Results tagged “chemicals” from Green Mesh

Something engineered and produced in the United States, not petroleum based, that uses our own raw materials.

Genomatica, is a start-up that that enables the production of sustainable chemicals through a BioProcess Engineering Platform to transform low cost feedstocks into high-value chemicals. The company invents replacement chemicals for commonly used industrial chemicals now produced with petroleum.

Sustainable Chemicals are those designed and manufactured using efficient, effective, safe and more environmentally benign raw materials and processes according to their website.

On Thursday, the company announced that they have bioengineered a microbe that ingests sugar and water and produces MEK without the toxic byproducts and environmental risks that come from making petroleum-based industrial chemicals. The invention can be harnessed using plants that currently produce corn based ethanol.

MEK is used in large volumes in the production of plastics and textiles, like vinyl films and as a cleaning agent. it is also used in the manufacture of paraffin wax, paint remover, and glues.
cnn.com

Interesting Environmental Working Group study:
Bottled Water Quality Investigation: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pollutants

From the report:

• Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry does not disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts.


• Two of 10 brands tested, Walmart's and Giant's (this appears to not be the Pa. Giant chain) store brands, bore the chemical signature of standard municipal water treatment -- a cocktail of chlorine disinfection byproducts, and for Giant water, even fluoride. In other words, this bottled water was chemically indistinguishable from tap water.


• Typical cost of bottled water is $3.79 per gallon, 1,900 times the cost of public tap water.

Bottled water is poorly regulated and 1,900 times the cost of tap water, what a deal.

York Water Company's 2008 water quality report for tap water.