Entries in "Chemical Engineering" ( for this category only)

C&EN Online

The Case community now has online access to Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) from 1998 to present. Access was arranged by OhioLINK.

[About C&EN]

Chemical & Engineering News is a weekly magazine published by the American Chemical Society. C&EN editors and reporters based in Europe, the U.S., and Asia cover science and technology, business and industry, government and policy, education, and employment aspects of the chemistry field.

C&EN Online offers Latest News, supplementary material to C&EN print articles, back issues of the magazine since 1998, and special features such as Reel Science, NanoFocus, RSS feeds, and blogs.

From the File of Where Else Did They Look

I found this video about Gmail discussed in a Walking Paper blog entry. In general the video is Gmail engineers reading emails they receive from happy users. The last one in the video was a freshman chemical engineering student who was working on a group project and the answer the group needed appeared in the targeted Gmail ads. The Google engineer said "this person was able to use gmail ads to find something she couldn’t find anywhere else".

Really? I did a similar project on photoremediation during my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and I found all the necessary information from the library.

I have two concerns with this video and the suggestions made. First, I question where else did these students look. Second, Google is doing some wonderful things but they are not the only source. It leads me to challenge are libraries doing enough to be in front of the users eyes.

Reminder: Older Versions of SciFinder Retired

Please note that on January 2nd, 2008 CAS retired the following versions
of SciFinder/SciFinder Scholar, as communicated to customers in mid June
2007:

• SciFinder and SciFinder Scholar 2004.2 (MAC OS 9 and Windows)
• SciFinder and SciFinder Scholar MAC OS X 1.0
• SciFinder 2007.0 for Windows

Resources, Data, or Tools

Are libraries offering resources, data, or tools to support instruction? Is the difference in the actual terms used just word play? Do libraries not market tools for instruction and only focus on research? Are library tools not good enough?

The Wired Campus (Chronicle of Higher Education, August 8, 2007) highlights a project asking educators their top ten lists of learning TOOLS. It has caused a ripple in the library profession communication channels as NOT one library tool once mentioned by the first 88 learning professional to respond.

Some have proposed that there is a difference between information resources and learning tools. Libraries do advertise and promote many of the learning tools mentioned but none of the subscription-based or library-design resources made the list.

I think all might be true.

First, surveys should define the meanings of words. But another view is that libraries have a reputation of developing our own terminology. Does that terminology make sense to users? Maybe library patrons do not fully grasp the words "database" or "resource". Maybe the simpler word "tool" is easier to grasp.

Second, libraries have always been good at marketing to people in the physical buildings, but marketing to more and more online patrons can be tough. Online competition is severe.

Finally, maybe we are not focused enough on instruction as a reason to use the library resources. I openly promote a database called Knovel as an instruction tool. I would not take credit for that stance though. One of my professors shared with me how he uses it for in the classroom activities. He feels it is a strong method to demonstrate chemical engineering calculations and develop real understanding. It is closer to how graduates would conduct such calculations in the real world.

Research ShowCase

I would like to thank Mohan Sankaran, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, for co-submitting a poster with me. We hope it gave other educators ideas on how to use library resources as a teaching tool, rather than only a research tool. Look for the poster in Digital Case in the future.

Knovel as a Tool for Engineering Research and Education
Knovel is a virtual technical library that includes over 800 full-text engineering and scientific reference works, handbooks, and datasets. Originally purchased by the Kelvin Smith Library to supplement the traditional print reference collection, it has become an important tool in engineering classroom instruction. Knovel data can be sorted, filtered, and exported from "live tables". Equations can be solved and graphs plotted, thus allowing students to capture values from existing graphs and perform "what if" experiments on the data.

The Case Western Reserve University Research ShowCase poster winners have been listed.

The Kelvin Smith Library also announced the winner of the geohunt contest.

Update: ICIS Creates a Students Portal - Includes Chemical Prices

ICIS has fixed the format of the chemical price list that is contained within their student portal. It formally did not view correctly in the Firefox browser, but it should work for all major browsers now.

Backyard Fuel Cell

Wired reports that Stephen Friend built the first fuel cell-powered house. He lives on Stuart Island in the Pacific Northwest and the island has no electric system.

