Green Chemistry

Green chemistry is oriented towards the replacement of hazardous chemicals with benign materials during their manufacture, use, and disposal. One of the goals of green chemistry is to reduce the risk associated with chemical substances, which has historically been performed using the "end of the pipe" control technology. Green chemistry strives to further promote technological advancement by incorporating benign materials into the design of chemical processes and to prevent the formation of pollution at its source. Syracuse Research Corporation is a highly active partner with both government and industry in supporting green chemistry and pollution prevention initiatives. The activities that SRC is involved in include:

• The Green Chemistry Expert System. Under support from the EPA, SRC developed the Green Chemistry Expert System (GCES) to automate the development and analysis of green chemicals and processes. The GCES is available from EPA and consists of five separate modules:
  • The Synthetic Methodology Assessment for Reduction Techniques (SMART) module;
  • The Green Synthetic Reactions module;
  • The Designing Safer Chemicals module;
  • The Green Solvents/Reaction Conditions module; and
  • The Green Chemistry References module
     
• Technical support for SMART assessment. SRC provides technical support for EPA’s voluntary program to use chemistry to achieve pollution prevention. Under contract to the EPA, SRC evaluates chemical syntheses to identify sources of waste, quantify the amounts produced, and assess the general risks posed by the waste materials. Alternative feedstocks, reagents, solvents, catalysts, and synthetic pathways are identified as appropriate.
   
• Development of the Alternative Solvents Database (SolvDB) to quickly and easily identify alternative solvents for chemical processes.
   
• Development of an automated suite of computer estimation programs, called EPISUITE, for predicting the fate of chemicals in the environment. SRC has also compiled the world’s largest database of environmental fate information, the Environmental Fate Data Base (EFDB).
   
• Training for government, industry, and academic scientists by SRC staff members as participants in EPA’s Pollution Prevention (P2) Assessment Framework outreach program.
   
• The prediction of the persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity (PBT) of chemical substances. Under support for the EPA, SRC has developed the PBT profiler to rapidly establish PBT-related screening criteria for chemical substances. Using this information, the potential for a toxic, long-lasting chemical substance to accumulate in the food chain to levels harmful to human and ecosystem health can be determined. The PBT-profiler is currently available on the World Wide Web at www.epa.gov/oppt/pbtprofiler/.
   
• Development of technical reports on current green chemistry activities. To date, these have included organic syntheses in aqueous media, supercritical fluids as reaction media, ionic liquids as reaction media, immobilized solvents as reaction media, and solventless syntheses.