Chapter 6

Introduction to Green Chemistry

□ What is Green Chemistry?

□Describe how Green chemistry minimizes

the hazards of some chemical products?

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 Green chemistry
 Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and

processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of

hazardous substances.
 Green chemistry applies across the life cycle of a chemical

product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate

disposal.

Green chemistry is also known as sustainable chemistry.

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 Green chemistry
□ it is an area of chemistry and chemical-engineering focused
on the designing of products and processes that minimize the
use and generation of hazardous substances.
□a new reality for chemistry and engineering by asking chemists
and engineers to design chemicals, chemical processes and
commercial products in a way that, at the very least,
avoids the creation of toxics and waste.

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 Cont
 ., practice
Through the of green chemistry, we can create alternatives
to hazardous substances we use as our source materials.
 We can design chemical processes that reduce waste and reduce

demand on diminishing resources.

 We can employ processes that use smaller amounts of energy.

 We can do all of this and still maintain economic growth and

opportunities while providing affordable products and services to a

growing world population.
 This is a field open for innovation, new ideas, and revolutionary
progress.
 This is the future of chemistry.
 This is green chemistry. 4
□ Green
Definitions
chemistry is a pro-active approach to
pollution prevention.
□ It targets pollution at the design stage, before it
even begins.
□If chemists are taught to develop products and
materials in a manner that does not use
hazardous substances, then much waste, hazards
and cost can be avoided.
□Green Chemistry is designing chemical products and
processes that reduce or eliminate the use and/or
the generation of hazardous substances.

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 Cont.,
□Traditional approaches to pollution prevention focus
on mitigating the hazard or end-of-pipe
pollution prevention controls.
□These traditional technologies focus on limiting the
exposure of a hazardous material.
Unfortunately, exposure precautions can and
will fail (i.e., gloves can tear, goggles can break,
chemical releases can occur).
□Green chemistry goes to the root of the problem and
aims to eliminate the hazard itself.
□The simple equation of risk:
Risk = Hazard x Exposure.

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What is the relation between Environmental Science
and Green Chemistry?
□They are complimentary to each other.
□Environmental Science identifies sources,
elucidates mechanisms and quantifies problems in
the earth‗s environment.
□Green Chemistry seeks to solve these problems
by creating alternative, safe technologies.
□Green Chemistry is not Environmental Chemistry.
Green Chemistry targets pollution prevention at the
source, during the design stage of a chemical product or
process, and thus prevents pollution before it begins.
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 How green chemistry differs from cleaning up
pollution
□Green chemistry reduces pollution at its
source
by minimizing or eliminating the hazards of
chemical feedstocks, reagents, solvents, and
products.
□This is unlike cleaning up pollution (also
called remediation), which involves
treating waste streams (end-of-the-pipe
treatment) or cleanup of environmental spills
and other releases.
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Is Green Chemistry more expensive than traditional
Chemistry?
□Disposal, treatment and regulatory costs associated
with the buying, using and generating
hazardous materials involves numerous hidden
costs.
□When you buy and use a hazardous material you are
paying for it twice, once when you use it and
once when you get rid of it.
□It makes sense that if you use materials that are non-
hazardous and thus have minimal regulatory
or disposal costs associated with them, the benefit
to the economic bottom line is obvious.

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 Cont.,
 Green Chemistry has provided that, industry has not
only accomplished goals of pollution prevention, but
has achieved significant economic benefits
simultaneously.
□How Chemists are taught Green Chemistry?
 One way that chemists are learning how to do
Green Chemistry is by following the 12 principles of
Green Chemistry.
 They are a set of guidelines that chemists use in
order to perform chemistry in a better way.
 As you take a closer look at them, you will find
they are very intuitive and simply good practice.

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 The twelve Principles of Green Chemistry
1. Prevention
 This principle is the most obvious and over-arches
the other principles.
 It goes back to the old proverb “an ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure”.
 It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean it
up after-the-fact (it has been created)

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 2. Atom Economy
□ This principle gets into the actual
chemistry of how products are made.
□ As chemists, atoms are assembled to make molecules.
□ The molecules are assembled together to make materials.
□This principle states that it is best to use all the atoms in a
process. And, those atoms that are not used end up as
waste.
□Synthetic methods should be designed to maximize the
incorporation of all materials used in the process into the
final product.
□The atom economy is a simple calculation that can be used
when teaching stoichiometry and chemical reactions.
□The calculation is:
 A.E. = Formula Weight (FW) of Product divided by the FW
of all of the reactants.
 It is a simple measure of the amount of waste in a process.

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 3. Less Hazardous Chemical Synthesis
□ This principle is focused on how we make
molecules and materials.
□The goal is to reduce the hazard of the chemicals that
are used to make a product (the reagents).
□Wherever practicable, synthetic methods should be
designed to use and generate substances that
possess little or no toxicity to human
health and the environment.

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 4. Designing Safer Chemicals
□ This principle focuses on the product that is
made.
Everyone wants safe products.
□ This principle is aimed at designing products that
are safe, non-toxic and efficient.
□A good example of this is pesticides; which are
products that are designed to be toxic.
□Many researchers are focused on created pesticides
that are highly specific to the pest organism, but
non- toxic to the surrounding wildlife and
ecosystems.

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 5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries
□Many chemical reactions are done in a solvent.

