I  U  P  A  C

 

 

 

News & Notices

Organizations & People

Standing Committees

Divisions

Projects

Reports

Publications
. . CI
. . PAC
. . Macro. Symp.

. . Books
. . Solubility Data

Symposia

AMP

Links of Interest

Search the Site

Home Page

 

Pure Appl. Chem. 74(12), 2259-2263, 2002

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Vol. 74, Issue 12

Trends in processing and manufacturing that will affect implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention

G. W. Parshall

E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company (retired), 2504 Delaware Ave., Wilmington, DE 19806, USA

Abstract:
Several new developments in synthesis science and manufacturing technology may affect the task of implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) constraints on the production of toxic agents for military or terrorist purposes. The combination of automated synthesis methods and high-throughput screening protocols could potentially yield new toxic agents not specifically proscribed by the CWC, but such approaches are unlikely to seriously impact the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the near future. On the other hand, new developments in manufacturing may have a serious impact on the work of the OPCW inspectors. The wide use of versatile, multipurpose production facilities in making fine chemicals complicates the task of discerning whether a particular facility is used only for nonprohibited purposes under the CWC. New catalytic processes and automated process control permit production of toxic chemicals with fewer emissions that contaminate the environment and might provide clues to the nature of the processes being conducted. Tiny microreactors operated continuously under computer control can produce significant quantities of toxic chemicals (including CWC scheduled compounds) with a very small “footprint”within a larger production facility. These technical developments together with the dispersal of chemical production facilities and skills may seriously complicate the tasks of the OPCW inspectors.

*Lecture presented at the IUPAC Workshop, Impact of Scientific Developments on the Chemical Weapons Convention, Bergen, Norway, 30 June-3 July 2002. Other presentations are published in this issue, pp. 2229-2322.


Page last modified 19 February 2003.
Copyright © 2003 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Questions or comments about IUPAC, please contact, the Secretariat.
Questions regarding the website, please contact web manager.