Abstract Green Chemistry is the front end of technology in the chemical field, and for this reason, not all terms of the question are clear. After a preliminary analysis and definition of the most common terms and concepts, the main topic is addressed after a short description of the scenario in front of us and the enforcement actions. The focus of this chapter is the green chemistry applied to polymers. After a short list of the main routes available today, discussion is centered on PET/polyester analysis and perspectives.
This chapter provides an overview of the strategic tensions involved in persuading a Supply Chain to adopt Sustainable practices, with a particular emphasis on the apparel industry and Green Chemistry. These tensions arise from the conflict between a firm’s potential desire to use Sustainable practices to improve its competitive positioning (e.g., by creating a brand that is uniquely the Greenest brand on the market), and the reality that adopting Sustainable practices (e.g., Green Chemistry) will require the firm to cooperate with its Supply Chain and potentially with competitors, in ways that may undercut the opportunity for an enhanced competitive position (e.g., if everyone adopts the same Green practices, it is difficult for any individual firm to claim it is uniquely the Greenest firm). To some extent, this tension can be overcome by cooperation in ways that expand the market overall (e.g., take sales away from substitute products), while striving for competitive advantage against direct competitors (i.e., collectively this concept is called co-opetition, which is described in the last section).
In this chapter, examples of application of “green nanotechnology,” the necessary evolution of nanotechnology, as required by the constrains of the sustainable development, are presented. Different fields, such as environmental monitoring and remediation, renewable energies, substitution of toxic materials, and chemicals synthesis, have been selected. Specific attention was addressed to (i) preparation of nanoparticles, (ii) visible light-driven heterogeneous photocatalysis, applied not only to the traditional area of wastewater treatment, but also to the synthesis of chemicals by selective oxidation reactions, (iii) green synthesis by enzymatic catalysis, (iv) energy storage, (v) life cycle analysis of nanomaterials with reference to risk assessment and management, and (iv) applications in agriculture.
Establishing the cost of production, € per ton of a dedicated product, is a fundamental piece of information to carry out the assessment on the economic viability of a project, in particular for a novel process. The scope of this chapter is to make an overview of the major steps involved in the calculation of the total production cost of the product of interest, with particular focus on the key elements to be considered when the production scheme is based on an innovative technology. A case study related to economic viability of a novel technology studied by KT is also reported.
One of the most important problems in the worldwide community is the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable sources. In fact, in the last years, intense efforts from research groups around the world have been made in the development of the transformation from biomass to bioenergy in terms of yield and economic sustainability. In particular, one of the most promising renewable sources is considered lignocellulosic biomass for the following reasons: it has high productivity, requires low agricultural inputs, has positive environmental impacts, is easy to process, and does not compete with food crops. In particular, from this raw material is possible to obtain different types of biofuels such as syngas, biooil, and bioethanol. This chapter is focused on the production of bioethanol from renewable sources and aims to give an overview on the various steps of the production processes and the implementation of the technology by membrane reactors.
Knowledge is the main driver of today's global economy, and research plays a paramount role in creating it. Nevertheless, far too often the scientific findings are not dragging industrial innovation in parallel. Promoting and leveraging the intellectual property in academic research can have a twofold advantage, on one side, it can ignite a fruitful collaboration with industry at a wider level and be the driver of innovation in the market, and on the other, it can generate revenues that will help in creating, in a virtuous circle, better research results. The equation patent filing-licensing revenues though are not always true, and many times, creating a legal monopoly over exploitation of the findings can produce more harm than good. In this respect, once the new research finding assessed and evaluated, it is essential to choose the right protection instrument and foresee how to leverage this instrument.
