Headwaters Inc. wins major national 'green' award

Enterprise, The, Jul 02, 2007

South Jordan-based Headwaters Inc., a diversified firm that provides products, technologies and services to the energy, construction and home improvement industries, mainly through alternative energy and coal combustion products, has received the Presidential Green Chemistry Award from the Environmental Protection Agency for its project, Direct Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide by Selective Nanocatalyst Technology. The award is the highest environmental award given in the United States.

The award was presented to Dr. Bing Thou and members of Headwaters Technology Innovation (HTI), who developed NxCat, a robust nanocatalyst technology that enables the synthesis of H2O2 directly from hydrogen and oxygen. In partnership with Degussa AG, a major H2O2 manufacturer, HTI has demonstrated its technology and is preparing to begin commercial production in 2009.

"We are delighted here at HTI to have won such a prestigious award, and feel that our innovative technology achieves the Green Chemistry Program's principle of designing syntheses that generate substances with little or no toxicity to humans and the environment," Zhou said.

NxCatis is a palladium-platinum catalyst that eliminates all the hazardous reaction conditions and chemicals of the existing process, along with its undesirable byproducts. It produces H2O2 more efficiently, cutting both energy use and costs. It uses innocuous, renewable feedstocks and generates no toxic waste.

NxCat catalysts work because of their precisely controlled surface morphology. Except for its historically higher price, H2O2 is a substitute for the more frequently used chlorinated oxidants. The NxCattechnology has the benefit of producing a cost effective, environmentally preferable oxidant (H2O2), and is expected to be the oxidant of choice for synthesis of major industrial chemicals.

The EPA's Green Chemistry Program promotes the research, development and implementation of innovative chemical technologies that accomplish pollution prevention in a scientifically sound and cost-effective manner.