What is Green Chemistry and how it is controlling and

eliminating environmental Pollution

Submitted to: Dr. Amjad Hussain

Applied chemistry 6th

Submitted by: Abrar Hassan 9930 6/14/19
semester Morning
What is Green Chemistry? How it is controlling and reducing
Environmental pollution and turning reaction media Eco-
friendly?

Nature is very fair with itself. It never tries to harm itself anyway. It produces and arranges things
without giving any hazard. Indeed, creation loves nature. But, when it comes to the human being,
things usually start working against the cosmos. Currently, human beings are generating products
that are leaving adverse effects on the earth and this universe, making life tough to sustain —
taking a glance at CFCs, CO, BOTOX, etc. We will get to know that science is changing its meaning
that it is for the pure goodwill of homo sapiens. Although it is making life easy and less severe, it
is increasing and producing those intentional or non-intentional substances that are leaving life
in trouble. Now, life has become easy, but we can only long for long lasting life. When things
started worsening day after day, scientists, especially chemists, motivated to draw and
implement such methodologies that will prove to be eco-friendly. Indeed, this was the only way
to sustain for longer. One of the approaches they made was the use and implementation of a
newer branch of chemicals that is; Green chemistry.

When scientists and chemists have approached this very problem, they started striving for the
betterment of environment. In 1990, for this purpose, Pollution prevention act stimulated the
implementation and application of green chemistry. The office of pollution prevention control in
1991 started working on control of environmental pollution. In this regard, many science
institutes, academia, industry and government had encouraged and supported this very
campaign. The basic motive was the generation and implementation of such alternatives
chemical processes that never leave bad effects on the earth. Here they generated 12 principles
of green chemistry. Further, they put a statement that if the environment and water are to make
able for humanity, waste has to control. In 1997, first international conference on green
chemistry was organized to further strategies. The first journal of green chemistry was made in
1999. So, till then, many strategies and controlled processing was made and yet not implemented
to the goal range.

Description of Green chemistry:

• The innovative Green chemistry is the implementation of a set of rules & principles
that degrades or decline the usage of precarious elements in the scheme, generation and
manufacturing, and applications of chemically synthesized products.
 • The philosophy of Green chemistry requests for the advancement of the mechanism of
chemical reactions and procedures and reaction states that can possibly render gains for
compound synthesis in words of device productivity, the potential of energy, output selectivity,
functional and operating plainness along with well-being and environmental protection.

• Green Chemistry includes all aspects and types of chemical processes which are
connected with decreasing the negative consequences of chemicals on human health and
the environment.
Green chemistry mainly concerns:
o Waste management at source
o Use of catalyst
o Use of non-toxic reagents
o Use of renewable source of energy
o Improved atom efficiency
o Eco-friendly solvent system

The 12 principles of Green chemistry that ensure eco-friendly behavior

Here are 12 main rules to make the system green. They are strictly followed. By applying these,
ecofriendly behavior of chemical reactions and products can be promoted.

1: Waste Prevention
This principle clearly declares that chemical processes should be optimized to deliver the least
amount of wasted potential. An environmental factor was designed shortly written as E. This
factor measures the percentage of waste that is released in a process.

E= The amount of the waste/ the of the product (with a lower E factor being better)

Drug generation processes had high E factors, but the employment of some other rules &
regulations of green chemistry can work to eliminate this. So,
“It is satisfying to limit the waste than to manage or rinse up waste after it is produced”
2: The atom marketing economy
Atom economy or market is a calculation of the number of reactants that are available in the
serviceable output at the completion of a chemical method.
Percentage atom economy= Molecular weight of desired products/molecular weight of reactants
* 100
This will indicate the difference between the 2 amounts. It will be cleared that how much of your
reactants have been converted to products that are not the goal of this process. So, if lower atom
economy is achieved at the end of the reaction, this will be due to side reactions and side
products. Therefore, such processes that enhance the atom economy are preferred.
Formation of phenol by the reaction of propene and benzene can be expressed;
Benzene + CH3CH=CH2 + O2 C6H5OH + Acetone
The product other than the desired product is propanone which is valuable compound and so
the atom economy for this process can be considered as 100%.

