Green Chemistry

Green chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles in the design,

manufacture and application of chemical products that reduces or eliminates the
use and generation substances that are hazardous to living organism and the
environment.
It provides a framework for chemists to use when designing new materials,
chemical products and processes It’s main goal is to reduce the flow of
chemical pollutants into the environment.
Traditional chemical processes usually take place in several steps and use
variety of reagents, including solvents. They often require elevated temperature,
pressures and purification has to take place at each steps. They usually create
yields below 100%, generate substantial waste, incur heavy cost associated with
raw materials, energy usage and waste disposal and have a negative impact on
the environment.

The Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry

1. Prevent waste – chemical processes should be design to produce as little

hazardous waste as possible.
2. Maximize atom economy – design processes that incorporate most of or all
of the starting material into products. Very few atoms are wasted.
3. Design less hazardous chemical synthesis – Design processes which use
and generate chemicals which are nontoxic as possible to humans and the
environment
4. Design safer chemical products and chemicals – design products which are
effective as possible while being as nontoxic as possible
5. Use safer solvents and auxiliaries – avoid using solvents, separating agents
or other chemicals. Replace these with safer alternatives.
6. Increasing energy efficiency – use the minimum amount of energy. Where
possible carry out procedures at room temperature and atmospheric pressure
7. Use renewable feedback – use raw materials which are renewable and
reduce the use of non-renewable raw materials to a minimum.
8. Reduce derivatives – avoid derivatization as this requires the use of
additional chemicals and can generate a lot of waste.
9. Use catalysts and stoichiometric reagents – use catalysts to be as effective
as possible as they require small amounts of chemicals and can carry out
reactions several times using less energy and occurs faster. It reduces the
production of unwanted by-products.
10. Design for degradation – design chemical products that when their
functional life ends, they break down into harmless products.
11. Analyse real-time to prevent pollution – monitor the progress of any
process to prevent the formation of unwanted or hazardous by-products
12. Minimise the potential for accidents – choose reagents to be used in
chemical processes which keep the possibility of chemical accidents to a
minimum e.g. explosions, fires and release of toxic substances.

Green Chemistry in action

To understand green chemistry, the best way is to see it in action. There are
some award winning innovations which shows how the effective application of
the principles of green chemistry by small businesses and larger corporations is
beginning to solve our environmental challenges.
 Virent energy system use a water-based, catalytic method to make
gasoline, diesel and get fuel from sugar, starch and cellulose of plants.
This process requires little external energy and can compete economically
with fuel produced from petroleum. Plants are renewable resources so
their use helps reduce dependence on petroleum.

 Battelle and its partners have developed a toner for laser printers and
photocopiers made from soya oil and protein together with carbohydrate
from corn. This toner is much easier to remove from paper that traditional
toners which are made from petroleum-based starting material, allowing
the paper to be easily recycled. Its production also saves considerable
amounts of energy and reduces the use of additional chemical
 The use of green chemistry in ammonia and crude oil
industries
Ammonia
The production of ammonia is important in the role in the world’s food supply
as it act as fertilizer. The increasing need for nitrogen-based fertilizers in the
early 20th century resulted in the development of the Haber process, which uses
high pressure and temperature, alongside a catalyst, to produce ammonia from
nitrogen and hydrogen gas. In its production it releases large amount of
greenhouse of gases that is pollutant to the environment.
As ammonia production is so important, and due to its current environmental
inefficiency, a new cleaner method of producing ammonia must be developed
by using green chemistry.
To produced green ammonia On-site gas generation is used. Gas generators can
be used to produce nitrogen by pressure swing absorption, and to produce
hydrogen by electrolysis, neither of which emit greenhouse gases. Using green
gas generation on-site, alongside a small Haber process reactor, allows
ammonia to be produced at the point of need. Localizing the production of
ammonia, using renewable methods of gas generation, also removes the carbon
dioxide emissions associated with the transportation of ammonia.

Crude oil
The oil industry is one of the major source of pollution to the environment.
Pollution may occur during extraction, transportation and refining of the crude
oil. Extraction of crude oil involves emission of pollutants from the seismic
survey until the field is shut down.
To make crude oil safer for the environment green crude may be used. Green
Crude is renewable crude oil that is a result of turning sunlight, CO2, and algae
into oil that can be refined into fuel. Green crude is environmentally sound, cost
effective, and scalable
By applying the principals used in bio-agriculture, Sapphire has been able to
produce oil in algae that is highly branched and undecorated (the way that
traditional crude is) to get biological crude that is molecularly similar to light
sweet crude. This Green Crude is then processed at a refinery just as traditional
crude to make all three major distillates, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.