: from 1cust176.tnt1.bend.or.da.uu.net ([63.44.155.176]
> >helo=oemcomputer)by granger.mail.mindspring.net with smtp (Exim 3.33
>#1)id
> >167KuH-0005c9-00; Fri, 23 Nov 2001 13:18:34 -0500
> >From etimes@... Fri, 23 Nov 2001 10:20:38 -0800
> >Message-ID: <00a501c1744b$877efc20$b09b2c3f@oemcomputer>
> >References: <9tj1c0+66h8@eGroups.com>
> >X-Priority: 3
> >X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
> >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211
> >X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211
> >
> >D Howe;You are completely out of the loop in this new technology.
>Naturally
> >you cannot get more energy out that is put in unless you create a type of
> >vacuum that draws energy out to the ground like Tesla did in case of
> >electric motors  or from rods sucking in  small electromagnetic particles
> >in
> >space like neutrinos . There are patents on this high resonance ZPE
>space
> >vacuum technology by high up Edwards AFB PHD's  Please get caught up with
> >whats really going on in these fields. Inventors have disappeared who
>have
> >tried to market high milage carbs like Art Fisher. we are investigating
> >Allans patents and drawings before we decide to promote  the technology
> >farther. thanks for your comments Bruce Meland editor Electrifying Times
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: <dhowe17@...>
> >To: <ETList@yahoogroups.com>
> >Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 6:16 AM
> >Subject: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator
> >
> >
> >From:  "Remy C." <electrifyingtimes@h...>
> >Date:  Wed Nov 21, 2001  8:10 pm
> >Subject:  Allen Caggiano's Carburator
> >
> > >Posted by Bruce Meland:
> > >The Preview 2002 edition of Electrifying Times published a feature
> > >article on high mileage carburetors and their suppression by the oil
> > >and auto companies.
> >
> ><snip>
> >
> >I would strongly recommend that Electrifying Times distance themselves
> >from nutcase science like Britts' and Christie's magic motor (Lutec),
> >or "suppressed high mileage carburetors".  It hurts ET's credibility.
> >
> >Electric vehicles, hybrid gasoline/electric, fuel cells, etc., are
> >the way of the future.  They are legitimate science and will
> >eventually displace conventional IC engine vehicles.
> >
> >But magic motors that supposedly produce more power than they consume,
> >high mileage carburetors suppressed by sinister forces from the auto
> >and oil industries, water powered cars ala Stanley Meyer, free
> >electricity from Dennis Lee, and other scams are the stuff of science
> >fiction.  They have been debunked time and time again, and all their
> >supporters can do is cry conspiracy.  If any of them really worked,
> >they'd already have the Nobel Prize.  The Romans couldn't suppress
> >Jesus Christ.  There's no way anybody could suppress a simple answer
> >to the world's energy problems.
> >
> >Please, don't let Electrifying Times get tainted by the bizarre
> >fantasies of diseased minds.  Stick to real science like PEM and
> >solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen storage via metal hydrides and
> >carbon nanotubes, and near-room-temperature superconducting materials
> >in electric motors for ultra-high efficiency.
> >
> >There's a lot of real science to be done.  Don't waste your time
> >with the nutcase pseudoscience.  If you need help distinguishing the
> >two, there are a lot of real scientists willing to help.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >To view messages online only go to:
> >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETList/members
> >and set to "no email"
> >
> >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> >ETList-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
>
>


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

ETIC to Include Extensive "Ride 'n Drive" Event

The Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas (EVAA) recently announced
that the "Ride 'n Drive" event during its upcoming Electric Transportation
Industry Conference (ETIC) will feature approximately 40 hybrid electric and
battery-powered vehicles, as well as a large number of fuel cell vehicles.
The conference, titled "Electric Transportation Industry Conference:
Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Technologies," will be held December 11
through 14 in Sacramento, CA.

EVAA said the ETIC's "Ride 'n Drive" event will be held on December 14
between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the California Fuel Cell Partnership
facility in west Sacramento.

"With the rapidly expanding availability of battery and hybrid electric
drive options to the commercial marketplace, and the incredible progress
being made to bring forward viable fuel cell vehicles, a conference with
only the 'talking head' makes no sense," said EVAA executive director Kateri
Callahan. "Conference delegates need to be able to 'kick the tires' and get
behind the wheels of these emerging technologies."

Fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) that will be featured at the ride and drive
include a Hyundai Santa Fe FCV, a Toyota Highlander-based FCHV-4, a
DaimlerChrysler NECAR 4/5 FCV, the Honda FCX, Ford's P2000, and a Ford Focus
FCV. Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) offerings at the event will include a
Honda Civic HEV, the Toyota Prius, the Honda Insight and a Volkswagen Jetta
HEV.

Battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) to be featured at the event will
include a Toyota RAV-4 EV, a Ford Th!nk City EV, a DaimlerChrysler GEM, a
Volkswagen Beetle EV, a Ford Ranger EV, a Ford Th!nk Neighbor EV, a Ford
U.S. Postal Service EV, and a Volkswagen Golf EV.

EVAA noted that the ETIC vehicle demonstration is only open to registered
conference delegates.

Contact: Rhondalee Dean-Royce, EVAA, phone 202-508-5076, website
http://www.evaa.org.

Bruce, Remy, etc.,

Bruce wrote below:

   "Naturally you cannot get more energy out that is put in unless you
    create a type of vacuum that draws energy out to the ground like
    Tesla did"

This type of stuff is written by free energy people who are just smart
enough to understand that claiming a direct violation of the First Law
of Thermodynamics (conservation of energy) destroys one's credibility
before he's even finished uttering the statement.  "Nope, we're not
creating energy.  We're tapping into a huge unknown reservoir that we've
discovered."

In my tiny "linear" way of thinking, claiming to tap a heretofore
unknown reservoir of energy, such as ZPE or your "vacuum that draws
energy out of the ground", is just as good as claiming to produce energy
out of nothingness.  Either way, I suspect that claim would satisfy the
requirements of any number of skeptical "free energy challenge" prizes.
And tiny infinitesimal forces such as the Casimir experiment don't
count.  We need proof of something on the order of magnitude required to
make the claims work (e.g. hundreds or thousands of Watts).

Bruce also wrote:

    "Inventors have disappeared who have tried to market high milage
     carbs like Art Fisher."

This is another excuse offered up by virtually all supporters of free
energy claims to explain why there is no evidence of these claims.  It
only goes to further damage your credibility.

Initially, I thought Electrifying Times was a reputable magazine for
the electric vehicle industry.  But my opinion changed when I saw the
article at http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/australianinventors.html
This article ends with "Subscribe to Electrifying Times to learn all
the details of this earthshaking discovery!"

Perhaps you should also include a link to:
http://www.skeptics.com.au/features/spoon/bs-lutec.htm
to show that this device *was* investigated and found to perform a
little differently than Britts and Christie claimed.  You do your
readers a great disservice to only publish the fantasy hype, and leave
out the scientific investigation.  But I guess you're looking to sell
subscriptions.




>From: "bruce meland" <etimes@...>
>To: <ETList@yahoogroups.com>, <dhowe17@...>
>CC: "Remy C." <remyc@...>, <JCarey9622@...>, "John Bryan"
><jbryan4@...>
>Subject: Re: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator
>Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 10:20:25 -0800
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Received: from [207.69.200.148] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id
>MHotMailBDC7DDFC008640043155CF45C89421A90; Fri, 23 Nov 2001 10:18:36 -0800
>Received: from 1cust176.tnt1.bend.or.da.uu.net ([63.44.155.176]
>helo=oemcomputer)by granger.mail.mindspring.net with smtp (Exim 3.33 #1)id
>167KuH-0005c9-00; Fri, 23 Nov 2001 13:18:34 -0500
>From etimes@... Fri, 23 Nov 2001 10:20:38 -0800
>Message-ID: <00a501c1744b$877efc20$b09b2c3f@oemcomputer>
>References: <9tj1c0+66h8@eGroups.com>
>X-Priority: 3
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211
>X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211
>
>D Howe;You are completely out of the loop in this new technology. Naturally
>you cannot get more energy out that is put in unless you create a type of
>vacuum that draws energy out to the ground like Tesla did in case of
>electric motors  or from rods sucking in  small electromagnetic particles
>in
>space like neutrinos . There are patents on this high resonance ZPE  space
>vacuum technology by high up Edwards AFB PHD's  Please get caught up with
>whats really going on in these fields. Inventors have disappeared who have
>tried to market high milage carbs like Art Fisher. we are investigating
>Allans patents and drawings before we decide to promote  the technology
>farther. thanks for your comments Bruce Meland editor Electrifying Times
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <dhowe17@...>
>To: <ETList@yahoogroups.com>
>Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 6:16 AM
>Subject: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator
>
>
>From:  "Remy C." <electrifyingtimes@h...>
>Date:  Wed Nov 21, 2001  8:10 pm
>Subject:  Allen Caggiano's Carburator
>
> >Posted by Bruce Meland:
> >The Preview 2002 edition of Electrifying Times published a feature
> >article on high mileage carburetors and their suppression by the oil
> >and auto companies.
>
><snip>
>
>I would strongly recommend that Electrifying Times distance themselves
>from nutcase science like Britts' and Christie's magic motor (Lutec),
>or "suppressed high mileage carburetors".  It hurts ET's credibility.
>
>Electric vehicles, hybrid gasoline/electric, fuel cells, etc., are
>the way of the future.  They are legitimate science and will
>eventually displace conventional IC engine vehicles.
>
>But magic motors that supposedly produce more power than they consume,
>high mileage carburetors suppressed by sinister forces from the auto
>and oil industries, water powered cars ala Stanley Meyer, free
>electricity from Dennis Lee, and other scams are the stuff of science
>fiction.  They have been debunked time and time again, and all their
>supporters can do is cry conspiracy.  If any of them really worked,
>they'd already have the Nobel Prize.  The Romans couldn't suppress
>Jesus Christ.  There's no way anybody could suppress a simple answer
>to the world's energy problems.
>
>Please, don't let Electrifying Times get tainted by the bizarre
>fantasies of diseased minds.  Stick to real science like PEM and
>solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen storage via metal hydrides and
>carbon nanotubes, and near-room-temperature superconducting materials
>in electric motors for ultra-high efficiency.
>
>There's a lot of real science to be done.  Don't waste your time
>with the nutcase pseudoscience.  If you need help distinguishing the
>two, there are a lot of real scientists willing to help.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>To view messages online only go to:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETList/members
>and set to "no email"
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>ETList-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

D Howe;You are completely out of the loop in this new technology. Naturally
you cannot get more energy out that is put in unless you create a type of
vacuum that draws energy out to the ground like Tesla did in case of
electric motors  or from rods sucking in  small electromagnetic particles in
space like neutrinos . There are patents on this high resonance ZPE  space
vacuum technology by high up Edwards AFB PHD's  Please get caught up with
whats really going on in these fields. Inventors have disappeared who have
tried to market high milage carbs like Art Fisher. we are investigating
Allans patents and drawings before we decide to promote  the technology
farther. thanks for your comments Bruce Meland editor Electrifying Times
----- Original Message -----
From: <dhowe17@...>
To: <ETList@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2001 6:16 AM
Subject: [ETList] Re: Allen Caggiano's Carburator


From:  "Remy C." <electrifyingtimes@h...>
Date:  Wed Nov 21, 2001  8:10 pm
Subject:  Allen Caggiano's Carburator

>Posted by Bruce Meland:
>The Preview 2002 edition of Electrifying Times published a feature
>article on high mileage carburetors and their suppression by the oil
>and auto companies.

<snip>

I would strongly recommend that Electrifying Times distance themselves
from nutcase science like Britts' and Christie's magic motor (Lutec),
or "suppressed high mileage carburetors".  It hurts ET's credibility.

Electric vehicles, hybrid gasoline/electric, fuel cells, etc., are
the way of the future.  They are legitimate science and will
eventually displace conventional IC engine vehicles.

But magic motors that supposedly produce more power than they consume,
high mileage carburetors suppressed by sinister forces from the auto
and oil industries, water powered cars ala Stanley Meyer, free
electricity from Dennis Lee, and other scams are the stuff of science
fiction.  They have been debunked time and time again, and all their
supporters can do is cry conspiracy.  If any of them really worked,
they'd already have the Nobel Prize.  The Romans couldn't suppress
Jesus Christ.  There's no way anybody could suppress a simple answer
to the world's energy problems.

Please, don't let Electrifying Times get tainted by the bizarre
fantasies of diseased minds.  Stick to real science like PEM and
solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen storage via metal hydrides and
carbon nanotubes, and near-room-temperature superconducting materials
in electric motors for ultra-high efficiency.

There's a lot of real science to be done.  Don't waste your time
with the nutcase pseudoscience.  If you need help distinguishing the
two, there are a lot of real scientists willing to help.







To view messages online only go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETList/members
and set to "no email"

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ETList-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com





Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Making the Connection: Energy Technology
From: Pia VanHanen
To: etimes@...
Monday, November 19, 2001
Making the Connection: Energy Technology

Dear Bruce,

As someone involved in the energy space, I thought you might be interested
in an article written about 'Making the Connection: Energy Technology' event
that took place on Thursday, November 8, at the Seattle Sheraton. The
article was published in the online edition of The Wired Magazine copied
below.

Radical Software is a company focused on the assessment and implementation
of new technologies. We recently helped SelfCharge, Inc. create embedded
system software for a smart battery project. You can find more details about
our company on our website. I'd be happy to provide you with more
information and can be reached at #206.336.5585.

Best regards,
Pia VanHanen

Pia VanHanen
Radical Software
2815 Eastlake Avenue East, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98102
Phone 206.336.5585
pia@...
pia@ radicalsoftware.com

Assessment and Implementation of Technologies that Shape the Future
http://www.radicalsoftware.com

Wired article:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,48290,00.html

Waste on Energy or Spend Wisely?
By Manny Frishberg

Nov. 9, 2001

SEATTLE -- New and renewable ways of producing electricity are ready to
deploy now, but the companies creating them often are not. That was the
message delivered to investors and analysts meeting with green power
entrepreneurs here Thursday night.

"The idea's never enough," said Kristen Martinez, of Sound Point Ventures,
which is investing in energy companies through Angels with Attitude.

"Many people in this industry are coming from engineering, and they don't
know how to put the rest of the package together," she said. "You have to
make the jump from being an engineering-led company, which many of these
companies are, into a business."

Sound Point Ventures was one of the sponsors of "Making the Connection:
Energy Technology," a gathering of new-energy executives and investors.
Other sponsors were Acora Growth Solutions and Radical Software.

Timing is always important.

"The real challenge, when you're a VC, is to figure out whether this is
really to the ripe point, or is it just another peak on the cycle," said
Peggy Sue Heath, an analyst.

Heath, a vice president with Ziff-Davis Ziff-Davis Market Experts, watches
emerging technology from the investor's viewpoint. "I think the really
critical issue that hasn't been resolved with any of the technologies --
with the exception of solar, which is beginning to see some movement -- is
really how adoption is going to play out."

Heath predicts that it will take at least two more years before the
situation is right to attract the majority of venture capital funds.

"There's still too much risk inherent in most of these technologies," Heath
said. "Most VCs are not going to touch this for a while. But she adds "we've
oversubscribed nearly every other area and money has to go somewhere."

Tom Starrs, of Kelso Starrs & Associates, told the audience that the
emerging energy companies need to recruit marketing people to help connect
with consumers, as well as regulatory lawyers who know their way around the
arcane jumble of state and federal regulations governing the electric
utility industry in the U.S. today.

"You can produce the best widgit in the world, and if you're trying to
connect it into a utility network, then you have a big battle ahead of you,"
Starrs said.

Martinez says that from the investor's point of view, there are both
near-term and longer term opportunities for what alternative energy watchers
are hoping will turn out to eventually be the next big thing. "Wind and
solar companies are profitable today," she said. "Microturbines and fuel
cells are predicted to be profitable within the next five to 10 years."

She cited a poll in which 95 percent of consumers indicated a preference for
solar and wind energy. Less well-known sources of alternative energy have
much less consumer appeal, she said, though that is likely to change over
time.

"I typically recommend a time horizon of four to seven years, which is a bit
longer than the typical technology investment, but not outside the realm of
consideration for venture investors," she said.

"The fastest growing energy technologies on Earth today are solar and wind,"
said Robert Harmon, from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which is
selling pollution credits and using the money to fund alternative energy and
environmental projects.

"Wind farms can be built in six months once all the permitting is done," he
said. "You can put solar PV on your house tomorrow. There are huge gains to
be made (in) energy storage systems like flywheels and fuel cells that run
backwards (to make hydrogen)."

Chemical & Engineering News

BUSINESS
March 5, 2001
Volume 79, Number 10
CENEAR 79 10 pp.19-22
ISSN 0009-2347

A FUEL CELL IN EVERY CAR
Chemical industry sees end-use market opportunities as energy applications
develop

ALEXANDER H. TULLO, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU

Fuel cells are moving past the developmental stage and into real-world
trials. The effort to construct the first working prototypes is giving way
to improving designs and developing a hydrogen-fuel infrastructure. As the
details continue to be worked out, the chemical industry is becoming
increasingly involved in the new industry.

  ROARING TO GO The Ford Focus FCV is the company's fuel-cell prototype car.

A hydrogen-energy infrastructure--once a far-off dream of small, upstart
technology companies--is now considered a realizable goal by established
industrial giants. DaimlerChrysler says it will have commercial fuel-cell
buses on the road at the end of 2002, and fuel-cell passenger vehicles will
follow about a year after that. Ford Motor Co. has unveiled the Ford Focus
FCV, a fuel-cell prototype, and is promising a commercial offering by 2004.

All this effort is being spent on a seemingly simple technology. The
chemistry of fuel cells has been described as electrolysis in reverse.
Hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water and release energy in the process.
Conceptually, fuel cells are not unlike batteries, except that in fuel
cells, fuel is replenished.

In proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) fuel cells, for example, hydrogen is
ionized by catalysts at the anode. Electrons from the hydrogen are sent to a
circuit. The resulting protons cross a polymer membrane that is conductive
to protons but keeps hydrogen and oxygen gas separated. The hydrogen
combines with oxygen and electrons at the cathode, closing the circuit. This
cell generates about 0.7 V. To get more power, many cells are used together
in a stack.

Although easy to understand, fuel cells are a considerable detour from the
internal combustion engine. This difference calls for innovative materials
and catalysts in the power train, not to mention the use of chemistry to
create an infrastructure for hydrogen, which although abundant on Earth, is
usually bonded to other atoms. A fuel cell is "like a small chemical plant,"
says Barry W. Perry, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of
catalyst producer Engelhard Corp.

  FUEL CELLS may lead to a bigger role than ever for the chemical industry in
automobiles.
"We will get new markets in the car, and we will not lose the engineering
polymers and paint we had," says Markus Hölzle, who is responsible for
BASF's fuel-cell research project.

The need for new catalyst technologies, polymers with specialized electrical
properties, and large amounts of hydrogen are all problems that the chemical
industry is uniquely positioned to solve. In some cases, industry players
are hard at work generating technologies for fuel-cell development. In other
cases, companies are focusing on applying their existing expertise.

Many chemical companies recognize that the embryonic fuel-cell industry is
becoming an end use that they can add value to. For example, DuPont recently
formed a fuel-cell business to get a foothold in a market that it expects to
be valued at about $10 billion by 2010.

Fuel cells, however, are nothing new for DuPont. The company has supplied
its Nafion membranes to fuel-cell developers such as the National
Aeronautics & Space Administration for 35 years. Chemically, they are
perfluorinated polymers with sulfonic acid ion-exchange groups. The
membranes are used as the proton-conductive polymer membranes in PEM fuel
cells. Another big use for the membranes is in chlor-alkali production.

The fuel-cell business will tap into the competencies of far-flung DuPont
organizations like its electronic materials business, iTechnologies;
engineering polymers; DuPont Canada; corporate research and development; and
fluoroproducts, which produces Nafion and houses the fuel-cell business.
"There are scientists and product developers who used to work in all those
other organizations who have the right science and technology to now be
assigned to the DuPont fuel-cell business," says David L. Peet, who will
head the new unit.

  IN ADDITION to Nafion, DuPont aims to supply materials such as conductive
polymers, catalyst coatings, and specialty membranes as well as components
like conductive plates, cell separators, and membrane electrode assemblies
(MEAs)--which combine gas diffusion, anode and cathode, catalyst, and
membrane layers into a single unit. DuPont says it can provide about 50% of
the materials needed for fuel cells.

DuPont has a lot of competition. Companies are looking at catalysts,
membrane-exchange assemblies, and other components. One key chemical
supplier, Celanese--through its subsidiary Celanese Ventures--is interested
in manufacturing MEAs and is also developing a next-generation membrane
material for PEM fuel cells.

In the future, Celanese says, membranes that work at temperatures higher
than 80 to 90 ºC will be needed. Higher temperatures create a problem for
Nafion, which needs to be kept moist. DuPont's Peet admits to Nafion's
problems, but says DuPont is also developing a next-generation membrane.

Celanese is developing a material based on polybenzimidazole, a polymer used
to make fire-resistant fibers. As a proton-conductive membrane, it is usable
at temperatures up to 180 ºC.