3: Less harmful Chemical Synthesis

Chemists create different chemicals and compounds to make life easy and innovative and not at
all to pose health hazards to humans. It can never be in our goals to produce anything that will
make life tough to sustain. Chemists want to synthesize the substances as reliable as attainable,
so the intention is to bypass using precarious substances as reactants if reliable options are
accessible. So, wherever functional, artificial methods should be devised to exercise and to create
products that pass the least toxicity to the ecosystem.
4: Planning reliable Chemicals
This also concerns the same as the production of less toxic chemicals. Chemists must aim to
generate such chemical products that meet their role, either chemical is related to medical,
industrial, or otherwise, but with minimal toxicity to humans. This is possible when chemists have
a strong grip on the understanding of how compounds work in mortal structure and ecosystem.
A situation may occur when toxicity is uncontrollable, then alternatives should be considered.

5: Safer Solvents & separating agents

The first approach; lessen the use of solvents and separating. As far as concern, reaction system
should be solvent free. Water is the best solvent with the least or zeroes harmful effect on the
environment. Such solvents that increase the energy of the reaction mixture should be avoided.
Preference should belong to such solvents that are recyclable with the least toxicity. Green
solvents and green ionic liquid solvents should be used.

6: Plan for Energy Efficiency

This is basically working in green environments, like room temperature. It concerns about
carrying reactions at room temperature and pressure. Such high energy requiring reactions are
not encouraged in green chemistry. The reaction should be designed in such a way that it never
leaves bad effects on the environment. The extraction of solvents, or means to remove
contaminants, can increase the energy required, and thereby increase the process’s
environmental impacts.
Green chemistry has used and developed alternatives for Energy generation such as photovoltaic,
fuel cell, bio-based fuels.

7: Use of Renewable Feedstocks

The prospect of the above postulate is mainly about the Petro-chemicals; The chemically
synthesized goods obtained from unrefined oil. These serve as the basics to start a chemical
reaction. The drawback of petrochemicals is that they are not renewable and cannot be
degraded. The use of biological sources like biogas and biofuel can be used. This will lead to a
sustainable environment. Any rough material or feedstock should be recyclable whenever
technically and economically practical. Depleting of raw material should be abandoned.

8: Reduce Derivatives
Green chemistry prefers the use of enzymes. Shielding groups are often employed in the
chemical process. They can limit the modification of particular components of a molecule’s
composition during a reaction. These steps need additional reagents to work and also this leads
to an increase in the amount of waste a chemical reaction produces. As enzymes are highly
specific so they are the best alternatives. They can be applied to target selective elements of a
molecule body without using the guarding groups or other substances and derivatives and also
this will reduce the time and cost.
9: Catalysis
These are the substances green chemistry preferring for. The use of catalysts can facilitate
reactions with greater atom economies. They simply increase the activation energy of chemical
reaction at optimum conditions. The catalysts themselves are not utilized up by the chemical
reactions and processes and can be reused and recovered mostly. They do not even contribute
to waste production. The desired product can be achieved by using a catalyst.

10: Plan for Degradation

Chemically generated products need to halt after their purpose. Chemical products should break
down into inoffensive outputs and do not leave adverse consequences on the ecological system.
Those chemical products that accumulate in the environment should be replaced. The
biodegradable polymer should be used rather than polyethylene and polystyrene.
11: Real Time Pollution Prevention
Monitoring a synthetic reaction as it is happening can help prevent the discharge of dangerous
and pollution causing materials due to mishaps or sudden chemical reactions. With on-time
surveil and monitoring, caution marks can be detected, and the system media can be frozen or
conducted before such an incident happens. Such methods are developed and being developed
by green chemistry. This is how green chemistry is working for the good of cosmos.

12: Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention

Working with chemicals always conveys a degree of uncertainty. However, if risks are handled
humbly, the danger can be diminished. This rule jointly follows with a number of the other rules
and regulations of the green chemistry. Such substances should be used that give the minimum
risk of hazard and exposure.

Eco-friendly Green environment, strategies and the use of alternatives

❖ Another development to help the environment is the removal of calcium and magnesium
ions from hard water. The use of zeolites has been applied as an alternative which is eco-
friendly. Sodium phosphates were used for this purpose, but these caused significant
obstacles leading to eutrophication of watercourses.

❖ More examples are pyrethroid pesticides. They have the dual advantage that is their
break down in sunlight in 2-3 days and also has much lower severe toxicity to humans
than phosphorus and other pesticides.

❖ It is also essential that chemicals that are created are safe for the environment. Some
products are clearly meant to spread on the soil. Some are used in water, while some are
sprayed in the air or ingested by people. The detergents after their washing activity, flow
into water bodies and household waste for landfill. Anyhow, the waste should be
converted into harmless products.

