Green Chemistry Contributing Toward Sustainability

Over the past few years, the rapid growth of the global population and the increased standard of living contributed to a dramatic rise in the business of manufacturing goods and services. According to IBEF, India has now become the fourth-largest producer of agrochemicals. India's chemical sector, which encompasses more than 80,000 commercial goods, is very varied and broadly divided into bulk, specialty, agrochemicals, petrochemicals, polymers, and fertilisers. This increased output has drawn attention to the release of dangerous compounds into the environment and the depletion of natural resources. Therefore, it is evident that a paradigm shift is required, and a primary emphasis on cleaner chemistry is also needed to lower the production of hazardous and toxic waste. As a result, the alternate path became known as “Green Chemistry”. 

 Green Chemistry: A Tool for Sustainable Development 

 Green chemistry, established about two decades ago, has garnered much interest. It shows how academics and businesses are working to address the issues surrounding the chemical industry's sustainable development and how both sectors are making steady advancements.

 In a nutshell, green chemistry refers to the use of a set of principles to lower or eliminate the use of hazardous compounds in the development, production, and usage of chemical products. The multi-disciplinary of green chemistry includes synthesis, solvents, catalysis, raw materials, products, and effective procedures. Thus, green chemistry contributes towards sustainability by eradicating environmental damage. 

A development that safeguards the environment and the world's resources is known as sustainable development. By using green chemistry principles, we can attain sustainability. Green chemistry creates less harmful and safer compounds. It typically results in low costs, less energy use, the use of eco-friendly solvents, and less trash creation. 

The foundation of green chemistry is the idea of an atom economy and minimal or no waste creation. It promotes the utilisation of renewable feedstocks while minimising the usage of dangerous and harmful chemicals. It largely avoids stoichiometry processes in favour of catalysis. Along with cost savings, it protects the environment and safety regulations. As a result of advancements and awareness, green chemistry has emerged as a critical force and significant player behind sustainable development over time.   

In the modern scenario, the green chemistry approach has become crucial when the amount of waste and pollution that society produces is more significant than what the mother earth can handle naturally. Thus, green chemistry plays a major role in encouraging cutting-edge chemical technologies to decrease or eliminate hazardous substances in the design, production, and usage of chemical products. 

Green chemistry is reducing the amount of capital expenditure needed to prevent pollution. In addition, it is also benefiting industrial ecology since it incorporates and encourages pollution control techniques in the production of chemicals.  

The existence of ozone in the stratosphere is protected by green chemistry. The ozone layer is necessary for the continuation of life on Earth. Green chemistry regulates the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming. Furthermore, the discovery, production, and usage of chemicals present fresh difficulties for chemists, making this a fascinating moment. Thus, green chemistry plays a role in transforming and aiding in environmental and Earth preservation, which is becoming crucial for a sustainable future.  

Role of Enzymes 

In recent times, enzymes have proven to be one the most sustainable approaches by replacing many complex steps in the chemical manufacturing and in industries such as textiles, leather, paper, pulp extraction to name a few. 

Enzymes are not only environmentally friendly, but also removes the need for high temperature and difficult reaction conditions like acidic environment, high pressure etc. 

Government has already laid out strict guidelines for effluent treatment and waste disposal norms. However, this can be further overcome by adopting enzymes and creating a more sustainable way forward. 

The challenges of using enzymes is that not all of them are easily available and adaptable to unnatural reactions. To overcome that, there have been recent advancements in the field of enzyme engineering, which aims to create novel, designer enzymes to meet challenging industrial needs.

India is one of the leading global producer and exporter of chemicals and pharmaceuticals and it is much needed to leverage the technological advancements locally to create a sustainable environment. 

Naveen Kulkarni

Guest Author CEO, Quantumzyme