Green Chemistry as an Alternative Tool to Reduce Pollution

Green chemistry is the discipline of chemistry concerned with the design and optimisation of products and processes to reduce or eliminate the production and the use of harmful substances. Environmental chemistry is not the same as green chemistry. Green chemistry, is also known as sustainable chemistry.

While environmental chemistry concentrates on the impacts of polluting chemicals on the environment, green chemistry focuses on chemistry’s environmental impact, such as lowering nonrenewable resource usage and technological approaches to pollution prevention.

The overall goals of green chemistry—more resource-efficient and naturally safer design of molecules, materials, products, and processes—can be pursued in a variety of contexts. The use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a green solvent is one of the major achievements of advances in green chemistry.

Benefits

• Less dangerous chemicals are released into the air, resulting in less lung damage
• Less dangerous chemical waste is released into the water, resulting in cleaner drinking water
• Chemical workers will be safer since fewer harmful compounds are used, less personal protective equipment will be required, and also it will reduce occurrences of accidents
• New, safer consumer products will be available for purchase; some products will be manufactured with less waste, and some will be substitutes for less safe products
• Elimination of persistent toxic compounds that can infiltrate the food chain

What are the Principles of Green Chemistry?

• Prevention

It is preferable to prevent waste rather than treat or clean up garbage that has already occurred.

• The Atomic Economy

Synthetic procedures should be devised to incorporate all components utilised in the process as much as possible into the final result.

• Chemical Syntheses that aren’t as dangerous

Synthetic processes should be designed to employ and manufacture compounds that are low or non-toxic to human health and the environment whenever possible.

• Creating Safer Chemicals

Chemical products can be designed to perform their intended function while being as harmful as possible.

• Auxiliaries and safer solvents

Auxiliary compounds should be avoided if possible and used only when necessary.

• Designing for energy savings

Chemical processes and energy requirements should be recognised for their financial and environmental consequences and should be minimised. Synthetic techniques should be carried out at room temperature and pressure if possible.

• Renewable feedstocks

When technically and economically feasible, raw material or feedstock must be renewable rather than diminishing.

• Derivatives should be reduced

Derivatization that isn’t required should be reduced or avoided if possible, as it consumes more reagents and produces waste.

• Catalysis

Stoichiometric reagents are inferior to catalytic reagents.

• Degradation-friendly design

Chemical products should be intended to degrade into harmless products and not stay in the environment once they have served their purpose.

• Pollution prevention through real-time analysis

Analytical procedures must be improved to enable real-time, in-process control and monitoring before forming hazardous compounds.

• Inherently accident Prevention through safer chemistry

To reduce the risk of chemical accidents, such as releases, explosions, and fires, substances and the form of a substance utilised in a chemical process should be carefully selected.

What are the Tools of Green Chemistry?

Tools for predicting environmental attributes early in the design process, investigating green chemistry alternatives, and designing molecules with minimal environmental implications are as follows: 

• The EPA’s EPI Suite examines physical and chemical attributes and environmental fate estimation, models
• Green chemistry reactions and reaction conditions can also be designed using the Green Chemistry Expert System (GCES)
• The Program for Supporting the Substitution of Industrial Solvents (PARIS II)
• The software was built to find solvents with similar qualities but less damaging to the environment as replacements for currently used solvents

Tools for Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Process Designs

• Comparison of environmental and non-environmental process criteria simultaneously
• Algorithm for Waste Reduction
• Chemical and other Environmental Impacts Reduction and Assessment Tool
• Tools for estimating pollution discharge from processes into the atmosphere
• For emission factors for significant equipment and fugitive sources, use Air CHIEF CD9
• EPA10’s TANKS 4.0 program for storage tanks
• For wastewater treatment, use WATER 8 on Air CHIEF CD11
• CHEMDAT 8 is a treatment proper disposal facility process on the Air CHIEF CD

Alternative Tool For Reducing Pollution

Green chemistry is a way of thinking and applying existing knowledge to lessen pollution’s negative effects on the environment. Green chemistry can also be viewed as a method of manufacturing that reduces pollution in the environment. Byproducts are produced during every process, and if they are not effectively utilised, they contribute to environmental contamination. If the byproducts aren’t used, these operations are inefficient. The processes of waste generation and disposal are both economically problematic. The foundation of green chemistry is the application of knowledge to reduce chemical hazards in development activities.

If all chemical reactants are transformed into usable products in a chemical reaction, no chemical waste is produced. As a result, there will be no pollution in the environment. This is only possible if the reaction conditions are optimised. Green chemistry has a wide range of applications in our daily lives. The following examples will demonstrate its utility:

• Dry cleaning of clothes

Tetrachloroethylene was once used as a solvent for dry cleaning. This substance is cancer-causing and pollutes groundwater. This is done nowadays with liquid carbon dioxide and an appropriate detergent. It produced liquid carbon dioxide as a byproduct, resulting in less pollution.

• Bleaching of paper

Originally, chlorine gas was used for this process, but currently, hydrogen peroxide is used instead. The bleaching activity of hydrogen peroxide is aided by using a suitable catalyst.

Green chemistry promotes a healthy environment for society, and we should all follow this as responsible citizens. A world free of pollution will improve the surrounding atmosphere and extend the life of the planet’s inhabitants.

Conclusion

Green chemistry’s ultimate goal is to eliminate the flow of chemicals into the environment. This goal may appear unreachable at this time. Still, advancements in green chemical research and their implementation through consecutive techniques will undoubtedly result in safer specialised chemicals and more adequate procedures for the chemical industry.