□This principle focuses on creating products in such a

way so that they use less hazardous solvents (such
as water).
□We use solvents regularly in our daily lives
(cleaning products, nail polish, cosmetics, etc.) and
in the chemistry laboratory.
□The solvents traditionally used have potential
Toxicity and are certainly not pleasant to smell 504
6. Design for Energy Efficiency
□ Today there is a focus on renewable energy
and energy conservation.
□ We use energy for transportation purposes and
to provide electricity to our homes and businesses.
□Traditional methods for generating energy have been
found to contribute to global environmental
problems such as Global Warming and the energy
used can also be a significant cost.
□This principle focuses on creating products and
materials in a highly efficient manner and reducing
the energy associated with creating the products,
therefore reducing associated pollution and
cost.

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7. Use of Renewable Feedstocks
□ 90-95% of the products we use in our everyday
lives are made from petroleum.
□ This principle seeks to shift our dependence
on petroleum and to make products from
renewable materials that can be gathered or harvested
locally.

□Biodiesel is one example of this

where researchers are trying to find alternative fuels
that can be used for transportation.
□Another example is alternative, bio-based plastics.
PLA (polylactic acid) is one plastic that is being
made from renewable feedstocks such as corn and
potato waste.
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□
8. Reduce Derivatives
This principle is perhaps the most abstract
principle for a non-chemist.
□ The methods that chemists use to make products
are sometimes highly sophisticated.
□And, many involve the manipulation of molecules in
order to shape the molecules into what we want
them to look like.
□This principle aims to simplify that process and to look
at natural systems in order to design products in
a simplified manner.

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 9.
□InCatalysis
a chemical processcatalysts are used in order to
reduce energy requirements and to make
reactions happen more efficiently (and many times
quicker).
□Enzymes are wonderful examples of catalysts that have
been proven to perform amazing chemistry
□Green chemists are investigating using enzymes to
perform chemistry in the laboratory in order to
obtain the desired product.
□Many times enzymes will have reduced toxicity,
increased specificity and efficiency.

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 10. Design for Degradation
□ Not only do we want materials and products to
come from renewable resources, but we would
also like them to not persist in the environment.
□There is no question that many products we use in our
daily lives are far too persistent.
□Plastics do not degrade in our landfills and
pharmaceutical drugs such as antibiotics build up
in our water streams.
□This principle seeks to design products in such a way
so that they perform their intended function and
then, when appropriate, will degrade into safe,
harmless by- products when they are disposed of.

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 11. Real-time Analysis for Pollution
Prevention
□ This process is similar to what chemists have to
do when they make products.
□ How long do they allow the reaction to run for?
When do they know it will be done?
□If there was a way to see inside the reaction and to
know exactly when it would be done, then
this would reduce waste in the process and
ensure that your product is ―done and is the
right product that you intended to make.

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 [Link] Safer Chemistry for
Accident Prevention
□ This principle focuses on safety for the worker
and the surrounding community where an industry
resides.
□ It is better to use materials and chemicals that will
not explode, light on fire, ignite in air, etc. when
making a product.
□There are many examples where safe chemicals were
not used and the result was disaster.
□Example: The most widely known and perhaps one of
the most devastating disaster was that of Bhopal,
India in 1984 where a chemical plant had an
accidental release that resulted in thousands of
lives lost and many more injuries.

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Gemera
lly

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 Green
chemistry:
 Prevents pollution at the molecular level
 Is a philosophy that applies to all areas of
chemistry, not a single discipline of chemistry
 Applies innovative scientific solutions to real-
world environmental problems
 Results in source reduction because it prevents
the generation of pollution
 Reduces the negative impacts of chemical
products and processes on human health and the
environment
 Lessens and sometimes eliminates hazard
from existing products and processes
 Designs chemical products and processes to
reduce their intrinsic hazards 27
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 Chapter Summary
 The concepts of Green Chemistry and the 12 principles
of Green Chemistry are summarized as follows:
 Green chemistry is a pro-active approach to
pollution prevention. It targets pollution at the design stage,
before it even begins.
Prevention. It is better to prevent waste than to treat or
clean up waste after it is formed.
Atom Economy. Synthetic methods should be designed to
maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the
process into the final product.
Less Hazardous Chemical Synthesis. Whenever
practicable, synthetic methodologies should be designed to
use and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity
to human health and the environment.

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 Cont.,
Designing Safer Chemicals. Chemical products
should be designed to preserve efficacy of the function
while reducing toxicity.
Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries. The use of auxiliary
substances (solvents, separation agents, etc.) should be
made unnecessary whenever possible and, when used,
innocuous.
Design for Energy Efficiency. Energy requirements
should be recognized for their environmental and
economic impacts and should be minimized. Synthetic
methods should be conducted at ambient temperature
and pressure.
Use of Renewable Feedstocks. A raw material or
feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting
whenever technically and economically practical.
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 Cont.,
Reduce Derivatives. Unnecessary derivatization
(blocking group, protection/deprotection, and
temporary modification of physical/chemical
processes) should be avoided whenever possible.
Catalysis. Catalytic reagents (as selective as possible)
are superior to stoichiometric reagents.
Design for Degradation. Chemical products should
be designed so that at the end of their function they do
not persist in the environment and instead break down
into innocuous degradation products.

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 THE END !!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU
ALL!
Chem 3114 for BSC Chemistry students; By Feyisa
Wedajo Kumsa fwadaajoo@[Link]'
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