New stylings from Ciba provide wide array of

June 08, 2009 - "XYMARA™ Fireball™ stylings bring characteristics of color and color shift that are not to be found elsewhere," said Tom Landuydt, Global Marketing Head of Automotive Coatings at Ciba. "The transparency, warmth and sparkle of Fireball™, when combined in new recipes, have resulted in a series of unique shades."The new stylings – Melting Magma, Sunset Marina, Treasure Grove, Burning Amber, Spicy Velvet and Bloomy Vapor – make use of high-end technology that gives high durability, making them suitable for demanding application areas such as exterior automotive coatings and other high-performance items, including mobile phones, personal digital assistants and laptops.When used alone, XYMARA™ Fireball™ gives a unique color-travel effect, varying from orange/gold to a deep cherry red, depending on the angle of observation. Its inherent transparency makes it ideal for combination with other transparent pigments as well as in multilayer paint systems. The new stylings are not only versatile in terms of color, but also in their compatibility with different paint systems – they can be used for both waterborne and solventborne applications, allowing maximum flexibility in formulation.A brochure, available free of charge, describes and illustrates the new stylings as well as providing technical information on how to achieve them.For a detailed description of the new XYMARA™ Fireball™ stylings, please visit www.xymara.com.About Ciba Inc.Ciba (SWX: CIBN), part of BASF since April 2009, is a leading global company dedicated to producing high-value effects for its customers’ products. We strive to be the partner of choice for our customers, offering them innovative products and one-stop expert service. We create effects that improve the quality of life – adding performance, protection, color and strength to plastics, paper, automobiles, buildings, home and personal care products and much more. Ciba is active in more than 120 countries around the world and is committed to be a leader in its chosen markets. In 2008, the Company’s continued operations generated sales of CHF 5.9 billion and invested more than CHF 230 million in R&D.For further information please contact:Ciba Investor Relations:Tel. +41 61 636 5084Fax +41 61 636 5111Ciba Media:Tel. +41 61 636 4444Fax +41 61 636 3019

LATEST CHEMICAL NEWS

UK carbon capture and storage gets government boost

24 April 2009

The UK will lead the way in the development and use of carbon capture and storage technology for coal-fired power stations, the country's minister for energy and climate change has declared.

Talking to the House of Commons on 23 April, Ed Miliband announced that any company seeking planning approval for new coal-fired power stations would have to commit to retrofitting carbon capture and storage (CCS) across the whole plant once the technology is available. In the same speech he also outlined plans to develop this technology using the extra funding for CCS research announced in the UK's 2009 budget.

Miliband acknowledged that coal - renowned as a more polluting fossil fuel than gas - will continue to play an important part of the UK's energy provision, but reiterated that 'there is an urgent international imperative for us to make coal clean'. He went on to propose two new conditions that any companies wanting to build new coal-powered power stations must meet in order to gain consent in England and Wales: CCS should be demonstrated on at least 300MW of any new coal-fired power station's capacity (approximately a quarter of a standard sized plant's output), and that the company must also agree to fit CCS on the entire plant once the technology is proven.

Technically and economically

During his budget speech on 22 April, Alistair Darling, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, pledged 'a new funding mechanism to support up to four CCS demonstration projects, and £90 million to fund detailed preparatory studies'. The UK previously had plans to run just one of these demonstration projects, as part of a European Commission strategy to encourage around 12 full-scale CCS demonstration projects by 2015. A competition has been ongoing since 2007 to decide which company would run this trial, with the winner expected to be announced in mid-2009. Three contenders remain in the race: E.ON UK, Peel Power, and Scottish Power. There is no word yet how, or if, this week's news will affect the competition's outcome.

Miliband has now added more details to Darling's plan, saying that the new demonstrations would 'be a mix of pre- and post-combustion' and would be clustered in regions where they can achieve the greatest emission reductions the most economically, such as Thames, Humberside, Teesside, Firth of Forth and Merseyside. He also suggested this might herald a new future for the North Sea oil and gas industry, capitalising on an abundance of offshore storage sites for CO₂. 'This route is right, too, for the British economy, and will enable us to lead the world in carbon capture and storage,' he added. 'Research suggests that carbon abatement technologies could sustain 50 000 jobs by 2030.'

