Well, finally I am writing about something that is a consumer product and not beating the scientific horse to death.  My father was nice enough to purchase one of these units for me about 1 year ago.  At the time I was dating the daughter of the mayor of a city in Shandong province China and I was getting ready to relocate my life there.  Water is an essential (of course) and all of the water I’ve ever had in China is horrible.  So my intention was to use this unit to purify water for my personal use.  In any event, the racism so prevalent in China surfaced its head and through a series of what appeared as misfortunes (which in reality could turn into blessings), many which arose because I’m a white male, I decided to not move.  So there was a delay in using the unit as I was drinking water filtered through a refrigerator (which was potable but not much more).  Finally in 2012 I broke this bad boy out (see above) and after discarding the first couple aliquots of water was pleasantly surprised to see just how good it tasted.  It turned the crappy city water that tastes almost like swimming pool water into high quality water (the type you actually want to drink over other beverages like pop or event bottle water).

According to Berkey^® this unit can purify stagnant pond water.  I fit my unit with the alumina columns to remove fluoride as it is something your body simply doesn’t need (another poison) although they do potentially add soluble alumina to your water (in very minute quantities though).  At the time the only complaint I could possibly have had was that filtration is slow (especially on one filter).  If you drink a lot of water fill the top reservoir with water all the way to the top (if using one filter set) because by the time night rolls around you will find you’ve drank the bulk of that.  With two filters I suggest you fill the reservoir half way in the morning and half way at night.  One other thing to keep note of is for non-chemists hydration of alumina is an exothermic process.  I recall seeing some mention of this in the literature that came with the unit but you do not want the initial first 10-25 mL of effluent water coming out of the end of the alumina column to contact you as it is quite hot (yes I accidently {just barely} got a little taste of that while trying to charge the filter).  That might be the only other drawback, priming filters; however, with time they self-prime themselves if you place a column of water on top of them in the top chamber.

Unfortunately, the black filters (which are some sort of microporous {in actuality maybe in the Angstrom region pore size wise} ceramic) of my unit had some issues.  My guess is it is not an isolated incident because I noticed Berkey^® implemented new return instructions not long after the first of two black filters delaminated from its plastic base (see below).  I sent it back and got a replacement which worked fine; however, when I installed it the second (of the two original) black filter decided to laminate.  So that got sent back and the replacement is on its way.  It would appear that the adhesive (which looks to be a hot melt type) was out of spec and just didn’t have sufficient tack to do its job.  I covered the empty filter slot with clear packaging tape which allowed me to use one filter.  One thing I do have to say on the behalf of Berkey^® is that they seemed to acknowledge the defects were their fault and they even cut me slack on the warranty seeing that I had the unit in my possession for ½ a year and never started using it until 2012.

So right now I would definitely suggest this unit to people.  It makes absolutely great tasting water, free of all sorts of heavy metals, toxic halides (e.g. F^–), pathogens and so forth.  This water is a good start to making great coffee and in critical food applications I would highly suggest it as well.  Should anything change my outlook on this product I will alert the reader in future posts.

Manufacturer Made a Boo Boo

The following details my interactions with market research companies.

Freedonia Group:  This company was very helpful to me during the time when I was writing the review on terpenic resins; however, when it came to butyl rubber/PIBs they didn’t offer any information.  I have yet to figure out whether they are simply refusing to help or if it is a case that they just don’t have the information.  So for anyone interested in buying reports from them I would say their information on terpenic resins is good; otherwise, I might be leery of purchasing other reports from them as their data might be questionable.  At this point I cannot say definitively one way or the other and should they provide me with information for my book I will gladly update my blog and let you know what is going on with them.

G+ (GLGroup):  This is a real joke of a company.  When I ran across them on the internet I attempted to contact the company through one of their webforms about 3 times (unsuccessfully) and then through one of their so called experts (first name was Lewis) and again had no reply.  Finally, in one desperate attempt I tried a different email address that I came across listed on their website and had a nice conversation with a guy called Zack.  It is interesting to see some parallels with Zack and some of the R&D scientists at BASF.  Zack was able to realize that cooperating with me could only help GLGroup and promote G+ and that by doing so they were not risking anything.  Still, he acknowledged to me that it was the higher-ups that were going to make the decision and when time came for that I again ran into a dead end.  So I obviously do not suggest anyone use this company for anything.  My guess is with the way things are run there I won’t have any feedback from any of the higher-ups…

ICIS Chemical Business:  I am completely unimpressed with this company.  For several years I use to read copies of the “Chemical Market Reporter” that were thrown my way by a friend of mine.  Interestingly, even though they are supposedly experts in the field of market information for the chemical sector they couldn’t provide me with a single data point on either terpenic resins or butyl rubber/PIB!!!  I’d be interested to see if anyone at this company will step up to the plate and offer some basic marketing information if nothing else.  It might just amount to not making the right contacts.  Again, if they step up to the plate I’ll provide an update here on my blog to let you know.

