Green, sustainable chemical processes

Results—Two Georgia Tech faculty members who have collaborated for more than 15 years on sustainable chemical processes are among the winners of 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Other examples of results could be published journal articles or recognition from the scientific community. 

Main focus was Green Chemistry , i.e. fundamental research towards the development of new sustainable chemical processes, starting from the idea that pollution and hazards have to be eliminated at the source, thus reducing environmental impact and costs, as opposed to end-of-pipe reme-iation. Green Chemistry incorporates all aspects of chemi si r that reduce impact on human health and on the environment. Its goal is to improve the quality of life and the competitiveness of industry, by developing safer and more eco-friendly chemistry. 

Boodhoo, K. and Harvey, A. (eds) (2013) Process Intensification for Green Chemistry Engineering Solutions for Sustainable Chemical Processing, John Wiley Sons, Ltd, Chichester. 

Although C-H bond activation is an extremely promising strategy for the development of sustainable chemical processes, by minimising waste and extra reaction steps needed to introduce functional handles, the above examples do require further work before they can truly be described as green . For example, some of the harsh stoichiometric oxidants required should be replaced by oxygen or air to improve the environmental impact of these reactions. 

P. Pollet, E.A. Davey, E.E. Urena-Benavides, C.A. Eckert, C.L. Liotta, Solvents for sustainable chemical processes. Green Chem. 16 (2014) 1034-1055. 

As seen from the above discussion, PI has a very wide scope and several books have been published on the subject. They include Re-engineering the chemical process plant - process intensification by Stankiewicz and Moulijn [1], Modeling of process intensification by Kiel et al. [11], Process intensification for green chemisty engineering solutions for sustainable chemical processing by Boodhoo and Harvey [12], Reactive distillation by Simdm-acher and Kienle [13], Micro-reactors by Ehrfeld et al. [14], etc. The discussion in this chapter is limited to selected topics on multifunctional operations, novel devices and alternate PI configurations, which are dealt with more details in the next three sections. 

To achieve sustainable production through biorefineries, engineers can look to specific chemical processes that draw on green technological alternatives. Whereas the principles... 

Part IV, "Sustainability" (Chapters 13 through 18), deals with the topics of sustainable development, efficiency, and sustainability in the chemical process industry and a very topical topic, carbon dioxide (C02). The sense and nonsense of green chemistry and biofuels is expounded in this part as well, followed by solar energy conversion and musings on hydrogen in the final chapter of this part. 

Clark, J.H., Green Chemistry for the Second Generation Biorefinery - Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing Based on Biomass, J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol., 82, 603-609 (2007). de Jong, E., R. van Ree, R. van Tuil and W. Elbersen, Biorefineries for the Chemical Industry - A Dutch Point of View, in Biorefineries - Biobased Industrial Processes and Products. Status Quo and Future Directions, B. Kamm, M. Kamm, and P. Gruber (Eds), Wiley-VCH, (2006). 

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