green chemistry

Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is commonly used worldwide for pain relief and fever/inflammation reduction. It was discovered in the 1960s by Andrew Dunlop, who initially tested the drug on cures for hangovers. The drug was first made available via prescription in 1974 (United States) and soon became available as an over the counter drug purchasable at retail shops around the globe.

Solvents have many uses, both commercial and domestic. In the chemicals industry, solvents are used in the production of chemicals as media for chemical reactions and for chemicals separation/purification. Here, I attempt to demonstrate how appropriate selection of solvents for chemicals processing has been used to improve the sustainability of these processes using examples that have been, to the best of my knowledge using publicly available information, in commercial use at some time.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute® Pharmaceutical Roundtable (GCIPR) was developed in 2005 to encourage the integration of green chemistry and green engineering into the pharmaceutical industry. One of the strategic priorities of the Roundtable is to inform and influence the research agenda and an early step was the publication of a paper on key green chemistry research areas (KRA) from a pharmaceutical manufacturers’ perspective. The publication was followed up with the ongoing GCIPR Research Grant Programme.

The world's population is predicted to exceed 9 billion by 2050, with growth in the developing world projected to triple global resource consumption. Industries, including pharmaceuticals, will still be competing for one Earth's worth of resources to meet this tripled demand. In order to thrive in the future, it is clear that routes to pharmaceuticals, which currently produce in the order of 100 kg of waste for each kilogram of drug in an optimized process, will need to be more efficient and sustainable.