ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News

june 2012 CAnAdiAn ChemiCAl news 3

Departments From the editor

letters to the editor

Guest ColumnBy Roland Andersson

Chemical news By Tyler Irving

society news

ChemFusion By Joe Schwarcz

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7

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TAble oF ConTenTs

Featuresjune Vol.64, no./no6

ChemiCAl enGineeRinG

ChemisTRy

business

All Grown upWhen it comes to lithium-ion batteries, size matters.By Tim Lougheed

Think big Canada will be the world’s first sustainable energy superpower.Adapted from a report edited by Richard J. Marceauand Clement W. Bowman

14

24

20 Going Viral Marc Aucoin scales up virus production by using them to tinker with cellular machinery.By Tyler Irving

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Canadian society for Chemical engineering (CsChe)

62nd Canadian Chemical engineering Conference

vAnCouver BrItIsH ColuMBIA, CAnAdA

oCTobeR 14–17, 2012energy, environment and sustainability

www.csche2012.ca

FRom The ediToR

exeCutIve dIreCtorRoland Andersson, MCIC

edItor Jodi di menna

neWs edItorTyler irving, MCIC

Art dIreCtIon & grApHIC desIgnKrista lerouxKelly Turner

ContrIButIng edItorsPeter CalamaiTyler hamiltonTim lougheed

soCIety neWsbobbijo sawchyn, MCIC Gale Thirlwall

MArketIng MAnAgerbernadette dacey, MCIC

MArketIng CoordInAtorluke Andersson, MCIC

CIrCulAtIon michelle moulton

fInAnCe And AdMInIstrAtIon dIreCtorJoan Kingston

MeMBersHIp servICes CoordInAtor Angie moulton

edItorIAl BoArdJoe schwarcz, MCIC, chairmilena sejnoha, MCICbernard west, MCIC

edItorIAl offICe130 slater street, suite 550ottawa, on k1p 6e2t. 613-232-6252 | f. [email protected] | www.accn.ca

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62nd Canadian Chemical engineering Conference

vAnCouver BrItIsH ColuMBIA, CAnAdA

oCTobeR 14–17, 2012energy, environment and sustainability


the headline we wrote for our opening story, “Think Big,” has become

something of a theme for this issue. We applied the title to an adaptation

of a new book — a call for action, really — that presents the inspired idea

that Canada can be the world’s first sustainable energy superpower. The words are

apt not only because the authors propose that it is our propensity for mega-projects

that will give Canada an innovation edge, but also because the vision itself is bold.

So bold, in fact, that our Executive Director, Roland Andersson, is endorsing the

idea that the CIC get behind the recommendations presented in the book and

advocate to the federal government that they do the same.

In our Q and A, we speak with Marc Aucoin who takes tiny things — viruses —

and finds out how to produce them in big quantities to address big challenges like

vaccines and gene therapy.

Finally, contributing editor Tim Lougheed checks in on how lithium-ion

batteries are growing up to fulfill the big expectations set for them by alternative

energy demands.

Speaking of the big time, our own Tyler Irving, news editor, is this year’s

recipient of the Science in Society Herb Lampert Emerging Journalist Award,

administered by the Canadian Science Writers’ Association. Nobody deserves it

more than Tyler who, every issue, finds and reports the latest news in the chemical

sciences and engineering from all over Canada and delves deep with some of the

biggest players in the field in his incisive Q and As.

We’re also taking a fresh look at the big picture by revamping Society News at

the back of the magazine. In these pages we regularly report on the activities of the

CIC and its three Constituent Societies. We aim to expand this section both in

the hard copy and online and try to capture as much as possible the extraordinary

multitude of activities going on in our many programs, advocacy efforts, career

services, awards, outreach initiatives, local sections, subject divisions and so on.

In our readership survey conducted this winter, you told us you want more news

of your fellow chemical scientists, engineers and technologists in Canada: new

hires, promotions, job changes and other juicy tidbits. We’ll do our best to keep

you in the loop with our new “Grapevine” column that will run every issue in

Society News, but we need your help. Let us know if you’ve got news you think we

should share.

It’s good to be back! I hope you enjoy the read.

Write to the editor at [email protected]


In response to the federal budget released last March, the Chemical Institute of Canada issued a press release in partnership with the Canadian Consortium for research (CCr). In the release, the CCr took issue

with reductions to the research granting councils, the redirection of money toward applied research as opposed to pure research, the loss of graduate student scholarships and cuts to government science, but applauded increases in investments in the Industrial research Assistance program, and in infrastructure such as CAnArIe and the Canada foundation for Innovation. We asked for your feedback.

Ghosts of Research PastI think the comparison with U.S. funding is apt and you can

glance at selected European research budgets (Scandinavia and

Germany) and Japan to note how we are falling behind for our

young people and regressing to be hewers of wood and drawers of

water and oil. The opposition have zeroed in on the push back

on environmental review. This should be an area of concern to

scientists, of which the petrochemical industry is well aware.

Federal science labs, in general, are ghosts of their former estab-

lishments. Even the NRC is now an applied lab with expected

direct results for industry. This displays a complete misunder-

standing in government of how science works.

Iain J. McGilveray Retired Research Division Chief, Bureau of Drug Research, Health Canada

misconceivedForty-two years ago the Lamontagne Committee Report

described the state of scientific research and development in

Canada. The federal government had several research estab-

lishments. The National Research Council had divisions

of physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and biology. It had also

started to make modest research grants to universities. Science

based government departments (Agriculture, Defence, Energy

Mines & Resources) had applied research establishments across

the country. Government science ranged from pure to applied.

Industry was found however, to be not pulling its weight for

research, development, and innovation. Since then the

government has progressively restructured its research activities

in an attempt to compensate for the lack of industrial contribu-

tions. Government support for applied research continues to be

substituted for support of pure research.

This shift is directed by several common misconceptions.

The first misconception is that pure and applied research are

unrelated. Applied research can only explore ways of using

relevant existing science.

The second misconception is that applied research

projects can always be conducted without pure science

bottlenecks being encountered. That commonly happens, so

that relevant pure science must be created. Only then can

the applied research proceed to its objectives.

The third misconception is that new pure science has

no potential for human benefits. This ignores the fact that

benefits are not confined to practical inventions. Science also

removes myths and superstitions that can become destructive.

The fourth misconception is that applied research should

be funded by government instead of the pure research that

is needed to make it possible. If the relevant pure science

already exists, then the private investors who expect to make

profits from the applied research should pay for it.

Donald S. Gamble Adjunct Professor, Department of ChemistrySaint Mary’s University

sayonara scientistsWhile I am not myself employed by or in any way involved in

scientific research, I am nonetheless concerned by the federal

budget’s reflection of the Harper government’s ongoing

disdain for scientific research in Canada.

Without the innovations driven by pure and applied

research, Canada will quickly fall (actually, is already falling)

behind other Western countries, becoming, in effect, a Third

World country in terms of its attitude towards science.

We have the human and technological resources to

be leaders in research. Instead of developing our assets in

this regard, the new budget is sending the loud message

that scientists may as well leave the country and look for

work elsewhere.

This is no way to grow and strengthen a country, a society.

Hanne ArmstrongWriter

FaithlessIt seems that this is sort of typical of a government who “does

not believe in science.” [Last February Natural Resources

Minister Joe Oliver repeatedly evaded the question of whether

or not he believes in the science of climate change.]

Harry NagataMember, Chemical Institute of Canada

leTTeRs To The ediToR

8 CAnAdiAn ChemiCAl news june 2012


The budget and the new research reality

depending on where you sit the

recent federal budget is either

a boon or a disappointment.

When the CIC sent out the Canadian

Consortium for Research (CCR) press

release on March 30 to members, we did

so knowing researchers from industry,

academia and government would see

things differently from each other. But

as one of about 20 member societies in

CCR we have to develop positions of

consensus. The press release strongly

criticized the government for not

increasing basic research funding; was

it a fair assessment? It all depends on

your perspective.

