Development of Some Eco-Efficient and Selective Chemical Processes and Products Using Sustainable and Green Chemistry Approaches

Historical records show that scientific advancements accounted for substantial changes in our life-style and wellbeing. The Industrial Revolution took place in the western countries in the 1700s when people first appreciated the terms ‘science’ and ‘technology’ and valued the applications of ‘technological innovations’ for their commercialization. During the World Wars, people experienced use of science and technology for destructive purposes. The 20th century science revolutionized the living standard of mankind and offered solutions to great socio-economic or strategic challenges of the time. Though industrialization is considered as an essential feature of economic growth, it at times is infamous due to the adverse environmental health consequences caused by the release of pollutants. Policies are being placed to create a course of action, followed by enactment (of a law), and then rules & regulations that are designed to carry out that law successfully. Today, the environmental policymaking process in most of the developed nations relies heavily on the transition to sustainable production and consumption patterns. Public support is being generated through organized ways to educate all about the environmental issues and research. In the spirit of that, recent science has seen major advances in the ongoing endeavors directed towards diminishing the impact of anthropogenic and industrial activities on the environment.


Review Article
Introduction Historical records show that scientific advancements accounted for substantial changes in our life-style and wellbeing.
The Industrial Revolution took place in the western countries in the 1700s when people first appreciated the terms 'science' and 'technology' and valued the applications of 'technological innovations' for their commercialization. During the World Wars, people experienced use of science and technology for destructive purposes. The 20 th century science revolutionized the living standard of mankind and offered solutions to great socio-economic or strategic challenges of the time. Though industrialization is considered as an essential feature of economic growth, it at times is infamous due to the adverse environmental health consequences caused by the release of pollutants. Policies are being placed to create a course of action, followed by enactment (of a law), and then rules & regulations that are designed to carry out that law successfully. Today, the environmental policymaking process in most of the developed nations relies heavily on the transition to sustainable production and consumption patterns. Public support is being generated through organized ways to educate all about the environmental issues and research. In the spirit of that, recent science has seen major advances in the ongoing endeavors directed towards diminishing the impact of anthropogenic and industrial activities on the environment.

Sustainable Development
Sustainability has emerged as the broadest and all-encompassing concept of all and it is one of the few significant words that will be carried over broadly outside the scientific language. Brundtland Commission (1987) -the United Nations' Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as "the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" [1]. The Earth Summit (1992): United Nations' Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) highlighted the urgent need to find a more sustainable way of life; reduce environmental emissions and use resources carefully [2]. It also advocated to move towards a model in which environmental enhancement is fully integrated with economic development.
The members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a consortium first established in 1990 and based in Geneva, have signified the business value of sustainable development and pinpointed responsibility and liability on the part of corporate enterprises that use hazardous materials in their processes or products [3]. The WBCSD coined the term "ecoefficiency" in its 1992 publication "Changing Course" and this new business concept is meant for implementing the "Agenda-21" in the private sector [2]. Pollution reduction in natural as well as synthetic industrial chemical processes and development of more renewable forms of energy are key aspects of sustainable development from chemical and energy perspectives. There is a need to understand sustainable development as a global responsibility.
Chemistry is the study of matter; it is the branch of science concerned with the substances of which matter is composed, the investigation of their properties and reactions, and the use of such reactions to form new substances. Among the greatest achievements of chemistry are petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. 234 most of these many useful chemical technologies are available at significant environmental cost. Though the 20th century chemistry revolutionized the living standard of mankind, the major disadvantages of this progress are now being identified as significant pollution through greenhouse gases, heavy metal toxicity, eutrophication, persistent organic pollutants, etc. In India, for example, the measures adopted in the "Green Revolution" increased agricultural production and made India self-sufficient in food grains but unfortunately the excessive usage of chemical pesticides and fertilizers are now found to cause negative effects on the soil, land, water and our body & its metabolism. Nowadays, pollution due to chemical industries has become a major issue worldwide. Policy makers, environmentalists and the public in general assume that the chemical industry disregard the environmental consequences.
And in view of un-avoidable pollution, a recent challenge is to understand and make the chemical processes occurring in Nature (ecology/environment) sustainable. There is no excuse for the ignorance or the lack of knowledge of the short-term as well as long-term effects of chemical products or processes produced in industries. The challenge for the present-day chemical industry is to continue providing applications and socio-economic benefits in an environmentally friendly manner. Eco-efficiency has been recognized as an important tool in transforming unsustainable development to sustainable development. The concept of green chemistry can certainly help achieve sustainability in chemistry point of view; or rather stand as a component of sustainable development (Figure 1). Having said that, sustainability not only offers the choice to conserve or consume resources sensibly, but it also encompasses the societal attitude towards the environmental change.

