Electricity has existed naturally since the beginning of time. Over centuries, humans have devised ways to capture electricity and eventually create it.

Once being able to generate electricity, there has been no shortage of ingenious ways to use it – lighting, kitchen appliances, communications and electronics of all kinds, automobiles – to name a few.

The first 19th-century use for electricity was the incandescent light bulb, devised by the great and prodigious inventor, Thomas Alva Edison.  He obtained a U.S. Patent for his lightbulb in 1880. His light bulbs, attached to small generators, started to illuminate the homes of the very wealthy and heralded the ultimate demise of gas-fueled lighting. 

Contributed by Jane Murray, Ph.D., Global Head of Green Chemistry, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (MilliporeSigma)

Biomass feedstocks offer several advantages over conventional fossil-based starting materials. In addition to providing an abundant source of renewable organic carbon, its oxygenated nature, chemical diversity, and inherent chirality render biomass a highly suitable raw material to manufacture a multitude of high-added-value compounds. Furthermore, structural resemblance to nature-derived or -inspired target molecules reduces the synthetic steps required compared to their petrochemical counterparts.

Glenn Ruskin, ACS GCI Contributor

Ever since humans harnessed fire over 1.5 million years ago, combustion has been at the heart of our energy creation. Fire from wood was first used by humans to cook meat, provide warmth and protection from wild animals. It wasn’t until the early 19th century, that fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) replaced wood as the primary source of energy generation. Today the vast majority, over 80%, of energy is still generated by fossil fuels, with nuclear comprising 10% and other renewable sources making up the rest.

20 Years of Scientific Breakthroughs That Both Change Patients’ Lives and Sustain a Healthy Planet

By Juan Colberg, Seda Arat, Maria Gonzalez Esguevillas, Scott France, Kailey Huot, Rajesh Kumar, Daniel Laity, Manjinder Lall, Johnny Lee, Javier Magano, Jared Piper, Paul Richardson, Philipp Roosen, Rebecca Watson.

One definition for Green Chemistry (GC) is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Pfizer has embraced this concept and applied it across the life cycle of its products, facilitating process design, manufacturing, and utilization. Green chemistry principles provide a unique framework to guide process development, which ultimately leads to an optimal chemical process from both an environmental and economic perspective.

By Frank Roschangar, Boehringer Ingelheim

More than ever before, pharmaceutical companies are expected to assess the impact of their sustainable development achievements.  However, the lack of a consistent metric system impedes the objective quantification and comparability of key sustainability indicators.  One of those indicators is Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing waste, which aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12—Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

On June 11, Helen Sneddon, Ph.D., Scientific Team Director in Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, presented an overview of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable tools during the 25^th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference. A summary of her presentation below provides a quick overview of these free public resources. You can also watch Dr. Sneddon’s complete 20-minute presentation at https://www.acsgcipr.org/tools-for-innovation-in-chemistry.  

By Matthew Deinhardt, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Agilent Technologies shares how they are leading the way in sustainable supply chains and instrument production from a holistic approach.

Agilent, a 2021 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference Gold Sponsor, provides analytical instruments, software, and services for laboratory workflow, from start to finish. The company focuses its services and products to meet the needs of six key markets: food, environmental and forensics, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, chemical and energy, and research. I recently had a chance to interview Agilent’s Michael Frank, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Global Marketing within the Liquid Phase Separations Division, to discuss how Agilent is improving and “greening” their processes for a more sustainable ecosystem.

By Anthony Maiorana, polymer chemist and writer of The Polymerist Newsletter

If we think about modern industrial chemistry, things really took off around the 1940s as steam cracking, catalytic cracking, and the use of synthetic materials started to become widespread. The widespread availability of refined oil at low costs over the last 60 years created less of a need for refining chemicals from biomass, but crude oil is inherently finite on a human time scale. Over the last few decades we have seen the growth of green chemistry and engineering principles in academia and the chemical industry for numerous reasons, but one of them is the potential future scarcity of oil as a chemical feedstock. If you are reading this then, it is likely through the ACS Green Chemistry Institute and I won’t get into the specifics of green chemistry principles, but I will attempt to write about the utilization of biomass in industrially relevant specialty polymers and plastics.

By Ian Mallov, research chemist at Inkbox Ink

When Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson offered $25 million for the invention of an efficient carbon sequestration technology in 2007, an Oregon environmentalist named Andy Kerr cheekily submitted a drawing of

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) Pharmaceutical Roundtable honors the work of Stephen Dalby, Francois Levesque, Cecilia Bottecchia and Jonathan McMullen at Merck with the 2021 Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The team’s innovation is titled, “Greener Manufacturing of Belzutifan (MK-6482) Featuring a Photo-Flow Bromination.”