For at least the last ten years, report

after government-sponsored report has

repeatedly cited meagre levels of indus-

trial research and innovation as being

a significant weakness in the Canadian

economy. But one might ask “Why

should the government assist industry

with research dollars?” The answer:

The private sector mandate is to make

a profit. It’s hard to justify spending

money on research — even applied

research — when the outcome is not

guaranteed. And investors are scruti-

nizing management decisions. Programs

like the Industrial Research Assistance

Program (IRAP) and the Industrial

Research and Development Internship

(IRDI) are designed to connect univer-

sity researchers with industry. From

my earlier experience in the chemical

industry, including several years in the

research department of an industrial

coatings company and later as a general

manager of two chemical plants where

we used IRAP extensively, I agree with

the $220 million phase-in over two years

By Roland Andersson

to double IRAP funding to companies.

The budget also provides $14 million

over the next two years to double the

IRDI program for graduate students and

post-docs. I give the government full

marks for trying to change the research

culture in Canadian industry.

As for the granting councils and

academic research funding, the budget

calls for a $74 million reduction over

the next two years. This is offset by

reinvestments in the Councils of

$37 million in 2012-2013, an amount

equivalent to the reduction in the first

year. For NSERC, the net potential

reduction, expected in 2013-2014, is

$15 million or 1.5 per cent of their total

budget, including a 10 per cent decrease

of operating expenses to be reached in

the second year. This is on par with the

5 per cent and 10 per cent reduction

that all federal government departments

were asked to submit plans for. The

reductions are to be applied under the

proviso that: “programming in support

of basic research, student scholarships,

and industry-related initiatives and

collaborations are preserved.”

The budget includes $12 million

annually in the Business Led Networks

Centres of Excellence, $500 million

for the Canadian Foundation for

Innovation, $28 million to Canada’s

Advanced Research and Innovation

Network, $60 million for Genome

Canada and $10 million for the

Canadian Institute for Advanced

Research. The goal of the budget is

to reduce the deficit; in this light, the

academic research community did well.

The most notable change to govern-

ment research and funding is the shift in

the National Research Council’s (NRC)

management system from research insti-

tutes to targeted industrial programs.

NRC will receive $67 million in

2012–2013 to refocus on “business-led,

industry-relevant research.” The govern-

ment’s wording is not entirely clear but

the budget states that it “will consider

ways to better focus the NRC on

demand-driven research, consistent with

the recommendations of the [Jenkins]

Expert panel.” It is the chipping away

at other government research programs,

dollars and positions that concerns me.

There is a tendency to think that the

private sector can fill the void of these

cut programs more efficiently than

government. Time will tell.

The research landscape is shifting in

Canada. The government’s financial

incentives to increase industry, academia

and government collaboration appear to

have the ultimate goal of changing our

industrial culture to one where more

companies will hire research scientists

and engineers — and the payoff will be

innovation and its benefits to society.

Germany, Finland and Korea all have

this extensive three-way collaborative

culture. I would advocate strongly for

this in Canada.

The CIC will create its own Brief to the

House of Commons Standing Committee

on Finance this year which will be used for

discussions with federal bureaucrats and

Members of Parliament with the goal of

influencing the federal budget in 2013.

Write to us at [email protected] with

your thoughts on what recommendations

should be conveyed.

Roland Andersson is CIC Executive Director.

GuesT Column


ChemiCAl newsZH

I lI

A team from the University of Alberta has made a dramatic improve-ment in supercapacitor performance using an unlikely material: eggshell membranes.

Supercapacitors consist of two electrodes bathed in an electrolyte solution. During charge, positive ions accumulate on the surface of the negative electrode and vice versa, leading to an electrochemical poten-tial that can later be released. Electrochemical supercapacitors hold promise as a way to store energy from intermittent sources, such as solar and wind. The electrodes are usually made of nanoporous carbon due to its high surface area, conductivity and ease of manufacture. Due to their high rate of discharge, supercapacitors are currently used in some niche applications, such as smoothing out electrical spikes in power grids. However, their low capacitance to date has prevented them from competing directly with rechargeable batteries.

David Mitlin and his group in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at U of A have been working on generating nanoporous carbon from biological waste, such as eggshell membranes. These are readily available from industrial egg-cracking facilities, which separate egg shells and membranes from the whites and yolks used in everything from noodles to cakes. The carbon-rich membranes have a specialized three-dimensional structure of interwoven fibres that improve the transfer of charged particles through the material. This allows better performance using a lower surface area. As a bonus, carbons made from these membranes contain nitrogen and oxygen-based groups which get oxidized or reduced during charge, providing a second mechanism to store energy. The work is published in Advanced Energy Materials.

In the study, the team carbonized the membranes by carefully heating them to 800 C in an atmosphere of argon, preserving their structure. Their model capacitors reached 297 farads per gram, a capacitance significantly higher than unstructured nanoporous carbon, including that from biological sources. On top of that, the team detected only a three per cent fade in capacitance over 10,000 charge/discharge cycles. “Our egg-based capacitors show perfor-mance that is among the best in the world, while at the same time using a waste material,” says Mitlin. The group has received funding for three years to create commercial prototypes.

Adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMpk) is a

metabolic master switch and a primary target for those seeking to

treat type II diabetes. A new paper in Science shows that AMpk can be

directly activated by salicylate, the active ingredient in Aspirin.

Most drugs designed to act on AMpk do so by increasing levels of

adenosine monophosphate (AMp) and adenosine diphosphate (Adp).

these nucleotides accumulate when cells are stressed, such as during

exercise and can trigger activation of AMpk. only one drug, called

A-769662, was known to activate AMpk by directly binding to the

protein. “Clinical data on type II diabetic humans showed that when

aspirin or salsalate (a salicylate precursor) were taken, there was

a large drop in circulating free fatty acids,” says gregory steinberg,

egg-based supercapacitor electrodes improve performance

Carbonizing eggshell membranes in a way that preserves their unique porous struc-ture could lead to improved electrodes for supercapacitors (top). organic-derived carbons contain nitrogen and oxygen groups (bottom) that get oxidized or reduced during supercapacitor charging. this provides a second mechanism by which to store energy.

ALTeRNATIve eNeRGy

BIoCHeMISTRy

Aspirin activates metabolic master switch


Canada's top stories in the chemical sciences and engineering | ChemiCAl news

BIoCHeMISTRy

MA

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nes

the smoke of breadfruit

flowers has long been used as a traditional

mosquito repellent in oceania. A new study has verified

its effectiveness and pointed to

the compounds responsible.

NATuRAL ReSouRCeS

Breadfruit flowers contain mosquito repellent

associate professor in the department of Medicine at McMaster university and one of the co-authors of the paper. “since

AMpk is important for regulating fatty acid metabolism, we pursued that angle,” he says.

experiments showed that salicylate did not impact levels of AMp or Adp. Consistent with this finding, salicylate

was found to increase AMpk activity even in cells expressing a mutant form of AMpk that could not bind to AMp or

Adp. In another experiment, salicylate was shown to have no effect on AMpk activity or fat oxidation in mice lacking

the beta-1 subunit of AMpk, the putative binding site of A-769662. this suggests the mechanism for the two drugs

is the same.

steinberg cautions that the levels of salicylate used in the experiments are far higher than one would get from

a regular aspirin; it remains to be seen if lower doses would have the same effect. still, the discovery that a simple,

well-understood drug acts on AMpk in a way that few others can is encouraging for diabetes treatment. “All the pharma-

ceutical companies have had drug programs trying to find direct activators of AMpk, so it's pretty ironic that there was

one right under our nose the whole time,” says steinberg.

for centuries, pacific islanders have burned breadfruit flowers to create a mosquito-repellent smoke. new research published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has identified the chemical substances responsible.

