Chemistry

CHEM-101
Assignment: Green Chemistry

Submitted by Submitted to

Name: Bilkis Alam Ahona Dr. Kalyan Kumar Dhar

Id- 2030160004
EEE
 Green Chemistry

Green chemistry, also known as sustainable chemistry, is the branch of chemistry and chemical
engineering that concentrates on decreasing the use and production of hazardous substances, such as-
introducing methods where non-renewable resources would not need to be consumed, preventing
pollution through technological methods, etc. Green chemistry has evolved from the researches held
till 1990s due to increasing problems of chemical pollution and resource depletion. Later on the
research was expanded and the development of greener solvents and safer chemicals was taken into
concern and the branch was named Green chemistry in 1996. [ CITATION Wik20 \l 1033 ], [ CITATION
Bri18 \l 1033 ].

For further specification, American chemist Paul Anastas and John Walker formulated 12 principles
of green chemistry, as follows-

1. Prevention is better than cleaning waste after being polluted.

2. Atom economy.

3. Synthesizing less-hazardous chemical by-products.

4. Designing safer chemical products.

5. Use of safer solvents and auxiliaries.

6. Design energy-efficient chemical manufacturing processes.

7. Use renewable feedstock.

8. Reduce or avoid the production derivatives.

9. Catalysis.

10. Design degradation.

11. Real time analysis for pollution prevention.

12. Inherently safer chemistry for accident prevention.

[ CITATION Bri18 \l 1033 ]

Green chemistry has a huge impact on our everyday life- health, environment, economy and
business. The impacts are discussed below-

Human health
  Cleaner air due to reduced release of toxic gases and thus resulting in reduced damage to our
lungs.
 Cleaner water due to reduced release of toxic chemical waste and thus resulting in pure
drinking and usable water.
 Decreased use of toxic materials will ensure safety for workers in chemical industry too.
 Availability of safe consuming products like drugs, pesticides, etc
 Reduction of harmful pesticides with a faster degradable one will prevent the toxins from
entering the food chain.
 Less exposure to chemicals like endocrine disruptors.

Environment

 Production of green chemicals will decrease the intentional, unintentional release and
disposal of toxic chemicals.
 Plants and animals will suffer less.
 Decreased threat of global warming, ozone depletion and smog formation.
 Reduction in chemical disruption in ecosystem.
 Landfill for toxic waste will reduce.

Economy and business

 Smaller amount of feedstock consumption with higher yields of chemical reactions.

 Reduced synthetic steps, faster manufacturing, increased plant capacity, saving energy and
water.
 Waste reduction will expel costly remediation, waste dispoal and end of the pipe treatments.
 Waste products will replace a purchased feedstock.
 Decreased use of petroleum products and thus reducing their depletion, hazardous waste and
price fluctuations.
 Manufacturing plant size reduction.
 Increased competition of chemical manufactures and customers.
 Customer consumption will increase due to the display of safer product label and thus
increased earning.

[ CITATION Ben19 \l 1033 ]

The main goal of green chemistry is to generate a greener chemical process in which the most
important sector is pharmaceutical analysis. It is a must for the chemical-pharmaceutical industries
and laboratories to not just concentrate analysis, but to concentrate on green chemistry too. 12
principles are proposed for green analytical chemistry by Galuszka, Migaszewski and Namienski in
2013-

 Direct analytical techniques should be applied to avoid the sample treatment step
  The size and quantity of samples should be as small as possible
 In situ analyzes should be carried out
 Integration of analytical processes and operations must be performed, as it promotes energy
savings and reduces the use of reagents
 Automated and miniaturized methods must be selected
 Derivatizations should be avoided as they require the use of additional reagents and,
therefore, generate waste
 Generation of large volumes of analytical waste must be avoided and the correct handling of
this waste must be provided
 Multi-analyte methods should be preferred over methods that analyze one analyte at a time
 The use of electric energy should be minimized
 Reagents obtained from renewable sources should be preferred
 Hazardous reagents should be discarded
 Safety of operators should be increased

[ CITATION Saudijournal2018 \l 1033 ]

With time green chemistry has evolved in various ways, starting from bringing improvements in
solvents, synthetic techniques, hydrazine to many more aspects.

Green solvents

Solvents are used in paints and coatings majorly and minorly in cleaning, de-greasing, adhesives.
Green chemistry has introduced the use of lactate ester as solvents for industrial use for coatings,
inks and cleaners. Lactate ester is a bio-degradable solvent and it breaks down into ater and
carbondioxide. It is easy and inexpensive to recycle, non-corrosive, non-ozone depleting. Besides
carbon dioxide and water are also being introduced as green solvents.[ CITATION Greensolvent \l
1033 ]

Synthesis techniques

Novel synthetic techniques implies better adherence to the green chemistry principles such as the
development the metathesis method in organic synthesis that has a great contribution to green
chemistry and smart production. [ CITATION Wik20 \l 1033 ]

Blowing Agent

Polystyrene foam is a widely used material for packaging and food transportation. Traditionally,
CFC and other ozone-depleting chemicals were used in its manufacturing. In 1996, Dow Chemical
introduced carbon dioxide blowing agent for polystyrene foam production and was awarded the
1996 Greener Reaction Conditions award. [ CITATION Wik20 \l 1033 ]

Hydrazine
Traditionally hydrazine was produced from sodium hydrochlorite and ammonia through Olin
Raschig process that produced equivalent amount of sodium chloride and hydrazine which is
opposing the principle no. 2 (atom economy). Therefore the greener process of acquiring hydrazine
was evolved where hydrogen peroxide is used as the oxidant with ammonia and it produces only
water as by product.

[ CITATION Wik20 \l 1033 ]

As such, Green chemistry has achieved success in many sectors like- 1,3-Propanediol, lactide, carpet
tile backing, transesterification of fats, bio-succinic acid and laboratory chemicals too.

[ CITATION Wik20 \l 1033 ]

Besides introducing green chemistry we have to even promulgate laws that it is applied in every
aspect as possible and only then we can really accomplish the goal set for green chemistry. Even at
times the cost of a greener product becomes quite high for the consumers, we have to even
implement methods to maintain that. With modernization we need to even focus on the impacts we
are leaving behind on the ecosystem and atmosphere. The world will be no more a living place, no-
matter how technologized we become, if the earth’s nature is harmed.

In this era of development where chemical pollution is increasing, green chemistry came in as the
savior. In the development of chemistry and chemical engineering, we will be now using the idea
‘green’, adopt green manufacturing methods and concentrate on training the talents in the field of
expertise.

References

Benefits of green chemistry. (2019, 05). Retrieved from EPA:

https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/benefits-green-chemistry

Britannica. (2018, January 31). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/green-chemistry

Evolution of green chemistry and its multi dimensional impacts. (2018). Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal .

Green solvents: Agrochemicals in place of petrochemicals. (2002, 6 30). Retrieved from PCI:
https://www.pcimag.com/articles/84078-green-solvents-agrochemicals-in-place-of-
petrochemicals#:~:text=Lactate%20ester%20solvents%20are%20now,into%20carbon%20dioxide
%20and%20water.

Wikipedia. (2020, 12 2). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_chemistry