Celanese is involved in a partnership with fuel-cell company Plug Power to
develop membrane-electrode assemblies for stationary power generation fuel
cells. It is also working with Honda to develop membranes for automotive
fuel cells.

DuPont says its next-generation Nafion membranes will be among the first
products the new business rolls out in the coming quarters. Other products
in the group will be conductive plates, membrane electrode assemblies, and
catalyst-coated membranes.

In addition to these high-profile entrants, numerous other companies are
carving out niches in various types of fuel-cell systems. For example,
Altair International is applying its technology for growing crystalline
titanium dioxide from dense films to ceramic oxide fuel cells. "Altair is
not working on a new fuel-cell design, but rather on reducing the cost of
manufacturing components in fuel cells," says Bruce Sabacky, who heads
Altair's alternative energy group.

  CATALYSTS ARE another means for companies to gain a foothold in the
fuel-cell industry. Inside the fuel cell and the reformer--a unit that, in
certain fuel-cell systems, converts hydrocarbons to hydrogen and carbon
dioxide--there are numerous chemical reactions that require catalysis. In
fact, Engelhard has identified nine reactions in reformers and fuel cells
where catalysts are used. These areas include the anode and cathode, various
oxidation reactions, and even emissions.

Engelhard is a player in all of these catalyst systems through emissions
control, refinery, and other catalyst markets. Catalyst companies such as
Johnson Matthey, Degussa Metals Catalysts Cerdec (dmc2), and BASF also have
a range of catalyst expertise applicable to fuel-cell systems.

  WORKING DuPont researcher checks fuel-cell membrane.

And each of these companies is parlaying its catalysts expertise into
different kinds of businesses. In addition to reformer and fuel-cell
catalysts, dmc2 is interested in making MEAs. Johnson Matthey is involved in
catalysts, MEAs, and the design of reformers in some applications. Like
DuPont, BASF intends to apply its broad chemical expertise to fuel cells any
way it can.

Engelhard, however, is content with just supplying catalysts, a route to
fuel cells that requires relatively little investment. Engelhard's main
task, Perry says, is to put its existing catalyst know-how to use in
fuel-cell systems. "We do not brag about having 300 people dedicated to fuel
cells," he says. "We have 300 people dedicated to the technologies around
surface and material science, which is our competency. It just so happens
that a piece of that also applies to fuel cells."

But Engelhard isn't neglecting fuel cells. Last year, the company invested
$10 million in Plug Power, which is designing PEM fuel cells for residential
power generation. The investment is part of an alliance between the two
companies devoted to reforming natural gas and propane.

Fuel cells have required cooperation among 15 different research groups
within Engelhard, Wolynic says. For example, the company has combined
technology from its chemical catalysis unit with wash-coating capabilities
from its automotive catalyst group to help create an autothermal reforming
system.

Perry says that because catalysts will be needed no matter what fuel-cell
technologies and companies come out ahead, the fuel-cell business isn't
risky for catalyst companies.

Robert Privette, director of U.S. fuel-cell development for dmc2, agrees.
"We can supply to the entire industry and are not tied to an exclusive
arrangement to any single company that we might have to live or die with,"
he says.

Offering MEAs will enhance this position, Privette says. "The critical
feature that we can offer customers is an integrated set of products that
have been designed to work together," he adds. Privette says dmc2 is working
on ways to boost its throughput for MEA manufacturing. Increasing catalyst
capacity will be a simpler matter for the company, which has decades of
experience making catalysts.

In addition to catalysts and MEAs, Johnson Matthey has developed a reformer
for the conversion of liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas to hydrogen
for stationary applications. All these products grow out of its core
catalyst expertise. The firm has about 100 employees dedicated to fuel cells
and has spent more than $17 million on fuel-cell development. And it is
planning a major investment on MEA and coated-components manufacturing.

  BASF IS ALSO using catalysts to make inroads into fuel cells. The company
developed the copper-based catalysts used in the methanol reformers in Necar
3 and 5, two DaimlerChrysler prototype cars. The program was originally part
of a German government program involving Daimler-Benz, Hoechst, BASF, and
Siemens.

BASF is interested in reforming catalysts for additional hydrocarbons, such
as natural gas, gasoline, and diesel. "We will try to make as many
components for the fuel cell as possible," Hoelzle says. "You can't earn a
lot of money with fuel-cell materials, but you can make a lot of money from
fuel-cell components," he adds. To that end, BASF, because of its polymer
expertise, is interested in developing membranes and MEAs.

Chemical companies have also been getting involved with the fuel-cell
industry via the fuel itself. Methanex has been engaged in the development
of methanol as a fuel-cell fuel for years. The company is in numerous
partnerships with oil companies, fellow methanol suppliers, automakers, and
chemical companies such as BASF.

Methanex says methanol, a liquid, is easy to handle and can be cost
competitive with gasoline. Also, as technologies are developed that can
exploit the hydrogen in the fuel cell itself, cumbersome equipment like the
reformer may be circumvented.

  INDUSTRIAL GAS suppliers Air Products & Chemicals and Praxair, two leading
U.S. suppliers of liquid hydrogen, have been supplying hydrogen to fuel-cell
developers and believe that there is long-term potential for their hydrogen
expertise in the market.

"There are two clear alternatives for the delivery of hydrogen to the
vehicle: One is onboard reforming, and the other is direct hydrogen," says
John Lee, vice president of business development for Praxair. "They both
have their virtues, and they will compete on parallel paths until technology
confirms or creates a problem for one of these paths. Hydrogen, whether it
is in a gaseous or liquid form, will be a part of the whole transition," he
adds.

Venki Raman, who heads Air Products' fuel-cell development efforts, agrees
that fuel cells are promising for industrial gas companies. "We see that
this market is getting to the point where there is going to be serious
interest in setting up a hydrogen-fuel infrastructure," he says. "We're
definitely interested in those commercial opportunities."

Methanex, Air Products, and Praxair, along with energy companies like BP,
Shell, and Texaco; fuel-cell makers Ballard Power Systems and International
Fuel Cells; automakers like DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, and
Volkswagen; reformer developer Hydrogen Burner Technologies; and others are
all partners in the California Fuel-Cell Partnership, a West
Sacramento-based organization that is road testing fuel-cell vehicles.

Because of the partnership, West Sacramento has the highest concentration of
fuel-cell cars in the world. This year, in its first full year of operation,
the partnership is testing 20 vehicles. By the conclusion of the program,
the partnership aims to test about 50 vehicles.

Praxair and Air Products designed--and supply liquid hydrogen to--the
partnership's West Sacramento hydrogen-filling station. The liquid hydrogen
is stored in a tank and is then vaporized and stored as compressed gas,
which is pumped into tanks onboard cars at two pressures: 3,600 and 5,000
psi.

Both companies say the design posed few technical challenges relative to
hydrogen delivery to chemical and other industrial customers. The biggest
hurdle, the companies say, was designing the nozzles and making the station
efficient enough to handle the volume of cars. "The dispensing technology is
new, but the rest of it is pretty much an extension of our industrial gas
know-how," Raman says. Air Products also supplied hydrogen to a
demonstration program in Chicago, where the Chicago Transit Authority used
three hydrogen buses for about two years.

The partnership has plans for four more stations so the cars can travel
beyond West Sacramento. Also, Methanex will begin supplying methanol later
this year, and in 2002, gasoline-like fuel for onboard reformers will be
demonstrated.

Another company, Hydrogen Burner Technology (HBT), is developing stationary
reformers that would extract hydrogen from hydrocarbons at the filling
station. The company is involved with a developmental filling station in
Palm Springs, Calif., to supply hydrogen fuel to buses. The company has
plans to assist with the partnership's new filling stations.

HBT is also developing reformers for on-board fuel processing and for
stationary applications in small, 10-kW residential fuel cells, says David
Moard, HBT's chief executive officer. Now, a fuel-cell system for a home
would cost anywhere between $25,000 and $100,000, he says. HBT is working on
the economics of home power generation. "I would expect that power
generation from fuel cells would be cheaper than utilities are today," he
adds.

  CHEMISTRY IS BEING employed to solve the problem of hydrogen storage. Some
companies are developing means to store hydrogen chemically so it can be
released to power fuel cells. These companies are boasting materials with
hydrogen densities comparable to gaseous and even liquid-hydrogen storage.

Troy, Mich.-based Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) is developing a system of
hydrogen storage using a magnesium hydride-based solid. The company's
cofounder, Stanford R. Ovshinsky, is considered a pioneer in environmental
and metal hydride chemistry and has had previous success in licensing
nickel-metal hydride batteries. "Hydrogen storage is the key if you want to
use hydrogen as fuel," he says. "And hydrogen in the solid form is a utopian
desire."

Under ECD's system, magnesium alloy matrix covalently bonds with gaseous
hydrogen. A temperature of about 300 ¯C releases the hydrogen. ECD has
already developed prototypes, demonstrating hockey-puck-sized units that can
power laptop computers for hours.

The company says it takes about five minutes to charge the units to 90% of
its capacity of 7% hydrogen. At that capacity, the hydrogen density of the
material is about 103 g per L, ECD says, whereas liquid-hydrogen density is
about 71 g per L, and 5,000-psi gas is about 31 g per L. Ovshinsky says a
unit the size of a gas tank can store enough hydrogen to power a fuel-cell
car 300 miles.

The technology has generated some interest. Texaco recently purchased a 20%
stake in ECD and also formed joint ventures with ECD centered around the
hydrogen-storage technology and other technologies with fuel-cell
applications.

Millennium Cell, of Eatontown, N.J., is developing a chemical storage
technology based on sodium borohydride, used today as a specialty chemical.
Under its system, a clear aqueous solution of about 30% sodium borohydride
is exposed to a proprietary catalyst to yield hydrogen and sodium borate
by-product, resulting in a milky solution of spent fuel.

One hurdle that Millennium Cell is striving to overcome is a use for all the
sodium borate waste. It is currently forming a joint development arrangement
with Rohm and Haas, a major sodium borohydride supplier, to come up with a
better process. The companies will team up to close the loop in the stream,
finding an efficient way to recycle the sodium borate back to sodium
borohydride, an alternative to the present trimethyl borate route.

"We have to make sodium borohydride a commodity chemical, and we need to
have more suppliers and more factories being built," says Stefanie
Sharp-Goldman, a senior scientist at Millennium Cell.

Millennium Cell is planning on scaling up a process that produces about a
pound of borohydride an hour. The company and Rohm and Haas also plan on a
more efficient route to virgin borohydride, which will probably use a route
similar to the one that they are developing for sodium borate.

Millennium Cell says its storage density rivals liquid hydrogen: A 30%
solution has a hydrogen density of about 63 g per L. The company also notes
that ECD's system requires energy to be put into the system for it to
release hydrogen, decreasing the effective hydrogen-storage density of that
system and making Millennium Cell's hydrogen storage comparable. Millennium
Cell admits, however, that energy has to be added to the borate to make
sodium borohydride in the plant.

But it doesn't really matter which storage media, fuels, membranes, or other
materials the fuel-cell industry chooses. If fuel cells replace the internal
combustion materials in the future or replace utilities in building power
generation, the only clear fact is that the chemical industry will likely be
a big winner.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society

Courtesy Chemical & Engineering News

NEWS OF THE WEEK
ELECTROCHEMISTRY
August 6, 2001
Volume 79, Number 32
CENEAR 79 32 p. 9
ISSN 0009-2347

ION TRANSPORT IN POLYMER COMPLEXES
Crystalline polymer electrolytes conduct lithium cations

MICHAEL FREEMANTLE

In work that could lead to the development of all-solid-state rechargeable
lithium batteries and other electrochemical devices, researchers in Scotland
have shown that ionic conductivity in a family of crystalline polymer
electrolytes is superior to that in the equivalent amorphous materials.

TUNNELS Lithium cations (blue) are located inside cylindrical tubes formed
by polymer chains, anions outside.
© NATURE 2001

Chemistry professor Peter G. Bruce and colleagues at the University of St.
Andrews prepared crystalline and amorphous forms of complexes of
poly(ethylene oxide) and lithium salts such as LiAsF6 and LiSbF6. Ionic
conductivities of the crystalline compounds are significantly higher than
those of the corresponding amorphous compounds over a range of temperatures,
they report [Nature, 412, 520 (2001)]. They also demonstrated, using NMR
spectroscopy, that the ionic conductivity in the crystalline materials is
dominated by transport of the lithium cations.

"This discovery may have important practical implications, for example in
lithium batteries where the use of a single ion-conducting electrolyte may
lead to improvements in electrode kinetics," comments Bruno Scrosati,
professor of electrochemistry at the University of Rome. "Although the
results are not of immediate application, they may open the route for the
design of new, highly conductive, solvent-free polymer electrolytes, this
being one of the key goals for the progress of lithium polymer battery
technology."

The crystalline complexes prepared by Bruce's team are formed with six ether
oxygen atoms per lithium ion. The polymer chains fold to form cylindrical
tunnels inside of which the lithium ions are coordinated by the ether
oxygens. The anions are located outside the tunnels in the spaces between
the chains and do not coordinate the cations. The team suggests that the
enhanced ionic conductivity of the crystalline materials results from the
cations moving through the tunnels.

"Researchers have been working on polymer electrolytes consisting of a salt
dissolved directly into a polymer for around 25 years," Bruce tells C&EN.
"Until now, it has been widely believed that ionic conductivity occurs in
amorphous materials above their glass-transition temperatures where the
polymer chains are in motion, creating a dynamic, disordered environment
that facilitates ion transport. Relatively little attention has been paid to
crystalline polymer electrolytes because it was thought that they did not
support ionic conductivity."

Both anions and cations are generally mobile in the amorphous phase, Bruce
points out, whereas restricting the mobility to the lithium cations is
desirable for battery applications.

"Our results define a different direction in the search for ionically
conducting polymers, one which emphasizes order and structure as important
features and challenges us to seek new crystalline polymer electrolytes with
suitable structures and with partial occupancy of sites by potentially
mobile ions," Bruce's team concludes.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society

Courtesy Chemical & Engineering News

NEWS OF THE WEEK
October 16, 2000
Volume 78, Number 42
CENEAR 78 42 p.8
ISSN 0009-2347

Magnesium Systems Could Rival Current Lead-Acid Batteries

Michael Freemantle

Rechargeable magnesium battery systems developed in Israel could rival the
performance of environmentally problematic batteries used in electric
vehicles and other heavy-load applications, according to the discovery team.

The prototype systems, devised by Doron Aurbach, head of the
electrochemistry group, and coworkers at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan,
comprise a magnesium metal anode; novel electrolyte solutions based on
magnesium-organohaloaluminate salts; and a cathode made from a novel
material that contains magnesium, molybdenum, and sulfur [Nature, 407, 724
(2000)].

The group notes that magnesium is abundant, inexpensive, easy to handle,
environmentally benign, and--because the metal is light--has potential as a
high-energy-density power source. Rechargeable lead-acid and nickel-cadmium
batteries currently employed in large-scale energy conversion, on the other
hand, contain heavy metals that are highly toxic.

"Our battery systems are green, can deliver thousands of charge-discharge
cycles with very little capacity fading, and are operational over a wide
temperature range," Aurbach tells C&EN. "They have a very long shelf life
and are expected to be cheaper than other rechargeable battery systems on
the market."

According to Jeffrey R. Dahn, a physics and chemistry professor at Dalhousie
University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and an expert on battery materials, the
work is impressive. "I don't think anyone has developed a rechargeable
magnesium system before that was worth anything," he remarks. "The fact that
the group can achieve so many charge-discharge cycles with very low capacity
fading is amazing."

Dahn explains that one of the main problems that has hindered development of
magnesium systems in the past has been the reaction of magnesium anodes with
electrolytes, resulting in growth of passivating surface films on the anodes
that inhibit electrochemical reactions.

"The magnesium electrodes are not passivated in the electrolyte systems used
by Aurbach's group," Dahn says. "That's really important because it gives
the 100% cycling efficiency of the magnesium that is required for the long
cycling life of the system."

Aurbach and colleagues point out that their present results are only the
first step in the development of this technology. The team is working on
increasing the voltage of its batteries and notes that the energy density of
rechargeable magnesium batteries could be considerably increased by
modifying the cathode by, for example, doping with electropositive atoms.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2000 American Chemical Society

Chemical & Engineering News

"... research on organic chloride-aluminum chloride ambient-temperature
ionic liquids for use as electrolytes in electrical batteries."

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY
May 15,2000
Volume 78, Number 20
CENEAR 78 20 pp.37-50
ISSN 0009-2347

EYES ON IONIC LIQUIDS

NATO workshop examines the industrial potential of green chemistry using
room-temperature 'designer solvents'

Michael Freemantle
C&EN London

Over the past two years, room-temperature ionic liquids have generated much
excitement among some sections of the chemistry community for their
potential as green "designer solvents." But to what extent can these liquids
be used in industrial processes and in particular in the development of
clean technologies?

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) advanced research workshop,
"Green Industrial Applications of Ionic Liquids," held in Heraklion, Crete,
last month, aimed to provide some answers to this question by bringing
together chemists and chemical engineers from academia and industry with
expertise in ionic liquids and in green chemistry and engineering.

"The workshop is the first ever international meeting devoted to
room-temperature ionic liquids," noted ionic liquids expert Kenneth R.
Seddon , chemistry professor at Queen's University of Belfast, Northern
Ireland. "And it is the first time representatives from industry and
universities have had an opportunity to express their views in open forum
about the potential of these liquids."

Room-temperature ionic liquids, the focus of all this attention, typically
consist of nitrogen-containing organic cations and inorganic anions.

"The organic cations are mated with inorganic anions such as Cl-, Cl-/AlCl3,
PF6-, and BF4-," noted Richard M. Pagni, chemistry professor at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville. "There are an almost endless number of
ways of combining ions to make ionic liquids. This flexibility of structure
and function is one of the most significant advantages of using ionic
liquids for environmentally friendly chemistry."

Ionic liquids are environmentally benign because they have no detectable
vapor pressure and they promise to make synthetic processes more efficient,
thus lowering usage of raw materials. The liquids could find use not only in
chemical synthesis, particularly catalysis, but also in separation
technology and as electrolytes in batteries and solar cells.

"Ionic liquids may offer unique selectivity or even totally new chemistries
compared with conventional solvents," observed Robin D. Rogers , chemistry
professor and director of the Center for Green Manufacturing at the
Univer-sity of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. "They are nonvolatile and nonflammable,
have high thermal stability, and are relatively undemanding and inexpensive
to manufacture."

Ionic liquids are emerging as novel replacements for volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) traditionally used as industrial solvents, Rogers pointed
out.

"The use of VOCs is vast even though new international treaties severely
limit the amount that can be released in plant effluents," he said. "The
abbreviation VOC has become synonymous with a plethora of social, economic,
and ecological hazards, and such use seems increasingly anachronistic. It is
thus incumbent upon the research community to explore the inherent benefits
of alternative technologies to replace VOCs and reduce the volatility,
environmental, and human health and safety concerns that accompany exposure
to organic solvents."

In addition to ionic liquids, Pagni pointed out, alternative media for
chemical processes include water, supercritical fluids, fluorous phases, and
solventless environments such as the surfaces or interiors of clays,
zeolites, silica gel, and alumina.

"All of these environments have their advantages and disadvantages when
compared with one another and more traditional solvents," he said. "Ionic
liquids will clearly be at the forefront of traditional solvent
replacement."

Thomas Welton , lecturer in inorganic chemistry at London's Imperial College
of Science, Technology & Medicine, noted that ionic liquids are good
solvents for a wide range of both inorganic and organic materials. "They are
often composed of poorly coordinating ions, so they have the potential to be
highly polar noncoordinating solvents," he observed. "They are also
immiscible with a number of organic solvents and provide a nonaqueous, polar
alternative for two-phase systems. Hydrophobic ionic liquids can also be
used as immiscible polar phases with water."

Peter Wasserscheid , chemistry lecturer at RWTH Aachen University of
Technology in Germany, in a talk on the potential applications of ionic
liquids to industry, pointed out that ionic liquids are promising as
solvents for catalysis. "The use of ionic liquids can enhance activity,
selectivity, and stability of transition-metal catalysts," he said.

As yet, however, there are no industrial processes that employ ionic
liquids, although some ionic liquid technologies are approaching
commercialization. For example, Hélène Olivier-Bourbigou, senior research
scientist at the French Petroleum Institute (IFP) in Rueil-Malmaison, near
Paris, reported on the development of a biphasic butene dimerization process
that uses an ionic liquid as a catalyst support.

"The process is proposed for licensing and could be one of the first
large-scale applications of ionic liquids," she said.

British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) in Sellafield, England, has developed a method
of dissolving spent nuclear fuels in ionic liquids such as
1-butyl-pyridinium nitrate. A metal fuel that is normally insoluble in an
ionic liquid is converted into a soluble form by adding an oxidant to the
ionic liquid. The oxidant raises the oxidation number of the metal. For
example, it converts uranium(IV) to uranium(VI) and plutonium(IV) to
plutonium(VI).