Max jones led the research during his phd in the department of Biology at the university of British Columbia’s kelowna campus. “during my literature review, I came across several mentions of burning the flowers to ward off flying insects, but no one had ever actually tested it before,” he says. jones created extracts of both dried breadfruit flowers and smoke using a variety

of solvents, as well as steam distillation. In collaboration with the u.s. department of Agriculture, he tested those extracts using a bioassay involving boxes of hungry Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries yellow fever. the bugs were exposed to a feeding bag coated with the extracts or a control, and the extracts with the highest repellency were further fractioned and analysed using nMr and mass spectrometry. eventually, the team identified capric acid, undeca-noic acid and lauric acid as active compounds.

In the final experiment, the team found that commercially produced versions of these fatty acids, when applied in equimolar concentrations, performed even better than deet (n,n-diethyl-meta-toluamide), a common ingredient in mosquito repellents. In fact, previous large-scale screening studies have identified their potential as alternative mosquito repellents, and some companies are looking at using them in commercial repellent formulations. But for jones, the most exciting part was validating the traditional use. “I was surprised to see how effective the compounds were; this wouldn’t be observed in just any smoke,” he says. “Breadfruit provides a food as well as mosquito repellent, in exactly the places that need these two items the most.”


ChemiCAl news

Most industrial catalysts are based on expensive and rare metals, so when robert Morris’s lab at the university of toronto developed a useful family of catalysts based on iron, they were quite pleased. But according to the group’s latest paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the iron in ques-tion may be in the form of nanoparticles, which could potentially open up new applications.

the catalysts enable the enantioselective transfer hydrogenation of ketones to alcohols, an important step in the synthesis of many pharmaceutical com-pounds. each one consists of a derivative of an organic ligand, known as pnnp - the full name is (r,r)-{n,n´-bis[o-(diphenylphosphino)benzylidene]-1,2-diphenylethylenediamine} - wrapped around an iron centre. some of these systems rival the ruthenium-based complexes currently used for this reaction. others are less active, but still commercially valuable because iron is less toxic and a hundred thousand times less expensive than ruthenium.

In a quest to understand how the catalysts work, phd candidate jessica sonnenberg analyzed the kinetics of some of the less active compounds. the results led her to believe that the iron at the centre of these complexes was not a single atom but a nanoparticle. this was confirmed with other techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and magnetometry.

Asymmetric catalysis using nanoparticle-based catalysts is quite rare, and could have its advantages. “theoretically, when you go to a nanoparticle, only the surface atoms are available to interact with the ligand, so you only need about half as much of this expensive compound,” says sonnenberg. Another possibility would be to use the magnetic properties of iron to recover and reuse the catalyst after the reaction. the team is continuing to investigate these possibilities as well as working toward commercialization of the catalysts.

Iron-based catalyst contains nanoparticles

CATALySIS

At least one of the pnnp-based catalysts developed at the university of toronto appears

to sit on the surface of iron nanoparticles, rather than being coordinated to a single

atom. Heterogeneous catalysts capable of enantioselective transformations are rare.

BIoTeCHNoLoGy

Would you prefer a perfume derived from plants like fir trees or whale vomit? Believe it or not, those are currently your only choices, but a new discovery could provide a third option by allowing microorganisms to produce a chemical critical to the fragrance industry.

Many perfumes contain ambroxan, a sweet, earthy-smelling compound which also acts as a fixative, preventing the fragrance from evaporating too quickly. Ambroxan comes from ambergris, the salt and sun-weathered remains of material expelled by sperm whales, which occasionally washes up on beaches. Because it is so rare, ambroxan can fetch thousands of dollars per kilogram. In response, the fragrance industry has developed a synthetic substi-tute called Ambrox. It is made from cis-abienol, a diterpenoid compound found in various plants including the balsam fir, but it’s not a perfect solution. “The balsam fir produces cis-abienol in an oily resin, or pitch,” says Joerg Bohlmann, a molecular biologist at the University of British Columbia. “The pitch contains several

Whale vomit ousted by new perfume compound other diterpenoids with very similar properties, so it is not easy to separate and purify.”

Many diterpenoids produced by plants are commercially valuable, from fragrance compounds like limonene to the anti-cancer drug taxol. Bohlmann’s lab has developed a database of genes that code for the enzymes which synthesize terpenoids in various species. By sequencing many genes from the balsam fir and comparing them to those in the database, Bohlmann’s group was able to identify the enzyme that catalyses single-step synthesis of cis-abienol. This was confirmed by cloning the gene into E.coli cells, which were then able to produce cis-abienol from the precursor compound (E,E,E)-geranylgeranyl diphosphate. The research is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Bohlmann’s group is collaborating with a company interested in commercializing the new process. That’s good news for the perfume industry, but bad news for beachcombers hoping to strike it rich with a lump of whale vomit.

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Canada's top stories in the chemical sciences and engineering | ChemiCAl news

Although inspired by nature, a new phosphole-lipid molecule recently reported in Angewante Chemie has distinctly unnatural properties, forming fluorescent gels that change colour under mechanical stress. The unique material could have applications in organic electronics, such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes.

For decades, pi-conjugated materials — in which electrons are de-localized between atomic bonds — have been mainstays of organic electronics. In bulk however, many pi-conjugated materials lack long-range order, leading to inef-ficient transport of electrons between molecules. Thomas Baumgartner and his group in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary were inspired by phospholipids which naturally arrange themselves into the highly ordered structure that comprises cell membranes to create similar molecules with a hydrophilic, pi-conjugated head and a hydro-phobic lipid tail. But instead of a bi-layered structure, their latest creation forms long fibres which become gels in hydrophobic solvents. By adjusting the side-groups of the molecule’s head, the team made gels that fluoresce at different wavelengths.

As part of a test of energy transfer, the team mixed a blue compound and an orange compound in a ratio of 100:1. Upon mechanical stress, due to the close proximity of the compounds, a phenomenon called fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) caused the blue compound to shift its absorbed energy to the orange compound, resulting in a perceived colour change. “Because the fluorescence is so sensitive, it could be a mechanical stress sensor,” says Baumgartner. “For example, you could essentially paint it on a machine part and see if it’s been exposed to pressure.” In the long term, the group aims to investigate whether the self-assembling nature and tunable optical properties of the new material could lead to more efficient organic electronics.

pressure-sensitive gel could improve organic electronics

MATeRIALS SCIeNCe

like the phospholipids that make up cell membranes, phosphole-lipids (far left) consist of a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail, although in this molecule, the head is pi- conjugated. the phosphole-lipids form fibrous gels that change colour when subjected to mild mechanical stress (left). Applying heat makes the pattern disappear.

the federal government released its preliminary assessment report for triclosan on March 31, 2012. the report concludes that although the chemical poses no danger to human health, its possible risks to the environment, including its potential to accumulate in aquatic organisms, may require additional management measures.

triclosan (5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol) is an antibacterial and antifungal agent found in over 1,600 personal care products, as well as treated materials such as rub-ber or plastic. the estimated human exposure is thousands of times smaller than that which causes health effects in laboratory animals, and under aerobic conditions triclosan breaks down quickly in air, water, soil and sediment. But since it’s so widely used, low levels of tri-closan are present in the environment, particularly near wastewater treatment plants.

triclosan is already on the federal government’s Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist, which restricts its concentration to 0.03 per cent or less in mouthwash and 0.3 per cent or less in other cos-metic products. In a statement, the Canadian Cosmetics, toiletry and fragrance Association said the industry would be reviewing the science and was committed to working with the government and other stakeholders to address the environmental concerns. "Meanwhile, toronto-based environmental defence is pushing for an outright ban due to concerns over the potential of triclosan to act as an endocrine disruptor. In mid-May the group released a report in which they highlighted detectable levels of triclosan in the urine of several Cana-dian celebrities. In March 2010, the Canadian Medical Association issued a public Health Issue Briefing calling for a ban on household antibacterial products - including those that contain triclosan - due to the potential for increased bacterial resistance. the triclosan assessment cites european and Australian studies that show no clear link between products containing triclosan and increased antibacterial resistance.