Green and Sustainable Chemistry
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States of America is credited for coining and defining the concept of Green Chemistry. Paul T. Anastas firstly proposed this term. "Green Chemistry is the use of chemical principles and methodologies for source reduction. Green Chemistry incorporates pollution prevention in the manufacturing of chemicals and promotes pollution prevention and industrial ecology" [4]. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) defined Green Chemistry as the invention, design and application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances [4][5]. For Prof. Roger Sheldon, "green chemistry efficiently utilizes (preferably renewable) raw materials, eliminates waste, and avoids the use of toxic and/ or hazardous reagents and solvents in the manufacture and application of chemical products" [6]. All member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -an intergovernmental organization endorsed an initiative called "Sustainable Chemistry" which would advocate the development of environmentally benign chemicals [7]. Sustainable chemistry, as defined by the OECD, seeks to improve the efficiency with which natural resources are used to meet human needs for chemical products and services. Sustainable chemistry encompasses the design, manufacture and use of efficient, effective, safe and more environmentally benign chemical products and processes.
Essentially sustainable chemistry is about doing more with less: making most of the finite resources and minimizing waste, reducing the environmental impact of chemical processes and products. Lancaster (2002) in his book entitled, "Green Chemistry: An Introductory Text" successfully brought in together all the concepts and relevant examples for students and researchers [8]. Over the last few decades, green chemistry has been recognized as a culture and methodology for achieving sustainable development. Broadly speaking, green chemistry practices environmentally benign aspects of basic chemistry and applied engineering [9].
The concepts of "sustainable chemistry" and "green chemistry" are written above separately to avoid any confusion in understanding motivation in nut-shell of the principal author's 235 research endeavors. The terms of green chemistry and sustainable chemistry have been almost fully conceptualized and grown into a multidisciplinary area today. The future of this field is, at least in part, due to society's global awareness of long-term industrial growth going hand-in-hand with pollution-free or relatively safer chemistry practices.
Green chemistry addresses source reduction [10]. In this context, 'green' processes can be described as chemical conversions that consume a minimal amount of energy and produce the least waste. In addition to chemistry, chemical engineering is required to achieve true source reduction. "Green Engineering is the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products that are feasible and economical, while minimizing both risk to human health and the environment, and generation of pollution at the source" [10]. "Green chemistry and engineering" include the production of chemicals and development of processes by avoiding pollution and are inherently safe for humans. This multidisciplinary chemistry strategy aims to conserve ecology and environment for the present and future generations. Public assumes that pollution is inevitable and also that the Government is obliged to monitor industries and control emissions. Governmental agencies usually put legislative framework in place for the pollution prevention and can demand the treatment of pollutants or cleaning-up contaminated sites including the air, water, and soil. This has led to at least some law-abiding chemical manufacturers investing substantial capital on environmental matters. Allen and Rosselot [9] presented the following hierarchy for pollution prevention and waste management, in decreasing order of preference: confirm whether a potential chemical manufacturing process is "greener" than the existing ones.

The Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry
Important principles that govern and guide today's green chemistry [4] are formulated by Anastas and Warner. The author (of this paper) enlists herein, as he understands, the famous twelve principles: A. Prevention is better than (waste) treatment B. Atom economy referring to the design for maximizing the incorporation of all starting materials utilized to get the desired chemical product.
C. Use and produce chemical substances that has little or no toxicity to human health and the environment. There is a need to achieve these twelve principles of green chemistry. The author recommends herein that a new concept of elemental sustainability should also be added to such chemistry by which one may conserve the rare metals and or their supply by way of encouraging the careful resource utilization and recycling. Utilization of a single metal atom as functional entity or catalyst instead of its nanoparticles or bulk usage could also save precious elements or rare chemical matter.

Concepts Related to Green Chemistry
In addition to green chemistry, following are the related concepts and industrial initiatives that are required to be defined and understood appropriately: to find balance between environmental and economic performance within global ecological constraints. The IE, sometimes known as the science of sustainability, is an interdisciplinary framework that seeks to design and operate industrial systems as living systems interdependent with natural systems. Graedel and Allenby [11] described IE as the science of consumption and reusability of natural resources in production, rather than the traditional practice of extracting and using resources, then discarding and disposing.

g) Sustainability:
Generally speaking, sustainability is the term describing endurance of systems and processes. This concept is studied and managed in many contexts of environmental, social and economic organization. There is a relationship among green chemistry, benign design, industrial ecology and sustainable development [12]. Off late, increasing research endeavors on green and sustainable chemistry are evident by a continually growing number of publications in this field. This covers a wide spectrum of research approaches from basic chemistry to industrial process development [13].

Financial Analysis of Green Chemistry
Implementing the concepts of green chemistry and engineering usually demands basic to applied research on synthesis, catalysis, reactor design, and improved unit operations. Reduced utilization of raw materials or energy, reduced waste management along with safety, reduced environmental damage or relatively reduced future liabilities are amongst the long-term benefits offered by greening chemistry and chemical engineering. And, there is a need to develop financial tools needed to quantify these benefits or at least to meet the so-called triple bottom line [14].

Green Chemistry in Classroom and Laboratories
The

Objectives of the present review
The key aspect of these researches (from a Ph.D. thesis V. There could be some more researches meant for understanding sustainability in some ecological and environmental  In other words, the studies of soil contents and irrigation water systems can help us achieve sustainable chemical process in ecological and environmental perspectives [26].
VII. Another research project embodied an investigation on eutorphication of a water body due to phosphate and other nutritious chemicals fed in excess to the aquatic environment. This studied chemical and physical quality parameters of water and also the composition of phytoplankton and zooplankton community as related to eutrophication or related chemistry [27]. Total hardness, calcium and magnesium hardness, increased dissolved solids and chloride & magnesium ions show deterioration of water quality.
From the biological study of plankton diversity of this water body, it is concluded that about twenty-eight genera of phytoplankton and thirteen different genera of zooplankton are found in this water body. The reasons behind finding such dynamics are zero availability of oxygen and free carbon dioxide.

Conclusion
This section is meant for drawing conclusions and highlighting the importance of hands-on chemistry researches towards sustainable development. Particularly the latter has had a very positive influence in achieving and reviewing the many nice contributions or results presented herein. The scholars put together dedicated efforts to achieve important advances in diminishing the impact of chemistry and related activities on the environment. The sustainable and green chemistry offer effective approaches to some crucial environmental problems associated with chemistry. It addresses some of the issues facing in employing economically viable chemical technologies / processes while simultaneously protecting the environmental health and safety.
This will therefore be of particular interest to researchers in academia, industry, and government policies applying chemistry for sustainable development, and also to chemistry students, other professionals and consultants dealing with chemistry and relevant environmental concerns. The author believes that his various researches shall stand as a reliable reference to future researchers in the field of green chemistry for sustainable development [28].
To summarize, the various contributions of the researcher are reviewed and argued on how far the underlying goal of these researches is achieved by developing practical chemical production and application greener than the existing ones. The success of the scholar lies in bringing-in together the principles of "green chemistry" and "sustainability" in his research endeavors to show the vitality of the subject through several relevant applications.
While advocating the need for interdisciplinary and integrative efforts, these approaches might offer clues on new and innovative directions of research in the cause of "greening chemistry."