"Ionic liquids offer many possibilities for use in the nuclear fuel cycle,"
observed Queen's University of Belfast postdoctoral research chemist Will R.
Pitner. "It may be possible to improve some existing nuclear fuel processing
systems by using ionic liquids to replace conventional solvents such as
water or mixtures of odorless kerosene and tributyl phosphates."

One of the objectives of the ionic liquids workshop, which was codirected by
Alabama's Rogers and chemistry professor Sergei Volkov , a member of the
Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences at V. Vernadsky Institute of General
& Inorganic Chemistry, Kiev, was to foster collaboration between East and
West. Several participants from Russia and Ukraine presented their
perspectives and research on ionic liquids with a particular focus on
high-temperature molten salts--materials composed of inorganic cations and
anions with melting points much higher than those of room-temperature ionic
liquids.

There has been little or no research and development on room-temperature
ionic liquids in Eastern European countries so far. For example, Josef
Kotlán, director of sales and marketing at the Research Institute for
Organic Syntheses, Pardubice-Rybitví, Czech Republic, pointed out that there
are currently no projects on ionics liquids in that country.

"My task is to initiate research and development on ionic liquids in the
country," he said. "Potential applications of ionic liquids in the Czech
chemical industry include the syntheses of specialty and fine chemicals;
polymer processing, such as olefin dimerization and oligomerization; linear
alkylbenzene synthesis; and nuclear fuel processing."

One exception to the lack of research on ionic liquids in Eastern Europe is
Estonia, where Mihkel Koel, senior research scientist at the Institute of
Chemistry at Tallinn Technical University , is looking into the possibility
of using ionic liquids for treating oil shale.

Oil shale, he pointed out, is the most important mineral resource in
Estonia. About 90% of the 12 million tons that are mined in the country each
year is burned in power stations to generate electricity. The remaining 10%
is used to produce either synthetic fuels or feedstock for the chemical
industry.

"Oil shale is a sedimentary rock that contains organic matter known as
kerogen," he explained. "This is a cross-linked macromolecular system.
Liquefying, gasifying, or generally modifying oil shale are challenging
goals for chemists and chemical engineers. Present methods for these
processes include pyrolysis, solvent extraction, direct hydrogenation, and
the production of synthesis gas followed by the use of Fischer-Tropsch
technology."

Ionic liquids, because they have no measurable vapor pressure and are
nonexplosive and nonoxidizing, are good candidates for the development of
efficient processes for oil shale kerogen liquefaction, Koel continued. "One
of the advantages is their thermal robustness," he said. "They have a large
thermal operating range, typically from -40 to 200 C, which enables
excellent kinetic control of reactions."

Koel's group has examined the use of ionic liquids containing the cation
1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium and the anion hexafluorophosphate or
chloroaluminate, abbreviated [bmim][PF6] and [bmim]Cl-AlCl3, for their
ability to extract organic compounds, particularly oxygenated compounds,
from Estonian oil shale kerogen.

"Although there is no evidence of extraction from the kerogen using either
ionic liquid at room temperature, at 175 C the extraction yield of soluble
products is 10 times greater than that obtained using conventional organic
solvents such as hexane and methylene chloride," Koel said.

Yasmin Patell, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of
Regina, Saskatchewan, has also investigated the dissolution of kerogen using
chloroaluminate ionic liquid systems. In work with Seddon at Belfast, she
showed that dissolution of kerogen can be achieved by heating it in acidic
chloroaluminate ionic liquids for one-minute periods in a microwave oven.

"Kerogen is, by definition, the organic component of petroleum source rocks
that is insoluble in common organic solvents," she explained. "We showed
that once the kerogen is in solution in an acidic chloroaluminate ionic
liquid, it can be reprecipitated by adding water. The reprecipitated kerogen
has markedly different solubility properties in conventional solvents."

Patell is now working with Keith E. Johnson, chemistry professor at Regina,
on the dissolution of heavy oil in chloroaluminate ionic liquid systems.

"Heavy oil requires upgrading to make it transportable by pipeline and
usable by conventional refineries," Patell pointed out. "We found that the
viscous heavy oil is significantly soluble in the ionic liquid system at
ambient temperature. Viscosity measurements indicate that the solution of
oil and ionic liquid contained much lower molecular weight products than the
original oil, indicating that the high molecular weight hydrocarbon fraction
is broken down by the ionic liquid."

Patell has developed a method for separating the oil from the ionic liquid
after the reaction. "The ionic liquid can thus be recovered after the
reaction and recycled," she noted.

Meanwhile, James H. Davis Jr., assistant professor of chemistry at the
University of South Alabama, has recently started looking into the use of
ionic liquids as sequestering agents to remove hydrogen sulfide and carbon
dioxide from contaminated natural gas supplies known as "sour gas." Davis
was one of several participants at the NATO workshop who indicated that
their interest in room-temperature ionic liquids was sparked by an article
on the topic in C&EN (March 30, 1998, page 32).

"The growth in consumption of natural gas is projected to accelerate in the
next few years as fuel cells come into use for automotive consumption and
on-site consumer electric generation," he observed. "As a consequence, the
accelerating depletion of high-quality 'sweet gas' reserves can be
anticipated, and pressure will increase to utilize sour gas reserves."

Amines, usually in aqueous solution, are widely used to remove H2S and CO2
from natural gas streams, Davis pointed out. However, the gas takes up large
amounts of water, which then has to be removed through a condensation
process. In addition, loss of amine into the gas stream can also occur.

"We believe that considerable opportunities exist for the utilization of
ionic liquids in the natural gas sweetening process," he said.

Davis is investigating the capacity of H2S and CO2 to react with imidazolium
ions containing a free amine group when the imidazolium salt is dissolved in
[bmim][PF6]. He calls mixtures of such salts in ionic liquids "mixed ionic
liquid eurytopes" or MILIEUs for short.

"A eurytope is a substance that is tolerant of one or more environmental
physical factors," he told C&EN. "When a stream of H2S is passed through the
MILIEU, a noticeable change in solution color and clarity occurs that does
not occur when an inert gas such as nitrogen is passed through the system.
The change suggests that H2S has some inherent solubility in the MILIEU or
is reacting in an acid-base fashion when dissolved, or perhaps both.
Clearly, more detailed studies are needed, but the prospects of using this
system for the sequestration of H2S and possibly CO2 are encouraging."

At the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, chemical engineering professor
Joan F. Brennecke has shown that relatively nonvolatile organic compounds
can be removed from ionic liquids using supercritical CO2, an
environmentally benign solvent ( C&EN, May 10, 1999, page 9 ).

"Product recovery from ionic liquids using traditional organic solvents
remains a considerable drawback, greatly reducing the green effect of the
whole process," she noted.

At the NATO workshop, Brennecke reported recent work with Eric J. Beckman ,
professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of
Pittsburgh, on the phase behavior of ionic liquids with CO2. She explained
that significant amounts of CO2 dissolve in the ionic liquid-rich phase,
whereas virtually no ionic liquid dissolves in the CO2-rich phase.

"By varying the substituents on the cationic rings and examining various
anions, we were able to identify some of the keys in the CO2/ionic liquid
phase behavior," she said. "We showed that the nature of the anion of the
ionic liquid has an effect on the solubility of CO2 in the ionic liquid-rich
phase."

Brennecke and Beckman also found that CO2 solubility in ionic liquid samples
with longer alkyl chains on the imidazolium ring is greater than samples
with shorter alkyl groups. "The phase behavior of ionic liquids with CO2
appears to be determined by a combination of free volume of the ionic liquid
and attractive interactions between the CO2 and the anion," she said.

Brennecke also reported that the phase behavior and thermophysical
properties of ionic liquid/CO2 mixtures are very different from those of
CO2/organic solvent binary mixtures and in fact resemble those of
polymer/CO2 mixtures.

"It is clear that more study is needed on the thermophysical behavior of
ionic liquids given their unique behavior and significant industrial
potential," she concluded.

Rogers' group at the University of Alabama has shown that the partitioning
of organic solutes between an ionic liquid and water corresponds
approximately to the distribution of the same solutes between molecular
organic solvents and water (C&EN, Aug. 24, 1998, page 12). In Crete, Rogers,
graduate student Ann E. Visser, and undergraduate student Richard P.
Swatloski presented work on the partitioning of a simple indicator dye,
thymol blue, in biphasic systems consisting of a dense layer of an ionic
liquid such as [bmim][PF6] and an upper aqueous layer.

The dye can be reversibly switched between the two phases by adjusting the
pH of the aqueous layer, Visser and Swatloski noted. At pH 1.5, the dye is
concentrated in the ionic liquid. This layer is red, whereas the aqueous
layer is colorless. On adjusting to pH 12, the dye moves into the upper
layer, resulting in a blue aqueous solution and a clear lower layer.

"At low pH, thymol blue exists in its red form as a neutral zwitterion,
which prefers the ionic liquid phase," the Alabama team explained. "Above pH
10, the blue dianion of the dye partitions quantitatively to the aqueous
phase."

The team has demonstrated that the metal ion extractants
1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-napthol and 1-(2-thiazolyl)-2-napthol can be used to
extract transition-metal cations from an aqueous phase to the ionic liquid
[bmim][PF6]. The researchers have also shown that crown ethers are effective
for extracting group 1 and 2 metal ions such as Cs+ and Sr2+ from aqueous
solution to [bmim][PF6].

Electrochemistry

"Ionic liquids are not new," Imperial College's Welton notes in a review of
room-temperature ionic liquids [Chem. Rev., 99, 2071 (1999)]. Ethylammonium
nitrate--[C2H5NH3][NO3], for example--which has a melting point of 12 C, was
first described in 1914.

In the late 1940s, scientists Frank Hurley and Tom Weir at Rice University,
who were working on methods of electroplating aluminum, discovered that a
room-temperature ionic liquid could be prepared by mixing and warming
1-ethylpyridinium chloride with aluminum chloride. And the Air Force Office
of Scientific Research, Washington, D.C., has supported fundamental research
on molten salts and ionic liquids, primarily for use in power systems, for
more than 20 years.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, Robert A. Osteryoung, chemistry professor at
North Carolina State University; Charles L. Hussey, chemistry professor at
the University of Mississippi; John S. Wilkes , professor of chemistry and
director of the Chemistry Research Center at the U.S. Air Force Academy,
Colorado Springs, Colo.; and others carried out extensive research on
organic chloride-aluminum chloride ambient-temperature ionic liquids for use
as electrolytes in electrical batteries.

For example, the Osteryoung and Wilkes groups discovered the
room-temperature ionic liquids 1-butylpyridinium chloride-aluminum chloride
and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride-aluminum chloride ([emim]Cl-AlCl3),
respectively. Hussey wrote the first major review of room-temperature ionic
liquids some 17 years ago [Adv. Molten Salt Chem., 5, 185 (1983)].

"The nature of the electrolyte has a huge impact on both the energy the
device can store and the power it can deliver," Wilkes pointed out at the
NATO meeting. "Ionic liquids, formerly called molten salts, have some
properties that make them attractive as electrolytes in batteries."

Ionic liquids are inherently ionically conductive, they can mitigate
self-discharge, and they are virtually nonvolatile, nonflammable, and less
toxic than conventional electrolytes, he noted. In addition, their
electrochemical window--that is, the electrochemical potential range over
which the electrolyte is not reduced or oxidized at an electrode--is usually
much greater than for aqueous electrolytes.

"The current generation of batteries containing ionic liquid electrolytes
suffers from the requirement of high-temperature operation and is therefore
called thermal batteries," he explained. "The advent of low-melting ionic
liquids has resulted in some novel battery concepts and promises to spur new
concepts with much higher performance."

According to Wilkes, there are no commercial batteries being manufactured
that use low-temperature ionic liquids as the electrolyte. "Instead, there
is a body of patent and publication literature that describes some ionic
liquid electrolyte materials and some battery concepts using them," he said.
"Our patent searches imply that there is in fact substantial interest in
using ionic liquids as battery electrolytes."

Wilkes described work by researchers at the U.S. Air Force Academy on a dual
intercalating molten electrolyte (DIME) battery. The battery involves the
intercalation of the anion of an ionic liquid electrolyte at one carbon
electrode and the cation of the same electrolyte at another carbon
electrode.

The group has shown that room-temperature ionic liquids containing
1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium or 1-ethyl-3-methyl-2-propylimidazolium cations
and anions such as PF6-, BF4-, AlCl4-, and CF3SO2O-
(trifluoromethanesulfonate or triflate) work in the DIME battery.

Wilkes pointed to several advantages of the DIME concept. "Graphite is cheap
and easy to work with, only a single ionic liquid is necessary, no organic
solvents or volatiles of any kind are used, the battery can be assembled in
the discharged state, and the battery materials probably have low toxicity,"
he noted. "The performance of DIME cells is not yet optimized, but clearly
this is a promising system."

Pierre Bonhôte, a chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
Lausanne (EPFL), has investigated the use of room-temperature ionic liquids
as electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells, electrochromic devices, and
other photoelectrochemical devices. The devices contain a mesoporous
titanium dioxide electrode with a very high surface area, which is needed to
capture light.

The light-absorbing electrode in the dye-sensitized solar cell, for example,
consists of nanocrystalline TiO2 semiconductor particles coated with a thin
film of a dye, typically a ruthenium bipyridyl compound, and an amorphous
organic hole conductor ( C&EN, Oct. 26, 1998, page 37 ). The material is
able to harvest more than 90% of the incident photons.

"The electrolytes used in these cells should have low vapor pressures, large
electrochemical windows, low viscosity, and high conductivity," Bonhôte told
participants at the NATO workshop. "They should exhibit thermal stability,
chemical stability in the presence of water and oxygen, and be compatible
with the sealant."

The team, which included EPFL physical chemistry professor Michael Grätzel,
prepared and investigated a range of new, hydrophobic ionic liquids based on
1,3-dialkyl imidazolium cations and hydrophobic anions. These liquids have
melting points that range from less than -30 C to ambient temperature. The
group compared the properties of these liquids with imidazolium salts that
have hydrophilic anions and are therefore water soluble.

"Compared with water-soluble ionic liquids, hydrophobic ones have the
advantage that they can be easily pre-pared in aqueous solution," Bonhôte
explained. "They can be obtained in a very dry state and are especially
suitable for applications in electrochemical systems from which moisture
must be excluded, even over a long period of operation."

The EPFL team determined the densities, melting points, viscosities,
conductivities, refractive indexes, electrochemical windows, thermal
stabilities, and miscibilities with water and organic solvents for a series
of the 1,3-dialkyl imidazolium ionic liquids. The researchers also
scrutinized the influence on these properties of alkyl substituents in
various positions on the imidazolium ring.

"The physical and electrochemical characterization of these salts is a
par-ticularly valuable part of this study," Wilkes remarked.

According to Bonhôte, the ionic liquid that exhibits the most interesting
properties is 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide. The material has, for example, an
electrochemical window in excess of 4 V, and is stable in air at
temperatures above 400 C. "It is a promising candidate for applications
where high conductivity and low vapor pressure are required--for instance,
in photovoltaic cells and electrochromic devices," he said.

Chemical processing

Room-temperature ionic liquids not only show potential for use in
separations and as electrolytes, but they are also promising solvents for
chemical syntheses and particularly for catalysis.

For example, Luc Moens, senior chemist at the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colo., has been looking into use of ionic liquids
for the chemical processing of biomass-derived renewable feedstocks.

"The use of lignocellulosic biomass found in plants and trees as a renewable
feedstock for the production of chemicals requires the development of new
chemical processing technologies for these structurally challenging
materials," he said in Crete. "Since many traditional solvents and catalyst
systems are incompatible with carbohydrates and lignins, we are exploring
the use of ionic liquids that can sustain catalytic reactions."

As a starting point, Moens explained, his group is looking at simple
acylation and alkylation reactions to derivatize sugars and more complex
carbohydrates. "Our emphasis lies on the development of useful catalytic
processes that avoid the use of strong acids and bases and that allow for
complete recycling of the catalyst and ionic solvent phases," he said.

For the acylation chemistry, the NREL researchers explored the use of
vanadium(IV) acetate as a catalyst because it is a Lewis acid that is stable
and easy to handle. It can also be produced simply by heating a mixture of
vanadium pentoxide with acetic anhydride. They used the ionic liquid
[bmim][PF6] as a solvent.

"Vanadium(IV) acetate is used as a new acylating agent for alcohols in
acetonitrile, and we wanted to find out if such a Lewis acid would also be
reactive enough in an ionic liquid," Moens explained. "The positive results
we obtained for acylation of carbohydrate derivatives showed that the
compound is indeed a very effective catalyst and also that we can replace a
very toxic and flammable solvent such as acetonitrile with a nonvolatile
ionic liquid solvent."

One of the biggest problems of this approach, however, is removing the
products from the ionic liquid without removing the catalyst. "We needed to
find a catalyst that could be immobilized in the ionic liquid phase," he
said.

The NREL team found the answer with a vanadium(IV) compound known as
VO(salen)Cl2.

"Even though the yields have not yet been optimized, we found that
VO(salen)Cl2 has a high solubility in the ionic phase and its solution can
be recycled and reused for the acetylation of a second batch of substrate,"
Moens said. "We are now studying this type of catalyst to understand better
the parameters that control solubility. Nevertheless, it proves the concept
that new types of catalytic reactions can be developed for carbohydrate
chemistry that avoid the use of traditional hazardous acid/base conditions."

The NREL group also discovered by chance that vanadium(IV) acetate in
[bmim][PF6] promotes the spontaneous trimerization of the lignin model
compound veratryl alcohol to yield a so-called cyclotriveratrylene. Moens
pointed out that the only other known method of trimerizing veratryl alcohol
requires the use of strongly acidic conditions such as concentrated HCl or
trifluoracetic acid in chloroform.

"What is remarkable is that a mild catalyst such as vanadyl acetate can
promote this Friedel-Crafts type reaction at room temperature in an ionic
medium without the use of hazardous AlCl3," he said. "The same cyclic
product can be generated in similar yields in the absence of the catalyst by
heating the ionic reaction medium to 70 to 110 C. Our observations suggest
that the ionic solvent therefore may have an increased Lewis acid character
at higher temperature."

Davis at the University of South Alabama observed that imidazole rings
feature prominently not only in room-temperature ionic liquids but also in
many drugs and natural products.

"As a consequence, we have undertaken to prepare ionic liquids based upon
N-alkylated derivatives of various bioactive molecules," he said. "We have
done so with both drugs and natural products, our most notable successes
being in the use of the antifungal drug miconazole and the imidazole
alkaloid pilocarpine as substrates."

He added that efforts to build ionic liquids around bioactive molecules are
still at a very early stage and pointed out that cations in these new ionic
liquids are structurally complex compared with those found in conventional
ionic liquids.

"They also contain appendages with functional groups, creating possibilities
for further chemistry on or by these materials," he observed. "A door is
therefore opening to the possibility of designing ionic liquids with
particular structural or functional groups built in. If such groups can be
manipulated to tailor the nature of an ionic liquid to imbue it with a
particular chemical reactivity or physical property, we can essentially
create task-specific ionic liquids."

Ionic liquids provide a solvent environment quite unlike any other available
at or near room temperature, Welton pointed out. The challenge, he said, is
to discover whether that environment can add significant advantage for
synthesis.

"In some simple stoichiometric reactions, an ionic liquid just acts as an
'innocent' solvent," he said. An example is the use of an ionic liquid such
as [emim][BF4] or [emim][PF6] instead of water as a solvent for the
Diels-Alder reaction. In this reaction, two neutral species, a diene and a
dienophile, combine to form a cycloadduct. According to Welton, trends in
the rates of reaction and product selectivities for the reaction in ionic
liquids and water are very similar.

Ionic liquids can, however, play an integral role in a reaction or catalyst
system. A typical example is the use of chloroaluminate ionic liquids in
Frie-del-Crafts reactions. Seddon's group at Queen's University of Belfast
has shown, for example, that the [emim]Cl-AlCl3 system can be used as both a
solvent and a catalyst for Friedel-Crafts acetylations of a range of
aromatic compounds. The yields and selectivities are comparable to those
achieved in conventional molecular solvents.

At the meeting in Crete, Welton announced his initial results on the use of
[bmim][BF4] for the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. This reaction typically
employs a palladium catalyst to synthesize biaryl compounds by the
cross-coupling of a functionalized haloarene with phenylboronic acid.

"As with other palladium-catalyzed C-C coupling reactions, the Suzuki
reaction suffers from a number of drawbacks, such as catalyst loss into the
product, catalyst decomposition, and poor reagent solubilities," Welton
noted. "We postulated that these problems might be resolved by the use of
ionic liquids."

He reported that [bmim][BF4] increases the rate of the Suzuki reaction by
several orders of magnitude when compared with conventional systems and that
the catalytic solution can be reused several times without loss of activity.

According to Welton, in his Chemical Reviews paper on the topic, the
chemistry of room-temperature ionic liquids is at an incredibly exciting
stage of its development. Because many of the systems are easy to handle,
they allow those without specialist knowledge of the field to use them.
"Potentially, any reaction may produce interesting results in ionic liquids,
and the discovery of the new chemistry waiting to be found will be a mammoth
task," he concluded.