Chemical structure of 5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol, better known as triclosan

Draft assessment on triclosan released

PoLICy AND LAW

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As Canada enters the twenty-first century, it remains blessed with an abundant array of energy resources. There will be opportunities for

managing big projects as an energy system which will be beyond the interest of individual companies acting alone and will require a new vision of Canada’s energy future. With the latter goal,

Canada would be a country which sells higher value-added energy products and technology to the world, using the proceeds to durably strengthen our economy and influence, and would be an exemplar of the stewardship of all types of energy resources. It would have a real influence on other nations to follow its lead. Canada’s wealth of

energy can be used for its prosperity and international effectiveness , to reduce energy poverty elsewhere, and reduce its carbon footprint.

What is needed is a vision.

Think BIGHow our affinity for "big projects" and our bounty of natural resources will make Canada the world's

first sustainable energy superpower.


Adapted from a report and a book prepared by the Canadian Academy of Engineering and edited by Richard J. Marceau and Clement W. Bowman.

business | energy

Canada’s federal government anguishes over

the nation’s mediocre record in innovation.

They defer to the conventional wisdom that

innovation occurs through a linear process:

the movement of ideas through basic research, applied

research and then crossing the chasm to commercial-

ization. But Canada’s history has shown it to be at its

most innovative and productive when a large, focused,

national project was underway, supported by vision and

consensus, with an array of new, innovative technologies

under development that were required for project comple-

tion. This pattern is evident in the digging of the Rideau

Canal in the first part of the 19th century, the building of

the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, the comple-

tion of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 and many other

examples throughout Canadian history. The construction

and subsequent operational phases of these projects have

resulted in significant job creation, cascading throughout

the economy and the land, over time. When big projects

were underway, necessity became the driver of innova-

tion, and focused innovation led to successful enterprise.

These projects also resulted in continued wealth genera-

tion, increased GDP and a higher quality of life for the

Canadian population over many generations.

Canada’s “big project innovation strategy” applied

to the energy sector has the potential of transforming

Canada into a true sustainable, environmentally

sound energy superpower. Canada is fortunate to have

massive supplies of non-renewable and renewable

energy assets. Coupled to this opportunity are: a

strong banking system — possibly the strongest in the

world at the present time — and a sound economy; a

highly ranked post-secondary education system which

develops students into skilled workers, well-qualified

personnel, and greatly-recognized project managers and

researchers; world-class engineers with the abilities to

develop the next generation of energy technologies and

implement big projects; and proven industrial capacity

and capability to design, manage, build, commission

and deliver large, nation-building projects.

Here we present seven of Canada’s next big proj-

ects that have the potential to propel Canada towards

becoming the world’s first sustainable energy superpower.

national gridCanada should connect existing provincial grids through a new high-capacity transmission system. this would enable significant reductions in Canada’s carbon footprint by incorporating distant low-emission power sources like hydroelectric and tidal generating stations when they are retired - and meet new demand. Additionally, this would improve the business case for intermittent renewables such as wind and solar, assist in the management of regional peak loads, release stranded power and thereby reduce power costs in some markets, enhance energy storage capability and provide strategic security advan-tages through a high capacity transmission backbone.

Canada should connect existing provincial grids through a new high capacity transmission system.


Bitumenthe Alberta oil sands contain at least 1.6 trillion barrels of bitumen, of which 300 billion barrels is expected to be recoverable. production from the oil sands is poised to triple within the next two decades. new plants should be built to upgrade the bitumen from the oil sands to fuels and chemical products, thus capturing more than $60 billion per year in value-added products and com-mensurate jobs inside Canada. Current plans would see more than 50 per cent of the bitumen upgraded outside Canada. the enormous assets of the oil sands have been one of the foundations for Canada’s energy superpower vision, and Alberta must continue its environmental advances to achieve that goal. Alberta and ontario should work together to develop and apply new environmentally-advanced upgrading technologies, optimizing the use of available labour and facilities at both the Alberta Industrial Heartland hydrocarbon processing region and the sarnia-lambton refining and petrochemical Complex.

natural gas over the next 20 years, global demand for natural gas for use in electricity generation, heating and transpor-tation is expected to rise dramatically. natural gas is the world’s cleanest-burning fossil fuel emitting up to 60 percent less Co2 than coal when used for electricity generation and has a key role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Canada as well as abroad. China and japan are both pursuing new supply - China to fuel its massive modernization, and japan to diver-sify its fuel supply. British Columbia is developing a ‘big

project’ opportunity for liquefied natural gas (lng), with the first commercial lng export facility scheduled to open in kitimat in 2015, and with three facilities in operation by 2020. several other countries will be competing for Asian lng markets. Canada needs to have a national strategy [including an appropriate policy framework] to realize the potential of natural gas and lng, building on these BC projects.

New plants should be built to upgrade bitumen from the oil sands to fuels and chemical products.

Canada needs to have a national strategy to realize the potential of natural gas and LNG.

Shell Canada’s Scotford upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. uses hydrogen addition to upgrade bitumen from the Muskeg River oil sands mine into synthetic crude oils, much of which is sold to the adjacent refinery or to Shell’s Sarnia, Ont. refinery.

Schematic of the proposed Kitimat LNG facility in British Columbia.

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Hydroelectricity Canada now has 73,000 megawatts of hydro-electric power in service, and another 163,000 megawatts could be developed for a total capacity of 236,000 megawatts. Canada should proceed with major hydroelectric projects to capture part of the country’s untapped hydroelectric power, and in so doing drive down our greenhouse gas emissions. this includes the development of labrador’s lower Churchill area; tidal energy in the Bay of fundy and ungava Bay; a flood-control infrastructure in the st. lawrence river basin and the diversion of the major

rivers of Bell and Waswanipi in Quebec's Matagami region into the ottawa river; the completion of the northern portion of the la grande Complex in the great Whale region near james Bay; and the devel-opment of hydroelectricity projects in the western half of Canada including the watersheds of the Mackenzie, Churchill, thelon, nelson, Burntwood and peace rivers.

nuclear Applying nuclear-generated heat (rather than burning fossil fuel) to bitumen extraction and upgrading from western Canada’s oil sands would strengthen Canada as a sustainable energy superpower by conserving natural gas, improving the carbon emissions profile of the oil sands, and facilitating oil sands industry growth. various established and new reactor designs are available, and we can anticipate advances within twenty to forty years in new fuel cycles and tech-nologies that can resolve public concerns with early generations of nuclear technology by being extremely safe, proliferation-resistant, and very low-waste. But in such circumstances, to identify the most promising technology paths and to shorten them, an ambitious, multi-stakeholder technology development process is needed to explore these opportunities. Also, if Canada led the push to apply nuclear to process heat applications, this would give our resource industries a technical and economic edge, and add a new branch of nuclear expertise to our existing cluster of tech-nological strengths, which already includes medical diagnosis and treatment, food safety and irradiation, electricity supply, uranium mining and exploration, and materials science.

Canada should proceed with major hydroelectric projects to capture part of the country’s untapped hydroelectric power.

If Canada led the push to apply nuclear to process-heat applications , this would give our resource industries a technical and economic edge.

The Peace Canyon Dam in the Peace River Canyon, B.C. generates power from the same water that flows through the W.A.C. Bennett Dam 23 kilometres upstream.

The Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, 70 kilometres east of Toronto, produces 3,512 megawatts of power, providing about 20 per cent of Ontario’s electricity.

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The book “Canada: Winning as a Sustainable Energy Superpower ,” from which portions of this article have been excerpted , is due to be published this summer and is available online now at www.clembowman.info/EnergyPathways.html

BioenergyBiomass resources in Canada are enormous. Approximately 10 per cent of the world’s forests, or 450 million hectares, is in Canada. the total agricultural land in Canada is 67.5 million hect-ares. the Canadian forestry industry continues to seek new markets for its surplus capacity of approximately 30 million cubic metres of lumber due to the recent downturn in the u.s. housing sector. the development of bio-refineries, where bioenergy, bio-chemicals and other bio-products are produced from diverse biomass feedstocks, could lead to the emergence of a bio-economy in Canada. Integrated development options in-clude the conversion of pulp and paper mills into bio-refineries and product diversification for sugar-based and cellulosic ethanol plants, which would maintain functioning economies in less dense population centres.

gasification Coal is the world’s most abundant and widely dis-tributed fossil fuel - and Canada has more energy in its coal than oil and gas combined. Coal gasifica-tion has the unique ability to produce electrical power, hydrogen and high value chemical and pharmaceutical products. gasification also has the ability to handle diverse feedstocks; to sequester or capture, store and utilize carbon dioxide for other value-added processes; and to capture sulphur and trace metals. Integrated gasification systems, which can process both coal and biomass, could be ideal for a country like Canada, where both resources are economically readily available. to become an energy superpower, Canada could be mastering the effi-cient utilization of coal resources in a clean manner, leveraging where possible international r&d under-way in this area. providing resources to the research and development of new gasification technologies, and sharing the risk with the private sector to scale up new technologies are essential actions to effec-tively utilize Canada’s abundant coal resources.

