Green Chemistry

Green Chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. While there are many mechanisms and tools available to assess the impact of materials and processes on human health and the environment, there are still far fewer tools available to help design and create products as such. This course will present the fundamentals of the 12 principles of Green Chemistry, and it will explore relevant examples of research and development (R&D, e.g. in catalysis) and their practical use in commercial applications. This course will explore examples from a wide spectrum of practical sectors of utmost importance including construction, personal care, pharmaceuticals and electronics. Through examples, students will be presented with the premise that Green Chemistry offers organisations a boost to innovation and faster time to market. Course content will include lectures, readings and virtual site visits to the Warner Babcock Institute and other labs for Green Chemistry. Learning goals: At the end of the course, students will have: A functional understanding of the Green Chemistry field A working understanding of the 12 principles of Green Chemistry An understanding of several real world examples where organisations used Green Chemistry to improve the sustainability performance of their products An appreciation of how the practice of Green Chemistry enhances competitiveness, innovation and faster time to market Main course components Green or sustainable chemistry studies the development and production of chemical products and chemical processes. A crucial part is that not only are these processes of great value, but also the properties of the reactants and products, the waste disposal, the life value cycle and the impacts they have on society and the environment are integral factors of the process. Already in 1962, the researcher Rachel Carson studied the effects chemicals have on an ecological scale, thereby developing the pillars of Green Chemistry that we know today. Followed shortly by the developments of Paul Anastas and John C. Warner in 1988, who formulated the 12 ground principles of Green Chemistry. Within the course, the 12 principles of Green Chemistry will be described theoretically. We will also present real examples from industrial processes that apply the 12 principles of Green Chemistry. Finally, the students will learn and develop the skills to implement the Green Chemistry principles in their daily life of working in labs and solving scientific problems, which will contribute to the future sustainable transformation of societies.