Meeting the needs of industry

Several participants at the NATO workshop suggested that the industrial
potential of room-temperature ionic liquids has been overhyped in recent
years. Although it has been generally recognized that ionic liquids may well
contribute to the development of clean technology, it is unlikely that ionic
liquids will provide all the answers.

Richard Freer, a chemist at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, Harlow,
England, pointed out that several factors still have to be addressed before
ionic liquids are welcomed unconditionally by the pharmaceutical industry as
green alternatives to conventional organic solvents.

"These issues encompass cost, stability, toxicity, and ease of processing of
pharmaceutical intermediates," he said.

According to Brian Ellis, a technologist at BP Amoco Research Center,
Sunbury-on-Thames, England, ionic liquids have to be faster, smarter, less
expensive, and cleaner if they are to compete directly with existing
catalyst and solvent technologies. "Even so, there is a growing list of
applications where ionic liquids can induce chemistry not previously
possible," he said. "This work, although it is still in its infancy, will
probably bear fruit in the fine chemicals sector."

David Moody, a researcher at Avecia, Grangemouth, Scotland, remarked that
ionic liquids offer great potential benefits for enabling new chemistry and
reducing environmental impact. "It doesn't matter if they are expensive if
they can be recycled," he said.

He pointed out, however, that a wide range of ionic liquids are currently
synthesized in-house in R&D laboratories. He suggested that if ionic liquid
technology is to be developed, there is a need to develop competitive
commercial supplies of a limited number of ionic liquids.

Wasserscheid at RWTH Aachen University of Technology told C&EN that
laboratory-scale quantities of ionic liquids are now commercially available
from a start-up company in Germany known as Solvent Innovation.

At the end of the workshop, Alabama's Rogers summarized the conclusions and
recommendations of a series of roundtable discussions that took place
following the technical presentations.

He pointed out that there is a demonstrable lack of scientific and
engineering data on room-temperature ionic liquids. "A public, free,
independently verified, Web-based database of physical, thermodynamic, and
related data is urgently needed," he noted. "There is also an immediate need
for toxicity, biodegradation, bioaccumulation, and other safety, health, and
environmental impact data. New analytical tools are also required for
assessing the purity of ionic liquids. In addition, applications-oriented
research on ionic liquids should include cost-benefit, economic, and
life-cycle analyses.

"In general, participants felt that ionic liquids represent a new way of
thinking about solvents," Rogers observed. "The workshop concluded that
research on the topic is intrinsically worth doing for advancing science
with the expectation that something useful may be derived. The field is
experiencing rapid growth and appears to be at a point where scientists,
engineers, and business personnel can work together from the beginning in a
new--or at least rediscovered--area in a new paradigm of green chemistry and
sustainable industry."

NATO's third dimension

"Besides its well-known political and military dimensions, NATO [North
Atlantic Treaty Organization] has a third dimension along which it aims to
encourage interaction among people and foster the development of science and
technology with the objective of contributing to overall stability and
peace," observed Soghomon Boghosian, a chemical engineering professor at the
University of Patras, Greece. Boghosian was a member of the organizing
committee for the NATO advanced research workshop (ARW) on ionic liquids
that was held in Crete last month.

"The NATO Science Programme , which is a major component of this third
dimension, promotes international collaboration between scientists from
countries of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council [EAPC] or Mediterranean
Dialogue countries," Boghosian pointed out to participants at the workshop.

EAPC has 45 member countries, of which 19 are the NATO member countries and
26 are NATO partner countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central
Asia. The seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries are not members of NATO or
EAPC, but are "in dialogue" with NATO.

Boghosian explained that the NATO Science Programme is structured as four
subprograms: Science Fellowships, Research Infrastructure Support,
Cooperative Science & Technology, and Science for Peace. ARWs form part of
the Cooperative Science & Technology subprogram.

"The aims of an ARW are to contribute to the critical assessment of existing
knowledge on new, important topics; to identify directions for future
research; and to promote close working relations between expert scientists
from different countries and with different professional experience,"
Boghosian said. Each ARW is limited to between 20 and 50 experts of whom 40
to 50% must come from NATO partner or Mediterranean Dialogue countries.

Sasol shows interest in ionic liquid technology

Sasol , a petrochemical company based in South Africa, is looking at ways of
using room-temperature ionic liquids to enhance existing chemical processes
and to develop new routes to separate and synthesize industrially important
compounds.

The company produces hydrocarbons through coal gasification followed by
Fischer-Tropsch technology. "In the past, these hydrocarbons were mainly
used as transport fuels, but Sasol will diversify in the future by focusing
on production of high-value chemicals for the global market," said Alta
Ranwell, principal research scientist at Sasol Technology R&D and an
observer at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) workshop on ionic
liquids held in Crete last month.

"Sasol sees ionic liquid technology as a versatile new technology that shows
potential for a variety of applications," she told C&EN. "Possibilities
could include olefin transformations as well as arene reactions."

"Using ionic liquid technology could result in enhanced control over yields
and selectivities when compared with conventional processes," she explained.
"In addition, ionic liquids could be applied in coal-related
chemistries--for example, in direct coal liquefaction and in other
separation and extraction procedures."

Ranwell pointed out that, since commercial processes using room-temperature
ionic liquids still have to be implemented on an industrial scale, the
support of research on ionic liquids is seen as a long-term investment that
could result in significantly reduced costs and positive environmental
impacts.

"This technology would, however, have to clearly prove itself by providing
significant advantages in the Sasol context compared with existing
processes," she concluded.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2000 American Chemical Society

Courtesy Chemical & Engineering News

BUSINESS
October 22, 2001
Volume 79, Number 43
CENEAR 79 43 pp. 22-24
ISSN 0009-2347

PREACHING BEYOND THE CONVERTED
Energy Conversion Devices may finally take its energy alternatives to the
mass market

MARC REISCH, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU

Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) is a Rochester Hills, Mich.-based company
whose commercial and scientific raison d'être relies on change. And change
has been a long time coming.

DYNAMIC DUO Energy Conversion Devices' Chairman Stempel (left) and President
Ovshinsky stake their fortunes on technology leaps and bounds.

Since he founded the company in 1960, President Stanford R. Ovshinsky, 78,
and his wife, Iris, have worked to perfect techniques that depend on the
conversion of amorphous and disordered materials into structured crystalline
materials and then back again. The very science of such a feat applied to
electronics--Ovonics--is derived from the first two letters of Ovshinsky's
name and the last part of the word "electronics."

Ovshinsky hopes his discoveries will launch what he calls the "hydrogen
economy"--a world that depends on plentiful supplies of safely stored
hydrogen to power cars, homes, and factories. And it's a source of power
that Ovshinsky expects will insulate this country from the politics of oil.

What's remarkable is that, since its inception 40 years ago, ECD has
percolated along at a deficit, but with an occasional profit, and has been
dependent on government research grants, development agreements, and equity
investments to keep it rolling. Though middle-aged now, ECD appears to be an
up-and-coming enterprise only because it had to wait so long for the world
to change and recognize the potential of its founder's scientific advances.

However, ECD now has some brawny partners and investors who think the time
for alternative energy has come. Working capital on hand is about $93
million. It certainly didn't hurt the company's cash position when Texaco,
now ChevronTexaco, invested more than $70 million for a 20% stake in ECD
just over a year ago.

ChevronTexaco has also anted up $320 million to fund three separate joint
development companies: one to develop hydrogen fuel cells for cars, another
to develop hydrogen storage tanks for cars, and a third to develop nickel
metal hydride (NiMH) batteries for hybrid electric vehicles.

And that's not all. ECD and Belgian wire producer Bekaert formed a solar
cell manufacturing joint venture a year and a half ago. Bekaert invested $84
million in the venture, of which $63 million has gone to build a plant in
Auburn Hills, Mich., that is capable of producing enough thin silicon solar
panels annually to generate 25 MW of power--sufficient for 12,500 homes
during peak daytime operation, according to the company. That is a small,
albeit significant, down payment on energy independence.

A dapper Ovshinsky explains the appeal of ECD. "We're the only company that
provides a complete systems approach for the emerging hydrogen economy," he
says. "We supply photovoltaics and fuel cells for energy generation,
batteries and hydride materials for hydrogen storage, and the production of
hydrogen using photovoltaics to break up water."

The complete systems Ovshinsky envisions are still just a glint in his eye.
But some elements of this self-taught man's vision (his formal education
ended with high school) have come onto the market in products most of us
would recognize. Just about all major producers of NiMH batteries for cell
phones, notebook computers, and portable tools pay license fees and
royalties to ECD. These companies include Toshiba, Hitachi, Canon, and
Maxell. NiMH makers sell more than $1 billion worth of the batteries per
year, ECD says.

ECD boasts that these rechargeable batteries have energy densities as high
as 90 watt hours per kg versus 30 Wh for conventional nickel cadmium
batteries. And ECD claims they are more economical than their closest
competitors, lithium ion batteries. "Our technology is what the world
needs," Ovshinsky says.

ENERGY CONVERSION DEVICES AT A GLANCE

Headquarters: Rochester Hills, Mich.
Revenues: $71 million
Net loss: $5.1 million
Employees: 500a
Revenue sources: Product development agreements on fuel cells, hydrogen
storage systems, batteries, computer memory, and optical memory (53% of
revenues); product sales including solar panels, positive and negative
battery electrodes, and battery packs (34%); technology license and royalty
fees from nickel metal hydride battery makers and optical memory suppliers
(11%); laboratory and administrative fees (2%)

Website: http://www.ovonics.com

NOTE: Financial data for the fiscal year ending June 30. a About half are
scientists/technicians.

IF KNOWLEDGE is a form of power that the world is willing to pay for, then
it seems fitting that ECD's technology makes information storage a reality,
too. The concept of amorphous and dissimilar materials makes rewritable
compact discs (CDs) and digital versatile discs (DVDs) possible.

Writing to the discs crystallizes a proprietary coating. Rewriting puts the
disc through what Ovshinsky calls a phase change. A laser disorders and
recrystallizes the coating to reflect new information. Licensees of the
technology include consumer electronic giants Ricoh, Sony, and Toshiba.

The same concept also makes possible what Ovshinsky refers to as ovonic
unified memory--an alternative to computer memory such as FLASH, SRAM, and
DRAM that is potentially less expensive and more versatile. In 1999, former
Micron Technology Chairman Tyler Lowrey, along with Intel and others,
invested in a venture with ECD called Ovonyx to commercialize the
technology.

Many of ECD's recent manufacturing alliances have been helped along by an
energetic Robert C. Stempel, 68, chairman of General Motors between 1990 and
1992 and chairman of ECD since 1995. Stempel is a Detroit insider whose
knowledge of international business has helped the company in alliances with
the movers and shakers of the consumer economy. He is also an eloquent
proponent of the company's capabilities.

"We have a strong patent position in amorphous and disordered materials,"
says Stempel, including 364 U.S. and 836 foreign patents covering
applications of amorphous and dissimilar materials. "Our strategy," he says,
"is to build alliances" to manufacture the materials the patents cover and
to bring them to market quickly with strong, deep-pocketed backers.

The ChevronTexaco alliance with ECD revived work that ECD did a number of
years ago on hydrogen fuel cells for cars. The so-called ovonic regenerative
fuel cell does not depend on a noble-metal catalyst such as platinum and
palladium, nor does it require a proton exchange membrane (PEM) as competing
fuel cells do (C&EN, March 5, page 19).

In the ovonic fuel cell, hydrogen is ionized at the cathode and oxygen
enters at the anode. Separating the two electrodes is a proprietary solid or
liquid electrolyte instead of the PEM other fuel cells use. While he won't
say how the electrolyte is made or precisely how it works, Ovshinsky does
say it is "based on disordered materials. We can engineer an electrolyte
with elements nature did not intend to put together."

Water and electrical energy are the products of the ovonic fuel cell just as
in the PEM cell, but ECD says the components of its fuel cell cost less and
have a much wider temperature operating range--20 to 120 °C for the ovonic
system versus 60 to 80 °C for the PEM cell. The ovonic fuel cell, Stempel
adds, is designed to absorb vehicle braking energy and is "robust and has a
long, useful life."

ChevronTexaco and ECD are also developing automotive hydrogen storage
systems. ECD's system depends on a magnesium alloy, says Stempel. The basis
of the storage system is the dissociation of hydrogen gas by catalytic
action into individual hydrogen atoms that bond to the magnesium, forming a
metal hydride.

Such a system can safely store hydrogen at an energy density equivalent to
more than 100 g per L. That makes it practical to store enough fuel to allow
a car a range of 300 miles before refueling. ChevronTexaco could capture
hydrogen normally flared in a gas field and sell it at service stations,
Stempel says.

Large storage systems comparable to those the partners hope to place in cars
would allow the fuel to be transported to service stations and stored there.
A hydrogen-fueled catalytic burner would generate heat to desorb fuel in
storage and pump it into a car's fuel tank. "We can fill hydrogen in a car
tank in about a minute and a half, but it's likely to take longer so people
will have the time when they stop to buy Twinkies," Stempel says.

And to capture a position in hybrid electric vehicles that can get nearly 90
miles to a gallon of gas, ChevronTexaco and ECD are gearing up to supply
36-V and 42-V NiMH battery systems. The partners expect that 30% of cars
sold in 2010 will be hybrid electrics with small gas engines supplying power
to charge the vehicle's batteries.

In the solar-cell alliance with Bekaert, called United Solar Systems, the
partners make thin, flexible solar cells that can be applied to traditional
asphalt roofing shingles or installed over metal roofing.

OTHER COMPETITORS make heavy, inflexible panels framed in glass. "We are
trying to do with photovoltaics what Eastman Kodak did with photographic
media when they went from making photosensitive glass plates to flexible
film," Stempel says.

United Solar Systems applies three 1-mm-thick layers of amorphous silicon by
vapor deposition on a 125-mm-thick continuous sheet of stainless steel. Each
layer is optimized to absorb either red, blue, or green photons for greater
electric conversion efficiency compared with one layer alone. To protect the
cells against ultraviolet degradation, United Solar encapsulates the solar
cells in two polymers: ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer and DuPont's Tefzel
fluoropolymer.

The percentage of sunlight converted to electricity from the solar panels
can reach 10.2%. While that doesn't sound awfully high, it's much better
than competing solar cells, ECD claims.

Payback for installation of a domestic solar electric system on a home would
be about 5–10 years at current electric prices. The panels can be expected
to work for at least another 10 years. Bekaert and ECD give the cells a
20-year warranty.

ECD admits, however, that its solar cells will not be truly competitive with
conventional fuels until the company is able to ramp up production to 100 MW
a year--a step it is not yet ready to take. Still, the world market for
solar panels is about $1 billion annually, ECD says. The panels are
especially useful in developing countries that lack a well-developed energy
grid.

But Ovshinsky is planning for the long term. He wants, he says, "to turn all
roofs into clean power generators."

That particular change may be a long time in coming. But "we're in the big
time now," Ovshinsky says, as he counts his eager deep-pocketed partners and
sees energy and information systems providers beginning to embrace the
amorphous and dissimilar materials he has long pioneered.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society

Courtesy Chemical & Engineering News

Pollution Control
Several issues forestall a multiple-pollutant approach to regulating air
emissions.

GOVERNMENT & POLICY
November 19, 2001
Volume 79, Number 47
CENEAR 79 47 pp. 57-59
ISSN 0009-2347

MANY POLLUTANTS, ONE CONTROL PLAN
Congress examines strategy for SO2, NOx, and mercury--and possibly CO2--as
coordinated effort

COAL POWER New clean air legislation is targeted at emissions from
fossil-fueled electricity plants. Lawmakers generally agree that new
controls are needed for sulfur dioxide, mercury, and oxides of nitrogen, but
they are divided on whether to include carbon dioxide.

CHERYL HOGUE, C&EN WASHINGTON

Cleaning up air pollution thus far has meant regulation of one pollutant at
a time. To a certain extent, this strategy has steadily improved air quality
in the U.S.

For one sector that is a significant source of several air
pollutants--electric utilities that burn fossil fuels--controlling one
substance at a time is less efficient than is reducing several contaminants
in a single effort.

The Bush Administration, Congress, environmental groups, and utilities all
agree in principle that a multiple-pollutant approach to regulating air
emissions is a good idea. And they agree that at least three
substances--sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and mercury--should be the
focus of such an approach. Beyond that, wrangling begins.

One issue of contention is how far and how fast to push back power plant
emissions. Another is whether to set a collective ceiling for releases of
each of these substances and distribute allowances for pollution to power
plants. Facilities that slash their emissions to low levels could then sell
their leftover allowances to dirtier plants. Although most parties agree
that these so-called cap-and-trade programs would work well for most of the
power plant pollutants, they differ on whether this strategy should be used
for mercury.

In addition, some members of Congress and environmental activists want the
multipollutant legislation to cover a fourth compound: carbon dioxide. CO2
has not traditionally been considered a major air pollutant, but they want
emissions of this substance controlled because it is a greenhouse-effect gas
whose levels are building up in the atmosphere. The Bush Administration as
well as members of Congress from states with lots of coal-fired generating
plants are adamantly opposed to such a move.

COAL-FIRED power plants release all four of these pollutants. Oil- and
natural-gas-fired plants do not emit mercury but are sources of NOx, SO2,
and CO2. However, they release fewer amounts of these substances per unit of
energy produced than do coal-fired facilities.

Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Environment & Public
Works Committee, has begun holding hearings on his multipollutant bill. That
measure, S. 556, would reduce power plant emissions of NOx by 75% from 1997
levels and SO2 emissions by 75% from levels now required under the national
acid rain program. It would require each plant to cut mercury emissions by
90% from 1999 levels. CO2 would be pared back to 1990 levels. All of these
cuts would take place by 2007 under Jeffords' legislation.

The Bush Administration opposes S. 556. At a Nov. 1 hearing, Administration
officials described two economic analyses of a policy similar to S. 556: one
conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency and the other by the Energy
Information Administration (EIA). Both concluded that the bill would raise
energy prices significantly. However, they reached different conclusions on
whether those price increases would hurt the economy.

Jeffrey R. Holmstead, assistant administrator for air and radiation at EPA,
said Jeffords' plan would increase the price of electricity, would force a
fuel switch from coal to natural gas and thus drive up the price of natural
gas, and might cause the shutdown of some generating plants when controls
take effect. Coal use would drop 25 to 30%, he said.

According to EIA, Jeffords' plan would raise the average price of
electricity for consumers 33%--or 2 cents per kWh--over what it otherwise
would be in 2020. Mary J. Hutzler, EIA acting administrator, said most of
this price increase would be due to CO2 controls; mercury controls would
raise electricity prices 3 to 4% by 2020, and SO2 and NOx reductions
together would boost prices 1%. Natural gas prices would also be higher as
more electricity generators switched from coal to gas to meet the new
requirements.

"We believe the emissions reductions and timing in the bill will be too
costly for consumers and will endanger national energy security," Holmstead
said. "The Administration will not support any legislation that would cause
a significant decline in our nation's ability to use coal as a major source
of current and future electricity."

Holmstead said EPA has not yet quantified the health and environmental
benefits from reducing the four pollutants in S. 556.

EPA AND EIA reached different conclusions as to the overall economic effect
of cutting the four pollutants simultaneously. Hutzler said EIA has
calculated that a four-pollutant bill would lead to a 0.8% cut in gross
domestic product by 2007, or cost about $100 billion that year. But EPA
determined there would be no overall economic effect because money spent to
buy smokestack scrubbers and other technologies would get recirculated
within the U.S. economy, Holmstead said.

Jeffords, who requested the studies, faulted the analyses for failing to
determine how much it would cost for power plants to fully meet existing
Clean Air Act requirements. "Without that information, it's impossible to
determine the true incremental costs of any additional control
requirements," he said.

The mercury emissions control provisions of S. 556 pose a particular concern
to the Administration, though Holmstead said President George W. Bush is
committed to capping emissions of this element.

According to Holmstead, a 90% cut in mercury emissions from individual power
plants, as proposed in S. 556, is problematic.

"We have not seen anything that demonstrates that every coal-fired power
plant would be able to achieve 90% source-specific controls for mercury by
2007, without considerable fuel switching, which would be very disruptive to
our economy and undermine energy security. In addition, requiring the same
level of reduction at a plant that emits 0.1 lb of mercury and a plant that
emits 2,000 lb of mercury [per year]--regardless of cost--is neither
efficient nor necessary," according to Holmstead.

He advocated a program to establish a nationwide ceiling for the amount of
annual mercury emissions from power plants and distributing allowances for
mercury emissions. Cleaner plants not needing all their allowances could
sell the extras to more polluting facilities.

The Department of Energy, utilities, and EPA are funding R&D to improve
mercury collection from coal-fired utilities (C&EN, Jan. 1, page 18).

Environmental activists are dead set against a cap-and-trade program for
mercury. This could lead to some plants increasing their mercury emissions,
they argue.

"Emissions from local plants deposit locally and expose people who live
nearby to mercury levels above those considered safe," a coalition of 11
national environmental groups wrote to the members of the Senate Environment
& Public Works Committee on Oct. 31. "Any program that would allow local
mercury burdens to increase would be unconscionable."

Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) expressed concern about the availability
of control technologies for mercury and called for a hearing on this issue.