Canada could be mastering the efficient utilization of coal resources in a clean manner.

The development of bio-refineries could lead to the emergence of a bio-economy in Canada.

At the Swan Hills Synfuels in-situ coal gasification site in central Alberta, coal is heated to very high temperatures 1,400 metres underground. The resulting syngas is cooled in a closed glycol loop heat exchanger (above) at the surface. The demonstration project constitutes the deepest underground coal gasification ever conducted.

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www.csc2013.ca

Canadian society for Chemistry

Quebec, Canada

may 26–30, 201396th Canadian Chemistry Conference and exhibition

Chemistry Without Borders

QUEBEC CITY


&AQMarc Aucoin is perfecting processes for large-scale virus production. But don’t worry, it’s a good thing.By Tyler irving

hemical engineering is all about

optimizing production. But what

if your production plant isn’t a

collection of pipes and reactor vessels,

but rather a living cell? What if your

product isn’t a molecule, but a virus or

virus-like particle? That’s the world

in which Marc Aucoin works. The

professor of chemical engineering at the

University of Waterloo views viruses

as both tools to tinker with cellular

machinery and as valuable products for

vaccines or gene therapy. ACCN spoke

with him to find out how chemical engi-

neering applies to viral systems.

ACCn Most people think of viruses as disease agents; how can they be useful?

mA Viruses have evolved over millions

of years to be very effective delivery

agents of genetic material. That’s really

how they can be useful. For example,

the idea behind gene therapy is to use

viruses to transfer genetic material to a

host cell in order to cure a genetic defect

or disease.

Another aspect of viruses that we can

use to our advantage is their specificity. In

a lot of cases, viruses ultimately kill cells

they infect, but not all cells have the same

susceptibility to infection. If a virus was found to target cancer cells, this virus could

then be used as a treatment. And that’s obviously very beneficial and something that we

would need to produce a lot of.

From another point of view, viruses are used as vectors to introduce genes into

cell lines that are grown in suspended culture. Those transformed cells would then

produce whatever protein you want them to. Much of my work focuses on using

viruses to transform insect cells.

ACCn Why would you want to do that?

mA Historically, engineered E. coli cells have been the main vehicle for producing

industrial quantities of recombinant proteins, such as synthetic human insulin.

But bacteria are such simple organisms that they don’t always have the right

processing abilities to replicate human proteins exactly. For example, they can’t

Marc Aucoin engineers the production systems of viruses and virus-like particles for vaccines and gene therapy.

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ChemiCAl enGineeRinG | vIruses

do post-translational modifications, like adding sugar mole-

cules onto the outside of the proteins — something that we

now know greatly influences the efficacy of the protein as

a therapeutic.

Insect cells make proteins that are much more similar to

what humans would produce. In addition, insect cells grow

readily in suspension culture, so we can make lots of them using

bioreactors. On top of that, there is a class of viruses — the

baculoviruses — that readily infect only insect cells. It turns out

to be relatively easy to manipulate a baculovirus to carry a gene

of interest. So we have a great mechanism to get insect cells to

produce as much of a specific protein as we want. This is called

the baculovirus expression vector system, or BEVS.

ACCn Can you give us some examples of products made using the Bevs?

mA One common product is virus-like particles. I usually say

that these particles smell, feel and taste like a virus,

but they’re not a virus because they don’t

contain any genetic information. They are

used as vaccines against actual viruses.

Three years ago, GlaxoSmithKline

got approval from the United States

Food and Drug Administration to

use the BEVS to produce Cervarix,

which is a virus-like particle used as

a vaccine against the human papil-

loma virus. This essentially opened

the field for others to use BEVS and today

there are other products on the way, such as

influenza vaccines. But you can still count the

number of commercially available, BEVS-derived

products on your fingers.

If we look a bit further ahead, there is an opportunity with

future research to use baculoviruses as gene therapy vectors.

ACCn you mean they can infect human cells?

mA Not exactly. They are able to enter mammalian cells,

but genes can only be expressed if the promoter sequences

in front of them are recognized by the host. Because bacu-

loviruses evolved to infect insect cells, human cells don’t

recognize the promoter sequences within their genome, so

those genes are not expressed and the virus can’t replicate.

But what you can do is alter the baculovirus to carry a gene

of interest with a promoter that is recognized by human cells,

and that’s what people have started doing.

Another future possibility is that you could alter the bacu-

lovirus to express proteins found on the outside of other

viruses. In that case, the baculovirus itself would elicit an

immune response from humans in much the same way virus-

like particles do.

ACCn What does all this have to do with chemical engineering ?

mA I see the BEVS as a chemical production system, with

viruses and virus-like particles as the product. As a chem-

ical engineer, I’m interested in the overall conditions of

the bioreactor, but I’m also interested in what’s happening

at the microscopic level. For me, that means studying how

individual cells are infected and transformed by the virus.

Part of my program involves trying to alter aspects of the

infection cycle in order to maximize the yield. I like to

think of it as trying to create an assembly line at

a cellular level.

ACCn How do you alter the infection cycle?

mA One interesting thing about

baculoviruses is that they have two

forms. The budded form is a small,

rod-shaped virus that leaves the cell

— that’s where the term budded comes

from — and is then able to infect other

cells. The occluded form is essentially a

collection of multiple unbudded viruses within

a protein matrix. It is quite stable in the environment. In

nature, the occluded form is produced late in the cycle, as

the infected insect larva is dying. It remains on the leaf

to infect other insects. In cell culture, we don’t need the

occluded form, so the first researchers in this field essentially

hijacked the promoters for the genes that make the protein

matrix of the occluded form. They used those promoters to

produce their gene of interest.

But again, those occluded form genes are only expressed

in the very late stages of infection. Since then, a number

of different promoters have been identified that are

expressed at earlier stages of the infection cycle. By

using these, you can actually control both the extent of


expression and the timing of when your protein products

are produced.

ACCn Why is it important to be able to do that?

mA If you have multiple proteins in your virus-like particle,

and they’re all being produced late in the cycle, you’re essen-

tially competing for cell resources to produce them. You

might get a better overall production by staggering when

proteins are made, thereby allowing the cell to focus all its

resources on producing proteins one at a time, as opposed to

all at once.

For example, one of the systems that we’re currently

studying is an influenza virus-like particle, which consists of

three proteins: hemagglutinin, neuraminidase, and a matrix

protein. Generally, the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase end

up in the cell membrane, and the matrix protein gets coated

with these on its way out of the cell. We believe that if we

express the hemagglutinin or the neuraminidase early, we can

have the cell ready for expression of the matrix protein later

on. By staggering the expression of these proteins in time, we

believe we will get a better yield.

ACCn Are there other ways you can optimize yields?

mA Another focus of our lab is to study what metabolites

the cells are using either when they are growing or at various

stages of the infection cycle. If we understood exactly what

they needed and when, we could tailor the nutrients avail-

able to the cells at different periods of time. It’s a bit like

sport drinks with different formulations for both before and

after your activity. By gaining a better understanding of the

overall system, we should be able to both improve yields and

reduce costs.

Another improvement could be made in downstream

processing, that is, recovering the product from the broth.

