De aromas e perfumes, o mercado da indústria do "cheiro"

Several flavors and fragrances (F&F) companies hold the economic leadership in the market, although not always have also the leadership in patent applications. The ranking of technological production in the fragrance area still remains with industries while scientific knowledge is equally shared between industries and academia. Contextualizing Brazil in this scene, despite all scientific expertise gained over the years, brazilian technological park is still at the beginning of the production of technologies applied directly to the F&F industries. The dependence on foreign technologies is remarkable as indicated by the great trade deficit in this sector.

Coeficientes de difusão de metais em materiais não convencionais (agarose e acetato de celulose) usados na técnica de difusão em filmes finos por gradientes de concentração

The DGT technique allows one to measure quantitatively free and labile metal species in aquatic systems. Nevertheless, for this approach, knowledge is required of the diffusion coefficients of the analytes in a diffusive layer. In this study, the diffusion coefficients of Hg(II), As(III), Mn(II), Mg(II), Cu(II), Cd(II) were determined in agarose gel and those of Ba(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), Mg(II), Mn(II) e Zn(II) in cellulose acetate membranes. These materials presented good performance and the reported results can be used as a data base for further DGT studies.

Inovação & propriedade industrial & indústria química

ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper was to contribute to reflections in Brazil on the need to transfer knowledge held at universities and R&D institutions over to companies, i.e. to transfer scientific knowledge of chemistry to technology. It discusses how the competitiveness of countries is increasingly dependent on their technological capacity. The chemicals industry is a fundamental driver of social, environmental, economic and industrial indicators of sustainable development. In Brazil, the chemicals industry's deficit has grown over the last three decades. Patents are important sources of information because patent documents contain 75% of all technological information available. The National Institute of Industrial Property in Brazil has created a Technology Observatory with the purpose of identifying and analyzing technological information contained in patent documents within the ambit of partnerships with government entities or business associations, in order to support their technology-related decision-making processes. The paper gives examples of ethanol and biotechnology patent documents, including pharmaceuticals, of which there are very few in Brazil. However, a few of the patent applications identified are filed in Brazil, giving the country the opportunity to transform this scientific knowledge into technology by means of partnership agreements with companies. Finally, the paper presents information on the patent applications filed by the world's leading chemicals companies as measured by their revenues, and the respective numbers of patent applications in the last five years in organic chemistry and polymers, sectors in which Brazil is currently dependent on imports for over 50% of its needs. The patent assignees in these sectors in Brazil are also identified, and the paper concludes that Brazil needs to invest in the development of professionals, providing clearly-defined career paths in technology innovation teams at R&D institutions, and to foster more initiatives such as the creation of a new research and innovation entity, EMBRAPII, since investing in science and technology is a prerequisite for knowledge production, industrial property, economic development and, consequently, the competitiveness of the country.

Carboidratos como fonte de compostos para a indústria de química fina

Coal, oil, natural gas, and shale gas are biomass that is formed millions of years ago. These are non-renewable and depleting, even considering the recent discovery of new sources of oil in the presalt and new technologies for the exploitation of shale deposits. Currently, these raw materials are used as a source of energy production and are also important for the production of fine chemicals. Since these materials are finite and their (oil) price is increasing, it is clear that there will be a progressive increase in the chemical industry to use renewable raw materials as a source of energy, an inevitable necessity for humanity. The major challenge for the society in the twenty first century is to unite governments, universities, research centers, and corporations to jointly act in all areas of science with one goal of finding a solution to global problems, such as conversion of biomass into compounds for the fine chemical industry.Non-renewable raw materials are used in the preparation of fuels, chemical intermediates, and derivatives for the fine chemical industry. However, their stock in nature has a finite duration, and their price is high and will likely increase with their depletion. In this scenario, the alternative is to use renewable biomass as a replacement for petrochemicals in the production of fine chemicals. As the production of biomass-based carbohydrates is the most abundant in nature, it is judicious to develop technologies for the generation of chain products (fuels, chemical intermediates, and derivatives for the fine chemicals industry) using this raw material. This paper presents some aspects and opportunities in the area of carbohydrate chemistry toward the generation of compounds for the fine chemical industry.

