Green Chemistry

This guidance was developed with the aim to advance broader agreement on a general approach and criteria for the selection of safer alternatives, with a focus on chemical substitution. It is intended to advance a consistent understanding of the minimum requirements needed to determine whether a chemical alternative is safer than the priority chemical, product, or technology for substitution, independent of the entity performing the assessment or the alternatives assessment framework being used. 

The transition toward a circular bioeconomy demands innovative, sustainable, and efficient technologies for biomass valorization and pulping. Green chemistry strategies, particularly organosolvent pulping pretreatment, are emerging as pivotal solutions to unlock the full potential of lignocellulosic feedstocks. Organosolvent processes employ environmentally benign solvents to selectively fractionate biomass components, enabling the recovery of high-purity cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin with minimal environmental footprint.

This study presents a green and sustainable method for recovering high-purity silica from solid silicone by-products derived from industrial silicone oil manufacturing through alkali-assisted sol–gel synthesis, with and without thermal treatment. Sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate were used to evaluate the effects of alkali type, concentration, and calcination at 800 °C on silica yield, structure, and performance.

The goal of this report is to identify barriers and enablers to the adoption of green and sustainable chemistry that can be effectively leveraged to accelerate commercialization and adoption actions in the future. The report focuses on identifying factors that have led to the successful substitution of plasticizers in some product categories and to understand what is holding substitution back in others.