Green chemistry
hideGreen chemistry, also called sustainable chemistry, is a chemical philosophy encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Whereas environmental chemistry is the chemistry of the natural environment, and of pollutant chemicals in nature, green chemistry seeks to reduce and prevent pollution at its source. In 1990 the Pollution Prevention Act was passed in the United States. This act helped create a modus operandi for dealing with pollution in an original and innovative way. It aims to avoid problems before they happen.
As a chemical philosophy, green chemistry applies to organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, and even physical chemistry. While green chemistry seems to focus on industrial applications, it does apply to any chemistry choice. Click chemistry is often cited as a style of chemical synthesis that is consistent with the goals of green chemistry. The focus is on minimizing the hazard and maximizing the efficiency of any chemical choice. It is distinct from environmental chemistry which focuses on chemical phenomena in the environment.
In 2005 Ryoji Noyori identified three key developments in green chemistry: use of supercritical carbon dioxide as green solvent, aqueous hydrogen peroxide for clean oxidations and the use of hydrogen in asymmetric synthesis. Examples of applied green chemistry are supercritical water oxidation, on water reactions and dry media reactions.
Bioengineering is also seen as a promising technique for achieving green chemistry goals. A number of important process chemicals can be synthesized in engineered organisms, such as shikimate, a Tamiflu precursor which is fermented by Roche in bacteria.
There is some debate as to whether green chemistry includes a consideration of economics, but by definition, if green chemistry is not applied, it cannot accomplish the reduction in the "use or generation of hazardous substances."
For more information about Green chemistry, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with green chemistry
Cash register receipts a new BPA concern
Oct 12, 2009 |
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If you read environmental news on a regular basis then you know that consumers are in an uproar about the revelation that SIGG water bottles contain bisphenol-A (BPA), despite the company's previous BPA-free advertisements. ...
New light-emitting biomaterial could improve tumor imaging, study shows
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Aug 10, 2009 |
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A new material developed at the University of Virginia - an oxygen nanosensor that couples a light-emitting dye with a biopolymer - simplifies the imaging of oxygen-deficient regions of tumors. Such tumors are associated ...
Green industrial lubricant developed
Jul 10, 2009 |
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A team of researchers from the University of Huelva has developed an environmentally-friendly lubricating grease based on ricin oil and cellulose derivatives, according to the journal Green Chemistry. The ne ...
Roadsters embrace green racing
Jun 25, 2009 |
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Fast and green. That's what it takes to get to the winner's circle in a new type of auto racing.
Feather fibers fluff up hydrogen storage capacity
Jun 23, 2009 |
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Scientists in Delaware say they have developed a new hydrogen storage method -- carbonized chicken feather fibers -- that can hold vast amounts of hydrogen, a promising but difficult to corral fuel source, and do it at a ...
Double-action power stations: Energy and hydrogen
Apr 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Gas power plants could be cheaply retrofitted to generate hydrogen as well as power, chemists say in Green Chemistry, a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.
Scientists develope new agents to battle MRSA
Mar 25, 2009 |
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Experts from Queen's University Belfast have developed new agents to fight MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to antibiotics. The fluids are a class of ionic liquids that not only kill colonies ...
Thinking of turning your chemistry green? Consult GEMs
Mar 24, 2009 |
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A database designed to "build community" and reduce barriers when adopting green chemistry has doubled in size in the last two years, its creator told professional colleagues at the national spring meeting of the American ...
Peptides-on-demand: Researcher's radical new green chemistry makes the impossible possible
Feb 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- McGill University chemistry professor Chao-Jun (C.J.) Li is known as one of the world leading pioneers in green chemistry, an entirely new approach to the science which eschews the use of ...
