Chemical Processes for Sustainability

The chemical industry is central to the world economy as it moves billions of dollars a year while employing millions of people worldwide. Some of the most relevant technologies of our society involve the production of a chemical from a determined raw material. Some of the chemical technologies, however, are complicated while involving the utilization of harmful solvents or the disposal of hazardous products to the environment. The field of green or sustainable chemistry is receiving a significant interest nowadays. Green chemistry is focused on the designing of cleaner and simpler chemical processes such that they can be carried out with minimum utilization of hazardous substances. This book offers a compendium of sustainable chemical technologies covering some of the most relevant processes of modern chemistry. Thus, sustainable synthesis methods such as microwave-, infrared- or ultrasound-aided processes, and magnetically separable substances (allowing fast and easy separation of the catalysts from the reaction mixture) are covered in this book. Utilization of renewable raw products (e.g., chitosan, biomass-derived glycerol, and green solvents) is also covered along with some chapters describing the main principles and metrics that any sustainable process should follow.