This area is not necessarily treated with as much respect as it

should be, but it accounts for a significant portion of the cost

of any bioproduct. Typically, after you finish the culture you

do a centrifugation step to get rid of the cells and recover your

product in the liquid supernatant. Then you pass that through

a series of chromatography columns to bind your product and

separate it from any impurities.

Still, each additional step adds an additional expense

to your process. One thing we’re investigating is the use

of membrane chromatography. The idea is that instead

of pushing material through a filter or packed bed, you’re

flowing across a membrane. In that case, you don’t necessarily

have to remove the cells ahead of time, because the charged

membrane can selectively pick up only the product — in this

case, the virus-like particle you want.

ACCn do people get confused about whether you’re a biologist or a chemical engineer?

mA All the time. But the truth is, you cannot do one

without the other. If your goal is to produce a lot of virus

or virus-like particles, you can’t exclude the fundamental

concepts that chemical engineers know. You also need to

fully appreciate what you’re working with in terms of the

biology. They are intimately linked, and there is a true need

to understand both sides.

In my lab, I have a 50-50 mix of biologists and chemical

engineers, and when you come out of my lab you are

well versed in both. It’s this mix that actually makes a

perfect marriage.

ACCn Is there a breakthrough that would allow for significant advances in your field?

mA What would be extraordinary is if we could actually

measure everything at the single cell level. There are single

cell measurements we can do now, but a lot of our techniques

are destructive so we can’t, for example, follow a single cell

through the infection cycle. If we could do that, I think we

would find out a lot more.

ACCn What drives you to study this field?

mA First, viruses are cool. Second, I truly believe one of the

reasons why we live so much longer these days is because of

medical intervention — either through diagnosis or preven-

tion — and vaccination is one of these interventions. But

I was at a conference in South America just recently, and

the problems surrounding access to therapeutics because

of cost was front and centre. We sometimes forget that as

Canadians we probably have the best access to medical

treatments. If there’s anything that we can do as chemical

engineers that would help make these therapies and treat-

ments available to as many people as possible, then I want

to be involved in that work. I’m not going to create a new

therapy or a new drug, but we can make a big difference in

how these products are made.

www.thecompliancecentre.com/accn


L ike an invading virus, millions upon millions of portable phones have

colonized every corner of our planet within a very few decades. Yet this

remarkable expansion would not have been feasible without a safe, reliable,

and durable source of power for these devices. In fact, the spread of mobile electronics

would have been nowhere near as successful and complete without the capabilities

provided by the lithium-ion battery.

While hints of our earliest attempts to package electricity have been found in

Persian artifacts that could be 2,000 years old, it was only in the 20th century that

batteries emerged as a safe, convenient way of confining charge in a truly portable

way. And it was not until the 1990s that lithium emerged as the material of choice

for this application.

The lightest of all metals on the periodic table, this element’s low density offers an

outstanding ratio of electrochemical potential to weight. It also lends itself to inter-

calation, whereby lithium ions become embedded in the porous material of positive

and negative electrodes. The reversibility of this process is crucial to recharging

a battery, and lithium emerged as the most efficient material for doing so with

minimal decomposition of the electrolytes that convey charges between electrodes.

The practical result has become all too familiar: operate a device like a phone until

the battery has become fully discharged, then run external electrical current into the

battery until all of the lost energy has been replaced. Depending on the specific design

and use of the system, this cycle might be repeated thousands of times over the course

of years, a prospect without precedent in the history of battery technology. It smacks of

the holy grail associated with perpetual motion devices, and it comes with some of the

same small-but-steady losses in capability that regularly foil such inventions.

“Things can easily go wrong,” says Isobel Davidson, a researcher with the National

Research Council’s Energy, Mining, and Environment Portfolio.

Davidson has spent much of her career exploring the shortcomings of lithium-

ion batteries, along with innovations that could enable this technology to become

even more widely used. Contrary to the concerns of some commodity speculators,

lithium is not the most expensive component within these batteries, nor is it in

particularly short supply. What defines the characteristics of these products, and

drives up their prices, are proprietary

concoctions of materials integrated

with lithium to take advantage of its

electrochemical properties.

“The chemistry changes most dramati-

cally in designing the battery for the

application,” she explains. “Lithium ion

batteries used for one application such as

cell phones do not differ all that much

in their chemistry or size. However, a

lithium ion battery used for a power

tool will have a different chemistry from

those used for laptops or for cell phones.

The electrodes are each mixtures of a

number of components — the active

materials, a conductivity enhancer, and

some sort of polymeric binder.”

The makeup of separators and

binders becomes important, since

they make it possible to attach the

other parts and physically build the

battery. A binder, for example, must

not interfere with the action of the

electrolyte, nor can it be affected by

the surrounding voltage. The emer-

gence of new types of separators made

it possible for smaller batteries to safely

sustain higher power levels, opening up

the market for cordless power tools.

For their part, Davidson’s group at

NRC regards electrolytes as an area

By Tim lougheed

still the bulwark of our hand-held electronic toys, lithium-ion batteries are getting big enough to take centre stage in renewable power grids


ChemisTRy | BAtterIes

Mississauga, ont.-based electrovaya Inc. delivers a 1.5 MWh lithium-ion battery-based energy storage system to an electric utility company in flagstaff, Arizona last february. the system, which has the same capacity of roughly 300,000 cell phone batteries, will provide energy storage for a pilot program that will test how to best integrate things like solar power into the grid.

where significant progress can still be made. While most battery

manufacturers employ highly flammable organic carbonates for

this purpose, she and her colleagues have been experimenting

with salts known as ionic liquids.

“They are mostly organic materials, but they have very low

volatility, and hence low fire risk. In addition, they often have a

very good electrochemical voltage window,” she says. However,

they need to be liquid at the range of temperatures for most

human-operated equipment, from -30C to +60C, a requirement

that continues to pose a significant obstacle.

She also points to additives that can improve the safety of

batteries by reducing their combustibility. Any puncture in the

shell of a lithium ion battery will allow interaction with the air

and can yield a dramatic flare.

“Lithium intercalated into the anode reacts exothermically

with both the air and with moisture,” she says. “The reaction is

most vigorous with a charged cell.”

Manufacturers therefore devise strategies to minimize

this reaction, particularly for larger scale applications that

situate a number of batteries in close proximity, so that a

fire in one could set off the rest. Flame retardants are often

added to the electrolytes.

Manufacturers are similarly eager to minimize the

environmental impact of batteries. While a polymer binder

such as polyvinyl difluoride is employed using the highly toxic

solvent N-methyl pyrrolidone, Davidson foresees the use of

eleC

tro

vAyA

InC. water-based binders based on cellulose. Most of the negative

electrodes found in lithium-ion batteries are based on carboxy-

methyl cellulose.

The hazards posed by the small batteries found in cell phones

may not seem daunting, although Davidson strongly recom-

mends that even these should be treated with a great deal of

respect. Adventurous YouTube videographers have deliberately

opened up seemingly modest sized lithium ion batteries, an act

that can provide more than enough colourful evidence of fire,

sparks, minor explosions, and off-gassing to strike caution into

the most curious of hearts.

These small scale displays set the tone for the planning of

the most ambitious lithium ion battery installations, which are

expected to become an essential adjunct to wind and solar elec-

tricity generating stations. It is all too obvious that these sites

do not function when the air is calm and the sun is down, nor

is the power they produce necessarily needed exactly when the

wind is blowing strongly or the sun shining brightly. If these

systems are to contribute effectively to the existing power grid,

they must be able to store large amounts of electricity until the

grid is ready to receive it.

With that goal in mind, power utilities with a stake in renew-

able energy have started to invest in lithium battery arrays the

size of a shipping container. One of North America’s largest

was built by Mississauga, Ont.-based Electrovaya, which earlier

this year began a two-year pilot test at an electrical distribution


substation in Flagstaff, Arizona. The

device can hold 1.5 megawatt-hours of

energy; that would be the equivalent

of 300,000 cell phone batteries, each

of which can hold three watt-hours.