The environmental group coalition said, "Mercury-control technology recently
tested on power plants is capable of capturing 80 to 90% of mercury in flue
gas." It added, "Extensive research is under way to perfect these and other
technologies that will make further cuts technically and economically
feasible for all power plants."

Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) said legislation to lower mercury emissions
would drive the development of such technology. Mercury-capture technology
eventually could get exported abroad and would boost the U.S. economy, he
said.

The environmental groups compared concerns about mercury-stripping
technologies to the oil industry's resistance to the phaseout of lead from
gasoline. "Once a policy decision was made that lead removal from gasoline
was necessary to protect public health, the technology became commercially
available, and industry responded to the challenge," the coalition said.

Holmstead argued against including CO2 in a multipollutant bill. Carbon
dioxide has never been classified as a pollutant by the Clean Air Act "and
does not pose any direct threat to human health, unlike NOx, SO2, and
mercury," he said.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION for months has promised to issue a legislative
proposal for a three-pollutant bill covering SO2, NOx, and mercury. Those
plans got put on hold after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, but the
proposal is expected in the "relatively near future," according to
Holmstead. Jeffords pressed Holmstead for a more precise expected arrival
time for the plan, but Holmstead did not provide one.

The Bush Administration also sees the multiple-pollutant legislation as a
way to overturn parts of the Clean Air Act. Holmstead explained that
Jeffords' bill would make some existing requirements unnecessary but would
not eliminate them. These include the maximum achievable control technology
requirement for mercury.

"Rather than add yet another layer of environmental regulations on top of
the existing ones, we believe that S. 556 should eliminate those unnecessary
existing requirements," Holmstead said.

But this idea met with resistance. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a
cosponsor of S. 556, pledged to fight any efforts to use the
multiple-pollutant legislation to weaken or do away with existing Clean Air
Act provisions.

At the hearing, Democrats and Republicans expressed general support for a
multipollutant bill, though most Republicans opposed inclusion of CO2 in the
legislation. There were specific attacks on S. 556 as well.

Voinovich said the bill, as drafted, "would be disastrous for our energy
supply, our economy, and our competitiveness in the world marketplace."
Economic impacts of the bill would be felt hardest in the Midwest and the
Atlantic coastal states, he said.

Yet Voinovich supports a strategy for controlling NOx, SO2, and mercury and
is open to voluntary reductions in CO2. Such a program must be
cost-effective, make reductions in pollution, not cause massive fuel
switching away from coal, and not harm the economy, he said.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) said S. 556 fails to acknowledge
regional differences in air quality. More than 80% of electricity generated
in the West is from coal-fired plants, Campbell said, yet western states do
not experience the high levels of air pollution found in the East. Any
multipollutant legislation will have to be flexible enough to accommodate
all regions' needs, Campbell said. He opposes controls on CO2.

Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science Committee,
told the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, "Coal would still be a
significant fuel after the passage of a four-pollutant bill, and substitutes
for coal are readily available in North America." Boehlert, along with more
than 100 House members--Republicans, Democrats, and an Independent--are
cosponsors of a four-pollutant companion bill to S. 556. The House measure
is H.R. 1256.

"We ought to be attacking our dependence on foreign oil primarily by
becoming more energy efficient and developing alternative fuels, not by
blithely ignoring the long-term environmental and economic costs associated
with our continuing dependence on coal," Boehlert said.

It remains unclear whether Congress will move on multipollutant legislation
while lawmakers are focusing on homeland security and the war on terrorism.
Much will depend on the Bush Administration's still-pending proposal for
changing air pollution controls for power plants.

But a great deal of interest in this strategy exists in the halls of
Congress and has tripartisan support. In the short term, Congress will
continue to probe the issue through hearings. But sometime in the future,
lawmakers are likely to gird themselves for the tough negotiations that
would transform this idea into law.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society

"... industrial customers are not beating down the doors to get their hands
on a technology that promises to all but eliminate air pollutants."

Chemical News & Engineering
COVER STORY
November 5, 2001
Volume 79, Number 45
CENEAR 79 45 p. 23-30
ISSN 0009-2347

COATROOM Coming off the line, these cabinet doors have just been coated with
Lamineer powder-based product.

ROHM AND HAAS PHOTO

MARC REISCH, C&EN NORTHEAST NEWS BUREAU

Watching paint dry is not the most exciting of pastimes. But what if it
could happen in the twinkling of an eye?

The paint industry has had the ability to supply rapid-cure coatings for
some years now, but customers have been slow on the uptake. Call it a matter
of comfort, or think of it as form of inertia, but industrial customers are
not beating down the doors to get their hands on a technology that promises
to all but eliminate air pollutants.

To be fair, large industrial concerns have huge investments in paint
processes that satisfy performance criteria and meet current government air
emissions standards. And providers of water-borne and high-solids
solvent-borne paints have a talent for continually tweaking their products
to meet increasingly stringent government regulations.

Large industrial concerns certainly would not want to take the plunge into
fairly new paint systems unless they could be assured of getting cost
savings and performance gains while meeting government standards. But with
the latest improvements, some coatings manufacturers think they have the
answer for customers who want to paint cars, trucks, lawn mowers, wood, and
metal furniture.

The answer, they claim, is powder and radiation-curable coatings. Powder
coatings melt and flow on an oven-baked object. They come in two versions:
thermosets, which cross-link and cure as they heat up, and thermoplastics,
which solidify as they cool. Radiation-curable coatings are liquids that
only need a special ultraviolet light or electron-beam source to cure in an
instant.

A few years ago, some paint makers began to talk about a new hybrid:
UV-curable powder coatings. The new powders combine the best of powder and
radiation-cured coatings. They melt in a low-temperature oven and so can be
used on some plastic and wood components. And when the powders have
coalesced to form a smooth film, exposure to UV lamps instantly cures the
film. Already, production lines that make use of these hybrid rapid-drying
paint processes are beginning to open up.

Powder and radiation paint systems together make up only about 9% of U.S.
coatings shipments, and they are coming into a slowing market. According to
the Census Bureau, the value of paint shipments in 2000 was $16.2 billion,
down 0.5% from a year earlier, while the volume of shipments increased
marginally to nearly 1.3 billion gal. For the first six months of 2001,
shipments were 666 million gal, down 2% from a year earlier. The value of
those shipments slipped almost 1% to $8.6 billion.

Powder and radiation paint systems mostly serve markets catering to original
equipment manufacturers. The Census Bureau statistics cover not only the
original equipment manufacturer paint market, but also the architectural
paint category, covering home interiors and exteriors, and special-purpose
coatings such as traffic paints.

Consultant Phil Phillips values the North American paint shipments of 1.4
billion gal in 2000, including the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, at $21.2
billion. A survey of paint manufacturers by his own firm, Southern Pines,
N.C.-based PGPhillips & Associates, puts paint shipments in the U.S. alone
at about $17.3 billion. "The Census Bureau does not capture a lot of the
growth out there," he says.

Worldwide, Phillips says, paint makers shipped 5 billion gal valued at $70.6
billion in 2000. European paint makers, both east and west, shipped 1.7
billion gal valued at $23.9 billion. Asian producers shipped 1.1 billion gal
valued at $14.8 billion, and producers in the rest of the world--including
South America, Africa, and the Middle East--shipped 900 million gal with a
value of $10.6 billion.

RAW MATERIAL prices have varied this year. On the one hand, energy shortages
in the U.S. early in the year helped push up prices for paint production and
petrochemical-derived raw materials. On the other hand, declining industrial
production meant a weaker market for the white pigment titanium dioxide, one
of the most expensive paint ingredients.

According to Jim Fisher, president of Princeton Junction, N.J.-based
International Business Management Associates, 2000 was a good year for TiO2,
but beginning in January of 2001, industrial activity slowed. So far this
year, worldwide consumption of the opacifying pigment has dropped 4 to 5%,
with a similar drop in the U.S.

Fisher explains that the paper market, which normally consumes about 15% of
annual TiO2 production, "has been in dire straits and I believe will remain
there." Paint makers, which consume about 55% of annual production, have
benefited and prices are now down to 1997 levels, he says. Even the planned
shutdown of a Kerr-McGee TiO2 plant in Antwerp, Belgium, and Millennium's
shutdown of a facility in Baltimore won't tighten up supplies.

The plant closings removed 68,000 metric tons of capacity from the global
market, but supply and demand are still out of balance, Fisher says. And
though plastics and other uses that make up the balance of demand are fairly
strong, TiO2 plant utilization rates globally are still in the mid-80%
range, he says.

Like the trend in raw material prices, the industrial maintenance market has
been mixed. According to Jay Wilner, president of San Francisco-based
consultants WEH Corp., the value of paints used to maintain bridges,
industrial plants, and roads in the U.S. was about $2.2 billion in 2000 and
will be flat to down in 2001.

On the plus side for paint makers, new construction at airports to put in
security measures after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will mean increased
use of paint. But airports are likely to postpone expansion plans because
air travel has declined, so on balance, paint sales in this category could
be flat, Wilner says.

Government spending to lift the economy should help increase paint use on
highways and bridges, says Wilner. But economic and manufacturing weakness
means less need for paint to maintain hotels, stores, and industrial
establishments.

With difficult times like these, paint makers have been looking at ways to
streamline costs. Some have done it through consolidation. Over the past two
years, Valspar bought Lilly Industries, PPG Industries bought Monarch
Paints, BASF bought the industrial coatings business of Rohm and Haas, and
Akzo Nobel bought Dexter's aerospace coatings business. The industry counted
about 1,200 paint makers about 12 years ago, and it counts about 600 now,
says John F. Martin, senior manager of consultants at Arthur D. Little Inc.

Another way for an already large producer to control costs is to use a
private computer network to link up with suppliers. Stephen J. Doyle, senior
vice president of the Internet business group at Aspen Technology, says his
company has set up an exchange it calls Aspen Buy that links paint maker
ICI's North American operations with 400 suppliers.

Doyle explains that ICI can set its production schedule and order supplies
timed to its needs. For instance, tank sensors at ICI's paint-making
operations can trigger an automatic purchase order and eliminate the need to
keep excess stock on hand. Also, as ICI's production requirements alter
because of shifts in retail demand, the system can automate order changes
and reduce the amount of paperwork that a change used to require.

TRADITIONAL COATINGS manufacturers are looking to supply chain and
consolidation efforts to get a better handle on costs in a flat market.
Makers of powder and radiation-cured coatings are trying to push advances in
resins and curing systems to fuel growth.

Consultant Steven J. Nerlfi of West Caldwell, N.J.-based Kusumgar, Nerlfi &
Growney says radiation can cure not only coatings but inks and adhesives as
well. A new study by his firm reviews applications including compact disc
coatings, flexographic inks, and prefinished wood flooring. It puts the
world market for all radiation-cured products in 2000 at 430 million lb,
valued at $2.3 billion. U.S. consumption was about 120 million lb, valued at
$940 million.

Nerlfi sets the 2000 U.S. radiation-cured coatings market at 84 million lb,
valued at $420 million and growing at 5 to 8% a year. The largest uses of
these coatings are for wood furniture and prefinished wood floors. Smaller
uses include coatings for optical fibers, vinyl flooring, metal, and glass.

Other consultants have slightly different estimates of the radiation-cured
coatings market. Impact Marketing Consultants, the Manchester, Vt., firm
that puts out the "Rauch Paint Guide," estimates the size of the U.S. market
at 85 million lb, values it at $475 million, and says it is growing 9%
annually.

The Rauch Guide also estimates powder coatings consumption. For 2000, the
guide says consumption is 345 million lb, valued at $873 million, and
forecast to grow 7% annually over the next five years.

Though the consultants' forecasts show slight differences, they do
underscore growth in segments of the market that are doing better than
product coatings in general, which grew less than 3% per year in the U.S.
between 1996 and 2000.

As the Environmental Protection Agency and local governments continue to
pressure industry to install maximum achievable controls on emissions,
powder and UV-cured coatings technologies look ever more attractive. This is
particularly true when manufacturers consider installation of brand new
coating lines, notes Robert Nelson, the National Paint & Coatings
Association's senior director of environmental affairs:
http://www.paint.org/index.htm

SOME PAINT MAKERS offer radiation-cured powder coatings, but the technology
is in its infancy. Of the 425 million lb of powder Nerlfi estimates is used
in the U.S., UV-curable powders hardly show up on the radar. Only 170,000 lb
of such powders was sold in 2000, he says. While "any temperature-sensitive
substrate is a potential market for UV powders," says Nerlfi, the cost of
these powders is high--about $13 to $14 per lb compared with the average
cost of conventional powders at $2.00 to $2.50 per lb.

Arthur D. Little's Martin says the major powder coatings makers include Akzo
Nobel, DuPont, the Morton Powder Coatings unit of Rohm and Haas, Ferro,
Jotun, and BASF. Resin suppliers include UCB, DSM, and Bayer. Suppliers of
catalysts for UV powders include Ciba Specialty Chemicals and the Sartomer
unit of Atofina.

Bayer, long a paint material supplier, is very interested in UV powder
coatings. According to Randall S. Dearth, head of Bayer's global powder
coatings business group, the company's lab technicians are looking into the
development of UV-curable powders.

"Customers for UV powders tell us that growth rates are in the 10 to 20%
range," says Dearth. He cautions, however, that those growth rates are
likely too optimistic given the current economic downturn. But they are
probably a good projection for when the world economy does pick up again.

Both the UV liquids and UV-cured powders give off minimal emissions--a
reason why they are considered more environmentally friendly than
solvent-borne coatings. However, UV powders have an advantage over uncured
UV liquids, which must be handled with extra precaution since they can
irritate skin, says Dearth. And dry UV-cured powders, he points out, are
easier to handle and are also recyclable.

Bayer has been particularly interested in the powder coatings market since
it acquired Sybron last year and along with it the Ruco polyester powder
operations in Columbus, Ga. Now Bayer can supply not only hydroxyl and
carboxyl polyester powders to formulators, but also isocyanates and pigments
as well.

The purchase gives Bayer a leading position in the powder coatings market in
North America, says Dearth, which the company ultimately hopes to expand
globally, possibly with a joint-venture partner to produce powder resins.

Right now, though, Bayer is closely following the growth of the more
traditional powder coatings market. It's a global market that Bayer places
at about 1.6 billion lb. But if automakers continue their interest in powder
coatings, the market is likely to grow much larger.

Chrysler has largely adopted epoxy hybrid primer-surfacer powders in its
automotive factories, says Dearth. But he says Bayer's materials are likely
to compete in that market, too. General Motors has begun to adopt what Bayer
considers a better technology: urethane powder primer-surfacers. "At equal
thicknesses, the urethane powder has better stone and chip resistance," says
Dearth.

Consultant Phillips says powder coatings got their start in the early 1950s,
"but they really didn't hit their stride until the late 1970s," when they
began to be widely used on appliances. Though the category experienced
double-digit growth until recently--Phillips puts annual growth now at just
6%--many producers did not make much profit. He values U.S. annual powder
sales at about $1 billion.

"Powder producers gave a perfect example of what not to do with a new
product line," Phillips says. "They didn't ask for the increase in value
powder brought to the customer, because they were so anxious to sell and
knock out the liquid competition." But powder coatings makers now have a
chance to do things differently with the new low-temperature-cure coatings
and the UV-cured powders, he says.

This is the strategy at Rohm and Haas's Morton Powder Coatings unit. "We
won't play the price game, and we don't pursue unprofitable business," says
Michael G. Favreau, marketing manager for the unit's Lamineer line of
low-temperature-cure thermoset and UV-cured powders. Powders are based on
epoxy, acrylic, and polyester, as well as hybrids of these resins, Favreau
says.

The trick with low-temperature-cure powders has been not only in dropping
cure temperatures to between 250 and 300 °F from about 350 to 400 °F, but
also in making a stable product that will not solidify in the shipping box,
he says.

Low-temperature-cure powder coatings offer furniture makers a technology
that does not emit smog-producing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The
furniture industry has been struggling with alternatives to the high-VOC
lacquers traditionally used to coat wood. Powder coatings offer one
alternative for the medium-density fiberboard (MDF) widely used to
manufacture cabinet doors, counters, and desktops.

But more important, a finisher can coat MDF in just a few steps, instead of
the four to seven steps required to spray multiple liquid coats on MDF, says
Favreau. Also, as an alternative to laminates on MDF, powder offers a
seamless finish and won't delaminate in service from the effects of moisture
and heat.

As for UV-cured powders, Favreau says not much is sold today. The company's
Ultra-V powders for metal include a UV-cured line that one finisher is using
on motor assemblies. However, Morton and others are still working on
UV-cured powders for three-dimensional objects because of the difficulty of
exposing all surfaces of a round or rectangular object to a radiation
source.

UV lamp maker Fusion UV Systems is also working on extending use of UV-cured
powders. The company's lamps, developed in consultation with radiation-cured
coatings formulators, emit both longer UV wavelengths to cure through the
film and shorter UV wavelengths to cure the film at the surface. Susan
Mitchell, business development manager, says UV-cured powders could also be
used to manufacture dry eraser boards, preprimed composition moldings, and
mirror backings.

Also under development are clear UV-cured powders to finish
temperature-sensitive substrates such as plastics and hardwoods. According
to Mitchell, it is now possible to melt some UV-cured powders at
temperatures as low as 175 °F because of improved resins from suppliers like
UCB and DSM. She says fine furniture makers are looking into the possibility
of using one pass of UV-cured powder over hardwood before sanding to a
smooth finish instead of the current practice of alternately coating with
lacquer and sanding three times.

Mitchell points out that UV-cured powders offer advantages to metal coaters,
too. "As metal heats up, 'outgases' have to pass through the powder,
producing pinholes in the paint," she says. UV-cured powders don't require
as much heat, so outgassing is not a problem.

COSTS TO INSTALL a UV-cured powder line to coat MDF could run $1 million or
more, Mitchell says. However, smaller powder coatings operations with only
spray equipment and an oven could actually be set up in a garage at a cost
of between $50,000 and $100,000, says Gary K. Sweet, president of consultant
and systems supplier Powder-X Coating Systems, Huntsville, Ala. Add a
conveyor, and costs rise to about $250,000, he says.

Sweet says there are about 900 mom-and-pop custom powder coaters in the U.S.
and about 200 larger operations. "We don't recommend that powder coatings
operators set up a plastic or wood line now. It's just not a big business,"
he says. "There is enough on our plate now just to handle the metal powder
coatings business."

But as furniture manufacturers and plastic coaters seek productivity and
cost advantages, they may want to take a closer look at UV-cured coatings.
Ciba Specialty Chemicals, a major supplier of photoinitiators used in
radiation-cured liquids and UV-cured powders, says it has developed the
chemistry to produce UV-cured powder coats that can be applied to doors or
window frames intended for use outdoors.

Don Wostratzky, Ciba's manager of market development, says a traditional UV
absorber such as a benzotriazole could interfere with the UV cure process.
"But there is a way around the problem," he says. "We recommend the use of a
triazine instead of a benzotriazole. Triazine does not absorb as much
radiation in the 360- to 400-nm range, where most UV powders cure."

Ciba recommends a blend of two photoinitiators. Irgacure 2959, an a-hydroxy
ketone, helps cross-link a powder resin at the 360- to 400-nm range at the
surface of a powder film. Irgacure 819, a bis(acyl)phosphine oxide, works at
the same range to cross-link the powder resin below the surface.

"This is forward-looking work," says Wostratzky. "Most application work on
UV-cured powder is now for interior use. Ultimately, we expect UV powders
will be used for outdoor applications."

Sharing that enthusiasm for UV-cured coatings is Ralph Lavi, powder coatings
market manager at UCB Chemicals. "UV is the next step change in powder
technology," he says. UCB supplies formulators with polyester powder
coatings resins designed for use with various curing agents (such as epoxies
and triglycidylisocyanurates).

While powder coatings formulators have been focusing on UV powder for wood,
Lavi sees other possibilities. For instance, large metal items such as
engine blocks would require much less energy to coat since UV-cure resins
flow at a lower temperature. Ceramic tile could be made with UV powders,
too, since the powders would flow at a much lower temperature than
traditional glazes, Lavi says.

He also expects that UV-cured powder will compete with low-temperature cure
powders for wood. UV powders would only require 40 seconds in an oven at 250
°F versus low-temperature-cure powders, which require 10 to 20 minutes at
212 to 284 °F. And he claims the UV-cure powders would be one-half to
one-third thinner than low-temperature powders. So the final cost to coat an
item with UV powders would be 20 to 40% less expensive.

BIG ADVANTAGES for UV-cured powders are that they are sprayable and can coat
3-D objects, says Keven Bryan, Dow Chemical's UV specialties market manager.
UV-cured liquids are generally padded or rolled onto 2-D surfaces.

To expand formulators' choices in resins, Dow has just introduced a
UV-curable solid epoxy, says Bryan. Most of the powder for UV-cured finishes
already in the market are based on polyester and melamine-vinyl ether
resins. The experimental resin with the tongue-twisting designation of XZ
92478.00 offers better chemical resistance, hardness, and adhesion than
polyester-based UV-cured resins, he says. He suggests that the new Dow resin
would find good use on interior furniture such as kitchen and bathroom
cabinets.

