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Prevent Production of Hazardous and Polluting Materials Rather Than Producing Them and

Green chemistry aims to reduce or eliminate hazardous substances in chemical products and processes. It conserves energy and raw materials, making green processes often cheaper than conventional ones. Green chemistry is growing due to environmental regulations and international agreements to reduce pollution. Some key principles of green chemistry include preventing waste, designing safer chemicals and products, using renewable feedstocks, and maximizing atom economy in chemical syntheses. Green chemistry products and processes should be designed to minimize hazards while remaining cost-competitive.

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Lee Jia Hui
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79 views4 pages

Prevent Production of Hazardous and Polluting Materials Rather Than Producing Them and

Green chemistry aims to reduce or eliminate hazardous substances in chemical products and processes. It conserves energy and raw materials, making green processes often cheaper than conventional ones. Green chemistry is growing due to environmental regulations and international agreements to reduce pollution. Some key principles of green chemistry include preventing waste, designing safer chemicals and products, using renewable feedstocks, and maximizing atom economy in chemical syntheses. Green chemistry products and processes should be designed to minimize hazards while remaining cost-competitive.

Uploaded by

Lee Jia Hui
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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By definition, green chemistry is the design, development, and implementation of

chemical products and processes to reduce or eliminate the use and generation
of substances hazardous to human health and the environment.

Green chemistry aims to conserve both energy and raw materials. In practice, this
means that ‘green’ processes are often cheaper than conventional methods. Some
current processes are already ‘green’, and the use of green chemistry is growing
because it is environmentally friendly, and also because of legislation and international
agreements that aim to reduce pollution. One of the basic ideas of green chemistry is to
prevent production of hazardous and polluting materials rather than producing them and
then cleaning up.
Green chemistry:
• is safe;
• conserves raw materials and energy; and
• is more cost-effective than conventional methods.

1. Prevent waste: Design chemical syntheses to prevent waste,


leaving no waste to treat or clean up.
2. Design safer chemicals and products: Design chemical products to
be fully effective, yet have little or no toxicity.
3. Design less hazardous chemical syntheses: Design syntheses to
use and generate substances with little or no toxicity to humans
and the environment.
4. Use renewable feedstock: Use raw materials and feedstock that are
renewable rather than depleting. Renewable feedstock are often
made from agricultural products or are the wastes of other
processes; depleting feedstock are made from fossil fuels
(petroleum, natural gas, or coal) or are mined.
5. Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents: Minimize waste by using
catalytic reactions. Catalysts are used in small amounts and can
carry out a single reaction many times. They are preferable to
stoichiometric reagents, which are used in excess and work only
once.
6. Avoid chemical derivatives: Avoid using blocking or protecting
groups or any temporary modifications if possible. Derivatives use
additional reagents and generate waste.
7. Maximize atom economy: Design syntheses so that the final
product contains the maximum proportion of the starting materials.
There should be few, if any, wasted atoms.
8. Use safer solvents and reaction conditions: Avoid using solvents,
separation agents, or other auxiliary chemicals. If these chemicals
are necessary, use innocuous chemicals. If a solvent is necessary,
water is a good medium as well as certain eco-friendly solvents that
do not contribute to smog formation or destroy the ozone.
9. Increase energy efficiency: Run chemical reactions at ambient
temperature and pressure whenever possible.
10. Design chemicals and products to degrade after use: Design
chemical products to break down to innocuous substances after
use so that they do not accumulate in the environment.
11. Analyze in real time to prevent pollution: Include in-process real-
time monitoring and control during syntheses to minimize or
eliminate the formation of byproducts.
Minimize the potential for accidents: Design chemicals and their forms (solid,
liquid, or gas) to minimize the potential for chemical accidents including
explosions, fires, and releases to the environment.

Chemical products and processes should be designed to the highest level of this hierarchy
and be cost-competitive in the market.

1. Green Chemistry: Source Reduction/Prevention of Chemical Hazards


o Design chemical products to be less hazardous to human health and the
environment*
o Use feedstocks and reagents that are less hazardous to human health and
the environment*
o Design syntheses and other processes to be less energy and materials
intensive (high atom economy, low E-factor)
o Use feedstocks derived from annually renewable resources or from
abundant waste
o Design chemical products for increased, more facile reuse or recycling
2. Reuse or Recycle Chemicals
3. Treat Chemicals to Render Them Less Hazardous
4. Dispose of Chemicals Properly

*chemicals that are less hazardous to human health and the environment are:

• Less toxic to organisms and ecosystems


• Not persistent or bioaccumulative in organisms or the environment
• Inherently safer with respect to handling and use

The chemical industry suffers from a history of negative press when it comes to
looking after the environment. Chemical spills and bad practice in the early days of
chemical manufacturing seem to dominate people's thoughts about how clean the
industry is today. However over the years since the early 1980s most industries have
tried hard to reduce their waste products, to make their manufacturing more efficent
and to reduce emissions of nasty toxic substances into the world in which we live.
There are still many processes that are not free of toxic products or ingredients, but
things are getting better.

Since the early 1990s, there has been a concerted effort to make chemistry and
chemical processes more environmentally friendly. The Green Chemistry Network
has been set up to advise manufacturers, producers and retailers on how to make
products more sustainable and thus to reduce waste, use sustainable raw
ingredients, and to make sure that the end product and the associated waste
products can be recycled at the end of their lives.

One of the best examples of a totally green process is from researchers at the
University of York's chemistry department. Fabien Deswarte has been working on
the extraction of wheat straw waxes using supercritical CO2 for his PhD. These
waxes are used in the cosmetic industry to make lipsticks and are worth about
£70,000 a tonne. By subjecting the wheat straw to supercritical CO2 - carbon
dioxide gas under increased pressure and temperature - he has been able to extract
the waxes, recycle the CO2 gas to be used in future experiements, and with the left
over wheat straw, he could make paper, or a green fuel - bio-ethanol.

By refining the wax, it could also be used as a cholesterol-reducing ingredient in


health suppliments. The process uses ingredients that are completely
sustainable and the waste products from the reaction can either be recyled to be
used again, or can be made into other useful products.

Green chemistry has hit the marketplace. Here’s a list of some of the products that are
already available:

Lead-free solders and other products. Breakthroughs in the replacement of lead include use of
new soldering materials, alternatives to lead additives in paint and the development of cleaner
batteries.

Bioplastics. Plastics made from plants, including corn, potatoes or other agricultural products,
even agricultural waste, are an important example of green chemistry. Products already available
are forks, knives and spoons made from potato starch and biodegradable packaging made from
corn.

Flame resistant materials. Plastics that do not require the use of flame retardants are a solution
to the problem of toxic flame retardants. A combination of polylactic acid and kenaf—two
agriculturally products—has already been developed for this purpose.

What I can do to contribute towards a greener environment:

• Reuse used paper by using the blank side of an unwanted paper as draft
paper and then after that I can recycle it by throwing it into the recycling bin
• Buy things in bulk rather than individually. This can help save on
unnecessary packaging material
• Use fewer straws - though it small and seemingly harmless, straws have
been used widely unnecessarily sometimes. We can try not to use straws
and refuse taking an extra plastic bag when we buy a drink.
• When I go to supermarkets with my mom, I will remind her to bring a
reusable grocery bag to put our groceries so that we can reduce our plastic
bags use.
• At home when I shower, I try not to use too much water as it will go to
waste. Use water sufficiently.
• Turn off lights whenever I am not using it to reduce energy consumption.
• Plant trees

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