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EPA Honors CEM Corporation with the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award

Release Date: 06/22/2009
Contact Information: Kara Belle, (404) 562-8322, [email protected]

(ATLANTA – June 22, 2009) Today, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honored CEM Corporation of Matthews, North Carolina in Washington, DC as one of five winners nationally to receive the 2009 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. For the 14th year, the EPA recognized chemical technologies developed by leading researchers and industrial innovators who are making significant contributions to pollution prevention through source reduction in the United States.

The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are given in five categories: Academic, Small Business, Greener Synthetic Pathways, Greener Reaction Conditions and Designing Greener Chemicals. CEM Corp. won the Greener Reaction Conditions Award for Innovative Analyzer Tags Proteins for Fast, Accurate Results without Hazardous Chemicals or High Temperatures.

Each year, laboratories test millions of samples of food for the presence of protein. Such tests generally use large amounts of hazardous substances and energy. CEM has developed a fast, automated process that uses less toxic substances and less energy. The new system can eliminate 5.5 million pounds of hazardous waste generated by traditional testing in the United States each year. What’s more, it differentiates between protein and other chemicals that contaminate food, such as melamine.

EPA's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge promotes research and development of less-hazardous alternatives to existing technologies that reduce or eliminate waste, particularly hazardous waste, in industrial production. An independent panel of technical experts convened by the American Chemical Society selected the winners from nearly 100 nominated technologies. Over the past 14 years, awardees' work has led to the elimination of over 1.3 billion pounds of hazardous chemicals and solvents, nearly 43 billion gallons of water, and over 450 million pounds of carbon dioxide. These benefits are in addition to significant energy and cost savings by the winners and their customers.

The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge 2009 Awards: https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html

Also available:
Listen to podcasts about this year’s winners at https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/2009_podcasts/index.html

Watch the Green Scene about green chemistry at https://www.epa.gov/multimedia/

On June 23, read Greenversations blog post: at https://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/06/23/green-chemistry