You are here:
EVOLVING FROM GREEN CHEMISTRY TO SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY
Citation:
Gonzalez*, M A., R L. Smith*, AND T Becker**. EVOLVING FROM GREEN CHEMISTRY TO SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY. Presented at University of Cincinnati, Dep. of Environmental Engrg, Cincinnati, OH, 05/30/03.
Description:
The twelve principles of green chemistry provide a foundation and pathway which allows researchers to incorporate greenness into existing reactions or when developing new technologies. Research from our laboratory has adopted many of these principles and utlizes them as a major cmponent of our research philosophy. Some of the principles incorporated include atom economy, green catalyst development, elimination of waste and by-product formation and energy conservation to name a few.
An area of research that can strongly benefit from the philosophy of green chemistry is the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons. This industry experiences cost, both environmental and monetary, which are associated with excessive energy demands for maintaining reaction condiitons, feed stream recycle, product separations, toxicological reaction efficiencies and by-product formation. In an effort to demonstrate the potential of a green oxidation catalyst, research into the selective partial oxidation of cyclohexane into cyclohexanol and cyclohexananone at mild reaction conditions was undertaken.
Although improvements to the catalyst itself are extremely important for increasing the efficiency of a reaction, one must evaluate all aspects of the entire process to experience the full benefit of any process improvements. Research conducted within our laboratory has focused on developing more robust catalysts that are effective at lower temperatures, and able to utilize oxygen as the primary oxidant source. Additional elements of research investigated are the use of single solvent or solvent mixture substitutes to replace detrimental solvents and the evaluation of reaction chemistries and their potential impact on process design.