[VIA: MAKE: Blog, March 20, 2007]

ICIS Creates Student Portal

ICIS is working on a new student portal, or "knowledge zone". Right now it links to some resources available to students. In the future, they "hope it will turn into a space in which students and academics worldwide can communicate and discuss issues with each other, and showcase their best work to the wider world, not least potential employers."

Several librarians have contacted and discussed the lack of chemical prices for student projects with ICIS. In the past, I documented and shared my concerns directly with ICIS. Randy Reichardt has taken similar steps. He has personally been involved in the recent developments.

ICIS with the announcement of this new student portal has helped to fill this need for chemical prices. ICIS now provides "you with historical chemical prices. Note that these prices are a guide only, and must not be used to guide real-time business."

I understand chemical prices are hard to locate and maintain, even for a major chemical publisher, so this historical resource fills a major need for chemical engineering students.

Thank you ICIS and Randy Reichardt!

Continue reading "ICIS Creates Student Portal"

CSA Trust - Winter Newsletter

The Chemical Structure Association (CSA) Trust has published its winter Newsletter, which is freely available to all at http://csa-trust.org.

The Chemical Structure Association Trust (CSA Trust) is an internationally recognized, registered charity which promotes education, research and development in the field of storage, processing and retrieval of information about chemical structures, reactions and compounds. Many students and researchers world-wide, who work in this area, have benefited from the Trust Awards and Grants programmes to further their research work.

Money for Portable Fuel Cells

The Plain Dealer (November 15, 2006) reports that NorTech has distributed $1 million in grant money, includings funds to Case.

The Wright Fuel Cell Group will receive $150,000 to build portable fuel cells created with Ohio-made products. Case Western Reserve University, Graf-Tech, HydroGen, Contained Energy, Northeast Hydrogen and Chemsultants are part of the fuel cell group.

[VIA: Case Daily, November 15, 2006]

Do you Think of Ohio for Fuel Cells?

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer (November 12, 2006), millions of research money has been focused into Ohio's fuel cell research programs.

• The Wright Fuel Cell Group built by Case on the old Mt. Sinai property
• Rolls-Royce PLC is creating a fuel cell subsidiary in North Canton
• UltraCell Corp. is building a factory near Dayton
• HydroGen Corp. will run a 400-kilowatt prototype fuel cell power plant at an Ashta Chemicals factory in Ashtabula
• Painesville-based Pemery Corp. has successfully tested tiny fuel cells for the Army
• GrafTech International Ltd. in Parma wins $2.3 million federal grant

[VIA: Case Daily, November 13, 2006]

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Website Downtime

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) website (http://www.rsc.org) will be unavailable on Saturday 2 December 2006 from 09.00 to 17.00 GMT for essential maintenance.

The RSC apologises for any inconvenience that this downtime may cause.

Customer Services
Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK

ICIS Chemical Business Americas - Update

I am glad to see Randy Reichardt at the University of Alberta got a little further with a response towards why the publication (Chemical Market Reporter) was drastically changed with no feedback or warning to academia. I only received a standard response from several people at ICIS that basically already told me the obvious - "we are only covering about 100 prices and focusing more on news". I made it clear to ICIS that the strength, and what made them unique to academic libraries, was that they covered such a large amount of chemical prices. The current price coverage was much weaker than they were promoting and probably of minimal value for engineering students. Chemical industry news had many publications and organizations that focused in this realm and they were leaving a niche market (chemical prices) that academia relied heavily on CMR for.

Randy Reichardt received another response from Penny Wilson, ICIS Global Editorial Director, that reaffirmed a commitment to students. I hope this statement is not just an attempt to keep current subscribers. Their past efforts have not shown that students were considered much in their decisions, or they did not truely understand their subscibers or future subscriber needs. I am hoping it is the later, and they just did not understand how much academia needed chemical prices before they dropped the prices from the print CMR, rigged together a clunky online access with no IP recognition, and finally slashed hundreds of prices from their inventory.

ICIS Chemical Business Americas - More News

Seems like ICIS Chemical Business Americas (Chemical Market Reporter) may be writing its own ending in academic libraries. Randy Reichardt has discovered that up to 75-80% of the prices that were historically tracked have been removed from the online price index.

