The Global Greenchem Innovation and Network Program
Years
2023-2028
Project objective
Strengthening the sound management of industrial chemicals and their waste through better control, reduction, and/or elimination protocols, and specifically to scale up green chemistry solutions for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury replacement through capacity building, innovation, and the creation of a global green chemistry network fostering visibility, support, and implementation
Country partners
Indonesia, Jordan, Peru, Serbia, Uganda, and Ukraine
RECP Centre's role
The RECP Centre is the project national partner and executor in Ukraine
Manufacturing of inherently hazardous materials occurs around the world, especially in developing countries. An overview is provided on the global treaty frameworks for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and mercury, the globally-recognized threat of microplastics, and the barriers to deploying green chemistry alternatives at scale. Workers and communities across the world, especially in emerging economies, are being exposed to chemicals with known hazards and exposure risk. These chemicals are produced because of technological lock-in and the initial deployment cost to adopt green chemistry alternatives available in developed economies.
The objective of the Stockholm Convention is to reduce the use and release of POPs while striving for their elimination. As of 2019, there are 182 signatories to the Stockholm Convention, including Ukraine. Selected examples that have been identified as highly relevant for the demonstration projects, due to their high potential for replication by Green Chemistry (GC) alternatives and their considerable up-scaling potential, include PFOS in the textile and carpet sectors, SCCPs in metal working and HBCDD in building insulation sectors.
The objective of the Minamata Convention is to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury-containing compounds. As of 2017, there are 128 signatories to the Minamata Convention. The Convention contains provisions that relate to the entire life cycle of mercury, including controls and reductions across a range of products, processes and industries where mercury is used, released or emitted. The treaty also addresses the direct mining of mercury, its export and import, its safe storage and its disposal as waste. With mercury batteries still used worldwide in a variety of products, there exist substantial opportunities for scalable replacements to meet the goals of the Minamata convention.
Accordingly, UNIDO launched a global initiative to deploy Green Chemistry approaches and technologies in 2017. In December 2021, GEF approved the UNIDO’s project proposal for a future full-sized project “The Global Greenchem Innovation and Network Programme”.
Currently, financial, regulatory, organizational, and cultural barriers prevent the fast adoption of Green Chemistry. In industry, suppliers are under pressure to deliver chemicals faster on a regular basis. Hence, there is an inherent regulatory risk of switching to a new process, an upfront investment, the cost of redesigning existing infrastructures, and a barrier to change to new solvents and instrumentation respectively. Moreover, additional barriers include: Currently, financial, regulatory, organizational, and cultural barriers prevent the fast adoption of Green Chemistry. In industry, suppliers are under pressure to deliver chemicals faster on a regular basis. Hence, there is an inherent regulatory risk of switching to a new process, an upfront investment, the cost of redesigning existing infrastructures, and a barrier to change to new solvents and instrumentation respectively. Moreover, additional barriers include:
- lack of information about the availability of Green Chemistry alternatives and solutions,
- lack of demonstration of commercialized successful Green Chemistry solutions,
- limited connections between Green Chemistry innovators and industry,
- lack of awareness of the Green Chemistry principles, and
- the perceived high costs for small to medium enterprises.
Entrepreneurs from the area of Green Chemistry are facing many challenges, including profitability and financial safety in the early years of business, difficulties securing instrumentation and laboratory space, as well as hurdles in the regulation of chemicals and chemical processes. Women underly special constraints and inherent systemic barriers, including limited inclusion efforts, difficult access to special technical expertise and managerial training, and overall restricted opportunities.
Events
Reference
What is green chemistry
Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry applies across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal.
1. Prevent waste: Design chemical syntheses to prevent waste. Leave no waste to treat or clean up.
2. Maximize atom economy: Design syntheses so that the final product contains the maximum proportion of the starting materials. Waste few or no atoms.
3. Design less hazardous chemical syntheses: Design syntheses to use and generate substances with little or no toxicity to either humans or the environment.
4. Design safer chemicals and products: Design chemical products that are fully effective yet have little or no toxicity.
5. Use safer solvents and reaction conditions: Avoid using solvents, separation agents, or other auxiliary chemicals. If you must use these chemicals, use safer ones.
6. Increase energy efficiency: Run chemical reactions at room temperature and pressure whenever possible.
7. Use renewable feedstocks: Use starting materials (also known as feedstocks) that are renewable rather than depletable. The source of renewable feedstocks is often agricultural products or the wastes of other processes; the source of depletable feedstocks is often fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, or coal) or mining operations.
8. Avoid chemical derivatives: Avoid using blocking or protecting groups or any temporary modifications if possible. Derivatives use additional reagents and generate waste.
9. Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents: Minimize waste by using catalytic reactions. Catalysts are effective in small amounts and can carry out a single reaction many times. They are preferable to stoichiometric reagents, which are used in excess and carry out a reaction only once.
10. Design chemicals and products to degrade after use: Design chemical products to break down to innocuous substances after use so that they do not accumulate in the environment.
11. Analyze in real time to prevent pollution: Include in-process, real-time monitoring and control during syntheses to minimize or eliminate the formation of byproducts.
12. Minimize the potential for accidents: Design chemicals and their physical forms (solid, liquid, or gas) to minimize the potential for chemical accidents including explosions, fires, and releases to the environment.
- Prevents pollution at the molecular level
- Is a philosophy that applies to all areas of chemistry, not a single discipline of chemistry
- Applies innovative scientific solutions to real-world environmental problems
- Results in source reduction because it prevents the generation of pollution
- Reduces the negative impacts of chemical products and processes on human health and the environment
- Lessens and sometimes eliminates hazard from existing products and processes
- Designs chemical products and processes to reduce their intrinsic hazards