Eventually, the unit will be tied directly

to a 500 kilowatt solar farm, so that the

electricity generated there throughout

the day can be made available during the

peak demand hours, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Even larger installations are under

way elsewhere. A 32-megawatt lith-

ium-ion battery farm came on line in

West Virginia near the end of 2011,

and China has already commissioned a

36-megawatt installation.

The cost of this major infrastructure

can only be justified if the batteries will

continue to perform for a long time to

come, according to Jeff Dahn, a chemist

at Dalhousie University. He was among

the first to begin developing this tech-

nology more than two decades ago, and

he has watched the expectations for this technology grow with

its capabilities. Smart phones with bright, busy LED screens

can now run for a full working day on a single battery charge,

although Dahn credits that to lower power consumption of

the latest hardware, as well as better storage ability of the

latest batteries.

“The energy density of the battery has improved by

about 2.5 times since 1991, and the power consumption of

the devices has dropped dramatically,” he says, suggesting a

comparison between the old phones and the new, omitting the

latter’s energy-hungry Web-surfing applications. “If an old 1991

phone were powered by today’s batteries, that phone would only last

2.5 times longer. But a cell phone with just dial and talk capabilities made

with today’s electronics would probably run for more than a month with 1991

lithium-ion batteries.”

As batteries grow big enough to meet the needs of power utilities, these customers

will have even higher expectations, placing the onus on battery manufacturers to guar-

antee ongoing improvement in the longevity and performance of their products.

“In the end, if you want batteries to last a decade — or three decades — you come

down to this bottleneck about testing,” he says. “Testing takes too darn long. As the

batteries get better and better, the tests get longer and longer. You’ve got to find some

way to find out in a few weeks whether you’ve made an improvement on a battery

that’s already pretty good.”

Dahn has found a way of short-cutting this process by detecting very minor losses

of charge that occur between charging cycles. These losses are what will eventually

reduce the battery’s capacity over the course of months or years; rather than waiting

that long to identify this reduction, a new testing regime can accurately predict the

drop in just a few weeks. One piece of equipment in Dahn’s Halifax laboratory is

the High Precision Charger that carries out this measurement, which is known as

coulombic efficiency.

This innovation promises to complement the efforts of researchers around the world

who are looking for ways to hone the design of lithium ion batteries. Much of this work

amounts to experimentation with new materials, including various metals, with the

goal of increasing charge speed, energy density, or the overall stability of the storage

platform. The application of nanotechnology is among the more recent innovations.

A group at the University of Waterloo is using carbon nanoparticles that interact with

sulfur molecules to improve the efficiency of lithium ion storage.

Dahn argues that battery research is moving in many different directions, some

of which could yield little progress, although he does not discount the possibility of

surprising results that could lead to a major technical leap. “So far there haven’t been

any home runs hit, but there may well be.”

Isobel davidson poses with a Chevy volt from the Canadian government fleet. the volt runs on a lithium-ion battery that is six feet long and weighs just under 400 pounds.

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News from the Chemical Institute of Canada and its three Constituent Societies | soCieTy news

A group of young job-seekers visit the CIC booth at the national job fair and training expo held in toronto in April (top). nearly 12,000 attendees toured the 200-plus booths at the event including fifteen chemical companies. the CIC booth was co-hosted by the toronto CIC local sec-tion. • on March 29, the Hyatt regency hotel in downtown toronto was abuzz as over 100 people gathered for the an-nual awards dinner for top achievers in the chemical sciences from industry and academia (MIddle). for the second year in a row, the dinner - which is hosted jointly by the society of the Chemical Indus-try and the CIC - was preceded by an afternoon seminar series on “Clean, green and sustainable Chemistry.” later, attendees were treated to a keynote lecture by International Award winner john van leeuwen of ecosynthetix. van leeuwen's message for the next generation: the status quo is not an option, and Canada has the potential to be a world leader in sustainable chemistry. • At the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing in orlando this spring, Brent erick-son, executive vice president of Washington, d.C.-based Biotechnology Industry organization and roland Andersson, CIC executive director discuss strategies on next year’s Congress (BottoM), which will take place in Montreal june 16-19, 2013. Canada had a substantial presence in orlando this year; 110 out of 900 attendees and nine out of 35 exhibitors were Canadian. the CIC has been a supporting organi-zation of these meetings since 2006 and members save 20 per cent on registration.

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Things to Know

The CiC now offers online payment

options. As of june you will be able to

pay for and access CIC services on our

website. All CIC courses, conferences,

events, and subscriptions can now be

purchased at www.cheminst.ca. When

you pay online you will get an immedi-

ate transaction confirmation and CIC

will send your receipt shortly thereaf-

ter. More electronic services, including

award submissions, are expected to be

available this summer.

The deadline for award nomi-

nations for the CIC, CsC and

CgCen awards is july 3. find out

how to nominate someone at

www.cheminst.ca/awards.

The 2011 audited financial state-

ments for the CIC, CsC, CsChe, CsCt,

Chemical education fund and gen-

dron fund are now available online at

www.cheminst.ca.

you can check out photos from the

95th Canadian Chemistry Conference

and exhibition held in Calgary in May

by clicking on the banner at the top of

www.csc2012.ca.

save the date

June 21, 2012

2nd International lignin

Biochemicals Conference

toronto, ont.

www.bioautocouncil.com

August 25—29, 2012

20th International Congress of Chemical

and process engineering (CHIsA 2012)

prague, Czech republic

www.chisa.cz/2012

August 28—30, 2012

oilsands 2012 Conference

edmonton, Alta.

www.ualberta.ca/oIlsAnds2012

september 16—21, 2012

15th International Biotechnology

symposium and exhibition

daegu, korea

www.ibs2012.org

october 14—17, 2012

62nd Canadian Chemical engineering

Conference (CsChe 2012)

vancouver, B.C.

www.csche2012.ca

november 12—14, 2012

Interamerican Congress of

Chemical engineering

Montevideo, uruguay

www.aiquruguay.org/congreso

may 27—29, 2013

3rd Climate Change technology Conference

Montreal, Que.

www.cctc2013.ca

August 18—23, 2013

9th World Congress of Chemical

engineering (WCCe9)

Coex, seoul, korea

www.wcce9.org


soCieTy news

find more news from the CIC at accn.ca/societynews. Is there something going on that you think we should write up for this section? Write to us at [email protected] and use the subject heading “society news.”

Artistic interpretations of each of the elements comprise an eight metre by five metre mural of the periodic table adorn-ing a foyer wall at the university of Waterloo. tiles submitted from every Canadian province and territory, 20 u.s. states and 14 other countries make up the compilation. the project was funded in part by the CIC’s Chemical education fund dur-ing 2011, the International year of Chemistry. detail: Breanna paige stafford and elaine riegel, from vilas school, vilas,

Colorado, submitted the tile for rhodium. the single rose was inspired by the greek root of the element’s name, meaning rose, and by the metal’s single isotope.

CHeMICAL eDuCATIoN fuND

International chemical education conference coming to TorontoSome 500 chemical science educators from around the world are expected to gather

in Toronto in July 2014 thanks to a successful bid by the University of Toronto

to host the 23rd IUPAC International Conference on Chemical Education. The

bid, presented to the IUPAC Committee on Chemical Education last July in San

Juan, Puerto Rico, proffered Toronto’s metropolitan and multicultural charms,

as well as the organizing committee’s past experience in hosting the Canadian

Chemistry Conference and Exhibition, to seal the deal. Delegates are expected to

be largely post-secondary instructors, although considerable effort will be made to

involve high school chemistry teachers. Under the conference theme “Developing

Learning Communities in the Chemical Sciences,” symposia planned to date

include “Communicating Across the Educational Levels,” “Outreach to the Lay

Community,” “International Student Learning Communities,” “Technological

Support of Chemistry Learning and Learning Communities,” “Interdisciplinary

Teaching and Learning,” and “Greening Attitudes in Chemistry Education.” The

conference will be sponsored in part by the CIC’s Chemical Education Fund.