Gii.co.jp:  Again, another dead end marketing report company.

Marketpublishers.com:  This is just a repeat of all the other companies that sell marketing reports.  They are unwilling to provide any information free of charge.  My suggestion to the reader, don’t use them at all.

Research and Markets.com:  I put in a request and never got anything from them.  Go figure.

Reports-research.com:  Another example of a company that sells market reports that is unwilling to supply me with a single data point.  As with many other related companies I do not suggest you use them.

The following details my interaction with companies that manufacture polyisobutene and butyl rubber.

BASF: For those who do not know, I have had dealings with BASF on and off for about 8+ years.  This began not long after I started my first company (Stewart’s Technologies, LLC) at the Corporate Research Center at Virginia Tech.  At the time I was one of the first members in a program of theirs called KnowledgeWorks.  This program was to help foster startups and they really dropped the ball big time when it came to me (the program is an absolute joke).  I had the manager at the time for BASF’s North Americas segment of polyisobutylene products scheduled for a visit and the KnowledgeWorks choads didn’t even bother to show up (leaving me without much needed av equipment).  In any event, BASF never supplied any R&D funding and in an attempt to entice them I foolishly provided > $200 of a difficult to make, air sensitive Lewis acid coinitiator only to later learn they didn’t even have a glove box required to properly handle it!  That fact still blows my mind to be quite frank.

Fast forward about 7 years and I contact Dr.? Vineet Bajpai (Bus. Manager- Fuel Solutions and Polyisobutylene for BASF here in the US).  I simply request that BASF supply some rudimentary information for my book on cationic polymerization, the bulk of which has already appeared in print years before.  What was the response that that I got from him and Ulrich Eichenauer and Anette Eckerle (titles unknown)?  Nein, asking BASF to do such a thing was verboten!  To say that I am disappointed with BASF’s stance is a major understatement.  My thinking was that this company might be progressive in the way they conduct themselves and that they were truly dedicated to the betterment of mankind.  Guess I was wrong there.  Again, my hope is that someone in charge will prove to me that BASF is truly dedicated to education in the chemical sector and do the right thing and cooperate with me.  I will say this, I have talked with other people there (high ranking R&D scientists) and they share my sentiments.  That is, since the chemistry is well known and there is no IP risk whatsoever what is the big deal especially since it is free promotion of BASF and for the educational benefit of scientists in training!!!

ExxonMobil:  I contacted this company around the time I first started having dealings with BASF.  At the time I had recently invented the first aqueous polymerization system for isobutene and I recall the people who I talked with (in their butyl R&D department) being completely ignorant of the fact that polymer could be made under such conditions.  My attempts at developing some sort of collaboration with them didn’t even get past the conversational stage so I quickly decided to stop wasting my time with them.  Once I started writing the second book chapter (on polyisobutene and butyl rubber) I contacted one of their main R&D scientists via phone (Dr. Tim Shaffer).  At that time I was excited to talk with him as I held him in high regard.  When I requested information from him instead of providing me with the resources I was looking for he instead suggested I simply read the most recent summary that he and others from Exxon had published.  It was a major disappointment to me especially since there was really nothing new in their summary compared to those written about 20+ years prior to its publication.  Interestingly when I dug into Exxon’s newest and greatest technologies I wasn’t impressed as they really amount to a major waste of millions of R&D funds and no real improvements from an environmental standpoint.  Even their energy efficient initiator system is only about 90 years old!!!  I’m not overly surprised by the waste given the fact that when I attempted to contact Rex Tillerson (the CEO of Exxon) the head of their Chemical R&D department (Michael C. Kirby) told me that my chemistry (isobutene polymerization) had no overlap with any products produced by Exxon (see letter below).  Someone should remind me to eventually point out the significance of the date in this letter.  So the breaking news story from Exxon should be Exxon no longer makes butyl rubber!

