chemistry essay example

chemistry essay example

The Impact of Green Chemistry on Sustainable Development

1. Introduction to Green Chemistry

Green chemistry, according to Anastas and Warner, produces couscous in such a way that it can be not only healthy and delicious, but sustainable, safe, and healthy. The field is defined not on the basis of what it studies (e.g., CO2), but on the basis of its intention, priorities or orientation: namely that we design chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry is distinct from many of the earlier conventions of public chemistry that tended to be more oriented towards protecting people and the environment from substances—especially residues—related to chemical production. As a scientific discipline, green chemistry achieves its goals in part by pursuing and understanding better ways to conduct chemical transformations. I hold many other new aspects and understandings also underpin green chemistry. Indeed, as a design discipline and school of thought, green chemistry has grown as much as a response to current environmental challenges stemming largely from industrial chemical use practices. One might say that green chemistry is itself a kind of anthropocene-inspired practice. Given this, over the past 30 years, the changing environmental landscape has both defined green chemistry practice and has been resonantly influenced by it. But how, and to what degree? In char5 green chemistry, defined as we do in this paper, does not simply refer to the presence of “green” (eco-responsible, etc.) chemical products and processes. It is a whole, and complex, socio-scientific practice. And, we argue, it has had a massive immanent effect on our world: faster than probably dreamt or predicted even by its founders.

In June 1991, 12 principles of what is today known as green chemistry were unveiled in the journal Scientific American by Paul Anastas and John Warner. Now, some 30 years later, these principles have been taught to thousands of undergraduate chemistry students, referenced in thousands of publications, and have been used as the foundation of governmental and non-governmental codes of best practices. But, what is green chemistry? And why does it matter in a world facing potential prosperity-threatening mega-issues such as biodiversity collapse, climate change, drinking water scarcity, and energy anxiety?

1. Introduction

2. Principles and Practices of Green Chemistry

Practical Guidelines of Green Chemistry: – Green chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and applications of chemical products. – Atom economy: Synthetic methods should be designed to maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product. No reagents, feedstocks, or other stoichiometric materials should be used in excess. – Renewable resources: A raw material or feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting. – Waste prevention: Synthetic methodologies should be designed to maximize the incorporation of all starting materials into the final product. The generation of waste products (by-products, side products, and emitted material) should be minimized. – Minimization of derivatives: Chemical synthetic methods should be designed to utilize and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity to human health and the environment. – Catalysis: Catalytic reagents (as selective as possible) are superior to stoichiometric reagents. All must demonstrate that they can be made in a non-hazardous, environmentally benign manner and are preferably derived from renewable resources. – Inherent hazards reduced: Products, intermediates, and reagents should be relatively nontoxic to humans or the environment. – Design for degradation: Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their function, they break down into innocuous degradation products and do not persist in the environment. – Energy efficiency: Energy requirements of product manufacture should be minimized. The utilization of chemicals can make a process more or less sustainable. More sustainable solvents include water, supercritical CO2, and other scCO2-like solvents overall because they are benign to health and the environment.

This is an important topic because green chemistry and measuring sustainability are central to the development of sustainable technologies and processes. Ensuring that we understand the sustainability of new technologies is critical to driving them into use. Moreover, catalysis is at the forefront of the green chemistry movement since, by its very nature, it can promote efficiency in atom economy and selectivity.

3. Applications of Green Chemistry in Various Industries

The application of the principles of green chemistry in various industry sectors has already led to the development of new, commercially available materials that are sustainable and have the environmental profile as a competitive advantage. However, there are still some barriers that need to be overcome before the design of new products and processes can be performed in an entire, green way. Green chemistry applications in the pharmaceutical industry, the agrochemical industry, in materials technology, and in the development of new, more sustainable detergents are currently being pursued. An important driving force for the development of new green chemistry is the need to decrease the environmental profile of the products. The reason for doing this is not only the public push to produce ecologically more acceptable products but also to develop a competitive advantage and to reduce the production costs. This will help to maintain the industrial production of these products in the region.

Green chemistry is a relatively new study that looks into developing optimized methods of producing new materials that are not harmful to the environment and which can be manufactured in large quantities while ensuring sustainability. This paper provides an overview of the current status of research and development activities on green chemistry issues in most of the industrial sectors. Green chemistry applications in the pharmaceutical industry, the agrochemical sector, in materials technology, and in the development of detergents and related industry sectors are discussed. In addition, certification methods and opportunities for the application of green chemistry products are mentioned. The paper highlights the benefits and the difficulties faced by the industry in implementing green chemistry and outlines the pathways developed within the European Union to overcome some of these barriers and achieve the further uptake of green chemistry.

4. Challenges and Future Directions in Green Chemistry

The development of green solvents and alternative green technologies increases the sustainability of life cycle assessments, creating the ideal conditions for important “enablers of change” in the chemical industry. For a real impact, these economics must be extended to a full scale, and more specific studies should also be carried out. In particular, to promote and adapt new methods and strategies that make current chemical products and processes more sustainable, the cost factor can create an important contribution. In this regard, combining productivity and environmental benefits has been proposed as an ideal scenario capable of providing quick financial return and generating market interest that could launch the chemistry of the future.

Challenges and future directions in green chemistry: Significant progress has been made in the development of green chemistry initiatives, but it is also essential to appreciate that there is room for improvement. To promote the greenness of a process or a product to a demonstrator level in real industrial contexts, scalability, limitations on the additional cost/burden, and musts—such as non-intrinsic hazards and regulatory requirements—have to be considered and assessed. However, there are still some barriers that hinder major advances. Despite the increasing interest in renewable polymers and bio-based products, critical issues remain concerning the scalability and sustainability of these feedstock sources. Natural products, depending on the quantity and the quality of extraction, can be subjected to greater variations in cost, being influenced by climate changes.