SACNAS National Conference Features CENTC Symposium This Friday

The 2012 National Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS) runs October 11-14 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. CENTC has sponsored and organized a symposium on "Advances in Research in Sustainable Energy Technologies" that is scheduled for the morning of Friday, October 12. If you will be at the conference be sure to come to this symposium and hear presentations by CENTC investigators Karen Goldberg (University of Washington) and Levi Thompson (University of Michigan), and CENTC Advisory Board member Emilio Bunel (Argonne National Lab).

Visit the SACNAS National Conference website for the symposium schedule.

New Process to Make Para-Xylene from Ethylene

CENTC investigator Maurice Brookhart and co-workers at the University of North Carolina have reported a method to selectively prepare para-xylene from only ethylene. Para-xylene, which is currently mainly manufactured by catalytic reforming of petroleum, is used in the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) that is used as polyester fibers, resins and films for numerous applications. This new method could be used to manufacture para-xylene from natural gas or biomass sources and thus reduce reliance on oil.

Read the paper from Journal of the American Chemical Society, and the C&E News Science Concentrate.