Akzo Nobel's powder coatings market manager, Richard J. Higgins, thinks
UV-cured powders may be developed to coat the interior of steel food and
beverage cans. But while UV powder technology develops, he says, traditional
polyester powder coatings have been breaking into new markets as well. For
example, they are widely used to cover prefabricated metal building
exteriors, especially in Europe.

The company has developed new polyester resins that, together with the right
pigments, provide extra durability and UV-resistance outdoors. It sells
these "ultra-durable" powders as D2000 and D525, says Higgins, and they are
widely used in Europe. "The U.S. could use a lot more powder if it follows
European trends and replaces paint now used on architectural metal," he
says.

A trend in the past five years has been the development of powder coatings
with metallic sparkle and other special effects. "We spent a lot of time and
money developing these new effects," says Higgins of the special-effect
powders, which are in great demand in Asia. "We do live in an age of
glitter."

But one place where glitter can't yet go is in powder color coats for
automotive use, according to Robert R. Matheson Jr., DuPont Performance
Coating's strategic technology manager. DuPont sells powder primers and
clear coats, but not powder color coats, to automakers. "Current powder
technology can't match the metallic and pearlescent effects achievable with
water-based color coats," he says.

Metal flake is only properly oriented in a paint film as water evaporates
and the paint film shrinks, says Matheson. "We looked at magnetic fields and
flow geometry to get the metal flake properly oriented in the film," he
says.

However, PPG believes that stylish metallic powder color coats are possible,
and it has set out to prove it in its P2Zero prototype process. In fact,
Denis Taljan, decorative products director in PPG's auto coatings division,
says that, because powder shrinks less than liquid-based coatings as they
cure, "it is easier to manage metallic flake orientation."

And not only is the application of a stylish base color coat a possibility,
it all can be done in the zero-emissions paint shops PPG hopes automakers
will build once the economy picks up. The P2Zero process has no waste, gives
off no emissions, uses no water, and would take up less space than
liquid-based coatings lines, says Taljan.

After electrodeposition treatment of the car body for corrosion protection,
a base powder coat would be applied to the car, Taljan explains. The
bluish-gray layer consists of "a hodgepodge of all colors recycled from
overspray of the color coat," he says. A color coat would follow the
application of the base coat, and then the body would go through "a
short-duration bake cycle at 300 °F to melt the powder a little." After the
oven treatment, the car would get a clear top coat and then the car would go
into an oven again for 20 minutes at 325 °F.

The entire paint system is based on an acid epoxy resin, says Taljan. It
consists of an acid functional resin and an epoxy functional resin that
cross-link as the powder melts. "This system has the same performance and
same aesthetics of existing systems, but it can be done at a lower overall
processing cost. It's a good business decision," says Taljan.

Aside from auto bodies, powder coatings find uses on other automotive parts.
Atofina's Rilsan nylon 11-based thermoplastic powder coating is used on
minivan sliding-door rails because of the good lubricity and abrasion
resistance, says Fine Powders Market Manager Neil K. Lehman. It also is used
to coat truck transmission components where those characteristics help
increase transmission life five times beyond what it would be without the
coating.

Rilsan has its major end use as a pipe coating. Atofina recently received
approval from the American Water Works Association for use of Rilsan in
potable-water-supply pipe. While the Rilsan powders emit no VOCs when they
melt, primers to improve adhesion of the powder do. To address this issue,
Atofina has just come out with Primgreen 2 primer, an emulsified diepoxide
in 95% water containing 2% VOCs compared with solvent primers containing 80%
VOCs.

"Any coatings technology has its drawbacks," says Arthur D. Little's Martin.
For instance, the cost to convert an auto wet-spray booth to a dry-spray
powder booth can be high. Consultant Nerlfi estimates those auto factory
conversion costs at about $150 million.

And then there are the kinks to be worked out in advancing a new technology.
Martin says the first generation of UV-cured pow-ders formed lumps as they
were shipped to customers because of the initiators the powders contained to
make a UV cure possible. That problem has been worked out now, and UV-cured
powders have "a reasonable shelf life."

The next step for UV-cured powder resin suppliers and formulators is powders
that melt between 100 and 150 °F while also remaining stable in a shipping
container, says Martin. But UV-cured powders will only work in industrial
settings where it is practical to apply a powder, melt it in an oven, and
then expose it to a radiation source.

Like other coatings, UV-cured powders are sophisticated products. But will
UV-cured powder makers and other suppliers of advanced paint systems and
materials resist the opportunity to compete on price alone to knock out the
competition? Maybe, consultant Phillips suggests, the leaders will do things
differently this time.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society

Courtesy of Chemical & Engineering News

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
CONCENTRATES
November 19, 2001
Volume 79, Number 47
CENEAR 79 47 p. 62
ISSN 0009-2347

Polymer is magnetic below 10 K

In 1999, a University of Nebraska team reported the synthesis of a
conjugated organic polymer, the soluble fraction of which boasted a record
value for the spin quantum number S of at least 40, measured below 2 K. The
researchers--chemistry professor Andrzej Rajca and coworkers Jirawat
Wongsriratanakul and Suchada Rajca--now have set a new record: They have
found that the highly cross-linked insoluble fraction of the polymer has a
very large magnetic moment (indicated by its average S value of about 5,000)
and displays magnetic ordering below about 10 K [Science, 294, 1503 (2001)].
"This hydrocarbon is the first -conjugated organic polymer to have such
magnetic ordering," Rajca tells C&EN. The large S values are obtained by
coupling macrocycles containing four aligned spins to radical moieties whose
spin is either parallel or antiparallel to those of the macrocycle. The
ultimate goal is an organic polymer that is magnetic at room temperature,
Rajca says, "although it will take a huge effort to get there."

Andrzej Rajca
Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588-0304
Tel: (402) 472-9196 Fax: (402) 472-9402
E-mail: arajca1@...
http://wwitch.unl.edu/rajca/rajca.html

Hydrogel opals

What is iridescent like a precious opal, yet soft, elastic, and
water-swollen like gelatin? It's a hydrogel opal, a new type of bulk
hydrogel that sparkles in many colors because of the way its crystalline
structure diffracts light [Adv. Mater., 13, 1708 (2001)]. Polymer physicist
Zhibing Hu and coworkers Xihua Lu and Jun Gao at the University of North
Texas make the opals by first preparing nanoparticles consisting of
N-isopropylacrylamide copolymerized with acrylic acid or 2- hydroxyethyl
acrylate. The nanoparticles are allowed to self-assemble in solution, after
which they are cross-linked to form a stable 3-D network. The resulting gels
are as much as 97% by weight water. The color and volume of the gels respond
to changes in temperature and electric field. Temperature changes can make
the gels become cloudy, obscuring their iridescence quickly and reversibly.
The gels' fast response rate could be a major advantage over conventional
colloidal crystal arrays for developing sensor or display technologies.

Dr. Zhibing Hu
Department of Physics
P.O. Box 305370
University of North Texas Denton, Texas 76203-5370
(940) 565-4583
zbhu@...
http://www.phys.unt.edu/faculty/Hu.htm

Zapping cancer cells from the inside

A technique to deliver a lethal dose of radiation to cancer cells has been
refined by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center [Science,
294, 1537 (2001)]. Twenty years ago, says David A. Scheinberg, chief of
Leukemia Service, he and his coworkers first demonstrated the concept of
fighting cancer by injecting animals with radioactive metals attached to
tumor-seeking antibodies. Now, he and his colleagues have modified the
method to utilize 225Ac. Each actinium atom is chelated by a cyclic ligand
(shown), which is attached to an antibody (Ab) that targets cancer cell
surface proteins. The cells absorb the complex, which serves as a
molecular-scale isotope generator. When the actinium decays, it releases
short-lived atoms that decay in turn, letting loose high-energy -particles
that kill the cancer cells. Scheinberg notes that this is the first viable
technique to deliver -particles, "the most potent cytotoxic agent
available." A single injection shrank tumors and significantly extended the
lives of mice with prostate cancer or lymphomas.

Catalyst system for CO2 fixation

A new catalyst system gives high yields of cyclic carbonates from the
coupling of epoxides and carbon dioxide under mild conditions. Northwestern
University chemists SonBinh T. Nguyen and Robert L. Paddock report efficient
CO2 fixation using a chromium (III) bis(salicylaldimine) complex as catalyst
and 4-dimethylaminopyridine as cocatalyst [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 123, 11498
(2001)]. They find that a variety of terminal epoxides--including aliphatic
and aromatic epoxides and epichlorohydrin--give the corresponding cyclic
carbonates in near quantitative yield and 100% selectivity. The catalyst
system is air stable, doesn't require any solvent, and maintains its
activity over long periods of time. In contrast to other catalytic processes
where CO2 is used as a reagent, high activity is at-tained at a pressure of
only 50 psig. "This is a truly green reaction," Nguyen tells C&EN: "No side
product and no waste."

SonBinh T. Nguyen
stn@...
http://www.chem.northwestern.edu/brochure/nguyen.html

A better DNA sensor

Improvements to a DNA sensing method that measures changes in electric
current when a DNA strand hybridizes with a complementary strand yield a
device that can distinguish between all types of single base-pair
mismatches. Such a capability is necessary for genotyping and
gene-expression analysis. A group headed by C. J. Yu of Motorola Clinical
Micro Sensors in Pasadena and chemist Thomas J. Meade at Caltech reports
that using two different signaling probes, rather than one, makes it
possible not only to detect a mismatch, but to determine the base itself [J.
Am. Chem. Soc., 123, 11155, (2001)]. The group members designed two
ferrocene molecules having different redox potentials and attached them to
the ends of two probe DNA strands. Their test system contained a target DNA
strand and its complement--perfect except for one mismatched base pair--as
well as complementary probe strands for each of the two. The group
identified the mismatch from the distinct electrical signal measured when
the mismatched DNA hybridized with its probe.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2001 American Chemical Society

dhowe17@h... wrote:
"I would strongly recommend that Electrifying Times distance
themselves from nutcase science"

Let me reply with this reply I sent to Bob Lerwill on the FE List
just yesterday, adding that anyone is welcome to contribute articles
and research to ET on any topic. FE happens just happens to be
something Bruce & I enjoy investigating, in addition to supporting
and promoting the EV industry. If some people out there cannot
reconcile the two, then that's their prerogative. But to me, the fact
that ET touches on both EVs and FE makes it that much more effective
a tool for implementing new breakthrough technologies.

Dear Bob,

Before you jump to such conclusions, why don't you take a look at the
print edition. What you are looking at was a special edition content
index. Click back issues on the website. Look around a bit. Don't
take these few lines of text out of context from the whole, which is
what you have done.

Electrifying Times has been publishing infrequently perhaps, but
regularly for the past 7 years, the only magazine with newsstand
distribution covering the wide ranging and fast growing field of
electric, hybrid and other alternative vehicles. Bruce Meland, our
publisher, is an award winning and speed record holding electric
motorcycle builder, and active member of NEDRA, the National Electric
Drag Racing Association.

What we try to do with ET is keep as wide an open mind as we can and
create an open forum for new ideas. Plastic batteries and plastic
magnets for example, which are real and predict a positive future for
100% EVs.

My role is that of a journalist, to look for all avenues, options and
possibilities. Show Me! That's my motto. And throughout my many years
attending both EV and FE shows, I've certainly seen things that
trigger the imagination and need further attention and funding.

I don't know what kind of list your FE list is. But if it's just
there to debunk and harp eternal on what a con artist Dennis Lee is,
then be my guest, waste your time. It's not what ET is all about.

Remy C.

You also wrote"
"If you need help distinguishing the two, there are a lot of real
scientists willing to help."

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... and so is science!

From Bill Moore at EVWorld:
I did a story on the SAM for EV World two months ago, Remy!
You're not keeping up with us! :-)

(The SAM is now available for rental in Geneva and heavily promoted in the
Swiss media. I'm told you can pick up the car anywhere it is parked, access
it with a key card, drive it wherever you want and just leave it at your
destination for someone else to climb into. The system is called "Libre
Service" or free service. Remy C.)

From:
http://www.evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=226

SAM: The Sparrow Killer?
Two-passenger SAM will cost about US$11,000 when it goes on sale in 2002.

By Bill Moore

Our first look at new Swiss-built EV commuter.

August 26,2001

It looks like something "Q" would come up with in a James Bond flick. You
can almost imagine the new SAM concealing under its molded black
polyethylene skin a dangerous array of secret weaponry and gadgets.

But the SAM isn't some spymaster's fantasy. It is a real electric vehicle
built for not one driver -- a la the Corbin Pacific Sparrow -- but an
honest-to-goodness two passenger EV that will sell -- so its builders say --
for less than the Sparrow, at least in Switzerland.

Cree AG (Creation Research Engineering and Ecology AG) unveiled the SAM just
this week in Biel, Switzerland. What information EV World gleamed came from
an EV World reader in Switzerland (Danke sehr, Felix) and off the company's
web site, which is available in either German or French language editions.
AltaVista's Babelfish helped translate the German into English for me.

Here's what we know so far.

The SAM seats two in tandem. Each rider is provided with a 3-point safety
harness. Integrated into the front seat is a special structure that also
provides rollover protection. Braking comes from a trio of disc brakes on
the three-wheeled vehicle. Some of the vehicle's kinetic energy is
recaptured through regenerative braking.

SAM is powered by a modularized drive system consisting of the electric
motor, controller and 14 lead-acid batteries, presumably delivering 168
volts of energy.

One very interesting innovation is a "battery" insurance program. For 95
Swiss Francs a month, the owner can insure they will never be confronted
with the cost of having to replace the vehicle's battery pack. Cree will
supply a fresh set if and when needed under this program.

In addition to the drive module, the SAM consists of two other modules; the
aluminum chassis, which is built by a sub-contractor, and the double-walled
plastic body, itself composed of just 4 major components. The entire vehicle
weights just 545 kilograms (1,200 lbs.). Cree advises that SAM meets all
relevant safety standards for its class.

The company claims the vehicle has a range of between 50-70 kilometers
(31-43 miles) and has a top speed of 85 kph (52mph). Acceleration from 0 to
50 kph is 7 seconds. Recharge time takes about six hours for a full charge
at a cost of 1 Swiss Franc or about 60 cents in the US.

SAM is intended for urban driving only and in Switzerland requires a PW
license to operate. The vehicle will come in 5 distinctive "flavors":
Anthracite Black -- pictured above -- Mint, Blue, Orange and Caramel.

The company plans to give the residents of Biel the opportunity to test
drive the vehicle over the next few months, prior to the vehicle going into
full production. Interested individuals can sign up on the
http://www.testsam.ch web site. Initially, sales will be handled by the COOP
grocery chain in Biel.

Is your cap key locked? I'm posting your comments on the ETList, but please
get that keyboard checked, because it makes it impossible for me to format
your text for publication and forward to my other professional lists. In the
future, post your comments to the ETlist, NOT to my email address. Thank
you.
Remy C.

----- Original Message -----
From: <JCarey9622@...>

Remy C. >>  FYI

ART FISHER? DEVELOPED A 100 MPH CARB. IN THE LATE 50'S THAT THE OIL CO'S
BOUGHT. AC SPARK PLUG TESTED IT IN THE early 60'S.  MY BROTHER WHO DIED IN
67 WORKED WITH THERE ENGINEERS TESTING IT . HE WAS A EXPERIMENTAL MODEL
MAKER AT AC. I ALSO WORKED FOR THEM FOR 30 YEARS STARTING IN 69.

SIR PLEASE EXCUSE THE CAPS I'M NOT YELLING. THIS MAIL GETS RIGHT TO THE
POINT.  THE STORY THAT BRUCE PUBLISHED ABOUT US WAS FACTUAL AFTER ALL HE WAS
HERE IN LATE JUNE TO SEE IT FIRST HAND. THE ROTATING TRANSFORMER STORY ON
YOUR FRONT PAGE.

WE JUST SHOWED THE CHIEF SCIENTIST AT DELPHI./GM  DR CARLTON SPECK. here in
flint. THE NEXT SEVERAL STEPS BEYOND FUEL CELLS, HYBRIDS, INTERNAL
COMBUSTION AND CURRENT EV PLATFORMS PLUS TOLD THEM HOW TO MAKE THERE
HYDROGEN PROPULSION TECHNOLOGY WORK. THEY HAD IT BACKWARDS. IT IS OBSOLETE
TO OUR DIRECTOR SO HE DID NOT CARE.

DR SPECK DOES NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT WHAT WAS SHOWN TO HIM THAT I KNOW OF. HE
IS BASICALLY LINEAR AND  A MIT Ph.D WHO IS 60 YEARS OLD. BUT WE RESPECT HIM
BECAUSE WE DID NOT SEE ANY OF THE FAMOUS GM ARROGANT ATTUTIDE FROM HIM. AND
I THINK HE KNOWS WE ARE FOR REAL.

HE WANTS TO SEE THE DOCUMENTARY WHEN IT IS COMPLETED.  HE TOLD ME YESTERDAY
ON THE PHONE THAT HIS  COMPANY WANTS US TO HAVE PATENTS AS TOYOTA DOES
ACCORDING TO THERE GENERAL LEGAL COUNCIL WHO I SPOKE TO TODAY AFTER HE SENT
ME A MAIL INDICATING.WHAT JAPAN HAD SAID. DO THEY THINK WE ARE STUPID.

PATENTS ARE WORTHLESS. PLUS WE WOULD HAVE TO PURCHASE A CATAGORY. DO YOU
KNOW WHAT THAT COST??? .  BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE ONE FOR WHAT WE ARE
DOING. IF TOYOTA WANTS TO PAY FOR IT AND AGREE TO PROTECT THEM WE WILL TALK
UNTIL THEN THEY CAN HAVE A NICE DAY AND SO CAN GM AND YAMAHA. . UNTIL WE
RAIN ON IT FOR THEM. WE WILL HAVE A TRADEMARK .  OUR BIG CORP. LAWYER IN
CHICAGO IS ARRANGING IT. HE IS A BROTHER OF ONE OF OUR MEMBERS.

YAMAHA'S LEGAL COUNCIL SENT US A LETTER ALSO REQUESTING A SIGINATURE BEFORE
THEY WOULD TALK. DO YOU WANT A COPY OF IT. ???. WE DO NOT SIGN  ANYTHING.
BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE TO BECAUSE WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY THEY DON'T. WE DO
NOT NEED THEM THEY NEED US FAR MORE THAN WE NEED THEM.

THE REAL ARROGANT FORD MOTOR COMPANY GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES DEPARTMENT CALLED
ME AND THEN SENT ME A 7 PAGE ARROGANT NDA LAST DEC. THAT I'M STILL LAUGHING
ABOUT. TALK ABOUT A JOKE. THESE PEOPLE JUST DO NOT GET IT. THEY THINK THEY
ARE GOD. NOT FOR LONG. CORP. ARROGANCE IS BEYOND ME. THE DIRECTOR FOR FLINT
TOLD GM/DELPHI HE HAS NEVER SAW A CORP. INVENT ANYTHING. HE IS RIGHT.

WE ALSO TOOK THE DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WITH US FOR
THE CITY OF FLINT MI. TO THE DELPHI MEETING.  WHO IS QUALIFIED TO BE A
PHYSICISTS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTACT HIM. ??? AND HE UNDERSTANDS WHAT WE
ARE DOING. AND IS GIVING US A REAL NICE FREE BUILDING UNTIL WE BECOME
PROFITABLE BUILDING MACHINES THAT WILL POWER UP YOUR HOUSE without ANY NEED
FOR THE GRID. USING A TESLA REINVENTED TECHNOLOGY. THE CITY FEELS WE CAN
CREATE 6000 TO 10,000 JOBS IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS.

WE/OUR COMPANY/OUR DIRECTOR'S TECHNOLOGY  ARE ALSO BEING INCLUDED IN A WORLD
WIDE DOCUMENTARY THAT WILL BE FILM IN EARLY 2002. BY An AWARD WINNING
AUSTRIAN PRODUCTION CO. THAT IS BEING BACKED BY THE AUSTRIAN BROADCASTING
CO. AND THE AUSTRIAN GOVT. THEY WILL HAVE A FULL FILM CREW WITH THEM WHEN
THEY RETURN. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTACT THEM??????

WE ALSO HAVE THE MOST ADVANCED MAGNETS ON THE PLANET THAT WE KNOW OF BRUCE
SAW THEM WHEN HE WAS HERE.SO DID GARY AND RALPH. ALSO INFINITE ENERGY
MAGAZINE WHEN THEY WERE HERE WITH THERE TEST EQUIPMENT. PLUS BUSTER'S BUDDY.
THEY CAN WITHSTAND HEAT TO RED HOT AND DO NOT LOSE THERE FIELD. PLUS THEY
CONTAIN NO METAL COMPOUNDS. ELECTRICITY IS NOT USED TO CHARGE THEM. .

THE FIELD TRAVELS IN A LINEAR DIRECTION. PLUS A SELF CONTAINED INTERNALLY
DRIVEN NO CONSUMPTION FIELD PROPULSION SYSTEM WAS DEVELOPED FROM THEM THAT
DOW CORNING IN MIDLAND MI. AT THERE WORLD HQ.  SAW OPERATIONAL.BUT NEEDS TO
BE REFINED. UNTIL THEN WE WILL BUILD THE TESLA REINVENTS.  PLEASE EXPLAIN
THE TECHNICAL DYNAMICS ANY OF YOU SO CALLED SCIENTIFIC TYPES. IF THIS IS
TRUE COULD THIS POSSIBLY BE THE REAL STAR TREK BOYS.AND GIRLS.?????

