Our group had a round table discussion on Green Chemistry where my side claimed Singapore should adopt green chemistry and the other side had some counterpoints for that claim. The following are the two articles I found online that discussed green chemistry in different perspective and they will help us verify our claim.
It begins with the positive side effects of green chemistry. To elaborate more on this, green chemistry is all about designing environment-friendly chemicals which are commercially viable. But its good virtues do not end there. Not only it can reduce hazardous chemical outputs and by-product from industries, but also it can have positive impact on from climate change to the global food supply. Moreover, it opens up new fields of opportunity for new businesses. It discussed how new companies have intense focus on advanced materials to get an edge in biofuels, bioplastics, green building materials or environmentally friendly home products. Actually, it is just hard for a manufacturing company to find Green Chemistry not applicable to any part of its operation.
The article also pointed out that a number of deaths linked to harmful chemicals were caused by the designers of the compounds in everyday products who are not adequately aware of toxicity level possessed by their compounds. Hence, rather than relying on harmful & toxic materials or calling for more stringent regulations, green investors have unanimously decided to have a focus green materials such as biofuels, building materials and bioplastics as the investment parameter. And because of the growing consumer interest in environment-friendly products, it is such an opportune time for green investors to do green businesses.
This first article presented the idea of Green Chemistry in a different perspective by highlighting how new start-ups are racing for new materials to have an edge on biofriendly products. It also explained the reasons investors wants to invest in Green Chemistry and how can green chemistry in turn benefits them. That is why this article is refreshing piece of information about Green Chemistry.
The second article is about advancing nanotechnology in a sustainable world using G chemistry, the idea proposed by James E. Hutchison, a Chemistry Professor at the University of Oregon who is also and innovators in nanofabrication and assembly processes and is a pioneer in the use of green chemistry.
Nanotechnology is the study of materials that are in size of about a billionth of a meter. But this field is still young and researches are ongoing to find and synthesize new materials with specific physical properties. During such work, the involvements of hazardous chemical substances are inevitable. Hutchison urged that scientists need to be proactive in advancing nanotechnology from the current discovery phase to production phase through a green framework which is efficient and reduces waste. He also believed that now is the time to seriously consider the design of materials, processes and applications that minimize hazard and waste as the technology will sooner or later be in transition period to the application phase.
To sum it up, this second article is a good example of how Green Chemistry concept can be applied to another technology that is not even exposed to the public yet. Also, Hutchison’s understanding and idea of Green Chemistry, which is actually designing the processes or applications with their impact on environment in mind before they are commercially available to the public, is a real good example of carefully thought out design process for the scientists around the world.
Below are the 5 vocabularies related to Green Chemistry.
Biofuels: A fuel from a relatively recently dead biochemical materials
Bioplastics: A form of plastics manufactured from sources of biomass such as corn and beans.
Toxicity: An indication of the degree of potential hazards and adverse effects possessed by a material to living organisms.
Sustainable: Being able to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Environmentally benign: Environmentally friendly
References:
“Green Chemistry’s race to innovation”. Retrieved March 9, 2009 from http://news.cnet.com/Green-chemistrys-race-to-innovation/2100-13838_3-6217663.html
“Green Chemistry can help nanotechnology mature”. Retrieved March 9, 2009 from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/uoo-gcc021507.php
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I agree that green chemistry is a good technology. I see it as beneficial technologies both to the environment and the economy, there are minimum or even none reason that this technology is not a good technology. I think that countries should implement this technology.
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