China Petroleum and Chemical Industry

Since 15 September 2011, local authorities are required to suspend approval for construction, reconstruction or expansion of projects and activities related to manufacturing or storing dangerous chemicals outside industrial parks, the exception being made for technical reform projects that can save energy and reduce emissions to ensure environmental protection.

The working committee of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation and the Research Centre for Technological Innovation, Tsinghua University, and related research and data collection, has jointly developed the first chemical industrial park evaluation system in China which was due to commence in June 2012.


This system, based on industrial park and industry cluster theories and the Scientific Outlook on Development, includes five areas: comprehensive economic power; infrastructure and facilities; cost of public utilities; environmental protection, energy saving and emissions reduction and independent innovation.

Trillion Tonne Communique - Project

Faced with ominous scientific warnings on global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, two energy giants —ExxonMobil and Shell—have sent diametrically opposing signals in recent weeks, Exxon, for its part, told its shareholders on 30 March  that the company does not think that policies to address manmade global warming constitute a risk to the company’s profitability, because global policy makers are not going to enact strict emissions limits before 2040. 

Instead, the company plans to exploit all of its remaining oil and gas reserves, as well as new discoveries, through 2040. Shell, on the other hand, decided to join more than 70 other companies, including Adidas and Unilever, by signing onto a non-binding document known as the Trillion Tonne Communique. The communique is a project sponsored by the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group, which brings together business leaders to address climate change.

 
Stanford University scientists have found a new, highly efficient way to produce liquid ethanol from carbon monoxide gas. This promising discovery could provide an eco-friendly alternative to conventional ethanol production from corn and other crops, say the scientists. 

The new technique developed by Matthew Kanan, an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford and Stanford graduate student Christina Li requires no fermentation and, if scaled up, could help address many of the land- and water-use issues surrounding ethanol production today. They discovered the first metal catalyst that can produce appreciable amounts of ethanol from carbon monoxide at room temperature and pressure—a notoriously difficult electrochemical reaction.

The Biofuel

 A growing industry has been investigating fossil-fuel alternatives for decades, and much of their research focuses on biofuels -- petroleum substitutes made from natural plant oils. In some cases, pure, unaltered vegetable oil can power standard diesel engines; after all, Rudolph Diesel originally designed the engine that bears his name in an attempt to give farmers the ability to operate equipment using locally grown fuel.

But pure vegetable oil, while certainly a biofuel, has limitations. The glycerine in natural oils increases their viscosity, making them solidify in cold temperatures; think about what happens to bacon grease if left in the refrigerator. This could be bad news for the fuel lines, filters and injectors on an engine in Alaska, for example.

Chemists have a pair of solutions to this problem. Some plants, such as corn, contain sugars that, when fermented like beer and liquor, produce ethanol, an alcohol that can be used as fuel. Ethanol is frequently used as a smog-reducing additive in gasoline.

Other plants, such as soybeans, are better used to produce biodiesel. In this process, a catalyst is mixed into the oil, separating the glycerine from the oil's fatty acid alkyl esters . With the glycerine gone, biodiesel can run most diesel engines with less fouling and cold-weather problems.
Bio-fuel infrastructure is still under development in many parts of the world, and the processes to produce some types of bio-fuel are not yet efficient enough to justify large-scale production But the need to find a more environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels means that, sooner or later, the fuel in your gas tank will have a lot in common with what's on your plate.

Palm oil is a major crop in Southeast Asia. As demand increases for palm oil to produce biodiesel, plantations in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are clearing vast swaths of rainforest to make room for more oil-producing palms. And the trucks, ships and production facilities used to move palm oil from these countries to the car- and truck-heavy West add to the fuel burned -- and emissions produced -- to bring this green fuel to market. Palm oil is not the only bio-fuel facing this dilemma, but its popularity and low cost mean it's encountered the problem on a wider, and more public, scale than many of the edible fuels.