DIPPR Project ESP

The DIPPR ESP database is based on over 40 cumulative years of DIPPR data work at Penn State University, Brigham Young University, and Michigan Technological University.

• See Environmental and Safety Properties  studied in DIPPR ESP along with a brief description of each property and the standard units used to report the property.
• See a  Matrix of Chemicals and Properties

Project Background, Definition and Purpose

DIPPR Project ESP was initiated in 1991(hence, its former designation of “Project 911”) to serve an important role in compiling and evaluating Environmental and Safety Property (ESP) data and estimates.  Being the second-longest running project in DIPPR, it serves as a natural companion to Project 801 and draws upon property estimation expertise developed in the 1990’s at Michigan Tech under Project 912.  The DIPPR ESP Project remains unique in its ability to fill the knowledge gaps experienced by U.S. industry for ESP data.

The economic consequences of regulatory decisions can be extremely large.  It is imperative that correct property values of trace chemicals be determined and accepted through critical evaluations.  DIPPR Project ESP enlists the assistance of its sponsoring companies to adjust the project's direction annually, to focus on their pressing chemical property needs.  Compliance with the European REACH protocols has recently generated much interest among sponsors since Project ESP is well-positioned to address many of the anticipated data needs.

The goal of Project ESP is to expand and improve our existing database of over 218,000 critically-evaluated data values for regulated substances and chemicals of interest to the project’s industrial sponsors.  The ESP database is designed to support engineering and regulatory calculations.  The primary deliverable to the project’s sponsors is an evaluated relational database with complete citations and technical annotations.

DIPPR Project ESP has focused attention on 57 physical properties (see link above).  Chief among these are the aqueous environmental properties: Henry’s Law Constant, Solubility, n-Octanol/Water Partitioning, and the Infinite Dilution Activity Coefficient.  The ESP database also contains a large amount of toxicity data for selected aquatic organisms.  Most of the 57 target properties are unique to Project ESP, and we harmonize data with Project 801 in instances where the databases overlap.  The degree of overlap between the two projects, however, is relatively minor, i.e., only about 39 percent of the contents of the ESP database are drawn from Project 801.  A list of 1080+ chemicals of interest has been generated from sponsor input, lists of EPA-regulated chemicals, and chemicals deemed important by OSHA, NFPA, API, etc.  This list of chemicals is mostly unique to DIPPR Project ESP.

Because of the popularity of Project 801’s DIADEM data display interface, the Project ESP sponsors have approached BYU to create a customized version of DIADEM to display the ESP database.  Draft releases of this interface have been beta-tested in 2007, and we anticipate a polished user interface being available to Project ESP sponsors in 2008.  Longer-term, Project ESP hopes to generate revenues for DIPPR from sales of the DIADEM interface and from data licensing royalties paid by third parties (e.g., Knovel Corporation).

The goal of DIPPR® Projetc ESP is to expand and improve a database of critically evaluated properties of regulated chemicals and other chemicals of interest to DIPPR sponsors.  The database is intended to support engineering and regulatory calculations and, when used in conjunction with its estimation protocols, to predict properties not readily available from the literature.  The primary deliverable to project sponsors is an evaluated, structured ESP (Environmental and Safety Properties) database.  Relational tables in, MS Access format, for the ESP property database are also available to sponsors upon request.  The focus of Project DIPPR ESP is on the following items:

1. Add approximately 15 chemicals per year and update the database for existing chemicals.
2. Perform Statistical Quality Control checks on the database every second year.
3. Continue to populate the database with new and existing literature sources.
4. Provide back-up support for development of software and an online database through beta testing, recommending estimation procedures, and providing data assistance.
5. Fill gaps in the database, as well as expand data records, using data from Project 801.
6. Continue to perform maintenance on the data by verifying the quality of the data and double-checking the fields within the database for grammatical errors and other inconsistencies.
7. Perform routine data extractions from the 801 database and download this new data into the ESP database.
8. Develop synergistic relationships with organizations sharing the same physical property interests as DIPPR ESP.

Project ESP Activities 2001-2008

Project Investigators:                                   
Tony Rogers / David Zei
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295
Phone: 906-487-2210 / 906-487-2362

Steering Committee Co-Chair: 
Catherine A. Barton
E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company      
Brandyone Building Room 943
1007 Market St.
Wilmington, DE 19898-0001
Phone: 302-774-8027

Steering Committee Co-Chair: 
Martin Schiller
E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company
Frielinghauser Str. 5                                             
Hamm, Germany D-59071                                  
Phone: ++ 49 (2388) 927180