I looked today (September 12, 2006) at the price index. Only 86 prices were listed for 51 unique compounds. Last year when we spent the EXTRA money over 500 entries were included. In addition, many of the items that are included rarely come up in a chemical engineering design project at my institution. For example, I have never helped a student look up the following items nor did I need them a couple of years ago when I worked on my own chemical engineering design projects: coconut oil (2 entries), clover leaf oil, cotton oil (2 entries), canola meal, fish oil (4 entries), etc.

I will be updating my chemical engineering research guide to include other alternative resources and tricks for students to find chemical prices, as the value of this resource may no longer be a luxury academic libraries can afford.

Timeline of events:

• Chemical prices are removed from print edition
  
• Case spends the money to add online prices with an initial price of $415 for over 500 chemicals
  
• Announced name change
  
• Entry about poorly timed updated
  
• Today less than 100 entries exist

CMR Now Called ICIS Chemical Business Americas

UPDATE to my earlier posting and formal annoucement from publisher:

CMR is now ICIS Chemical Business Americas. As of the 4th September CMR has been reborn as ICIS Chemical Business Americas. As part of ICIS, we aim to leverage our strengths and reflect this in our branding. With our global and extensive resources from around the world we can present our readers with the most comprehensive publication in the sector.

ICIS Chemical Business Americas will continue to provide our readers with all the content that they have grown to rely upon at CMR, from news of the week to expert coverage of key markets. And we are sure our readers we love our new fresh design and our regular new sections.

The Case Community can continue to gain access from the Library Catalog under "Chemical Market Reporter", until the name and links have all been changed.

Chemical Market Reporter Publisher Again Shows No Respect for Academia

As you may recall previously, I worked with the publisher of Chemical Market Reporter to establish electronic access for the Case community. This came after many librarians expressed great concern to the publisher for not considering the needs of their users.

CMR was one of the few resources available for students to establish chemical prices for their many projects. The publisher switched to online-only without asking academic users what they needed the most. They tried to make things better by offering an online subscription, but many libraries were still left in the dark as they required a single password login and wanted more money. This publisher forgot that the future purchasers of CMR would be the very students they were ignoring now.

ICIS has again decided to ignore academic subscribers. They are changing CMR to another publication, but shut down operations right when many academic librarians were directing students to this resource. A "coming soon" message does not help students complete their assignments.

ICIS Jobs - Coming Soon

UPDATE:
ICIS jobs is now available.

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ICIS jobs will be available soon, with searchable chemicals jobs and careers information.

ICIS is an information provider for the chemical and oil industry.

Chemistry World News by RSS Feed

Chemistry World's daily news service is now available as a RSS feed, joining the existing feeds for RSC Journals.

Chemistry World is packed with articles on all aspects of the chemical sciences, regular company and individual profiles, job vacancies, commercial technology reports and many fascinating features.

(VIA: SD Librarian, July 28, 2006)

Fuel Cells in 2007

CNET News.com in Big Tests For Fuel Cells Coming in 2007 looks at the future of fuel cells.

Next year fuel cells could take a significant step forward, according to a CEO of one of the leading manufacturers of the technology.

Predicted 2007 milestones:

• U.S. military will conduct field tests of hybrid power systems, which combine lithium ion batteries and methanol fuel cells
• Prototypes of fuel cell to power Samsung cell phones

Fuel Cells and the Hydrogen Economy

From ScienceBase:

Hydrogen fuel cells have been relatively neglected through insufficient support from industry and government, according to a study published today funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Read the full commentary at ScienceBase looking at fuel cells as disruptive technology or browse the documents related to the research at ESRC.

Award Name: The Development and Diffusion of Fuel Cell Technology as a Disruptive Innovation
Award Holder: Prof Chris Hendry
Programme Name: Sustainable Technologies
Co-applicant(s): Dr P Harborne, Prof C Arcoumanis

Google & ACS Trademark Case

According to CNET News.com, the Google Scholar trademark case ends with the American Chemical Society.

ACS, which was founded in 1876 and claims to be the world's largest scientific society, sued Google in 2004. The suit claimed that the free "Google Scholar" journal-search service unfairly competes with ACS' "SciFinder Scholar," which appears to be more comprehensive but charges a fee.