Contributed by Louis J. Diorazio, Chemical Development, Pharmaceutical Technology & Development, Operations, AstraZeneca, Macclesfield, United Kingdom

In the heat of scientific progress and corporate challenges, the role of solvents is often downplayed. It can be easy to assume that a solvent merely dissolves materials, indeed, awareness of solvents for the general public is generally restricted to situations such as cleaning a stain or grease with "a bit of solvent". 

By Isamir Martinez, Ph.D., PMP, Scientific Alliances & Business Engagement Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute; Stefan Koenig, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Genentech; and, Ben I. Andrews, Investigator of Chemical Development, Product Development & Supply, GlaxoSmithKline

Aiming to employ oligonucleotides (ON), which are short deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules, as medical remedies has been a goal of scientists and physicians for some time.  As genetic information is carried forth from DNA through RNA, and eventually to the protein output via the central dogma of biology, there exist invaluable opportunities to address illness before it manifests itself. 

By David Constable, Science Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

I’ve always had a tendency to ask questions, it’s sort of how I’m made.  For those of you who have had children, you might surmise that I never got out of the one-question-leads-to-another

By Dr. Love-Ese Chile, Founder and Technical Director, Regenerative Waste Labs

Since the industrial revolution, scientists have been innovating at a faster rate than ever before. These scientific discoveries and disruptions have been miracles for some, br

 By David Constable Science Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

Over the past few months we’ve highlighted the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), showing just a few of the many ways in which chemistry plays an enormous part in achieving the goa

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® convened companies in the oil and gas industry at the annual ACS GCI Hydraulic Fracturing Roundtable recently to discuss greener chemicals and processes in hydraulic fracturing. Baker Hughes hosted the meeting at their W

By David Constable, Science Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute

In 2013, members of the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute (ACS GCI) Chemical Manufacturers Roundtable (ChMRT), conceived a project to identify how to fundamentally change

By Christiana Briddell, Sr. Communications Manager, ACS GCI; Jennifer MacKellar, Program Manager, ACS GCI; Marta Gmurczyk, Safety Portfolio Manager, ACS

Today’s environmental headlines are replete with sustainability topics from climate change to plastics

Representing the largest body of chemists in the world, the American Chemical Society has an important role to play in supporting its members and working with partners committed to addressing global sustainability challenges. In part two of this series, w

Dr. Bryony Core, Senior Technology Analyst at IDTechEx

We live in the age of plastic. Our lives have become so enmeshed with it that it is becoming impossible to avoid in day to day life. Its uses are myriad: saving lives in medical devices, reducing carbo

The American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry Institute (ACS GCI) was honored to partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to host the 2019 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards ceremony and reception at the EPA headquarters in Washington D.C. th

Contributed by Samy Ponnusamy, Fellow & Global Manager, Green Chemistry, MilliporeSigma

The 12 principles of green chemistry provide a conceptual framework for green chemistry that is globally accepted, which was an important starting point.  As the practi

Has the growing awareness of the reality and impacts of disposable plastic pollution finally started to change the marketplace? It seems that many factors are coming together to shift food packaging options away from plastic lately. Maybe this scenario ri

By Paul Richardson, Director, Oncology Chemistry, Pfizer and Juan Colberg, Senior Director within CRD, Pfizer

The ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable convened on October 9-10, 2018 at the Pfizer site in Groton, Connecticut for their fall meeting. With the va

By Mr. Philip Krook, Communications Officer, ChemSec

Last week I heard a word that I had never heard before. It was a term explaining a phenomenon that has skyrocketed in the last years. The word was uberization.

At the time, I could already guess the meani

By Louis Diorazio, Pharmaceutical Technology and Development, AstraZeneca

Solvents are commonplace chemicals across industry and academia.  In many cases, the bulk of the materials that chemists process are solvents with the ‘interesting stuff’ present onl

The non-agrarian among us may not know this, but petroleum-derived, non-biodegradable, effectively non-recyclable plastic mulch is used extensively in farms across America to control weeds, retain moisture in the soil, and increase crop yields.

My own expe

The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pa. has announced it is seeking nominations for the 2019 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science of individuals who have made significant contributions to green and sustainable chemistry. The prizewinner wi

Contributed by Jane Murray, Ph.D., Global Head of Green Chemistry, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (MilliporeSigma)

Summary

Increasing the availability of safer, sustainable solvents is expected to significantly impact industrial Green Chemistry programs. Cy

Contributed by Max J. Hülsey, Ph.D. Candidate; Ning Yan, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore

The word ‘refinery’ evokes imagery of huge chemical plants spitting out steams and flames in