Process analysis through a Green Chemistry grid

• Autor(a) principal: Pinto, José Miguel Machado de Matos
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/52260
• topic: Green Chemistry; green metrics; sustainability; Decision making tool; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Química

In this work, a grid capable of evaluating the sustainability of different processes and comparing them with each other based on the Green Chemistry framework was created. The grid was made principle by principle, with it containing 15 principles (the 12 principles of Green Chemistry and an additional 3 applications of free metrics) integrated between 0 (worst scenario) and 1 (best scenario) and a green index (final value) for the process between 0 (worst scenario) and 15 (best scenario). The grid’s application was studied using processes described in literature: (1) Two related to fine chemistry, the synthesis of hydrazide hydrates through the conventional route or using microwaves and (2) two related to bulk chemistry, the synthesis of anionic polyacrylamide copolymers through copolymerization or through an homopolymerization followed by a hydrolysis. Having concluded the tests, the grid fulfilled its objectives and generated values between 0 and 1 for all principles and a green index between 0 and 15. These values allowed the processes to be compared with this assessment being carried out by industry segment: (i) For the processes related to fine chemistry, the synthesis of hydrazide hydrates using microwaves was considered superior to the conventional synthesis (respectively an 11.80 and 7.61 green index) and (ii) for the processes related to bulk chemistry, the synthesis of anionic polyacrylamide copolymers through a copolymerization was considered inferior to the synthesis through an homopolymerization followed by a hydrolysis (respectively an 8.04 and10.29 green index). The creation of this grid has, as such, contributed for a significant advancement in the assessment of processes based on the Green Chemistry framework, due to the possibility of evaluating them in a detailed and qualitative fashion, being possible to compare and serialize different processes from a sustainability point of view, until now addressed mostly qualitatively and variably between processes.