Chemicals (Humans) Behaving Badly | How to Develop Greener and more Sustainable Processes

The list of benefits that chemistry has brought to mankind is vast. Health, food, clean water, housing, energy, transport, materials etc -the list is endless. Yet our activities present the biggest threat to life and diversity on the planet. In many cases, chemicals developed to bring benefits to mankind have reaped havoc on other species of life that coexist on the planet and perversely, some developed to benefit mankind in one area, have posed a considerable heath burden when released into the environment – tetraethyl lead and chlorofluorohydrocarbons (HFC’s) as refrigerants being prime examples. Historically, releases and dispersal of dangerous chemicals into the environment have been as the result of ignorance and lack of knowledge, but sadly, many have been due to the pursuit of profit and enrichment with pollution continuing after the deleterious effects were known or suspected. In this webinar we will look back at historic incidents – some, in hindsight, obvious – others less so, falling foul of the law of unintended consequences. What can history teach us, and what should we be doing to avoid repeating these as we strive to design and commercialise  greener and more sustainable chemical processes.

This webinar will be of interest to:

• Process chemists
• engineers
• HSE-SHE professionals
• managers

in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, fine chemical sectors who are interested in designing and implementing greener and  more environmental synthesis of new and existing chemical products, and those looking for ideas and strategies to build sustainability  practices  into everyday ways of working in the chemical industries.

This webinar was presented by Dr Andy Wells, Charnwood Technical Consulting

This webinar provides an excellent introduction and background to our NEW online course ‘Green Chemistry – Towards More Sustainable Synthesis‘, 4-5 October 2022.