CHEM F431: Sustainable Chemistry using Renewables

Lecture 02
Background to Sustainable Chemistry
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 What is Sustainable Chemistry?
"Sustainable chemistry is a scientific concept that 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."

Sustainable chemistry is also a process that stimulates innovation across

all sectors to design and discover new chemicals, production processes,
and product stewardship practices that will provide increased
performance and increased value while meeting the goals of protecting
and enhancing human health and the environment.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development (OECD)
Founded in 1961 with 36 Nations

Ref: http://www.oecd.org
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 Benefits of Sustainable Chemistry

The environmental and societal benefits of sustainable chemistry

include:
1. Avoiding the use of persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic, and
otherwise hazardous materials;
2. Using renewable resources and decreasing consumption of non-
renewable resources,
3. Minimising negative environmental impacts of chemical
processing and manufacturing;
4. Providing technologies that are economically competitive for and
advantageous to industry

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 Economic and Societal Background
TWO aspects that need consideration
1. Cogeneration of CO2 in stoichiometric ratio to carbon used in fuels
2. Depletion of fossilized C-course

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 Economic and Societal Background
Interpreting the plot
1. Interestingly, this curve shows an increase in temperature when the last
deep ice age period finished and a maximum in the predicted
temperature, if no human activity would affect the climate.
2. Geophysical effects, planetary motion as well as solar evolution
determine that around 9000 years ago this maximum in temperature
should have appeared.
3. However, human activities shift the maximum. Initial increases in
carbon dioxide due to deforestation and other agricultural activities
caused a delay. The curve shows a future predicted maximum in the
earth’s temperature once fossil fuels are no longer available.
4. Then CO2 will be readsorbed from the atmosphere by various
geobiological processes. This process will take several hundred years.
5. An important factor that limits the rate of this reabsorption process is
the low solubility of CO2 in water.
6. The interesting message is that themgreenhouse effect is of partial use
to our civilization and that on very long time scales it may be actually
needed.
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 Economic and Societal Background
Tangible impact: Tipping points in climate change

Ref: Nature, 437, 1238 (2005)

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 Economic and Societal Background
Tangible impact
The effects are difficult to completely predict because of the complexity of
the climate system and uncertain prognoses on further increases in CO2
levels. Why??
1. Due to uncertainties in the economic scenarios.
2. Partially due to uncertainties in the reduction of energy use,
3. Uncertainties in the implementation of alternative technologies and the
use of new technologies that may become developed
4. Following the technological advancement in oil exploration and its
exploitation, it is expected to have a huge increase in oil and gas
production and hence its usage in recent future – this will have both
economic and environmental uncertainties
5. Usage of other oil-based C-resources will be prime as the oil tends to
get exhausted

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 Economic and Societal Background
Oil Future

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 Economic and Societal Background
Primary energy resource distribution
It is of interest to compare the relative
amount of available primary energy
resources.
• The amounts of coal are close to eight
times those of oil,
• Comparable are our uranium resources.
• Amounts of natural gas available are
slightly less.
Comparing these amounts with the
current use of renewables for energy e.g.
wind, solar and photosynthesis production,
it is clear that fossil fuel resources will
stay with us for a very long time

The primary issue then is to either use

these resources or replace them so as to
reduce the emission of green house
Ref: B. Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring gasses
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 Economic and Societal Background
Technology Options

Converting the primary energy carriers to

the actual secondary energy carriers is the
real problem !!
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 Economic and Societal Background
LIMITED SET of technological options !!

Sustainability is how effectively we use these

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 Economic and Societal Background
Addressing the Environmental sustainability
Necessity:
They will only be used sustainably with respect to environment and
climate when there are zero-emissions of greenhouse gasses or other
detrimental gasses as NO or N2O, SOx etc.
Status Update:
(i) Technology to reduce NOx and SOx in emission has been developed –
still needs research
(ii) Technology to reduce S-content in fuels has been developed – still
needs research
(iii) Implementation of emission norms – gradual administrative approach
– dependent on technology development in (i) and (ii)

Burning issue: HOW to manage CO2 ???

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 Economic and Societal Background
Addressing the Environmental sustainability
Necessity: How to manage CO2?
Option # 1: Renewable energy is to be used. Nuclear or solar energy are
candidates that do not produce CO2 themselves.
Option # 2: To remove CO2 using a chemical (reduction) reaction requires
energy. In essence CO2 is then reduced back to an energy carrier
Option # 3: To react CO2 with rock minerals and convert to carbonate salts.
This will have additional cost of gigantic mining and environmental impact
Option # 4: To capture the CO2 and to store it. The amounts of CO2 are huge
if we continue to use the fossil fuel resource base. It is estimated to be over
6000 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC) . The most attractive opportunity for this is
geological. It is proposed to use the depleted oil reserves or the absorption
capacity of deep coal seams. Saline aquifiers are estimated to hold 3000 to
10000 GtC. Such processes are currently explored by several oil companies
and appear to be feasible.

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 Economic and Societal Background
CO2 Sequestration

ALL FOUR OPTIONS NECESSARILY involve catalytic processes

technologies to achieve the sustainability goal
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 Economic and Societal Background

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 Economic and Societal Background

Therefore, technologies that will enable us to use the energy and chemicals to
maintain our current standard of living and to increase that of the many that
still live under below-standard conditions are very important to our society.
This is one of the important drivers behind the search for renewable
catalytic technologies

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