10 - Greener Chemistry and Cleaner Technologies

Summary

The terms ‘Clean Technology’, and ‘Green Chemistiy’ have become increasingly common as industry addresses the problems of pollution, waste and the demands to ensure sustainable economy due to diverse and continuous pressure from both government and environmental lobbyists. In the early stages industry addressed the problem of pollution by ‘end-ofpipe solutions’. These reduced the actual environmental impact of the industry without really addressing the causes. Nonetheless, the concept of Clean Technology goes a step further and is concerned with obtaining the maximum benefit from the material and energy resources available. By helping avoid wastes and emissions, Clean Technology gives economic advantages and improved environmental performance [Lancaster, 2002].

The Green Chemistry movement was started in the early 1990s by US environmental protection agency (EPA). The underlying intention was to encourage industry and academia to use chemistry for pollution prevention. The Green Chemistry mission was [Lancaster, 2002]:

In association with American Chemical Society the EPA developed 12 Guiding principles, which can be summarized as follows [Lancaster, 2002]:

• To maximize the conversion of reagent in to useful product (atom economy).

• Minimizing the production of waste by reaction design.

• Use and production of non hazardous raw material products whenever and wherever possible.

• Inherently safe process design.

• Stress on use of renewable feedstocks.

• Energy efficient process.

This chapter focuses on some key aspects of Green Chemistry and Clean Technologies. It explains why green chemistry is being viewed as a reduction process, by most of the industrial sector.