The moderating role of CEO sustainability reporting style in the relationship between sustainability performance, sustainability reporting, and cost of equity

This is the final version. Available from Springer via the DOI in this record. This paper explores the role of individual managers in the relationship between sustainability performance, sustainability reporting, and cost of equity. Based on prior research showing that both sustainability performance and reporting reduce the risk premium, this paper contributes to the literature by acknowledging that the true motives behind a manager’s corporate sustainability engagement are not apparent to investors. Thus, investors need to rely on further information to assess the relationship between sustainability performance and risk. We argue that CEOs’ values and preferences drive their decisions regarding sustainability activities. Thus, their fixed effect on sustainability reporting conveys a signal to investors about the motives behind corporate sustainability engagement and the extent of reporting. In the first step of our empirical analysis, we document that a CEO’s specific reporting style indeed has significant statistical power in explaining a company’s level of sustainability reporting. In the second step, we find that improved sustainability performance is associated with increased cost of equity when the CEO exerts a strong personal influence on sustainability reporting. However, cost of equity declines if the CEO’s influence on the reporting of improved sustainability performance is low. Our results are consistent with the argument that investors interpret CEO’s fixed-effect on sustainability reporting as a signal. That is, for a high CEO fixed-effect, increases in sustainability engagement are conflated with the CEO's self-interested values. In further tests, we show that the signal seems to be particularly important for normative sustainability activities (vs. legal sustainability activities)

SODIUM POLYPHOSPHATE-MODIFIED CLASS C/CLASS F FLY ASH BLEND CEMENTS FOR GEOTHERMAL WELLS.

The authors investigated the usefulness of the coal combustion by-products, Class C fly ash (C) and Class F fly ash (F), in developing cost-effective acid-resistant phosphate-based cements for geothermal wells. In the temperature range of 20-100 C, sodium polyphosphate (NaP) as the acidic cement-forming solution preferentially reacted with calcium sulfate and lime in the C as the base solid reactant through the exothermic acid-base reaction route, rather than with the tricalcium aluminate in C. This reaction led to the formation of hydroxyapatite (HOAp). In contrast, there was no acid-base reaction between the F as the acidic solid reactant and NaP. After autoclaving the cements at 250 C, a well-crystallized HOAp phase was formed in the NaP-modified C cement that was responsible for densifying the cement's structure, thereby conferring low water permeability and good compressive strength on the cement. however, the HOAp was susceptible to hot CO{sub 2}-laden H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} solution (pH 1.1), allowing some acid erosion of the cement. On the other hand, the mullite in F hydrothermally reacted with the Na from NaP to form the analcime phase. Although this phase played a pivotal role in abating acid erosion, its generation created an undesirable porous structure in the cement. They demonstrated that blending fly ash with a C/F ratio of 70/30 resulted in the most suitable properties for acid-resistant phosphate-based cement systems

Thermal effects in reactive liquid chromatography

Thermal effects in unsteady-state liquid phase chromatographic reactors were investigated experimentally in a thermally insulated column. In the case of an exothermic esterification reaction catalyzed by an acidic ionexchange resin, a self-amplifying positive thermal wave was found to develop in the reactor. This improved the reactor performance considerably when compared to isothermal conditions. The heat of reaction, enthalpy of adsorption, and heat of mixing all contribute to the thermal behavior of the reactor. The complex dynamic behavior caused by non-isothermal operation was elucidated by means of numerical simulations. The solid phase to fluid phase heat capacity ratio was found to be an important parameter because it affects the magnitude and propagation velocities of the thermal waves. SciVerse® is a registered trademark of Elsevier Properties S.A., used under license. ScienceDirect® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. [accessed February 8th 2013

Thermal effects in reactive chromatography

Scale-up of chromatographic columns and reactors processing liquid phases is typically based on increasing the column diameter while maintaining the linear flow velocity constant. Chemical engineers’ long experience with conventional steady state fixed-bed reactor operation tells that such a scale-up strategy can, in case of exothermic reactions, lead to formation of hot spots. In addition, periodic operation of non-isothermal gas phase adsorptive reactors has been investigated in detail. It is therefore rather surprising that the thermal behaviour of periodically operated liquid phase chromatographic reactors has received only little attention in the literature [1–3]. The purpose of this study was to investigate under which conditions can nonisothermal operation of single column (batch) and simulated moving-bed (continuous) chromatographic reactors be advantageous or disadvantageous. A theoretical analysis was carried out by using the equilibrium theory and numerical simulations, and an experimental study by using laboratory scale reactors. Thermal effects in a liquid phase chromatographic reactor originate from reaction enthalpy, adsorption enthalpy, and enthalpy of mixing the liquids. Under nonisothermal conditions, the propagation velocities of concentration fronts can differ significantly of those under isothermal conditions because concentration and thermal waves (and shocks) are coupled through the enthalpy of adsorption. Therefore, the liquid phase to solid phase heat capacity ratio becomes an important factor. Esterifications of acetic acid with methanol and ethanol to produce methyl acetate and ethyl acetate were used as the model reactions. Amberlyst 15 (20 wt-% crosslink density) and Finex CS16G (8 wt-% cross-link density) ion-exchange resins in H+ form were chosen as the stationary phases. Reactor experiments were carried out in thermally insulated (adiabatic) columns of 1.6 and 2.6 cm in diameter and 20 to 50 cm in height, fitted with 5 to 8 thermocouples along the main axis of the column. Experiments under temperature controlled (isothermal) conditions were carried out as a reference. As an example of the results, the development of a positive thermal wave in the column (higher temperature than in the feed) was recorded in the front of a wide pulse injection. The thermal wave had a self-amplifying nature because the moving reaction front travels at approximately the same velocity. Thermal effects in chromatographic reactors can therefore be much more pronounced than in conventional fixed-bed reactors. Using the Finex resin, for example, the observed maximum temperature increase in the thermal wave was approximately 25 K under conditions where the temperature rise in a conventional fixed-bed reactor operated at steady state was only 6 K. References 1. Migliorini, C., Wendlinger, M., Mazzotti, M. Morbidelli, M., Temperature gradient operation of a simulated moving bed unit, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research 40 (2001) 2606-2617 2. Sainio, T., Ion-exchange resins as stationary phase in reactive chromatography, Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Lappeenrantaensis 218, Lappeenranta, 2005 3. Meurer, M., Dynamische Simulation chromatographischer Simulated-Moving-Bed Flüssigphasen-Reaktoren, VDI Verlag GmbH, Düsseldorf, 199