Lukewarm response

Green energy experts have cautiously welcomed Miliband's comments. Stuart Haszeldine, from the Scottish centre for carbon storage at the University of Edinburgh, said that 'this is a big step towards accelerating routine decarbonisation of electricity from 2020, and total decarbonisation by 2030, as recommended by the [UK government's] climate change committee. Building new coal-fired power plants without operational carbon capture and a connection to a transport and storage cluster, now becomes unjustifiable.'

Some researchers, however, are concerned about the detail in Miliband's statement. '[This] announcement on the CCS scheme has the feel of sleepwalking into oblivion. The fact that there are now apparently four demonstration plants is new but the sizes and timescales lack so greatly in definition that it provides the government with the maximum opportunity to dither for a very long time,' said Miles Seaman from the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Others have voiced concerns that the funding mechanism has not yet been thought through. Jon Gibbins, from the Energy technology for sustainable development group at Imperial College London, said 'this is good news, but to make anything happen there has to be an effective way of recovering the costs of any CCS projects. Otherwise it's no new coal and no CCS.

Ammonium nitrate

The chemical compound ammonium nitrate, the nitrate of ammonia with the chemical formula NH₄NO₃, is a white crystalline solid at room temperature and standard pressure. It is commonly used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer, and it has also been used as an oxidizing agent in explosives, including improvised explosive devices.

Ammonium nitrate is used in cold packs, as hydrating the salt is an endothermic process.

Production

The processes involved in the production of ammonium nitrate in industry, although chemically simple, are technologically challenging. The acid-base reaction of ammonia with nitric acid gives a solution of ammonium nitrate:^[3] HNO₃(aq) + NH₃(g) → NH₄NO₃(aq). For industrial production, this is done using anhydrous ammonia gas and concentrated nitric acid. This reaction is violent and very exothermic. After the solution is formed, typically at about 83% concentration, the excess water is evaporated to an ammonium nitrate (AN) content of 95% to 99.9% concentration (AN melt), depending on grade. The AN melt is then made into "prills" or small beads in a spray tower, or into granules by spraying and tumbling in a rotating drum. The prills or granules may be further dried, cooled, and then coated to prevent caking. These prills or granules are the typical AN products in commerce.

The Haber process combines nitrogen and hydrogen to produce ammonia, part of which can be oxidised to nitric acid and combined with the remaining ammonia to produce the nitrate. Another production method is used in the so-called Odda process.

Sodium

Sodium (pronounced /ˈsoʊdiəm/) is an element which has the symbol Na (Latin natrium, from Arabic natrun), atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 [g/mol], and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" (formerly known as ‘group IA’). It has only one stable isotope, ²³Na. Sodium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1806 by passing an electric current through molten sodium hydroxide. Sodium quickly oxidizes in air and is violently reactive with water, so it must be stored in an inert medium, such as kerosene or mineral oil. Sodium is present in great quantities in the Earth's oceans as sodium chloride (common salt). It is also a component of many minerals, and it is an essential element for animal life. As such, it is classified as a “dietary inorganic macro-mineral.”

Chemical properties

Compared with other alkali metals, sodium is generally less reactive than potassium and more reactive than lithium,^[2] in accordance with "periodic law": for example, their reaction in water, chlorine gas, etc.;

Sodium reacts exothermically with water: small pea-sized pieces will bounce across the surface of the water until they are consumed by it, whereas large pieces will explode. While sodium reacts with water at room temperature, the sodium piece melts with the heat of the reaction to form a sphere, if the reacting sodium piece is large enough. The reaction with water produces very caustic sodium hydroxide (lye) and highly flammable hydrogen gas. These are extreme hazards (see Precautions section below). When burned in air, sodium forms sodium peroxide Na₂O₂, or with limited oxygen, the oxide Na₂O (unlike lithium, the nitride is not formed). If burned in oxygen under pressure, sodium superoxide NaO₂ will be produced. In chemistry, most sodium compounds are considered soluble but nature provides examples of many insoluble sodium compounds such as the feldspars. There are other insoluble sodium salts such as sodium bismuthate NaBiO₃, sodium octamolybdate Na₂Mo₈O₂₅• 4H₂O, sodium thioplatinate Na₄Pt₃S₆, sodium uranate Na₂UO₄. Sodium meta-antimonate's 2NaSbO₃•7H₂O solubility is 0.3g/L as is the pyro form Na₂H₂Sb₂O₇• H₂O of this salt. Sodium metaphosphate NaPO₃ has a soluble and an insoluble form