chemistry essay topic

chemistry essay topic

The Impact of Green Chemistry on Sustainable Development

1. Introduction to Green Chemistry

As a scientific principle, green chemistry (GC), sometimes known as sustainable chemistry, aims to complement atomic molecule philosophy with sustainability. By imitating green approaches based on recycling, servicing is designed to produce only a finished product at the industrial level and decrease the cost of various natural resources by using eco-friendly green alternatives. GC is a hot topic for many products developed in the pharmaceuticals, energy, heavy machinery, and even fertilizer industries. GC is emerging as an idea that helps to reduce waste, minimize carbon footprints, and reduce chemical side effects. In contrast to green chemistry, the main goal of sustainability principles is to eliminate environmental waste, primarily CO2. Green chemistry has drawn a lot of attention from many scientists and researchers around the world. In the eyes of many researchers around the world, green chemistry leads to a major development process and is known as chemical process research, often used in a user-friendly manner, natural resources, and many other non-hazardous processes.

Green chemistry emerged in the aftermath of the call for sustainable advancements utilizing chemicals by the 39th US President’s Commission (PCST). The year 1991 marked the initiation of this development and posed extensive and transformative benefits for our environment and chemicals using innovative aspects. Green chemistry (GC) is primarily interested in designing sustainable, non-hazardous chemicals and processes in the hope of dealing with environmental and societal difficulties. In short, it might be defined as the process of considering the basic requirements to access the required product or create a reaction. In achieving this, the use of solvents, waste or by-products, energy consumption, reaction blocking, or time consumption should be minimized. GC framework functions by prohibiting waste generation via the adoption of impact-lowering input materials.

2. Principles and Practices of Green Chemistry

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pollution Prevention, green chemistry is “a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and application of chemical products.” The practice of green chemistry not only leads to the reduction of pollution but also encourages low energy-consuming processes. Green chemistry, which has made its foundation strong and has given its hold in the new millennium, enables sustainable growth without producing any waste. It ideally applies to every synthetic procedure and suggests ways to improve the existing conditions. “Green chemistry promotes the changed attitude of scientists in both when they conduct their research and when they think about what they use in their experiments,” said Professor Anastas.

Green chemistry or sustainable chemistry has become a very active area of research which is continuing to gain attention around the world, and it is increasingly seeing adoption by the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, fragrance, and flavors industries. The purpose of green chemistry is to design chemical processes in such a way that the raw materials used, the chemical transformations that occur, and the products and by-products of the reaction have no negative effect on the environment, including human health. It encompasses all the environmentally friendly chemical processes based on the principles of environment and resource preservation. The main aim of green chemistry is to design and promote the study of new molecules and the elimination of millions of tons of toxic compounds produced annually.

3. Applications of Green Chemistry in Various Industries

In the late 1980s, green chemistry developed by Paul Anastas and John Warner developed chemicals with benign performance. A decade later, with over 50 years of experience in the laboratory and industry, and with the mission of developing more products and spending less energy, Merck & Co., Inc. applied the principles of green chemistry and expanded the product life cycle. Now known as the principles of sustainable chemistry, the goal is to design chemicals and processes that reduce environmental impacts and risks and provide economic benefits. This report outlines examples where we have incorporated chemical principles into chemicals of plant origin, processes, and systems to improve our products.

Green chemistry is an advanced methodology for chemical research and development that can prevent the formation of toxic waste, reduce industrial accidents, become physically blocked, and eliminate harmful chemicals for humans and the environment in the product. On the other hand, green chemistry is the largest output that can be implemented to achieve sustainable development. Many researchers have studied and implemented to accelerate the development and implementation of green chemistry in several commercially relevant industries worldwide. These applications show countless innovations in the face of critical work, while the ultimate success of all green chemistry efforts comes from actually translating them into the work process. The graph below shows the real-world implementation of green chemistry in the different fields discussed in this thesis in the era. Indeed, the implementation of green chemistry has been carried out in various fields in which considerable effects have been achieved. Let us see step by step the following list.

4. Challenges and Future Directions in Green Chemistry

4.2. Future study and trend in green chemistry Because they need to be implemented in chemical companies and associated stakeholders, both solventless condition and HTE tend to become the most frequently studied or reviewed subjects in recent studies, which at least partly explain why there is a more than double year-on-year increase in their amounts, whilst the others including green extraction and biocatalysis look in a similar growing speed. This is not to undermine biocatalysis, mainly the use of enzymes, which can be seen in more and more enzyme-solvent interaction studies, as a valuable tool to develop in place of existing chemo-catalytical methods because they utilize mild conditions and use renewable raw materials. They consist of safer and cheaper feedstock and solvents in a more sustainable way. Process in intensified unit and optimization of this reactor for various chemical processes via all typical HTE system couples has been reported to be a key topic in the following decade. Overall, recent trends led us to provide all those arising research areas as a guide for further researchers and industrial pioneers in the field of green chemistry in the next 10 years.

4.1. Current barriers in the development of green chemistry practice While the green chemistry field is prospering, the implementation of green chemistry approaches in real-world industries is still limited to some extent. Besides the technical and economic obstacles mentioned above, there are also some hurdles in terms of existing legislations and regulations. Some limited evidence suggested that enforcement is almost the most important support for the promotion of sustainable practices. To date, the vast majority of regulations, especially validated by the authorities like, are designed to control the complete risks. To satisfy this requirement, new substances should be more completely supported by data than existing chemicals. They need to share higher technical standards with the best practicable means to protect human health and the environment. We need to think of how to help our children’s learning development and school engagement.