TPC: Some months ago I wrote to Ms. Sara Cronin (corporate communications) of this company.  I never received a response from anyone there.  At this moment I do not know of anyone in their R&D sector and my guess is their chemistry is antiquated at best.  Should anyone from this company have a desire to provide basic information and get a free plug in my upcoming book by all means please feel free to contact me through my website.  Such a collaboration could have ancillary benefits as well (I do know a thing or two about IB polymerization).

The following details my interaction with companies that manufacture terpenic resins.

Arizona Chemical: While I was writing the review on terpenic resins I made multiple attempts to contact their president, C. Kees Verhaar.  After sending about four (unanswered) emails and then several letters I did finally get a phone call from Mr. Verhaar (while I was proctoring a chemistry lecture and thus unable to field it).  Despite returning the call promptly I ran into a dead end.  To be honest, I was very surprised that this didn’t result in follow up of any sort.  Had Arizona cooperated they would have been showcased in the book chapter itself.  It is ironic that it was chemists from this company (some 30 years ago) that had written the most extensive reviews on terpenic resins (prior to mine); however, this time around Arizona Chemical didn’t contribute a single data point, photograph, or schematic.  Seeing that the chapter appeared in a book focusing on green chemistry one has to wonder what these people are thinking; that is, if renewable polymer chemistry is truly an area of interest for them why wouldn’t they contribute to it?  My hope is that word will reach Mr. Verhaar about my upcoming book and he will look me up and make a contribution to it.

DRT:  I sent several requests to this company for information on terpenic resins and never generated a single response.  Maybe they don’t make these products anymore?

Yashura:  Nothing more than the same sort of behavior as witnessed with DRT and Arizona Chemical.  I made multiple attempts to get them to provide some information to me for my book chapter on terpenic resins.  Maybe they only speak Japanese?

What happened:

A little over a year ago I began what I would consider serious academic writing.  The first thrust was when I coauthored a book chapter¹ with a colleague of mine (Prof. R.T. Mathers).  My portion of this chapter was a review on terpenic resins; in particular, methodologies developed for their synthesis.  With this being the most comprehensive review of its sort I made sure to include sections on use as well as market related information (note, the publisher omitted a positive sign in one of my schemes for some reason {and I caught several other omissions on the publisher’s part in the next to final draft}).  While in the process of writing this book chapter I requested basic information from a number of manufacturers of terpenic resins.  Despite not being paid to write the review (as it was for an academic audience) not a single producer of terpenic resins offered to lift a hand to help me.  I was a bit shocked at the time.

Next I began writing the most comprehensive review on chemistries developed for the synthesis of polyisobutene and butyl rubber (another work coauthored with Robert).²  Again, I sought basic information for the book.  Specifically I attempted to get ExxonMobil to contribute information that had already been public (in many cases for > 20+ years) and still I ran into a brick wall.  Not only that, but not a single company that does market analyses provided a single piece of data for inclusion in the chapter!  Again, I was not paid to write the chapter and the book was geared towards an academic audience.

Now that I am in the process of writing a series of books on cationic polymerization and having already composed two top notch reviews on polymers made by the technique I thought for sure someone would step up to the plate.  As you will see below, not a single large organization has offered to provide the smallest piece of information.  I made certain to drive home the point to each of these companies that the material requested was already known publically and that the book was for academic purposes!!!

1. Mathers, R.T.; Lewis, S.P.; Monoterpenes as Polymerization Solvents and Monomers in Polymer Chemistry in Green Polymerization Methods: Renewable Starting Materials, Catalysis and Waste Reduction; Mathers, R.T.; Meier, M.A.R., Eds.; Wiley-VCH: New York, 2011, pp. 91-128.
2. Lewis, S.P.; Mathers, R.T. Advances in Acid Mediated Polymerizations in Renewable Polymers, Synthesis, Technology and Processing; Vikas, M., Ed.; Wiley-VCH: New York, 2012, pp. 69-173.

