Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
Everything is made of molecules. But who makes the molecules? For most of the things around you, the answer can probably be traced back to “chemists”.
“When we look at everything around us in our world – the food, the medicines, the plastics and polymers, our computers, our vehicles … some sort of chemical manufacturing is involved in all of it,” says Associate Professor Tony Patti, a chemist at Monash University.
These “things that we just take for granted” have altered the environment in dramatic and often damaging ways.
But the growing green chemistry movement seeks to rectify some of the harms.
“Green and sustainable chemistry is really about: how do we how do we go forward in the future and avoid the problems of the past?” says Patti.
In its strictest sense, green chemistry refers to a movement started in the late 1990s by US chemists Dr John Warner and Professor Paul Anastas. They outlined 12 principles which, considered before a chemist starts a process, should make the molecules they design better for the environment and human health.
“Those principles now employed and taken on into chemical manufacturing will ultimately give us a better world,” says Patti, who is co-chairing the 2024 Australian Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemical Engineering, being held in Melbourne in mid-December.
“And, arguably, they also can help address pretty well all the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
Patti’s interest in green chemistry first stemmed from his research in compost.
“I started to question: well, making compost is great, and that’s important, but are we potentially also discarding or disregarding important components?” he says.
Food waste, it turns out, can be a valuable source of important feedstocks – such as antioxidants, pectin, and lignin.
While green and sustainable chemistry is becoming well-established in academia, and has led to a number of successful commercial products, it can be difficult to translate research to industry.
Part of the goal of the conference is to firm the connections between industry and research chemists.
“I think all industries nowadays are very conscious of being more sustainable in sourcing their feedstocks from renewable [resources] wherever possible,” says Patti.
“But of course, ‘wherever possible’ is a big limitation, because supply chains just don’t necessarily have that quantities that they need.”
Another problem is that ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ can sometimes work at cross-purposes.
“Not everything that is green is sustainable. And conversely, not everything that’s sustainable is necessarily green,” says Patti.
Benign-by-design green molecules are created with the intention of causing no harm, in their making, use, and disposal. But they don’t necessarily operate in the right quantities for sustainable industries.
“The input materials you need, the energy to make it and so forth – that may not be sustainable, or may not produce a product that is affordable for its function in society. And that’s part of the challenge,” says Patti.
Industries that are well-established often have the hardest time changing their practices with sustainability in mind.
“I think one of the exciting things about green chemistry development is the opportunities for new industries, new work, and economic benefits,” says Patti.
“Newer companies setting up today potentially have some advantage, because they can start out with the better, more improved way to do things. They don’t have to use, necessarily, the old technologies of the past.”
Green chemists have also been working to change public perceptions of chemistry – a science that has long held a reputation for being at least indifferent, and often damaging, to the environment and human health.
Part of this involves changing chemistry education to include green principles – but Patti says that public outreach is important too.
“Chemical manufacturing is really giving us the lifestyles we’ve become comfortably accustomed to in our societies today,” he says.
“After all, chemistry is a creative activity. It’s creating new materials, and new things for us to have viable societies.”
