Chemistry · Ch 15 — Environmental Chemistry
Green Chemistry
Green Chemistry
Green chemistry is a chemical philosophy that encourages the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. Toward this goal, scientists try to develop methods to produce eco-friendly compounds.
This can be best understood by comparing the traditional and greener routes used to produce styrene:
Traditional route (two steps): carcinogenic benzene reacts with ethylene to form ethyl benzene; ethyl benzene is then dehydrogenated, using Fe₂O₃/Al₂O₃, to give styrene. …
Worked out. Traditional route (two steps): carcinogenic benzene reacts with ethylene to form ethyl benzene, which is then dehydrogenated using Fe₂O₃/Al₂O₃ to give styrene. Greener route: to avoid carcinogenic benzene, the greener process instead starts from cheaper and environmentally safer xylenes. …