Forward:

Once the reader finishes with this blog series it will become apparent to him/her that the big chemical companies do not support education.  Furthermore, it will be obvious to all that regardless of their claims of being dedicated to protecting the environment and bettering mankind most that all these people care about is the bottom line.  Specifically who are we talking about?  Well here are just a few: ExxonMobil, BASF, TPC, Arizona Chemical, DRT, and Yashura.  Please see accompanying blog posts for all the gory details.  My hope is that decision makers will see this blog and reverse the course their company has taken and actually support education in the chemical arts.  Dr. S.P. Lewis

Finale:

Dear reader(s), by now you probably wonder whether my last sentence in the forward bears any weight?  I can assure you it does.  People are beginning to awaken everywhere, albeit slowly.  A similar occurrence is happening in the field of science.  Many of the so called great professors are being shown as the frauds they are, parasites on an endless supply of cowardly and servile students who feed their ideas to these evil masters.  Is one so ignorant to believe that the GM actually wrote 600+ articles himself or devised inventions for 80+ patents?  Obviously he is an intellectual crook at best and for a man to steal his name from another speaks volumes as to his lack of character.  Sam told me that once he was getting ready to leave the University of Asscrack the GM also stole credit for an idea that Mr. Gandhi devised and was even pictured on the University of Asscrack’s website receiving the first royalty check (ca. $2k) for its use (below).  Prior to this writing, Sam told me Mr. Gandhi still refuses to speak out as he is fearful of the GM.  Apparently Mr. Gandhi is too preoccupied making toxic dispersants to pollute our oceans with to bother himself by doing the right thing for once.  To me this just further drives home the point that people like the GM are only successful in perpetuating their charade when others refuse to take action.

Through my own reading it is becoming increasing clear that the GM has left a visible trail (in the literature) that shows a questionable history; especially regarding many of his great inventions.  Likewise, one has to ask will the tax payer that has taken on the burden of cost associated with 80+ patents (none being of commercial significance) finally say enough is enough and persecute those (including University of Asscrack offals {not a misspelling}) to stop said waste?  As time goes on I’m sure these facts will be pointed out and the veil will be lifted from many eyes.  This secondhand account of the GM’s transgressions will only further this process.  As for Sam I’m certain that true justice and greatness are fast approaching, AMEN.

Sam was now a little more than bewildered to say the least.  How could he have been so naïve?  When he first met the GM he believed in him.  Moreover, he looked at the GM as one of the success stories of what it meant to become an American.  That is, come into the US with nothing and rise to great heights.  Now he realized the GM was the antithesis of the American dream.  Everything about him, including his name was apparently stolen from someone else.  Still, the GM had yet to finish with Sam.

Sam was quickly moved to Dr. Cannuk’s lab.  It just so happened that Dr. Cannuk had interest in doing chemistry somewhat related to Sam’s training.  So Sam began yet another long journey.  It was during this time that Sam taught himself actual laboratory skills and advanced ones at that.  Somehow (after much initial difficulty) Sam had synthesized a material referred to as holy grail (in part because it was a pain in the ass to make).  He then began to use it and make progress towards his degree.  During one experiment (which was actually a repeat of a repeat) out of frustration Sam injected a huge excess of one reagent.  Something unusual happened, the holy grail survived.  Sam then immediately began to devise his first real invention.  Some months later a patent was filed.  Unknown to Sam was that The University of Asscrack had omitted Sam’s name from the first iteration of the patent application!  When Sam was later allowed to see what was going on he discovered the GM had been listed as an inventor.  Despite making numerous complaints to Dr. Cannuk and other people in charge at The University of Asscrack nothing was done.  The University of Asscrack even lied to Sam about the ordering of names.  Dr. Cannuk stated the ordering was done on the basis of alphabetical ordering of the listed permanent residencies of each inventor.  Sam was screwed by the GM yet again.

When Sam left the University of Asscrack he continued to try and get them to do the right thing.  They refused to oblige.  Dr. Cannuk (in his last attempt to save his career at the University of Asscrack by kissing the GM’s behind) was nice enough to place the GM as a coauthor on a paper describing unusual chemistry that Sam was the first to discover (as well as propose rationale for in his dissertation and later on the internet).  This act was the last straw for Sam and since then he has had no dealings with individuals from The University of Asscrack or Dr. Cannuk.  In the end (upon his departure) Dr. Cannuk disclosed to Sam and numerous offals (again not a misspelling) at The University of Asscrack that indeed Sam was the sole inventor on the patent in question (below).  This proved to be the only time that anyone at this school did the right thing.  To this day the University of Asscrack has yet to correct the listing of inventors on this patent despite the fact it is well documented in Sam’s dissertation, lab notebook, by the fact that Sam was able to prevent the GM as being named a coauthor on any of the journal articles covering the invention, and in the aforementioned email that shows indeed Sam is the sole inventor.