Desafios da indústria farmacêutica brasileira

The paper traces a panorama of the development of new drugs and hopes to contribute for Brazil to become a player in the discovery of new drugs. Brazil is the sixth world market retail consumer of medicines prone to expansion, has a pharmaceutical industry focused on the production of generics and a very large number of undergraduate courses in Pharmacy. The national industry has grown over the last decade after the Generics Act 9787/99. Despite these positive aspects, a number of bottlenecks prevent Brazilian pharmaceutical industry to invest in the development of new drugs. There are, however, a number of initiatives to reduce the dependence on imported generic drugs. It is a very good start for the development of new pharmaceutical drugs.

Catálise assimétrica no Brasil: desenvolvimento e potencialidades para o avanço da indústria química brasileira

The preparation of enantiomerically pure or enriched substances is of fundamental importance to pharmaceutical, food, agrochemical, and cosmetics industries and involves a growing market of hundreds of billions of dollars. However, most chemical processes used for their production are not environmentally friendly because in most cases, stoichiometric amounts of chiral inductors are used and substantial waste is produced. In this context, asymmetric catalysis has emerged as an efficient tool for the synthesis of enantiomerically enriched compounds using chiral catalysts. More specifically, considering the current scenario in the Brazilian chemical industry, especially that of pharmaceuticals, the immediate prospect for the use of synthetic routes developed in Brazil in an enantioselective fashion or even the discovery of new drugs is practically null. Currently, the industrial production of drugs in Brazil is primarily focused on the production of generic drugs and is basically supported by imports of intermediates from China and India. In order to change this panorama and move forward toward the gradual incorporation of genuinely Brazilian synthetic routes, strong incentive policies, especially those related to continuous funding, will be needed. These incentives could be a breakthrough once we establish several research groups working in the area of organic synthesis and on the development and application of chiral organocatalysts and ligands in asymmetric catalysis, thus contributing to boost the development of the Brazilian chemical industry. Considering these circumstances, Brazil can benefit from this opportunity because we have a wide biodiversity and a large pool of natural resources that can be used as starting materials for the production of new chiral catalysts and are creating competence in asymmetric catalysis and related areas. This may decisively contribute to the growth of chemistry in our country.

Caracterização de membranas assimétricas de acetato de celulose produzidas a partir do aproveitamento do resíduo da palha de milho para uso em ultrafiltração

Cellulose acetates (CA) with different degrees of acetylation were synthesized from cellulose extracted from corn stover. Membranes were prepared for the ultrafiltration process with pure polymers and blend form of CA utilizing a dioxane/acetone system. The membranes were characterized according to their transport properties. The blend form materials presented the best results for application in ultrafiltration experiments. M-TAC/DAC (corn stover triacetate and diacetate) and M-TAC/DAC-Rho (corn stover triacetate and Rhodia diacetate) presented rejection to egg albumin protein of 87.39% and 80.50%, respectively. Thus, MWCO of 45 kDa was determined for these materials.

Bionanocompósitos preparados por incorporação de nanocristais de celulose em polímeros biodegradáveis por meio de evaporação de solvente, automontagem ou eletrofiação

This review reports the preparation and characterization of bionanocomposites based on biodegradable polymers reinforced with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) described in the literature. The outstanding potential of cellulose nanocrystals as reinforcement fillers of biodegradable polymers is presented with an emphasis on the solution casting process, which is an appropriate method to investigate the physico-chemical effects of the incorporation of CNC into the polymeric matrices. Besides solution casting, other small scale methods such as electrospinning and layer-by-layer are also covered.