❖ Detergents are made up of the sodium-salts of alkylbenzene, sulfonic acids and the alkyl
groups attached on sides. These were not degraded naturally in sewage lines and had
been causing foaming which made the sewage difficult to run. The alternative to such
compounds has been drawn by green chemistry. Where these compounds have been
substituted with sodium-salts of linear alkylbenzene sulfonic-acids. These are easily
degraded.
Green production of propylene oxide process
Propylene oxide is one of the comprehensive chemicals generated intermediates manufactured
in the world with a very high demand worldwide. It is an important raw material for many
industrial and business goods. Those products include poly-urethanes, propylene-glycols, and
glycol-ethers that are being used in various sort of departments comprising auto-mobiles,
furniture items, and for personal care. The conventional ways of manufacturing PO either
generated notable quantities of coproducts, side products they have required recycling. The
conventional propylene oxide stock applies chloro-hydrin or any sort of organic peroxides, that
drive to side products such as t-butyl alcohol, styrene-monomer, or cumene. In each case, there
is an abundant amount of undesired products and garbage. But using green chemistry, the
following results are obtained;
• It utilises H2O2 and Propylene as crude substances, producing only PO and H2O.
• . About 80% of liquid waste is diminished by this method.
• It applies less than 35% energy than a conventional process
• The budget expense is less than 25% from other processes.
• It bypasses the demand for undesired products maintenance and exchanges.
A reliable and ecofriendly Biocatalytic Process to Manufacture Simvastatin
Simvastatin is an effective and comprehensively being used medicine for negotiating signing
cholesterol level and is produced from a real product. The conventional process was wasteful and
utilized huge quantities of dangerous reacting substances. The green process currently
generalized has reduced uncertainty and scrap and is much cost manageable. The conventional
process;
❖ very low yield (<70%), Uses excess dangerous and poisonous reagents and needs
extensive volumes of solvents
New method designed by green chemistry
The catalyst is created efficiently from cyclable feedstocks. Diminished utility of poisonous and
precarious materials like C6H15SiCl tert-butyl di-methyl silane chloride, methyl iodide, n-butyl
lithium.
Advanced energy productivity as the system is running at room temperature and at atmospheric
pressure. The only byproduct (Methyl, 3-mercaptopropionic acid) is reused and recovered.
The significant trash streams created are biodegraded in biotreatment facilities. The green
method will generate 97% product.
Other examples of such products include;
o Generation of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles using green
o Gas-expanded liquids for sustainable catalysis
o The enzymes conserve energy and wood-fiber for building good-quality paper and
paper-board.
o Production of ionic solvents
o Green Solvents and Ionic Liquids Laundry Cleaning Tomorrow Moving towards Waterless
(Dry) Cleaning.

List of eco-friendly products generated and synthesized by Green Chemistry

1. Clothes Made from reusable and recycled fabric

2. Reusable and eco-friendly coffee cups
3. Reusable Sandwich Wraps
4. Stainless Steel Drink Bottles
5.Recycled and sustainable sari table material collection
6. Biodegradable and disposable trash bag
7. Recycled Plastic Rugs
8. Fair trade eco-friendly towels
9. Ballpoint pens created from recycled water bottles
10. Recycled Paper
11. Recycled Floor Mats
12. 100% Recycled Aluminum Foil
13. Recycled Handle Toothbrush
14. Guitar Strap Made from a Recycled Seatbelt
15. Reusable Baby Food Pouch
16. Reusable Baby Food Pouch
17. Toys Made from Recycled Milk Jugs
References:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Room-
temperature%20ionic%20liquids.%20Solvents%20for%20synthesis%20and%20catalysis&author=T.%20
Welton&journal=Chem%20Rev&volume=99&pages=2071-2083&publication_year=1999

https://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/presidential-green-chemistry-challenge-2010-greener-synthetic-
pathways-award

https://www.e-education.psu.edu/eme807/node/697

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10924-011-0287-3

https://www.organic-chemistry.org/topics/ionic-liquids.shtm

https://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/about-journals/green-chemistry/

https://www.onyalife.com/eco-friendly-products/

Chapter 5 Green Chemistry and EVA: A Framework for Incorporating Environmental Action into Financial
Analysis", Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2008 by Geoff Archer, Andrea Larson, Mark White,
Jeffrey G. York.

Qing-Wen Song, Liang-Nian He. "Chapter 1001-1 Atom Economy", Springer Science and Business Media
LLC, 2018

Eric Lichtfouse Jan Schwarzbauer Didier Robert Environmental Chemistry Green Chemistry and
Pollutants in Ecosystems Page#481