Nationwide Chemical Security Plan

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on June 30 released the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), which includes the first nationwide plan to protect U.S. chemical plants and related infrastructures.

According to Chemical & Engineering News (July 3, 2006), sector-specific security plans that complement NIPP and detail the risk management framework will be released within six months.

Chemistry Magazine

Chemistry is a tabloid published for American Chemical Society Members, Student Affiliates, and those interested in learning more about the chemical sciences and the American Chemical Society.

Snapshot Of The Chemical Industry

Chemical & Engineering News (July 10, 2006) provided a snapshot of employment, finanaces, production, and trade in Facts & Figures Of The Chemical Industry.

(VIA: Quick Picks, July 11, 2006)

Big Money for "Little" Research

C.C. Liu, a chemical engineering professor at Case Western Reserve University, will lead a team studying novel microscopic machines powered by ultra light-sensitive molecules as part of a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

See full article from Crain's Cleveland Business on the web (July 19, 2006).

(VIA: Case Daily, July 20, 2006)

Carbon-based Fuel Cell

The Cleveland Plain Dealer (July 18, 2006) shared information on a direct carbon fuel cell that will be tested at the Wright Fuel Cell Group on the Case Western Reserve University campus. The New twist on fuel cells article describes a fuel cell that uses carbon dioxide from the air.

(VIA: Case Daily, July 18, 2006)

Cleveland PD Highlights Case Chemical Engineering Professor

John Funk on December 28, 2005, wrote an article called Inventing Our Destiny - Work is no Small Feat in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The article highlights Professor Chung-Chiun Liu's team approach to research and invention.

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The Case community and other OhioLINK users can read Liu's profile and the full article through NewsBank America's Newspaper.

(Updated with new links on July 20, 2006)

Call for Nominations for the 2008 ACS National Awards

Nominations for 53 national awards administered by the ACS to be presented in 2008 are being solicited. See the full announcement for more details.

Case Engineering Dean Stepping Down

After leading the Case Western Reserve University Case School of Engineering to record highs in fundraising, research expenditures and improved relations with its alumni, Robert F. Savinell will step down as dean effective December 31, 2006, in order to focus on his research in fuel cells and electrochemistry.

See the full announcement for transition details and the accomplishments during Savinell's leadership.

PROGRESS - Women Chemists and Chemical Engineers

PROGRESS is a three-year pilot project launched in 2002 by the American Chemical Society to develop, test, and evaluate 7 new programs aimed at facilitating the full participation and advancement of women chemists and chemical engineers. Its goals are to assist entry-level professionals find employment and guide and support early and mid-career professionals seeking advancement.

(VIA: Quick Picks, May 29, 2006)

First Open Access Nanotechnology Journal from Major Publisher

Springer and the Nano Research Society have announced a new partnership to publish Nanoscale Research Letters (NRL), which will be the first nanotechnology journal from a major commercial publisher to publish articles with open access. The new journal provides an interdisciplinary forum for the open communication of scientific and technological advances in the creation and use of objects at the nanometer scale. The first open access articles are scheduled to appear on Springer's online platform, SpringerLink, in July 2006.

Read the full announcement for more information.

(VIA: LISNews, June 12, 2006)

Beilstein database exceeds ten million reactions

MDL Information Systems GmbH is pleased to announce that the Beilstein database now provides more than ten million structure-searchable reactions. Passing this important milestone emphasizes the enduring value of the Beilstein database as the essential first step in chemical discovery. See the full press release for more information.

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Beilstein Crossfire is one of the several hundred databases available to the Case community.

Biointerphases - New Open Access Journal

The Biointerphases journal, an open access journal for the biomaterials interface community, provides an interdisciplinary platform for scientific exchange among the biology, chemistry, physics, and materials sciences communities. It offers a discussion forum for rapid dissemination of scientific theories, results, and interpretations. Biointerphases serves as a global vehicle for the biomaterials interface community as well as a platform that encourages dialog between scientists and the public with respect to cogent policy issues.

[About Biointerphases]

Biointerphases is devoted to Articles of original research, Reviews, a "Myth and Reality" section addressing controversial models and experiments, Editorial Commentary/Letters to the Editor, Perspectives on Evolving Research, Reports on Interdisciplinary Research Programs and Opinionated Essays.

