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The Rise of the Vegetable Class
Another example of profitable green innovation.
Elizabeth Weise, writing in USA TODAY, cited a several recipients of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge award. Chemical Engineering Professor Galen Suppes, of the University of Missouri-Columbia has created a process to convert glycerin into anti-freeze, reducing the need for the current petroleum base anti-freeze.
Soybeans and corn, when transformed into biodiesel, create huge amounts of glycerin as a byproduct. Glycerin, a colorless, viscous, liquid is commonly used as a primary ingredient in clear soaps. Estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency project the biodiesel manufacturing process will produce 1 billion more pounds per year of the glycerine than the market can use.
Suppes and a team of chemists created an efficient process to turn that unwanted byproduct into a cheap, non-toxic alternative antifreeze. The award is given to recipients whose work prevents pollution through better chemical design. Suppes and company created a process that fulfills numerous green chemistry goals, converting something that would be a waste product into something useful. The process replaces something that isn't renewable (current propylene glycol antifreeze is made almost entirely from petroleum) with something that is, in this case corn and soybeans.
Chas Martin
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