Sam now began to question Smirnov’s results during the meetings with the GM; however, the GM didn’t want to listen to anything Sam had to say.  Instead the GM began to issue an unusual command.  Sam was to go into the lab and make data.  In fact, the GM didn’t care if Sam made a single actual physical sample.  “Give me data” is what the GM said, “I don’t care about samples.”  Sam now knew for certain everything was being made up.  If Smirnov said anything at all the GM would make unusual statements.  One such statement was “You know Smirnov, Stalin wasn’t a bad guy, he did many good things.”  To which Smirnov replied, “GM you should not say these things.”  When Sam told me this I thought to myself, gee I wonder what some of the people who worked for the GM that had previously suffered under the red tide would have to say about that?  Most likely they would be like the other members of the herd, cowards.  Ok, another digression on my part (back to Sam’s story).  According to Sam many of the other students in the herd also knew things were being falsified but not a single one would stand up for Sam.  Later Sam told me how one student (Mr. Gandhi) told Sam that Dr. Smirnov and Ms. Knowitall (another American student) had managed to do all of the experiments for her Ph.D. degree within a very short (ca. 1-2 weeks) period of time.  The hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge of rampant fabrication was there.

Finally when Sam demanded Smirnov provide physical samples only 4-5 were provided (out of > 50 possible runs) and Sam was not overly surprised to find (on ¹H NMR and GPC analyses) that they weren’t even close to being what they were supposed to be.  Sam showed the results to the GM.  The GM asked Sam if he wanted to still work for him.  Sam replied “If it means making up data then no.”  The GM then did something unexpected.  He called in his new secretary (Mrs. UK) and then went on to say, “Take down all I say.  Sam had failed to fulfill his obligations.”  Then before the GM could utter another word Sam stated that he didn’t have to listen to another word and he was going to get an attorney and then he walked out.  The next day the GM left the US to Europe.

It was now around this time that Sam came close to dying.  While attempting to repeat one of Smirnov’s experiments a serious explosion occurred inside the glove box Sam was working in.  This explosion entirely blew out the back window hurling its pieces (above) a good 40 feet.  It flexed the front window up against Sam’s face and pushed his hands immediately out forcing him back several feet.  A roll of paper towels inside caught on fire and Sam fortunately had enough composure to put that out with a fire extinguisher as the box had a cooling well in it already filled with about 4-5 gallons of heptane (i.e. gasoline).  Had the front window broke Sam would have been decapitated.  The University of Asscrack never supplied Sam with any official paperwork to fill out although he did supply them with a lengthy handwritten testimony of the accident.  They never disclosed the actual cause of the accident to him or provided any photographs and according to the memo affixed (below) with his testimony (below) the explosion (according to University of Asscrack offals, yes no misspelling) was minor.  Instead they hushed it up quickly.  Sam told me that he thinks there is a possibility it could have been arranged to happen (i.e. kill Sam) as he later found an unusual wire (above) that may have come from an electric motor used inside the box.  Despite these boxes having supposedly been under an inert atmosphere he knew they contained enough moisture to cause metal halides (being withdrawn via syringe from a septum sealed bottle mind you) to fume so profusely as to obscure the view through the box itself.  So the oxygen level may have even been quite high as well.  He also knew that the stirring motor for the cooling bath occasionally had an electrical glow to it but was told by others of the herd that it was an indication that no oxygen or moisture were present.  In his usual 20/20 hindsight Sam said use of electric devices in such a piece of equipment (that were not explosion proof) would have been an obvious safety violation.  Moreover, Sam told me that these boxes routinely contained mL (e.g. + 10 mL) quantities of isobutene and sometimes methyl chloride that would eject from immersion cooling coils used for their collection inside the box.  On rereading his account of the accident Sam mentioned to me that the box may have been precharged with isobutene or methyl chloride as the valves for the latter gas we in the open position prior to experimentation, which was unusual.  These materials due to their volatility and flammability would be an ideal explosive under the right conditions.  Regardless of the cause, planned or not it was a turning point for Sam.