ALSO GM'S MAGNET-QUENCH PROCESS WAS OBTAINED FROM PART OF THE MATERIAL
PROCESS SEVERAL YEARS AGO WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION BY OUR DIRECTOR. I MADE THEM
VERY AWARE OF THAT FACT IN THE MEETING.  I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT THE U. OF
N. HAS ALSO.

BUSTER'S  BUDDY HAS BEEN HERE TO.  HE IS CONVINCED AND IS JUST WAITING FOR
US TO PRODUCE SYSTEMS THAT HE CAN SELL. AND SO HAS GARY VESPERMAN. ( BOTH
ARE ON YOUR MAIL LIST.)  WHO CAME WITH RALPH CRUISE ALSO FROM VEGAS BUT THEY
WERE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THEY COULD REPRODUCE. IF THEY HAVE WOULD BEEN
BUSINESS TYPES LIKE DENNIS LEE WAS WHEN HE CAME HERE AND THEN FLEW US OUT
THERE

THEY WOULD HAVE SEEN THE OPPERITUNITY AS HE DID. SCIENTIFIC TYPES DO NOT SEE
THAT BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN IN BUSINESS. THEY ONLY WORK FOR BUSINESS
PEOPLE AS GARY AND RALPH DO.   PLUS HE NEEDED A WAY TO POWER UP HIS SUNDANCE
GENERATOR THAT HE WAS NOT ABLE TO DO FEASABLY UNTIL HE CAME HERE. NOW YOU
KNOW WHAT THE REAL WORLD IS ALL ABOUT. I SUGGEST YOU ALL PUT THIS IN YOUR
PIPES AND SMOKE IT. THANK YOU ALL FOR LETTING ME PLAY WITH YOU. IT WAS FUN I
GET BORED REAL EASY. CAN YOU SEE WHY????  JACK CAREY

From:
http://www.wo50.com/vacation.htm

Excerpt from
What I Did on My Summer Vacation
By Deborah Deering Schwartz

Some things about Eastern Europe surprised me somewhat: there’s less use of
English than I’ve experienced elsewhere in Europe, Scandinavia, and northern
Africa. Very little signage, even highway signs, is in English. With my
impeccable command of German (I took one year of it in college), I, of
course, had no problems because of this lack of English! 8-) Or, a smile
goes a long way in communicating!

The places we visited were noticeable cleaner and neater than cities in U.S.
with the exception that graffiti is EVERYWHERE! It’s almost like once they
were given freedom to express themselves, these folks didn’t know where/when
to stop! OTOH, some of the graffiti is very good in an artistic sense! They
are VERY serious about recycling; we even had three-part, compartmentalized
receptacles in some of our hotel rooms for sorting recyclables. They are
serious about environmental concerns and seem to think Americans need a
wakeup call about what is happening to the air/environment.

Small cars buzz around everywhere. There are essentially NO full-size cars,
and I saw so few SUV-type vehicles, I could count them on one hand! They
have a tiny car our guide calls a Swatch car that squeezes in two adults and
“two grocery bags” but just barely. These little cars cost $12,000 and are
very popular. I saw very few VW bugs, even in Germany, which sorta surprised
me. Gas was over $4 a gallon. This means that a large car is an indicator of
real wealth; it’s not the original price of car that counts; it’s the
ongoing price of gas for it! In Munich in particular, LOTS of people ride
bicycles…including ladies headed to work in full workplace attire of
dresses, hose, and heels (which were usually strappy sandal style shoes).
Men in suits with briefcases were on bikes. The subways and aboveground
trains and buses in all cities were crowded. We rode the subways in both
Munich (an adventure as we tried to get to Dachau on our own) and Prague
with no real problems even though we didn’t understand the signs.

Skoda vehicle is very popular and highly promoted in Czech Republic.
http://www.skoda-auto.com

Well, I guess they kept this one a secret from the US EV audience! If anyone
care to have the German translated? Here's the new Swatch folks!
Remy C.

From:
http://www.spiegel.de/auto/showroom/0,1518,155332,00.html

06. September 2001
SPORT | AUTO | REISE

E-MOBIL

Aus Swatch wird Sam

Von Frank Wald

Das Swatch-Mobil ist wieder da. Die ehemaligen Ingenieure des Schweizer
Uhrenfabrikanten Nicolas Hayek bastelten heimlich an einem neuen
Elektroauto. Jetzt heißt es "Sam" und soll vorerst in der Schweiz über die
Filialen der Handelskette Coop vertrieben werden.

Cree AG

E-Mobil "Sam"

Im Jahr 1994 verkündete Swatch-Uhrenpate Nicolas Hayek, er wolle ein Auto
bauen, das nicht mehr als 10.000 Franken kostet, Platz für zwei Personen und
einen Kasten Bier bietet. Die originelle Idee fand bei den Autoherstellern
zunächst große Resonanz. Der VW-Konzern stieg sofort in das ehrgeizige
Projekt ein - und genauso schnell wieder aus. Wenig später versuchte es
Mercedes-Benz. Doch nachdem die Stuttgarter nach und nach die
Swatch-Mobilfirma MCC (Micro Compact Car) übernahmen, verschwanden zuerst
die idealistischen Ideen und anschließend Hayek und seine Techniker. Der
Rest ist Automobilgeschichte. Der Smart wurde gebaut. Doch aus dem
"rezyklierbaren City-Fahrzeug mit elektrischem Antrieb" wurde ein
poppig-buntes Lifestyle-Auto.
Doch die Idee lebte in den Köpfen der Ingenieure weiter und hat jetzt als
"Sam" neue Gestalt angenommen. Allerdings als dreirädriges E-Mobil für zwei
Personen ohne Bierkiste. In Biel im Schweizer Kanton Bern steht unweit des
Swatch-Imperiums eine Halle mit 100 Prototypen, die wie fahrende
Weltraumkapseln aussehen. Auf dem Firmenschild steht aber nicht der Name
Hayek, sondern Cree AG. Die 30 Mann starke Unternehmen besteht größtenteils
aus ehemaligen Swatch-Ingenieuren, welche die futuristischen Gefährte mit
Elektroantrieb und Kunststoffchassis in Eigenregie entwickelt und produziert
haben.

Als Antrieb dient eine Hochleistungsbatterie, die das Dreirad in rund sieben
Sekunden von 0 auf 50 km/h
Cree AG

Ab Frühjahr bei der Handelskette Coop in der Schweiz zu haben: "Sam"

beschleunigt. 10.000 Schweizer Franken soll es kosten. Doch weil der
kleinste Autokonzern der Welt nicht genügend Kapital besitzt, um ein eigenes
Vertriebsnetz aufzubauen, wird SAM vorerst in der Schweiz über die
Handelskette Coop verkauft. Die ersten Exemplare sollen ab Frühjahr 2002 in
Zürich und Basel zu haben sein. Anschließend soll Sam auch die benachbarten
Länder erobern - allen voran das Autoland Deutschland. Dazu können sich die
Cree-Manager eine Kooperation mit deutschen Händlern wie Edeka oder Rewe
sowie mit dem Stromanbieter E.ON vorstellen. Erste Bestellungen für das
E-Mobil liegen bereits vor.

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2001
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung der SPIEGELnet AG

From:
http://www.swatchgroup.com/press/press.asp?pid=28

The Swatch Group sells its smart participation to Daimler-Benz

Biel, November 4, 1998 – Daimler-Benz AG (Germany) takes over the 19%
shareholding of Micro Compact Car (MCC), the producer of the smart car, from
the Swatch Group, Biel (Switzerland). The transfer is effective as of
October 31, 1998. MCC is henceforth a 100% subsidiary of Daimler-Benz AG.

After the successful introduction of the smart car in Europe and considering
the withdrawal of MCC for the construction of the hybrid model, the Swatch
Group decided to sell its minority shareholding in MCC and offered its
shares to Daimler-Benz. This step enables the majority shareholder to
realize all important and necessary measures without loss of time. With
numerous collaborators, the Swatch Group has intensively contributed to the
concept and the development of the smart car, including its production and
market introduction as well as the construction of the assembly plant. The
objective of the 100% transfer of the shares to the majority shareholder
consists in the full exploitation of the advantages of the new
DaimlerChrysler Group to overcome the difficulties of the next years.

Hybrid: The technical examination of the integration of the hybrid
SwatchMobil system unveiled almost insurmountable space problems resulting
in the withdrawal of this project and consequently in the payment of an
appropriate compensation to the Swatch Group. The possible eventual use of
the SwatchMobil know-how by Daimler-Chrysler can be settled in a license
agreement.

The developments for other interested automobile manufacturers are not
affected by these changes.

„The take-over of the participation is part of the steps taken in view of
the upcoming DaimlerChrysler merger“ comments Jürgen E. Schrempp, Chairman
of the Board of Daimler-Benz AG. „The smart brand is thus an integral part
of the six automobile brands of DaimlerChrysler. To take this step during
the present market introduction is logical and opens the smart brand all the
advantages of the new group.“ Prof. Jürgen Hubbert Chairman of the board of
MCC, adds: „Dr. h.c. Nicolas G. Hayek has pushed this project onward with
much personal engagement and influenced it in an important way. The
collaboration with him was an enrichment for all of us.“

Nicolas G. Hayek, Chairman of the Board and President of the Swatch Group:
„The Swatch Group has fulfilled its role as loyal, competent and efficient
partner for the concept, development and production as well as for the
marketing, distribution and launch of the smart car. After the successful
smart introduction, the Swatch Group considers its task concluded and thanks
Messrs. Schrempp, Hubbert and their collaborators for an exciting and
positive cooperation.“

Béatrice Howald, Swatch Group Press Office, Biel-Bienne Phone ++41 32 343 68
11 / 343 68 33, Fax ++41 32 343 69 22
E-Mail: press@...

My uncle who lives in Switzerland tells me there are now hundreds of 100%
electric Swatch cars on the roads there, not the SMART, but built and sold
by the founder of Swatch. I'm on it... Remy C.

From:
http://www.rediff.com/business/2000/apr/25swatch.htm

April 25, 2000

Swatch's car project in India hits roadblock

Swiss giant Swatch Group's much-touted small car project for India has run
into rough weather with the world's two largest carmakers -- General Motors
and Ford -- refusing any ties with the venture.

While Swatch has been talking about serious negotiations with GM and Ford
for a joint venture to produce its new hybrid car in India, both the
US-based auto giants have refused to acknowledge any negotiations.

"No talks are underway with Swatch for any venture,'' both the auto majors
have stated.

Despite repeated attempts, Swatch Group's South Asia area sales manager Ravi
Thakran refused to comment on the statements by GM and Ford.

He had earlier said, ''We are under negotiations with Ford and GM among
others on the matter but are yet to decide on the final partner. India is
being considered as a production base for this (small car) project. As of
now, the proposal is under evaluation. It would be too early to say anything
firm on the launch schedule of the car in India.''

However, General Motors India president and managing director Richard Swando
dismissed talks on the car project saying, ''We have not come across any
such dialogues for a joint collaboration with Swatch concerning India.''

Senior Ford India officials aired similar views saying, "There has never
been any talks of either a joint venture or a possible tie-up between Ford
and Swatch in India. Moreover, all decisions regarding Ford's overseas
subsidiaries and tie-ups are taken in the US and we are yet to hear anything
about such a venture. Just talking among yourselves doesn't make a
venture.''

Both GM and Ford already have subsidiaries in India and are currently
producing mid-size cars. GM had recently introduced the Opel Corsa, while
Ford had rolled out the Ikon, which is currently the best seller in the
mid-size category of the Indian automobile industry.

Though both the companies have announced that they are exploring the small
car segment for a possible rollout, no time-frames and models have been
finalised as yet.

Swatch Group's company SMH Automobile had recently developed a four-wheeler
drive hybrid car, which is eco-friendly. The company had announced that its
mass production, too, can be undertaken at a reasonable cost.

The car, which could be made available in the 1000cc to 1400cc engine
category, has an independent torque control on each wheel.

The vehicle is claimed to offer improved fuel consumption and low emission
levels due to its specially developed combustion engine. It can also be
connected to an electrical system to be recharged overnight.

Swatch Group had forayed into the car market with the Smart small car
through a joint venture with Daimler-Benz. It did not, however, prove to be
a major success and the need for large investments forced the Swatch Group
to reduce its holding in the joint venture.

Meanwhile, Swatch has already got the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, or
FIPB, approval to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in India for
manufacturing and assembling wrist watches for domestic and export markets.

The company, however, is still undecided on setting up the venture and has
decided to delay manufacturing by two years. It will initially import
watches from Switzerland and test market them here.

The group has already introduced in India its other watch brands -- Omega,
Rado, Tissot and Longines -- through dealer networks.

UNI

From:  "Remy C." <electrifyingtimes@h...>
Date:  Wed Nov 21, 2001  8:10 pm
Subject:  Allen Caggiano's Carburator

>Posted by Bruce Meland:
>The Preview 2002 edition of Electrifying Times published a feature
>article on high mileage carburetors and their suppression by the oil
>and auto companies.

<snip>

I would strongly recommend that Electrifying Times distance themselves
from nutcase science like Britts' and Christie's magic motor (Lutec),
or "suppressed high mileage carburetors".  It hurts ET's credibility.

Electric vehicles, hybrid gasoline/electric, fuel cells, etc., are
the way of the future.  They are legitimate science and will
eventually displace conventional IC engine vehicles.

But magic motors that supposedly produce more power than they consume,
high mileage carburetors suppressed by sinister forces from the auto
and oil industries, water powered cars ala Stanley Meyer, free
electricity from Dennis Lee, and other scams are the stuff of science
fiction.  They have been debunked time and time again, and all their
supporters can do is cry conspiracy.  If any of them really worked,
they'd already have the Nobel Prize.  The Romans couldn't suppress
Jesus Christ.  There's no way anybody could suppress a simple answer
to the world's energy problems.

Please, don't let Electrifying Times get tainted by the bizarre
fantasies of diseased minds.  Stick to real science like PEM and
solid oxide fuel cells, hydrogen storage via metal hydrides and
carbon nanotubes, and near-room-temperature superconducting materials
in electric motors for ultra-high efficiency.

There's a lot of real science to be done.  Don't waste your time
with the nutcase pseudoscience.  If you need help distinguishing the
two, there are a lot of real scientists willing to help.

Posted by Bruce Meland:
The Preview 2002 edition of Electrifying Times published a feature article
on high mileage carburetors and their suppression by the oil and auto
companies. This is just another chapter in the continuing saga in the world
of making the planet a cleaner place to live and the suppression of these
technologies by the large corporations. Check out our web site,
www.electrifyingtimes.com for more revolutionary technology that will make
our planet more livable and keep us out of wars which are essentially fought
over oil and natural resources. Spread the word about this topic. Bruce
Meland.

From:
Allen Caggiano
www.get113to138mpg.com

SUPPRESSION OR COINCIDENCE ?

YOU DECIDE

IS... US. PATENT # 5,782,225....BEING SUPPRESSED.....OR...ARE  THE
"HARDSHIPS". THAT. THE." INVENTOR SUFFERED"..JUST .A."COINCIDENCE".??????."
YOU DECIDE "

     In  the early 1970  I owned and operated a company called  Debal Heating
and Air cond.  In Brockton  Ma. This was about the time that we had that
phony gasoline shortage  . Each morning myself and 12 employees would sit in
the  gas line with 6 trucks to get a mere 5 gallons of gasoline.

     As I sat in that gasoline line day after day, I started to think there
must be a better way. If they have the technology to put a man on the moon
they must have the technology to get  much better gas mileage . I read
everything that I could get my hands on about this technology. It wasn't
long before I built my first fuel vaporization system .

     Well sad to say it didn't work. It made plenty of vapors, and exploded
like a BOMB. Over 70% of my body received  3rd.burns. I spent 69 days in
intensive care, kissing death several times. Don't worry all the bugs are
worked out now.

October 15 1983 was the birth of    My fuel implosion vaporization system.At
this time I owned and operated a company in Brockton ma. called weatherall
Energy Research and development.  I had just finished building a commercial
high efficiency air condition evaporating  Coil. I poured one gallon of
gasoline in one end to flush it out, to my surprise massive fumes discharged
from the other end and all I  got back was less than one cup of gasoline.

     I started brain storming, I miniaturized  the air cond. evaporator coil
installed it in 1973 Dodge station wagon with a 318 engine. By early 1986 we
had  worked out all the short comings and bugs and had a working prototype
that gave between 111 to 113 mpg.

We placed an add in the Brockton enterprise and Boston globe, seeking people
to Bata test our fuel implosion system. It wasn't long before I a got a call
from a California Corp. wanting exclusive rights to our invention. my
attorney checked them out. They were subsidiary of several other
corporations finally all owned by an oil co. I declined there
offer.

Shortly there after all  my troubles started. First came two men showed I'd
saying that they were from The FBI. and that I was violating federal laws.
Alterations to cerebration systems. and if convicted I could get 20 years in
a federal prison. I called my attorney, told him what happened, My attorney
informed me that I wasn't in any violation of any federal laws.

     If I was smart I should of stopped here. ( BUT I AM NOT TOO SMART)  For
about the next two weeks I would receive every day in the mail  in a plain
envelope 8x10 close up Photos of my wife  in the super market, church, and
my children getting on and off the school bus and in the playground at
school. ( just pictures only)  In addition we would get all kinds of weird
calls mostly after 2am. My wife couldn't take any more, she filed for
divorce and left me. A few days later my Attorney should up at my office ,
looking white as a Ghost, he  had all my legal files and records with him
placed them on my desk and said that he could no longer represent me in any
legal matters. I asked why. All he would say is WAKE UP . I could not
understand. he had been my personal friend and attorney for over 16 years.

     When  my wife divorced me, My Attorney abandoned  me, what else could
happen, I thought nothing, nobody can stop me now, so on with my fuel
implosion system. Boy was I wrong hell opened up and swallowed me alive. I
am a very light drinker, if I drink 6 cans of beer a year I did a lot of
drinking. I never did drugs or was around anybody that did. On July 4 , 1986
The chief of the Brockton Police Richard Sprawls. With a bunch of other
Brockton Police raided my Tremont St  Brockton home, and arrested me for
trafficking of cocaine. My bail was set at $500.000.

     I was lucky That I had a friend LT. Jim Sullivan of the Brockton Pd. he
showed up at my bail hearing and said something to the judge, and my bail
was reduced to $500.00. Is somebody trying to tell me something?,

     Oh well back to work, I built two more fuel implosion systems. I
installed them in a 1973 Olds Cutlass and  1966 Mustang. I painted my 1973
Dodge station wagon bright yellow, with big red letters  all over it saying
. THIS CAR GETS OVER 100MPG. AND DOESN'T POLLUTE THE AIR . THE BIG BOYS ARE
TRYING TO MAKE ME AND THIS CAR DISAPPEAR.  "HELP ME. "

     I only got to drive  my yellow wagon for 3 days,  On November 24,1986
Brockton Chief of police Richard Sprawls. and other members of the Brockton
police dept.raided my Tremont st.  home, they seized two shot guns, a 12 ga.
and a 20 ga. both  were legally registered to me. I used to use them for
skeet shooting. I was arrested and charged with for trafficking of cocaine
again. My bail was revoked. I was placed in max security in the Plymouth
House of correction. I was now sentenced to 15 yrs for the July 1996
trafficking cocaine and waiting for the second trial for the November. I
knew where I could get some solid evidence that would clear me. but I didn't
know  who to trust ANYMORE. so I Escaped from max security went and got my
solid evidence and gave it to the right person and surrendered the same day.

     Boy I was lucky  they had over 240 law enforcement offers searching for
me with  guns dogs Helicopters and etc. I ran like a jack rabbit through the
woods, My advantage was the woods were my old hunting grounds.

Two days later  Brockton's  Chief of police was arrested for STEELING
COCAINE FORM THE POLICE EVIDENCE LOCKER. HE WAS SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN
PRISON.

REMEMBER THE COCAINE THAT CHIEF RICHARD SPRAWLS SAID HE FOUND AT MY HOME IN
JULY AND NOVEMBER 1986. NOW I KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM, THE POLICE EVIDENCE
LOCKER, AND IT FELL OUT OF CHIEFS SPRAWLS POCKET ON TO THE FLOOR IN MY HOME
WHERE ANOTHER BROCKTON POLICE OFFICER FOUND IT.

Well the Massachusetts Supreme Court of Appeals. overturned my cocaine
trafficking  conviction. grounds tainted evidence, illegal search and
seizure.

