Being our priority to reduce the environmental impact, we use the 12 principles of green chemistry to avoid using chemical products and processes with a negative impact.These principles were formulated by Paul Anasta and John Warner and first appear in the 1990s in their book Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice.
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- Prevention: Avoid, eliminate or recover waste.
- Atomic economy: All the elements that are used in the production process must be part of the final product. In this way, the formation of by-products is minimized, which also reduces the generation of waste (point 1).
- Methodologies with reduced or no toxicity: during the synthesis of chemical substances, any toxicity must be avoided. At this point it is taken into account both that it is toxic to people and to the environment.
- Efficacy: At the same time that toxicity is reduced, efficacy must be preserved.
- Less auxiliary substances: The minimum possible amount of auxiliary substances must be used and always opt for the most innocuous ones. Solvents, absorbents and separating agents, among others, are considered auxiliary substances.
- Minimize energy consumption: Our objective is to carry out the different processes at ambient pressure and temperature or to use external support elements that favor the final reduction of energy.
- Renewable raw materials: whenever it is technically and economically feasible, the use of renewable resources must be prioritized.
- Fewer derivations: it is necessary to avoid all the formation of unnecessary derivatives. This point includes lock groups or check-in and check-out steps.
- Promotion of catalysis: whenever possible, it is preferable to use catalytic reagents instead of stoichiometric ones. The reason is that the catalytic reagents are not consumed during the reaction, unlike the stoichiometric ones. Thanks to this, the waste generated is reduced and energy consumption is minimised.
- Biodegradability: Chemicals are designed so that they do not remain in the environment when their use ends. That is, they are biodegradable products. One of the most common examples in green chemistry is the development of biodegradable polymers such as those of Artificial Nature.
- Process monitoring: in order to prevent the formation of dangerous substances, proper monitoring and control of the process must be carried out.
- Minimize accidents: finally, we must reduce the risk of accidents, selecting the processes and substances that reduce the potential for accidents.
Our company works on each of these 12 points in its internal and external processes in customer development. We add computational calculation to these processes to validate their economic viability and make sense of the bioeconomy.