Chemistry waste minimization

Analytical chemistry is an important field in the life sciences whether the main focus is health (pharmaceutical chemistry), nutrition (food chemistry), food supply (pesticide chemistry), environment (water chemistry, waste minimization, disposal or treatment) or lifestyle (textiles, mobility, cosmetics). Thus chemists (and other scientists) working analytically, whether they are trained originally as analytical chemists or whether they come from a different field and use analytical chemistry as support for their research area, play an important role in supporting the progress in the life sciences. 

Yun CH, Guha AK, Prasad R, and Sirkar KK. Novel microporous membrane-based separation processes for pollution control and waste minimization. In Sawyer DT and Martell AE Eds. Industrial Environmental Chemistry Waste Minimization in Industrial Processes and Remediation of Hazardous Waste. Proceedings of the Texas A M University, lUCCP 10th Annual Symposium on Industrial Environmental Chemistry Waste Minimization in Industrial Processes and Remediation of Hazardous Waste, March 24-26, Plenum, New York 1992 pp. 135-146. 

Hopper, J. R., Yaws, C. L., Ho, T. C., Vichailak, M., and Muninnimit, A., Waste minimization by process modification. In Industrial Environmental Chemistry Waste Minimization in Industrial Processes and Remediation of Hazardous Waste (D. T. Sawyer and A. E. Martell, eds.), p. 25. Plenum, New York, 1992. 

Clark, J.H. (Ed.), 1995, Chemistry of Waste Minimization , Blackie, Gla.sgow. 

Anderson, N.G., 2000, Practical Process Research and Development , Academic Press. Atherton, J.H. and Jones, I.K., 1995, in Chemistry of Waste Minimization , Clark, J.H. (Ed.), Blackie Acad, and Professional, London, p. 417. 

The clean and efficient production of azo dyes is a classical chemistry problem. The manufacture of this industrially important family of compounds is traditionally associated with the additional formation of large quantities of hazardous and colored waste. A method for the construction of both phenolic and amino azodyes has been reported using a polymer-supported nitrite reagent to effect diazoti-zation of aromatic amines (Scheme 2.53) [80]. Waste minimization and operational simplicity, along with improved separation technologies, are key advantages of polymer-supported reagents in this area. 

It is clear that if these aspirational E factor targets are to be met, then improvements are desirable in many areas of chemistry, including waste minimization in medicinal chemistry, greener synthetic methods in primary manufacture, increased use of chemo and biocatalysis, and more collaborative efforts between pharmaceutical companies. These areas are aU discussed in the remainder of this chapter. Although Sheldon focused on primary manufacture, it is also important to think about secondary manufacture (formulating tablets, capsules, or other dosage forms), which is also covered in this chapter. 

An efficient way in green chemistry to achieve waste minimization is to replace processes requiring stoichiometric reagents by catalytic methods. This is a... 

Waste minimization including in-plant changes, use of more efficient rinsing practices and, wherever possible changing to more easily waste treatable process chemistries... 

In the previous section we saw that one of the key objectives of green chemistry is waste minimization. Moreover, we learned that a sustainable process is one that optimizes the use of resources, while still leaving sufficient resources for future generations. Catalysis is an important tool in both cases. In fact, as far as chemistry is concerned, catalysis is the key to sustainability [21]. 

Handbook of Green Chemistry and Technology, J. H. Clark and D. J. Macquarrie, Eds., Blackwell Publishing 2002, 540 pp., ISBN 0-632-05715-7. This collection of 22 review essays covers all the important areas of green chemistry, including environmental impact and life-cycle analysis, waste minimization, catalysts and their industrial applications, new synthesis methods, dean energy, and novel solvent systems. The chapters are well referenced and contain pertinent examples and case studies. 

Armour, M.A., Disposal methods for some known or suspect chemical carcinogens, in Recent Advances of Chemistry and Molecular Biology in Cancer Research, Dai, Q., Armour, M.A., and Zheng, Q., Eds., Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1993, p. 315 Armour, M.A., Chemical treatment methods to minimize waste, in Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization in Laboratories, Reinhardt, P.A. et al., Eds., Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, FL, 1995, p. 283. 

Martin, K. Bastock, T. W. Waste Minimization A Chemist s Approach Royal Society of Chemistry London 1994. 

J. M. Douglas, Process Synthesis for Waste Minimization, Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 31, 238-243 (1992). 

M. M. Dantus and K. A. High, Economic evaluation for the retrofit of chemical processes through waste minimization and process integration. Industrial Engineering Chemistry Research, 35 (1996) 4566-4578. 

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