How can we use chemistry to help the world have a better future? Well, that is the question that you will hopefully have an answer to after you explore the topic of Green Chemistry.

‘Green Chemistry Principles’ is a new topic in the VCE Chemistry Study Design, and it is designed to get you thinking about ways we can combat climate change, limit wastage and much more.

Before you delve into this article, see if you can brainstorm some ideas as to what principles you think underlie Green Chemistry.

Overview of Green Chemistry

The chemical industry is used to produce a wide variety of products for society. There is quite a large process that occurs to produce an item as simple as a bar of chocolate! Separating, grinding, milling, conching – the list goes on!

Each of these individual steps require energy, various chemicals, and complicated machinery. As you’d expect, there’s also a lot of harmful wastage that enters the environment as a product of each process. If we run these processes without much care, there can be significant implications for the atmosphere, human health, and other living organisms.

This is why Paul T Anastas and John C Warner developed the 12 principles of Green Chemistry in 1991. Green Chemistry is defined as the ‘design of new chemical products and manufacturing processes that are safer and more sustainable that traditionally used products and processes.’ (VCE Chemistry Study Design).

The principles were based on four key ideas:

•     Reducing risk
•     Minimising the production of harmful by-products
•     Limiting energy usage
•     Limiting usage of raw materials

Although Anastas and Warner developed 12 principles in total, there are only 7 that you are required to know. These are particularly relevant to your studies in chemistry.

The graphic below outlines all the principles, and the red crosses show the ones that you don’t need to know.

 Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10311-022-01482-1

The 12 7 Principles of Green Chemistry

The following list shows the definitions of the 7 principles that you need to know. Whilst you will need to know what each of them mean, it is important that you develop an understanding of how these principles can be applied into a real-life scenario.

1.    Prevention of waste

Rather than needing to clean up waste, it is better to prevent it in the first place.

2.    Atom Economy

Processes and pathways should be designed to maximise the use of reactants in the final product. We don’t want to waste the resources that we started with.

3.    Designing safer chemicals

Chemical products should be designed to achieve their intended function while minimising toxicity.

4.    Designed for energy efficiency

Chemical processes should be designed for maximum energy efficiency, with minimal negative environmental and economic impacts.

5.    Use of renewable feedstocks

Raw materials and feedstocks should be made from renewable (plant based) materials, rather than fossil fuels where possible.

6.    Catalysis

Catalysts should be selected to generate the same desired products, use less waste, energy, and reagents in the reaction process.

7.    Designed for degradation

Chemical products should be designed so that they will break down into harmless products, and don’t persist in the environment, at the end of their life cycle.