Green Organic Chemistry and its interdisciplinary Applications

Abstract

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Pollution Prevention Act of 1990, the Green Chemistry is the "design of chemical products and processes that aims to reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous substances". This innovative chemistry is based on 12 principles developed by Anastas and Warner in 1998, i.e. 1) preventing waste; 2) maximizing the incorporation of all materials into the final product by the so called atom economy; 3) organizing less hazardous chemical synthesis; 4) Designing safer chemicals with the minimum toxicity possible; 5) using safer solvents and auxiliaries; 6) increasing energy efficiency; 7) utilizing renewable feed stocks; 8) reducing the production of unnecessary derivatives; 9) substituting stoichiometric reagents with the more selective enzymatic catalysts; 10) designing products that break down into innocuous degradable ingredients; 11) analyzing and preventing in realtime the air/water pollution; 12) minimizing the potential of chemical accidents. Thus, the green chemistry aims to design and produce cost-competitive chemical products and processes that attain the highest level of the pollution-prevention by reducing pollution at its source. To reduce waste and environmental contaminants, it is necessary to modify equipments, technologies, and processes, redesigning the products and substituting the natural materials with by-products obtained from industrial and agricultural biomass.