Top of Mind Last Month: Amid Regulatory Uncertainty, Chemical Industry Navigates Innovation

Research Revisited: Rice University's Light-Driven Chemistry

Executive Editor Jonathan Katz launched a new "Research Revisited" series examining how cutting-edge chemical research has progressed since initial coverage. Rice University researchers are advancing photocatalytic processes that enable cleaner, more efficient synthesis of chemical building blocks. The team developed an iron and sulfur catalyst system activated by visible light to add chlorine and azide groups to organic molecules through anti-Markovnikov reactions, eliminating harsh chemicals and high temperatures typically required. The compact electric steam methane reformer occupies only 20% of conventional reformer footprints while using 10 megawatts of renewable electricity. Next steps include scaling up from pilot to commercial production and developing more general light sources for larger-scale reactions, with continuous-flow chemistry offering potential solutions for uniform irradiation.

EPA's Formaldehyde U-Turn Sparks Battle Over Science and Safety

Executive Editor Jonathan Katz explored the contentious regulatory shift that has reignited a decades-long debate over formaldehyde exposure limits. The Trump administration's EPA proposed nearly doubling allowable formaldehyde exposure levels to 0.3 parts per million based on sensory irritation rather than cancer risk, reversing the Biden administration's January 2025 final risk evaluation that found unreasonable health risks to workers and consumers. The American Chemistry Council welcomed the change as aligning with best available science, while former EPA official Christopher Frey criticized the approach for ignoring the agency's own findings that formaldehyde causes cancer through genetic mutations with no safe exposure level. The controversy highlights ongoing tensions between industry groups and public health advocates over EPA's Integrated Risk Information System program and what constitutes sound science in chemical risk assessment.

2026 Chemical Industry Outlook: Cautiously Optimistic Despite Near-Term Headwinds

Martha Gilchrist Moore, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council, provided a comprehensive analysis of the industry's economic trajectory heading into 2026. The U.S. chemical industry faces a mixed outlook for 2026, with production volumes expected to rise only 0.4% after growing 0.7% in 2025. While specialty chemicals rebounded strongly with 3.3% growth in 2025, basic chemicals may see modest 1.5% growth while consumer chemicals could decline further. GDP growth is projected at 2% for 2026, with industrial production slowing to just 0.2% growth amid tariff uncertainties and inventory buildups. Chemical exports are expected to decline 0.6% following a 2% drop in 2025, though the industry maintains a trade surplus. Long-term prospects remain positive due to energy and feedstock advantages, with capital spending projected to accelerate to 4% to 5% annually from 2027 onward.

Plant InSites: Why This Water Pump Kept Cycling Off

Contributing Editor Andrew Sloley shared insights from a colleague's work with a small municipal water utility that faced a perplexing pump cycling problem. A small municipal water utility's pump cycling problem revealed how velocity head changes and narrow control dead bands can create unexpected operational issues. When Pump P2 shut off, the sudden drop to zero flow caused liquid level to rise in the measurement well due to velocity head effects — approximately 1.5 inches from normal operating velocity of 2.84 feet per second. This velocity head change was significant given the level switch's narrow dead band of only a few inches, causing rapid motor cycling that eventually tripped the motor control circuit. The solution involved installing new level instruments and adding a dead band to the control system, demonstrating that even simple systems require appropriate instrumentation choices and understanding of fluid dynamics principles like Bernoulli's equation.

Electrification Reshapes Chemical Industry's Carbon-Cutting Future 

Editor-at-Large Seán Ottewell surveyed the global landscape of electrification projects driving the industry's decarbonization efforts. Renewable electricity is driving major decarbonization breakthroughs across multiple chemical processes. Sypox's electric steam methane reformer uses 10 megawatts of renewable electricity in a compact design occupying just 20% of conventional footprints, scheduled to begin operations in 2026. Coolbrook successfully cracked 100% plastic-waste-derived pyrolysis oil at pilot scale using RotoDynamic Reactor technology, with commercial demonstration planned for steam crackers. Air Liquide announced a $29.2 million investment to electrify its air separation unit in China, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 224,000 tons annually, rising to 550,000 tons with low-carbon energy. Additional U.S. Department of Energy-funded projects are investigating electromagnetic heating for propylene production and grid-synchronized distillation to align power demand with carbon-free electricity availability.

AI in Chemical R&D: Define the Scientific Problem First 

Andrea Jacobs, senior manager of CAS Product Management, examined why scientific rigor must precede technological implementation in the second part of her series on AI in chemical R&D. Successful AI implementation in chemical R&D requires starting with well-defined scientific objectives rather than pursuing accuracy metrics alone. Domain expertise from chemists, data scientists and content specialists must be integrated throughout development to ensure models reflect real-world laboratory conditions and chemical principles. Curated datasets with verified stereochemistry and accurate atom mapping significantly outperform larger unstructured sources — CAS experiments showed a model trained on curated data achieved twice the prediction accuracy despite using 50% fewer records, and more than 30% improvement in retrosynthesis pathway generation. Standardized terminologies, ontologies and expert curation are essential for data quality, while success metrics must align with operational goals like yield improvements, reduced cycle times and enhanced safety rather than just statistical performance.

Turn Regulatory Chaos into Strategic Leadership Opportunity

Sheeba Kapoor and Lauren Peeples outlined how proactive management of change processes can transform regulatory challenges into competitive advantages. Systematic management of change processes is critical for protecting chemical manufacturing operations, ensuring compliance and preventing catastrophic incidents. Clear documentation of change-control triggers — including formulation changes, supplier switches, regulatory reclassifications, hazard communication updates and operational modifications — enables consistent, repeatable actions across organizations. Cross-functional collaboration among operations, safety and engineering teams is essential for identifying hazards during process changes, as emphasized by U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigations of fatal incidents that could have been prevented through multidisciplinary hazard analysis. Effective change management requires defining safe operating limits, training personnel to recognize significant changes, authorizing changes at risk-appropriate levels and clearly communicating hazards and new procedures to prevent uncommunicated changes from becoming as dangerous as unrecognized ones.