“We’re all very excited about bringing this conference to Canada for the first

time,” says Judith Poë, co-chair of the event. “Of course now we have to get down

to the work of it.”

neIl tro

tter

Grapevine

John bianchini was named Chief execu-

tive officer of Hatch engineering in April.

Hatch is one of the world’s biggest engi-

neering, procurement and construction

management firms serving the metals,

energy and infrastructure sector.

The dalhousie Research in energy,

Advanced Materials and sustainability

(dreAMs) program received an Award

for exemplary Work in the Incorporation

of sustainability into Chemistry educa-

tion from the American Chemical society

this spring. dreAMs is an interdisciplin-

ary program for chemistry, physics and

engineering students that draws top-

level researchers from across Canada.

mark maclachlan of the university of

British Columbia department of Chem-

istry is one of six winners of this year’s

natural sciences and engineering re-

search Council of Canada's e.W.r. steacie

Memorial fellowship. the fellowships,

which were announced in March, include

a research grant of up to $250,000

over two years. the host university also

receives up to $90,000 a year to fund a

replacement for the fellow’s teaching

and administrative duties during the

course of the fellowship.

suning wang of Queen’s university

department of Chemistry is one of seven

winners of the 2012 killam research

fellowships awarded by the Canada

Council for the Arts. the fellowships,

which were announced in february, pro-

vide $70,000 a year for two years.


soCieTy news

PARTNeRSHIPS

Engineers partner with oilsands networkThe CSChE entered into a Memorandum of Understanding

(MOU) with the Canadian Oilsands Network for Research

and Development (CONRAD) in May. The MOU repre-

sents a statement of “goodwill and intent” to “strengthen

the friendship and cooperation between the two organiza-

tions … in the field of chemical engineering as it relates to

oilsands research and development.” The agreement lists

some specific areas of cooperation such as the spread of best

practices, exchange of information, and collaboration in

communicating Process Safety Management standards.

“This agreement is an important step forward for chemical

engineers in Canada,” says CIC Executive Director Roland

Andersson. “It recognizes how integral their profession is

to the development of one of the country’s most important

energy assets.”

AWARDS

2012 Green Chemistry and Engineering Awards announcedThe Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network

(CGCEN), a network of the CIC, announced its 2012 award

winners in May.

Philip Jessop of Queen’s University won the Canadian

Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an individual

for his research in CO2 and H2 chemistry.

Paul A. Charpentier of Western University won the

Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Award for an

individual for his research into new nanomaterials designed

for use in solar devices, greener catalysis and biomedicine.

Finally, the Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC)

won the Ontario Green Chemistry and Engineering Award

for an organization, for innovations in the areas of greener

materials and processes that have been instrumental

in reducing energy consumption and waste in both the

manufacturing of consumables and printing.

ChemFusion


From medicine to mania

In the 18th century gin mania

in England reached epidemic

proportions. Between 1715 and 1750

there were more deaths than births

in London, with the greatest mortality

among children. Many of these deaths

were due to fetal alcohol syndrome as

unhappy mothers-to-be sought solace

in gin. And unhappiness was the

rule, not the exception, and it wasn’t

limited to pregnant women. The mid-

eighteenth century was a brutal era,

rife with robbery, murder and venereal

disease. Illness due to a lack of clean

water and food was rampant; smoke

spewing from the quickly multiplying

factories that ushered in the Industrial

Revolution polluted the air.

But gin was cheap and provided at

least temporary escape from the abject

poverty, the filth and hopelessness of

the environment. It was the ascen-

sion of the Dutchman, William of

Orange, to the British throne in 1688

that marked the beginning of the gin

craze. William banned the importing

of French wines and spirits and encour-

aged the distillation of spirits from

home-grown grain. Consumption of gin

skyrocketed. So did drunkenness and

social disorder.

The Gin Act of 1736 attempted to

muzzle the run-away gin production

by raising taxes on distilled spirits and

making the sale of gin in quantities

under two gallons illegal. Distillers also

had to take out a fifty pound license. All

this did was cause riots in the streets,

lead to prison populations bursting with

offenders to the Act and stimulate a

black market in gin.

As cheap gin flowed unabated, crime

increased, men were rendered impo-

tent, women ceased to care for their

children, suicide rates jumped, people

sold their possessions to satisfy their

thirst for perpetual drunkenness. All of

this is depicted in William Hogarth’s

famous 1751 satirical engraving Gin

Lane. There is the carpenter pawning

the tools of his trade for gin, the emaci-

ated dying man still clutching his glass

of gin, the neglected infant whose

mother is being placed in a coffin, the

woman forcing gin into the mouth of

an infant to keep it quiet, the school-

girls drinking gin, a barber who has

just hanged himself, and the dominant

figure of a woman in a drunken stupor

whose child, disfigured by fetal alcohol

syndrome, is falling to his death.

Authorities passed the second Gin

Act in 1751 forcing distillers to sell only

to licensed retailers. No longer could

gin be purchased from every corner

grocer, tobacconist, apothecary, barber

or jail keeper. Finally the gin mania

began to fade.

While gin ruined many lives in

the eighteenth century, its original

purpose was to save lives. It was devel-

oped in 1650 by Franciscus Sylvius,

a professor of medicine at the State

University of Leyden in Holland.

Juniper berries already had a folkloric

history as a remedy for gout and urinary

tract problems such as urine retention.

Sylvius’ idea was to produce a diuretic

by distilling juniper berries with spirits

derived from fermented barley.

Gin is incredibly complex chemically,

containing hundreds of compounds

in very small doses. Some of these,

terpinen-4-ol, for example, have poten-

tial biological effects, such as reducing

inflammation or stimulating the kidney’s

rate of filtration. But there is too little

present in gin to have any such effect.

While there is no scientific evidence

that gin has any medicinal benefit, one

piece of folklore has persisted. That’s the

use of gin-soaked raisins to treat arthritis.

The common recipe is to take a box of

golden raisins, soak them in a few pints

of gin for a few weeks until it evaporates

and then eat nine a day. Various expla-

nations have been forwarded as to why

this works, usually speculating about

anti-inflammatory compounds in juniper

berries or in the raisins. Pretty far-fetched

speculation given the tiny amounts of

these compounds present.

My bet is that it’s the pints of gin

that does it. And they do it by the same

mechanism with which they can treat a

cold. Here it is: When you have a cold,

place a hat on the bedpost and start

drinking gin. When you see two hats,

the cold will be gone. Or at least you’ll

forget about it.

Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

Read his blog at chemicallyspeaking.com.

By Joe schwarcz

Risk Assessment Courseseptember 19-20, 2012

Toronto, ont.

risk Concepts • Integrated risk Management • risk Management process • techniques for risk Analysis • Qualitative techniques: Hazard Identification with Hands-on Applications • Index Methods • svA, lopA • Quantitative techniques • fault and event trees • fire, explosion, dispersion Modeling • damage/vulnerability Modeling • risk estimation • risk presentation • risk evaluation and decision-Making • risk Cost Benefit Analysis • process safety Management with reference to us osHA psM regulations • emergency Management with reference to environment Canada legislation • land use planning • risk Monitoring • stakeholder participation

Process safety Courseseptember 17-18, 2012Toronto, ont.

Accident theory and Model • loss of Containment • physical and process Hazards • runaway reactions • fire • explosion • toxic exposure • dust • equipment failure • Human factors Inherently safer designs • engineering practices • plant and equipment layout • facility siting • relief and Blowdown • Circuit Isolation • electri-cal Area Classification • Instrumentation and safety Instrumented systems • fire protection • process safety Management • leadership and Culture • Hazard Assessment and risk Analysis • operating procedures and training • Management of Change • pre-startup safety review • Mechanical Integrity • emergency preparedness • Management review and Continuous Improvement

Advance your Professional Knowledge and Further your Career

Course outline and registration atwww.cheminst.ca/profdev

Continuing professional development presented by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the Canadian society for Chemical engineering (CsChe).

Canadian society for Chemical engineering

dIsCoUnT for CIC/CSChE

mEmBErs

CSPC AD TO COME

Documents

ACCN, the Canadian Chemical News