09-107 Honors Chemistry                                                   Carnegie Mellon University 
                                 Lecture Notes V: Introduction to Green Chemistry 
                  
                 What is “Green Chemistry”?  Is it different than environmental chemistry? 
                  
                  
                  
                 A brief history of environmental regulation: 
                  
                 •   1970 Clean Air Act. Regulates air emissions.  
                 •   1972 National Environmental Policy Act.  Requires in part that EPA review 
                     environmental impact statements of proposed major federal projects (e.g. highways, 
                     buildings, airports, parks and military complexes).  
                 •   1972 Clean Water Act. Establishes the sewage treatment construction grants 
                     program and a regulatory and enforcement program for discharges of pollutants into 
                     U.S. waters.   
                 •   1972 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act.  Governs distribution, sale 
                     and use of pesticide products.  All pesticides must be registered (licensed) by EPA.   
                 •   1972 Ocean Dumping Act.  Regulates the intentional disposal of materials into 
                     ocean waters.  
                 •   1974 Safe Drinking Water Act.  Establishes primary drinking water standards.  
                 •   1976 Toxic Substances Control Act.  Requires the testing, regulating, and screening 
                     of all chemical produced or imported in the U.S.  
                 •   1976 Resource Conservation & Recovery Act. Regulates solid and hazardous waste 
                     form “cradle to grave.”  
                 •   1976 Environmental Research & Development Demonstration Act. Authorizes all 
                     EPA research programs. 
                 •   1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act, better 
                     known as Superfund.  Provides for a federal “superfund” to clean up abandoned 
                     hazardous waste sites, accidental spills and other emergency releases of pollutants 
                     in the environment.  
                 •   1986 Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act.  Requires that 
                     industries report toxic releases and encourages planning by local communities to 
                     respond to chemical emergencies.  
                 •   1990 Pollution Prevention Act.  Seeks to prevent pollution by encouraging 
                     companies to reduce the generation of pollutants through cost-effective changes in 
                     production, operation, and raw material use. 
                 What is special about the last Law enacted? 
                  
                  
                 Green Chemistry 
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                 12 Principles of Green Chemistry 
                 Lecture Notes V               Distributed on Tuesday, December 4, 2001                  Page 1 of 3 
                 09-107 Honors Chemistry                                                   Carnegie Mellon University 
                 Anastas, P. T.; Warner, J. C. “Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice” 
                  
                 1. Prevention 
                  
                  
                  
                 2. Atom Economy 
                  
                  
                  
                 3. Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses 
                  
                  
                  
                 4. Designing Safer Chemicals 
                  
                  
                  
                 5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries 
                  
                  
                  
                 6. Design for Energy Efficiency 
                  
                  
                  
                 Lecture Notes V               Distributed on Tuesday, December 4, 2001                  Page 2 of 3 
                 09-107 Honors Chemistry                                                  Carnegie Mellon University 
                 7. Use of Renewable Feedstocks 
                  
                  
                  
                 8. Reduce Derivatives 
                  
                  
                  
                 9. Catalysis 
                  
                  
                  
                 10. Design for Degredation 
                  
                  
                  
                 11. Real-time Analysis for Pollution Prevention 
                  
                  
                  
                 12. Inherently Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention 
                  
                  
                  
                  
                  
                 Topics that we will cover in this section: 
                  
                 Atom Economy                                             • Solvent replacement 
                 •   A measure of the efficiency of a                     • Surfactants 
                     reaction                                              
                 •   A novel synthesis of Ibuprofen                       Catalysis 
                 • Peptide synthesis                                      •   Pulp and Paper Industry 
                                                                          • Pharmaceutical synthesis
                  
                 Supercritical CO  
                                    2
                  
                 Lecture Notes V              Distributed on Tuesday, December 4, 2001                  Page 3 of 3