In response to the escalating energy crisis and related pollution problems, we urgently need to adopt new energy supply technologies that utilize renewable energy sources in an efficient and environmentally friendly manner. Today, approximately 65 million tons of hydrogen are produced annually worldwide. Steam reforming of natural gas is the prevalent hydrogen production technology. Large quantities of hydrogen are needed in the chemical and petrochemical industry, in particular for ammonia production, oil refining, and methanol synthesis. Moreover, hydrogen is increasingly discussed as a fuel for transport applications. Especially production from logistic fuels is considered a viable option to accelerate market introduction of hydrogen as an alternative energy carrier. Today, hydrogen is predominantly produced by steam reforming of natural gas in large-scale, central production plants. However, with an increasing share of fuel cell vehicles in the market, central hydrogen production will suffer from additional costs associated with the distribution of gaseous-phase hydrogen by trailer over long distances. In contrast, distributed hydrogen generation (DHG) at fueling stations offers the advantage of using readily available liquid fuels such as diesel and biodiesel with high energy densities and existing infrastructure. DHG is widely seen as a promising alternative in the transition phase toward a fully renewable hydrogen production economy. According to the most recent studies, conventional hydrogen generation processes up to 300 Nm3/h H2 are being increasingly substituted with advanced steam reforming technologies, in particular using biofuels as feedstocks. In this chapter the hydrogen production from the most important biofuels is described. The attention is focused on bioethanol, biogas, bio-oil, and biodiesel.
Ongoing transitions in chemistry and energy production and the general effort toward sustainability offer great possibilities for innovation and business, creating industrial prospects for revitalization and innovation. This introductory chapter introduces the general background elements for sustainability as a driver for company strategies, with some elements of the business opportunities, especially regarding the impact of circularity on chemical green production and catalysis.
The chapter is focused on the main strategies for the modeling of sustainable processes. An overview of the fundamental elements that characterize the development of the basic design of a process is presented, assessing case studies for the following topics: (i) thermodynamics modeling for process analysis, with the definition of the rules of thumb for the selection of a proper thermodynamics model for specific cases; (ii) process analysis and simulation, with the dynamic modeling of an absorption column; (iii) exergetic analysis and its effect on the techno-economic analysis of separation processes. The scope of the chapter is to give an overview of the main criteria to be followed for modeling, having in mind the need to objectively quantify the actual impacts of the process on resource consumption.
This chapter is organized in two parts: the first describes the basic pillar of a successful start-up in the green chemistry industry, namely the product–market fit. This basically means creating a product that is able to solve specific, measurable, and validated customers' pains, through a direct interaction with a relevant sample of potential target customers/users. The second part describes the four most important ingredients of a successful research proposal, regardless of the specific funding scheme. Although the quest for the "Holy Grail" of public funding is more of an art than science, a body of evidence will be provided to support unavoidably subjective conclusions. This guide is intended to help researchers, enterprises, consultants, and whoever enters the always more competitive arena of public research grants.
Artificial leaves, i.e., devices able to collect sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide, transforming them into useful chemicals or fuels, are one of the challenges in the development of renewable energy and a distributed production of chemicals and fuels. This chapter outlines some of the progress in this area, with attention given to the design and development of systematic approaches to artificial leaf devices and some of the related critical components.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) and LCA-related approaches represent a powerful method for designing and evaluating the sustainability of green processes. This is mainly due to the intrinsic nature of the LCA method in carrying out the assessment by considering a life cycle perspective, thus including all the involved processes from raw materials extraction to the end of life. The chapter here presents aims to provide a state of the art related to the application of the LCA and related methods for assessing green processes and products in green chemistry and sustainable energy. Methodological and applicative aspects are also highlighted. The literature review was performed by analyzing about 100 different studies. The main results underline that, despite the fact that the LCA method has been widely adopted for assessing the environmental performance of products or processes in green chemistry and sustainable energy, the adoption of integrated methods is still needed. Such integrated approaches allow supporting the LCA method to achieve a more comprehensive analysis in a sustainability context.
This chapter describes two main characters in industrial fermentation, the enzymes and the cell cultures, with a particular focus on their kinetics. A general description of the most-used reactors is also given, with examples of the cell-populated bioreactors. The aim is to present a basic knowledge of bioreactor modeling to prepare the reader to face future bioreactor designs.
