Green Chemistry, Green Engineering, and Sustainability

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Green Chemistry, Green Engineering, and
Sustainability

• Martin A. Abraham
• Dean
• College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and
  Mathematics
• Youngstown State University
• Youngstown, OH 44555
• Phone [phone]
• email martin.abraham_at_ysu.edu

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Engineers create goods for society

• An engineer is a person whose job is to design or
  build
• Machines
• Engines or electrical equipment,
• Roads, railways or bridges,
• using scientific principles.

Raw materials
Energy
Gasoline and other fuels
Plastics
Household products
Wastewater
Air pollutants
The manufacture of products that society desires
is accompanied by the production of wastes, some
of which cannot be avoided.
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Engineering has lead to substantial productivity
growth

• Affluence (3 income growth for last 100 years
  Factor 20!)
• Leisure - Factor 4 Doubled life expectancy with
  half the working time
• Unprecedented quality and variety of products
• Unprecedented material use
• Unprecedented environmental impacts
• Global Change

Paradox 1We need green engineers to solve the
problems created by the success of engineering
Arnulf Grubler ECI Green Engineering Conference,
Sandestin, FL, May 2003
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Sustainability, Green Engineering Green
Chemistry

• Sustainability
• Ecosystems
• Human Heath
• Green Engineering
• Lifecycle
• Systems
• Metrics
• Green Chemistry
• Reactions, catalysts
• Solvents
• Thermodynamics
• Toxicology

Sustainability
Green Engineering
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Green Engineering (EPA Definition)

• The design, commercialization and use of
  processes products that are feasible
  economical while minimizing
• Generation of pollution at the source
• Risk to human health the environment
• Decisions to protect human health and the
  environment have the greatest impact and cost
  effectiveness when applied early to the design
  and development phase.

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Green Engineering

• develops and implements technologically and
  economically viable products, processes, and
  systems.
• transforms existing engineering disciplines and
  practices to those that promote sustainability. 
• incorporates environmental issues as a criterion
  in engineering solutions
• promote human welfare
• protect human health
• protection of the biosphere.

From the SanDestin Conference on Green
Engineering Defining the Principles.
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Sustainability is
"..development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs" World
Commission on the Environment and Development
A view of community that shows the links among
its three parts the economic part, the social
part and the environmental part.
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SanDestin Principles on Sustainable Engineering

• Engineer processes and products holistically, use
  systems analysis, and integrate environmental
  impact assessment tools.
• Conserve and improve natural ecosystems while
  protecting human health and well-being.
• Use life cycle thinking in all engineering
  activities.
• Ensure that all material and energy inputs and
  outputs are as inherently safe and benign as
  possible. 
• Minimize depletion of natural resources. 
• Strive to prevent waste.
• Develop and apply engineering solutions, while
  being cognizant of local geography, aspirations
  and cultures.
• Create engineering solutions beyond current or
  dominant technologies improve, innovate and
  invent (technologies) to achieve sustainability.
• Actively engage communities and stakeholders in
  development of engineering solutions.

From the SanDestin Conference on Green
Engineering Defining the Principles.
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Sustainability is a systems problem
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Consider the Total Life Cycle
Processes
Products
Extraction of Raw Materials
Recycling
Disposal
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Risk Assessment

• Risk is the probability of suffering harm or loss
  
• Risk assessment can be applied to processes and
  products
• estimate the environmental impacts of specific
  chemicals on people and ecosystems
• prioritize chemicals that need to be minimized or
  eliminated.
• optimize design to avoid or reduce environmental
  impacts
• assess feed and recycle streams based on risk and
  not volume.

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Metrics What can be measured

• Mass utilization
• Material intensity (Mass in product/Mass in raw
  materials)
• Atom economy
• Potential environmental impact
• Energy utilization
• Energy intensity (per amount of product)
• Materials consumed to produce required energy
• Sustainability metrics
• Eco-efficiency (Economic indicator/Environmental
  indicator)
• Ecological footprint

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Sustainability Metrics Calculations
Materials
Pollutant Dispersion
Water Consumption
Toxics Dispersion
Energy
Land Use
Output Mass of Product or Sales Revenue or
Value-added
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The Sustainability Framework
Lenses
Resources
Values
Place
Time
Adapted from BRIDGES to Sustainability, courtesy
of Earl Beaver
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Development of Ecological Value
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Sustainability Considerations
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AIChE Sustainability Index for the Chemical
Industry

• The AIChE Sustainability Index will serve as the
  premier technically informed benchmark for
  companies to measure their progress implementing
  sustainability.
• The index is generated from publicly available
  data and the results will be subject to public
  scrutiny.

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Types of Costs
Cost Type
Description
Examples
Future Current
More Difficult to Measure
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Types of Benefits
Benefit Type
Description
Examples
Future Current
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Sustainable Energy??

• Twentieth century humans used 10 times more
  energy than their ancestors had in the 1000 years
  preceding 1900
• 71 increase by 2030
• World Energy Consumption Distribution
• 80 Fossil fuel
• 14 Renewable (solar, wind, biomass, etc)
• 6 Nuclear

http//www.elmia.se/worldbioenergy/pdf/Mr20Nystro
m20presentation.pdf
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Stabilization Wedges
Business As Usual

• Global scope
• 50-year time horizon
• Simple shapes (e.g. triangles)
• Existing technologies with large potential (1
  billion tons carbon per year after 50 years)
• Goal of level emissions, followed by decrease

Wedges
Source Pacala and Socolow (Science 305, 968-972,
2004)
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Solid-State LightingAn example of environmental
benefits
Brighter, cheaper, more efficient

• Doubling the average luminous efficacy of white
  lighting through the use of solid-state lighting
  would potentially
• Decrease by 50 the global amount of electricity
  used for lighting.
• Decrease by 10 the total global consumption of
  electricity (projected to be about 1.8
  TW-hr/year, or 120B/year, by the year 2025).
• Free over 250 GW of electric generating capacity
  for other uses, saving about 100B in
  construction costs.
• Reduce projected 2025 global carbon emissions by
  about 300 Mtons/year.

lighting.sandia.gov
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Renewable resources

• Widely available resources
• Bioproducts (e.g. sugar, corn)
• Inedible biomass
• Waste products, such as cheese whey
• Municipal waste
• Opportunities include
• Chemicals production
• Bio-composites
• Energy (e.g. methanol, biodiesel, H2)

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Understanding the energy impact of biomass
conversion
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Case study for ethanol production from
lignocellulosic biomass
15.1
Net Energy Efficiency 53
Reference NREL/TP-510-32438, June 2002
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Moving towards sustainability