PREPARAÇÃO E CARACTERIZAÇÃO DE MEMBRANAS DE CELULOSE REGENERADA A PARTIR DA CELULOSE EXTRAÍDA DE RESÍDUOS AGROINDUSTRIAIS PARA APLICAÇÃO EM PROCESSOS DE SEPARAÇÃO

The aim of this study was to produce membranes using the adapted cuprammonium method. The cellulose utilized was obtained from recycled agroindustrial residues: sugarcane bagasse, corn stover and soybean hulls. The levels of Cu (II) ions in regenerated cellulose membranes produced with cellulose from bagasse, corn stover and soybean hulls were 0.0236 wt%, 0.0255 wt% and 0.0268 wt%, respectively. These levels were approximately 15 times lower than those observed in previous studies (0.3634 wt%). Cellular viability data show that membranes produced from bagasse cellulose do not present toxicity to the cellular cultures studied. These results demonstrate an evolution in production of regenerated cellulose membranes from agroindustrial residues mainly due to a decrease in the Cu (II) ions level, showing the possibility of application of these systems with improved membranes processing.

NANOCRISTAIS DE CELULOSE A PARTIR DE CELULOSE BACTERIANA

Bacterial cellulose produced from Gluconacetobacter xilinus was used to produce cellulose nanocrystals by sulfuric acid hydrolysis. Hydrolysis was performed with 64% sulfuric acid at 50 ºC with the hydrolysis time ranging between 5 and 90 min. The production of nanocrystals was observed to have size distributions that were dependent on hydrolysis times up to 10 min, after which time the suspensions showed distributions closer in size. Results from thermal analysis and X-ray diffraction showed that the amorphous cellulose was removed, leaving only the crystalline portion. Self-supported films were formed from the suspension of nanocrystals and had iridescence characteristics. The films were characterized by microscopy measures and specular reflectance.

Estudo da aplicação do processo foto-Fenton solar na degradação de efluentes de indústria de tintas

Neste trabalho estudou-se a aplicabilidade do processo foto-Fenton utilizando irradiação solar no tratamento de dois efluentes (A e B) de uma indústria de tintas. Foi avaliada a influência da concentração inicial de peróxido de hidrogênio e ferro na remoção de carbono orgânico dissolvido (COD). Nos primeiros minutos de irradiação foi observada a descoloração e a remoção de odores. Para o efluente A, atingiu-se 75 % de remoção de COD durante 60 minutos de irradiação. Para o efluente B, adições múltiplas de peróxido de hidrogênio foram necessárias para aumentar a remoção de COD, 43 % em 60 minutos de irradiação. Os resultados obtidos mostram que o processo foto-Fenton solar pode ser aplicado ao tratamento dos efluentes gerados na indústria de tintas.

Biossíntese e recentes avanços na produção de celulose bacteriana

O presente trabalho discute os recentes avanços na biossíntese e na produção de celulose bacteriana (CB) pela gram-negativa, aeróbia e aceto-ácida Gluconacetobacter. xylinus. A CB se difere de seu par vegetal, principalmente devido ao seu caráter de fibras nanométricas, contra o caráter micrométrico da vegetal, são extruídas através da parede celular de G. xylinus, com isso sua estrutura macroscópica é mecanicamente e fisicamente mais resistente, abrindo grandes oportunidades de aplicações tecnológicas e biológicas, muito além das obtidas pela celulose vegetal. O desafio atual está no aumento da produção de CB, que se debruça num maior entendimento de sua biossíntese para que seja possível uma posterior manipulação genético-bioquímica oriundas do recente avanço na biologia molecular e nos bioprocessos. São relacionados trabalhos utilizando a CB como base para produção de compósitos como também o que a está sendo feito de mais atual com este material biológico.

Indústria cultural: o empobrecimento narcísico da subjetividade

O objetivo do texto é fazer uma análise da dimensão crítica do conceito de indústria cultural proposto por Adorno e Horkheimer a partir da noção psicanalítica de narcisismo, tal como Adorno a interpretou. A cultura de massa será vista como propiciando o prazer substancialmente ilusório de satisfazer a ânsia de engrandecimento do ego, no mesmo instante em que mantém o indivíduo atado às tendências inerciais de unificação social.