FREEDOM AND HOME  HERE I COME . WRONG AGAIN..  HERE COMES THE FEDS. THEY HAD
A WARRANT FOR MY ARREST FOR VIOLATING

A NEW GUN LAW THAT WAS PASSED ON NOVEMBER 24,1986. THAT WAS JUST 9
DAYS AFTER MY ARREST OF  November 14,1986. Remember the Brockton police
seized my two shot guns? Guess what? I had the privilege of being the first
person in Massachusetts and the 3rd  person in the United States Tried,
Prosecuted and Sentenced under this new law, USC 16921g and 924e.  I didn't
stand a chance, there was no case law in the law books to support my defense
of this new law. I was sentenced to 25 years for perjury. because when I
bought the two shot guns there was a box that said were you ever convicted
of a felony. I checked the no  box, because I was never convicted of a
felony, just a mister meaner. Well the feds said under federal law my mister
meaner was a felony, therefore I was guilty of 2 counts of perjury. they
gave me 5 years on each count. Next I got 5 years for being a convicted
felon in possession of a fire arms. Now I have been sentenced to a total of
15 years federal in federal prison with out parole. I am still sitting in
the court rm. after a week of trial, my attorney said that the Us  attorney
was trying me under the second part of the new law, my attorney said the
trial will be short, won't last more that ten minutes. There was no way!.

     Well it went like this.

     1: I was convicted as a felon in possession of a fire arm.

     2: I was convicted of perjury.

     3: I was convicted of a second count of perjury.

     BINGO I HIT THE JACK POT>

     USC18922g-e1 states If you have 3 Pryor felony convictions and have
possession of a fire arm then you are a ARMED Courier  Criminal and carries
a min. mandatory sentence of 15 years with out parole.  Now I have a total
of 30 years in federal prison with out parole. Well the feds have me tucked
away for 30 years where I cannot cause any more trouble with my fuel
implosion system.

      WRONG, WRONG, WRONG :

     I met a lot of powerful people in the federal prison, with powerful
connections on the outside, Kenny D. who son was a Patent Attorney for a
large Patent law
firm, and who did our US patent.#5, 782,225. while I sat in the safety of
the federal prison system.

     Remember the feds sentenced me to 30 years with out parole.???  Well on
September 13,1997 ( Friday the 13th my lucky day)   I was released from
federal with 5 years parole.  STOP something's wrong here.. I only did
10years of a 30 year sentence, with  no chance of parole.

     Well it took the Federal courts to rule that It was legal for me to
possess the two shot guns . that they had no jurisdiction . the case is now
pending in the 1st district court. They will not rule on it.

     This September 2001 will be 5 years that I have been out of federal
prison. and have been a good boy nice and quit until now.

     My Intentions.

     In the past 5 years I found out that the oil companies will do
everything in their power to suppress this kind of technology because it
could reduce the gasoline consumption in the United states by 76% over a 5
year term. The government will lose mega bucks in gasoline taxes.  The major
car manufactures will lose billions spent on the technology of the fuel
injection systems. My technology makes there obsolete.

     I put all my patent ,shop drawings up on the below web site. for anybody
to use. It is free!  I am 58 1/2 years young now, the sand is running out of
my hr glass fast. I don't want to take  this technology to my grave with me.

     If you think that I should get something out of this, then build my fuel
implosion system, and after your 5th tank of gas send me the price of a tank
of gas other wise  I don't want a cent.  If you believe that me and my
patent and technology have been suppressed. Then Go back to the home page
and vote yes for this technology. and tell as many  people as you can about
my story. and ask them to do the same.

     The reason I ask this is.

     I believe that millions of people around the globe want this kind of
technology. and knows it exists.  When we get enough people wanting this
technology, I have powerful attorneys  who know and are able to present it
to the courts of the globe. I will take my remaining 7 cars  that have my
fuel implosion system in them out of exile and drive them from Boston to
California with the whole world watching, which I think my chances of
reaching California alive are excellent.

     For more information go to my web site www.get113to138mpg.com

     Thank you for your interest. "Please help me spread the word. To make
this technology available to the public globally vote yes on our web site
www.get113to138mpg.com

      Or if you will be one of those who oppose this type of technology vote
no for this technology.

     Sincerely

     Allen Caggiano
     Please spread the word far and wide!

Send mail to webmaster@... with questions or comments about
this web site.

Copyright © 2001 GET 113 To 138 MPG.

Last modified: 10/28/01

(Go to www.electrifyingtimes.com to learn more about high mileage
carburetors, and hybrids that could get 200 mpg with this high mileage
technology. Bruce Meland)

From:  Scott_Hill@d...
Date:  Wed Nov 21, 2001  7:28 am
Subject: latest on Hal Puthoff's ZPE device

There are very frequently posts on psi.physics and psi.physics.research
newsgroups (now taken over by Google) on FE and ZPE. Here is my latest post.

--Scott@f...

From: scott@f... (Scott Hill)
Newsgroups:
sci.physics,sci.physics.relativity,sci.physics.particle,sci.astro,sci.skepti
cSubject: Re: Puthoff-Sarfatti Debate on Zero Point Vacuum Energy
References: <86.12e28c8d.292c17b8@a...>
<3BFAC60C.43277BD4@w...>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 130.226.230.3
Message-ID: <ee3fccb0.0111210425.49dd9018@p...>

Hi Hal,

I was wondering if you have published any new articles on the ZPE device?

Are we getting any closer to a working model? Do you think the physics
community is ready for a ZPE discussion without being labelled as a
crackpot??

regards from chilly Copenhagen!
http://surf.to/theprofessor2

Jack Sarfatti <sarfatti@w...> wrote in message news:
<3BFAC60C.43277BD4@w...>...
  Puthoff@a... wrote:

In a message dated 11/20/01 11:35:09 AM, sarfatti@w...
writes:

Hal et-al do not understand that their vacuum must antigravitate and that
curved spacetime cannot exist in it. There is no simple classical limit to
quantum gravity, there is only a macroscopic superfluid limit with long
range phase coherence derandomizing a large fraction of the ZPE.

Of course. That's what a macroscopic change in K in my semiclassical
dielectric (polarizable) vacuum model represents. There is a long-range
change in the vacuum polarizability, which means a long-range phase
coherence that, by derandomizing a large fraction of the ZPF, makes
polarizability of the underlying "virtual" electron-positron sea easier or
harder, depending on the sign of the perturbation of K. Just because we use
different language for a semiclassical description of the underlying vacuum
state does not mean that we differ on this issue in anything other than
descriptive language.

That's the point I keep trying to get across to you. To  not use your
language or to not express it in your (admittedly more  mainstream) terms is
not equivalent to your statement that "Hal et al. do not understand."

Different strokes for different folks!  :-)

Cheers,
Hal

From Sarfatti:

No you are glossing over important differences.
Where is the /\ field in your theory?

Your theory is completely classical and phenomenological.
Indeed, no where is there any "zero point energy" at all in formally
your PV theory!

There is no equivalence of "exotic" in your context of K < 1
for a given metric guv and what Kip Thorne, and I, mean by "exotic".
You do not show how guv (or your K) comes out of the ZPE. I
do! Your theory is not general enough to do all the interesting
solutions of GR including the RW cosmological solutions. Mine is.

You have no explanation for WHY /\ is ~ zero in the mean on
cosmic scale, nor for dark matter, nor for quintessence, nor for
lepto-quark structure, nor for how to overcome the spacetime stiffness
factor

G/c^4 = Lp^2/hc = 1fermi per 4 billion metric tons (Feynman's
number)

You have no theoretical handle on how to use EM fields to get
energy out of quantum vacuum, or how to suck it in a cloak stealth
mode for fighting air, sea, undersea and space craft.

You have no clue how to make the exotic matter needed to
support stable wormhole time machines and how to overcome Hawking's
blue shift explosion when the time machine forms out of the Star Gate.

I have the beginnings of answers for all of the above most of
which you cannot even formulate with the primitive conceptual model
you have been playing with for ~ 15 years with no real progress to
compare with mine in past ~ 2 years.

Indeed, to give you credit, I would not have thought of all
this stuff if not for trying to shoot your ideas down! So, now it's
time for you to stop clutching too vague ideas that really do not work
and to get with what I have discovered here.

Suzuki Concept Car Features Household Fuel Cell

Japanese automaker Suzuki recently introduced a concept electric vehicle
known as the Covie, at an international motor show in Tokyo, Japan.

The two-seater is designed for "everyday use" and features an electric motor
and a fuel cell designed by General Motors. The fuel cell derives hydrogen
from natural gas.

The fuel cell, described by Suzuki as a household model, gets its fuel in
much the same way a natural gas appliance does. Excess heat produced by the
fuel cell reaction can also be harnessed to heat water for home use.

The Covie's state-of-the-art navigation system features an onboard 12-inch
monitor, and can be used to communicate between cars, houses, and other
individuals.

(WAIKATO TIMES: 11/18)

From:
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?fname=2001-

Thu Nov 15 2001

University of Nebraska Chemists Create First Plastic Magnets

        LINCOLN, Neb., Nov. 15 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of chemists at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have created the world's first plastic
magnets. It took 13 years of painstaking investigation, but Andrzej Rajca, a
professor of chemistry, Suchada Rajca, his wife and research partner as a
research assistant professor at Nebraska, and doctoral candidate Jirawat
Wongsriratanakul finally achieved success earlier this year. The results of
that research, funded by the National Science Foundation with support from
NU's Center for Materials Research and Analysis, will be published in the
Nov. 16 issue of Science, the weekly journal of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.

        "There are already known organic magnets, but they are based on
crystals of small molecules," Rajca said. "What is unique about this
research is this is the first organic polymer that can be said to be
magnetic."

        A polymer is a large, often chainlike molecule that may consist of
repeated linked units of relatively small molecules. An organic polymer is
carbon-based and therefore an organic polymer that is essentially a plastic
magnet, no metal required.

        "This was predicted more than 30 years ago and a large volume of work
has been done on this, especially in Japan and Europe," Rajca said. "We have
worked on this since 1988 when I was an assistant professor at Kansas State.
We essentially made larger and larger molecules with different arrangements
of unpaired electrons in order to figure out how to make this polymer. It
was a gradual approach, one step at a time."

        Rajca, who moved his laboratory to NU's Hamilton Hall when he joined
the Nebraska faculty in 1992, said no one should expect to stick a plastic
magnet to a refrigerator door any time soon, however. That's because the
magnetic polymers are unstable unless they are in an oxygen-free environment
at temperatures below 10 degrees Kelvin (more than 440 degrees below zero
Fahrenheit; absolute zero, the point at which all motion stops, is zero
degrees Kelvin).

        Nevertheless, he said he's relatively confident that the problems of
stability and low temperatures can be overcome, if only because his team has
already succeeded in proving one of the predictions made by Japanese
theoretical chemist Noboru Mataga in 1968.

        "Mataga predicted that it should be possible to do it (create organic
magnetic polymers). He also predicted that it can be done at room
temperature," Rajca said. "But theorists are always ahead of
experimentalists and although it's possible to predict, it does not mean
that we immediately know how to do it."

        Rajca said he can only speculate about possible uses for the new
polymers if (or when) the problems with stability and temperature are
solved. To illustrate the point, he compared his team's discovery to the
discovery of the first organic conducting polymers more than 20 years ago by
a team that included Nebraska graduate and Nobel Prize winner Alan Heeger.

        "At the time they were discovered, people thought they could be made
into very light conducting wires that could replace metals as conductors of
electricity," Rajca said. "But about 10 years ago, it was discovered that
they can actually be used in a completely different way, as light-emitting
diodes, and now several companies are actively working on that particular
application. It turned out that these conducting polymers are not
competitive as conductors."

        "The real satisfaction for us at the moment is having made this
discovery -- that it is possible to make an organic polymer that is
magnetic. This is the nature of basic research. We try to go after something
completely new, that was not thought possible."

AScribe - The Public Interest Newswire / 510-653-9400
www.ascribe.org

From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/18/politics/18ENVI.html?searchpv=past7days

November 18, 2001
Bush Team Is Reversing Environmental Policies
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 — In the last two months, the Bush administration has
proceeded with several regulations, legal settlements and legislative
measures intended to reverse Clinton-era environmental policies.

These include moves to allow road- building in national forests, reverse the
phaseout of snowmobiles in national parks, make it easier for mining
companies to dig for gold, copper and zinc on public lands, ease
energy-saving standards for air-conditioners, bar the reintroduction of
grizzly bears in the Northwest and, environmentalists say, make it easier
for developers to eliminate wetlands.

Environmentalists are angered that in some cases the administration, in the
name of national security, is taking steps that they say promote the
interests of timber, mining, oil, gas and pipeline companies, at the expense
of the environment.

"They've used the smoke screen of the last two months to make key decisions
out of public view," said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National
Environmental Trust. "The most difficult situation we face is that the
attention of the media is almost exclusively on Afghanistan and anthrax."

Most notable, critics say, is the administration's renewed advocacy of
drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. As
President Bush said last month, "The less dependent we are on foreign
sources of crude oil, the more secure we are at home."

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the administration's
view that oil drilling in Alaska was a matter of national security
represented a "false patriotism."

"I certainly think that the re- emergence of the Arctic drilling is a direct
effort to capitalize on events," Mr. Kerry said. "And it's a misplaced
definition of patriotism to use Sept. 11 as a rationale for doing something
that has no impact on price or dependency or immediate supply."

Administration officials say that while national security is a paramount
concern, it is not their only argument for reversing many policies enacted
by President Bill Clinton. They defend the changes as a way to balance what
they said was an extreme tilt in favor of the environmentalists during the
eight years of the Clinton presidency.

"Many of the things we have done are to put in place common-sense approaches
that we feel are a better balance," Gale A. Norton, the secretary of the
interior, said in an interview on Friday. "They better involve local people
in decision making; they are based on cooperation rather than conflict. Our
push for involving state governments in the decision-making process, our
push for negotiated solutions, our push for tailoring decisions to
particular areas of land are all based on philosophy, not on a wartime
situation."

But both sides in the environmental debates say that the political balance
changed after Sept. 11.

"In the past, you had to make an environmental argument to deflect an
environmental criticism," said Scott Segal, a lawyer and lobbyist in
Washington for several industrial concerns. "Since Sept. 11, it is possible
to articulate an energy-security rationale that can offset environmental
criticism. In comparison to security issues, criticism premised on
environmental protection begins to sound parochial and not selfless."

Before the attacks, environmentalists seemed to have political momentum in
casting President Bush as unfriendly to the environment and his
administration as beholden to the extractive industries. But in the last two
months, environmentalists have been stymied for fear of appearing
unpatriotic or even petty in the face of a national crisis.

For example, the administration has ordered the United States Coast Guard to
fortify its patrol of coastal waters, a duty that makes it less able to
enforce antipoaching rules, leaving species like rockfish, Atlantic salmon
and red snapper vulnerable. Environmentalists have remained silent, though
before Sept. 11 they might have complained loudly.

Administration officials insist they are still protecting the environment.
Ms. Norton said her department was starting a program to help individual
property owners protect endangered species. Mr. Bush's Environmental
Protection Agency is battling his Energy Department's plan to weaken
standards for air-conditioners. And while this administration has been more
responsive to governors of Western States than the Clinton administration
was, it has not always pleased them.

Just this week, Dirk Kempthorne, the Republican governor of Idaho, said at a
public hearing that he was so frustrated over federal cleanup plans on a
toxic Superfund site that he was "on the verge of inviting the E.P.A. to
leave Idaho."

The Bush administration has also decided to adhere to the Clinton
administration proposals for limiting arsenic in drinking water. Some
environmentalists thought the Bush administration should have called for
lower levels, but by setting the same amount as proposed by Mr. Clinton, it
defused the issue.

But the administration has let slide other matters that environmentalists
argue are vital to protecting air and water quality. These include a global
pact on climate change and a plan to reduce power plant emissions.

Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent who is chairman of the
Environment and Public Works Committee, is advancing his own plan to require
power plants to reduce four major pollutants. The administration opposes it,
in part on national security grounds, saying the changes could disrupt power
supplies because they might force the closing of coal-burning plants.

Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Dear Eric & members of the Free Energy List,

I'm an editor-at-large for Electrifying Times and do some of the web work
for the magazine.

We've just created a new Yahoo Group to initiate a debate which is not yet
taking place between the EV community and the FE community.

The topic will be to create interactions between EV engineers and FE
inventors.

I invite all your members who may have free energy information as it relates
directly to the growth of the EV industry to join the ET list.

They can do so simply by emailing:
ETList-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

All messages can be viewed at this address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETList/messages

For those of you not yet familiar with Electrifying Times,
please just check out our website:
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com

Remy C.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Remy Chevalier
Environmental Library Fund
http://www.remyc.com
http://www.projectlu.com
http://www.endsecrecy.com
http://www.electrifyingtimes.com
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

From: eric
To: free_energy@egroups.com
free_energy@ egroups.com
Monday, November 12, 2001

Advocacy -- or idiocy
by Tom Napier

I am opposed to pseudoscience; the use of scientific terminology to prop up
an unscientific notion. In October I encountered something worse, political
advocacy based on total ignorance of basic science.

I am an admirer of Bill Maher, host of ABC's outspoken chat show,
Politically Incorrect. I tend to agree with his views on politics and
religion but I do wish he knew a little science. His run-of-the-mill guests
are film-stars, recording artists, political pundits of various polarities
and anyone who has written a popular book, however nonsensical it might be.
The nearest to a scientific viewpoint on his show recently was when Mike
Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society, was a guest.

An eight minute segment of Politically Incorrect on October 24 was devoted
to the issue of "weaning" the USA from its drug-like dependency on oil
imported from repressive countries. The panel treated this solely as an
issue of political will -- with a hint of oil company and Presidential
complicity thrown in. As Maher said, we got to the Moon in eight years. Why
hadn't we, since the 1973 oil crisis, found a substitute for foreign oil?

Actor Jason Alexander wanted alternative fuels for cars to be mandated, as
if that was all that was needed to solve the problem. There was no hint from
anyone that oil is a source of energy as well as a convenient way of storing
it in a vehicle.

Guest Dennis Weaver was billed as an actor/environmentalist. He wants to
publicize "the exciting potential of hydrogen." As he put it, "Hydrogen is
there, it's the most plentiful element in the universe and it's clean and
inexhaustible." This suggestion was bandied about for several minutes. No
one pointed out that almost all the hydrogen on the Earth is already burnt
and thus can't be used as an energy source. Water contains a huge amount of
hydrogen but it takes more energy to extract it than you get back when you
burn it. That energy has to come from somewhere.

This isn't some obscure point in chemistry, it is a simple application of a
scientific law which every school-child should know. Energy cannot be
created by going round a loop and returning to your starting point; that
would be perpetual motion.

The hydrogen- or electric-powered cars which the panel thought to be the
solution merely push the problem one step up-stream, to the generating
stations which supply electricity or which electrolyze water to make
hydrogen. We still need to burn oil, natural gas or coal to generate energy
in the first place.

The panel complained that we currently pay billions of dollars a year to
countries we don't like. No one mentioned that imported oil is a bargain
compared to the costs of such popular but impractical alternatives as solar
and wind power. Our prosperity depends to a large extent on the incredibly
low price the US pays for energy. Less than a year ago there was an near
revolution at the thought of paying $2 a gallon for gas. Europeans have been
paying between $4 and $5 for the last twenty years without thinking much
about it. (Since they don't drive SUVs they probably get more miles to the
dollar than we do.)

One guest mentioned that France gets 100% of its energy from nuclear power,
an exaggeration since its cars too run on imported oil. This non-PC solution
to the energy crisis was quickly pooh-poohed. Weaver claimed that it had
"taken $700 billion to clean up the messes we've made using nuclear power."
Where that figure came from I don't know. The civil power program has had
one, potentially serious but in fact rather minor, accident. The only major
clean-up which has been needed was a consequence of the weapons program
instituted in an effort to win the Second World War and the Cold War
regardless of the environmental cost.

There isn't a simple solution to the energy problem, though wasting less of
it would help. Hydrogen is only the answer if we can figure out how to get
fusion power from it. I can't emphasize enough that ignorance of science is
not a sound basis for advocating changes in public policy. Surely it
behooves anyone advocating a policy to check first whether what they
recommend is physically possible.

Ford Decides to Abandon Plans for Hybrid SUV

Officials at Ford Motor Company recently announced that the automaker will
scrap plans to develop a mild hybrid technology for future models of its
Explorer sport-utility vehicle (SUV). The company said development of the
integrated starter generator (ISG) technology for the SUV was an integral
part of Ford's pledge to increase the fuel efficiency of its SUVs by 20
percent within the next four years.

However, Ford officials said the mild hybrid system was only able to produce
fuel economy gains of five to 10 percent in the Explorer. With losses of
more than $1 billion in the past two quarters, the company said the
development of the ISG technology for the SUV "wasn't making economic
sense."

"If something like the hybrid doesn't give the kind of returns it was
supposed to, it would just have been financially irresponsible to pursue it
on the Explorer," said a Ford official.

The automaker noted that it intends to honor its pledge to increase the fuel
economy of its SUVs. Ford spokeswoman Sarah Tatchio said the company still
hopes to develop the ISG technology for use in other vehicle models.

"We are still absolutely pursuing use of the [ISG] on our products, and we
are going to deliver on our goal of a 25-percent improvement in the fuel
economy of our SUV line by 2005," said Tatchio.

Ford plans to unveil a hybrid version of its Escape SUV in 2003, and a fuel
cell-powered Focus in 2004.

(DETROIT FREE PRESS: 11/16)