Biointerphases will include all topics relevant to the study and understanding of interfaces and confined phases in biomaterial science and biophysics, e. g. such as interface spectroscopy, in vivo mechanisms, in vitro mechanisms, interface modeling, adhesion phenomena, protein-surface interactions, cell-surface interactions, biomembranes on a chip, biosensors / biodiagnostics, bio-surface modification, the nano-bio interface, biotribology / biorheology, molecular recognition, cell patterning for function, polyelectrolyte surfaces, and ambient diagnostic methods. Biointerphases is freely available online, and will be available in an annual bound volume for a nominal fee.

Periodic Table of Data

The Periodic Table of Data is a visual database of physical and thermochemical properties of the chemical elements. It includes an interactive periodic table, visualization of properties, graphs, tables of data, energy level diagrams, and games. The data in this resource has been taken from The Royal Society of Chemistry Electronic Data Book CD, London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2002, with some minor corrections for consistency.

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[About RSC]

The RSC is the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international publishing business, our activities span education, conferences, science policy and the promotion of chemistry to the public.

Chmoggle - Chemical Information Search Engine

UPDATE:
Under pressure from Google, Chmoogle is now called eMolecules.

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On November 18, 2005, eMolecules, Inc. announced the launch of Chmoogle.

Chmoogle wants to be the world's leading free open-access chemistry search engine. Chmoogle's mission is to discover, curate and index all of the public chemical information in the world, and make it available to the public. Chmoogle distinguishes itself by extremely fast searches, an appealing presentation of results, and high-quality chemical drawings. Chmoogle discovers sources of chemical data by searching the internet, and receives submissions from data providers such as chemical suppliers and academic researchers.

Chmoogle searches chemical information by drawn chemical structures, IUPAC name, or by entering SMILES nomenclature (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry Specification).

The Chmoogle web site also includes Cheminformatics 101 - An introduction to the Computer Science and Chemistry of Chemical Information Systems.

American Chemical Society Journals - RSS Feeds

Each of the American Chemical Society journals offer RSS feeds that include their Articles ASAP and complete Table of Contents.

Nano Circuit Makes Debut

BBC News (March 24, 2006) reported that IBM and academic researchers in Florida have created the first computer circuit built on a single molecule.

It was assembled on a single carbon nanotube, a standard component of any nanotechnologist's toolkit.

The circuit is less than a fifth of the width of a human hair and can only be seen through an electron microscope.

Read more...

Petroleum Journals Online

Petroleum Journals Online (PJO) publishes the first fully refereed, open access, e-journals of petroleum engineering. The publications cover the following main areas of petroleum engineering namely: petrophysics, production geology, drilling, production, reservoir engineering, and petroleum management and economics.

(Originally reported in the Internet Resources Newsletter - Issue 103, October 2005, by Roddy MacLeod)

Future Energy Options

What energy options do we have?
Reported by Scott Newell (WKYC)

Case Western was mentioned:

Case Western Reserve University recently got a $3 million federal grant to develop one component of the fuel cell.

But hydrogen fuel cell cars are at least 10 years off.

"Primarily because of the technological problems on trying to improve the durability of a fuel cell, having it last longer under automobile use and decreasing overall cost of a fuel cell," Case Western Reserve's Peter Pintauro said.

Chemistry Information Software

The EngLib blog shared an announcement of some new software for chemistry information.

• Elsevier MDL and TEMIS launched the Chemical Entity Relationship Skill Cartridge, a software application that "identifies and extracts chemical information from text documents."
• ChemAxon announced the lauch of a free cheminfomatics toolkit, a "FreeWeb" package to "provide its chemical editing, viewing, search, property calculation and database management toolkits at no cost to freely accessible web resources being operated for non-commercial purposes".

ECN & ACN to Merge in 2006

Shared on the CHMINF-L listerv was news that European Chemical News (ECN) and Asian Chemical News (ACN) will be relaunched as ICIS Chemical Business on January, 9, 2006, with increased coverage of Middle East and Asia. The video announcement is available for viewing.

By checking the E-Journal Portal, the Case community will see that access to Asian Chemical News and European Chemical News is available through Business Source Premier. Hopefully, the new title will be made available through the same database.