http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1791 New program will focus on science and technology components of contemporary environmental issues. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1683 Inert Anodes for the Hall-Heroult Cell: the Ultimate Materials Challenge Sadoway, Donald R. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1682 New Opportunities for Metals Extraction and Waste Treatment by Electrochemical Processing in Molten Salts Sadoway, Donald R. Molten salt electrolysis is a proven technology for the extraction of metals -- all the world's primary aluminum is produced in this manner. The unique properties of molten salts also make them excellent media in which to treat a variety of forms of waste. Of special note in this regard is electrolysis in molten oxides, a concept put forward by the author, initially as a "clean technology" for producing primary metal. However, in the context of waste treatment, electrolysis in molten oxides is a process offering the prospect of changing the valence of dissolved heavy metals while making pure oxygen gas as the main by-product. Laboratory tests conducted at a temperature of 1550°C on chromate sludge dissolved in an melt composed of Al2O3, SiO2, CaO, and MgO have confirmed electrochemical production of oxygen on a carbon-free anode. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1681 Briefing Paper on Industrial Ecology and EPA Allen, Derry Industrial Ecology (IE) is a systems approach to efficient resource use and protection of the environment. Instead of just devising improved methods of waste treatment and disposal, we look for the best opportunities to reduce waste throughout the total material cycle from virgin materials to finished products to end of product life. Instead of controlling industrial pollutants from different sources one by one at different times and with different technologies, we try to look across whole facilities, regions and even whole industries and make changes wherever in the system it is most effective to do so. Many thoughtful observers in the research and private and public sectors are now saying that IE approaches are our best and in some cases our only opportunities to bring about further significant environmental improvement. They conclude that tinkering with the present approach is not enough. EPA’s programs should seek the most effective places to improve resource efficiency and product stewardship with incentives, information and regulatory flexibility. EPA should encourage more facilities to emulate those that have voluntarily become much more resource efficient where it is already profitable. They also conclude that due to knowledge gaps and disincentives, this effort will require coordinated government action and that EPA should play a major leadership role. Staff from around EPA have been considering this suggestion. They firmly envision that Industrial Ecology approaches should guide and supplement but not replace current regulatory programs. They have also found that there is a base of EPA activity and program ideas on which to build. This paper recommends five steps to get started, each of which can be done under current laws: (1) Familiarize key groups with the concept of IE. (2) Lay the data/information foundation for IE. (3) Ask each headquarters and regional office to make appropriate commitments to pursue IE approaches. (4) Work with other agencies of federal, state and local government, as well as foreign governments and organizations outside of government. (5) Set specific goals and expectations and measure progress. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/1680 The Program on Science, Technology and Environmental Policy: A Research Agenda for the Next Generation of Environmental Regulation Foster, James Lloyd Larson, Harold McCulloch, Lewis In the view of many industry representatives there already exist technologies with improved environmental attributes for which it has not been possible to get regulatory approval or even concerted regulatory review. Is technology now “getting well ahead” of regulation? Can the regulatory approval process for new technologies keep up with the opportunities for innovation? There is a clear need for an objective, credible institutional base for evaluating technologies that are needed to address contemporary and long-term environmental problems. The Program in Science Technology and Environmental Policy (PSTEP) being launched at MIT seeks to be an important part of that institutional base. If the manufacturer’s claims can be verified, and if the potential benefits of more rapid technological innovation are significant, then industry should aggressively support programs like PSTEP that present the ability to gain timely, credible and reliable technology assessments. In order to shape the regulatory process and hasten regulatory reviews, the research products created through PSTEP must be aggressively communicated to stakeholders, and we would like to solicit input and support from industry and government to move this initiative forward. PSTEP is being designed as an academic initiative to allow graduate engineering students to do thesis work on specific environmental policy issues that are science and technology intensive. PSTEP students and faculty will work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Industry representatives to develop specific research topics and to collaborate on the decision making process. Students in the program will be jointly supervised by engineering and social science faculty, which represents a significant shift from traditional thesis work. PSTEP may assist EPA in improving its capacity for technology assessment. So much of the criticism of EPA’s analytic capabilities focus on risk assessment, but at least as important is its limited capacity to evaluate technologies for their risk mitigation potential. And risk mitigation assessments must go well beyond the typical focus on a particular technology’s ability to mitigate a particular risk or only on the risk directly posed by that technology. At least five sets of issues, and the tradeoffs among them, must be addressed: · Risk versus risk tradeoffs of new technologies · Potential for production efficiency gains from new products and processes · The environmental impacts of changes in supply chains due to product substitutions · Monitoring and enforcement efficiencies arising from new product and process technologies · Environmental performance incentives associated with technological innovation This whitepaper, based on findings of a workshop held at MIT on November 1st, 2001, provides background for the issues that the program will explore and proposes ways in which the PSTEP initiative – working with partners in government and industry can address these issues.