Department of Chemistry
- Department of Chemistry
- Research
- Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence
- Introduction to Green Chemistry
The Need for Green Chemistry
There is increasing pressure from both society and governments for chemistry-based industries to become more sustainable through development of eco-friendly products and processes that both reduce waste and prevent toxic substances from entering the environment.
The chemical industry is vitally important to the world economy; however the success of the industry has led to some environmental damage and a low public perception of the industry. In order to prevent further environmental damage and to encourage more young people into the industry, the public acceptability needs to be raised by adoption of greener and cleaner processes and green product design.
Industry is making progress, but it is frequently commented that new graduates are not adequately equipped with the tools, techniques, and culture to ensure that they can rapidly make a positive impact on industry's increasing requirement for green chemistry and sustainable technology.
Globally there is a growing requirement for cleaner processes and products, with many 'third-world' countries now insisting that licensed technology is the cleanest available while the EU is leading the world in its requirements for greener products. In order to ensure the future success of chemistry-based industries, it is vital to equip students with the requisite tools, knowledge and experience.
The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCCE) aspires to maintain and enhance the high quality of provision of green and sustainable chemistry to enable a strategic step change to a low carbon, bio-based economy, based on core values of high quality pure and translational research, education, training, networking and partnerships embedded within a framework of sustainable development.