2022 GC&E Highlights
26th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference Highlights
June 6–8, 2022
The 26th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering (GC&E) Conference was a hybrid conference held in Reston, Virginia.
Theme
Thinking in Systems: Designing for Sustainable Use
Conference Chairs
Paul Richardson
Leanne Gilbertson
Keynotes
Erika Milczek
John C Warner
Philip Jessop
Technical Sessions
Symposium Organizers: Isamir Martinez, Scientific Alliances & Business Engagement Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute; Louis Diorazio, Senior Principal Scientist, Chemical Development, Pharmaceutical Technology & Development, Operations, AstraZeneca, and; Philippa Payne, Sr. Research Scientist I, Gilead Sciences
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR), has been a global leading voice for green chemistry and engineering by influencing the research agenda, bridging the gap between academics and industry, enabling better decisions about chemical selection process design, and inspiring and educating future leaders to impact the design of systems for sustainable use.
In this symposium, we will highlight:
- The award symposium for the Peter J. Dunn Award for Green Chemistry & Engineering Impact in the Pharmaceutical Industry and the CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award. Announcements of the recipients and their presentations highlighting their green chemistry innovations will be given.
- Industrial case studies demonstrating the use of green chemistry tools in both a proactive and retroactive manner.
- Industrial processes that have shown green and sustainable chemistry accomplishments at meaningful scale, considering reduction in process mass intensity, waste reduction, robustness, environmental, health and safety impact reduction or elimination, reduction in the use of toxic and/or hazardous chemicals, solvents, reagents, etc.
- Implementation and application of emerging greener chemistry technologies both in academia and pharma, and developing partnerships to encourage a seamless approach to the uptake of these.
- Novel innovations that have been developed with support from the ACS GCIPR grants program.
Symposium Organizers: Paul Richardson, Pfizer; Saskia van Bergen, Washington State Department of Ecology; Christiana Briddell, ACS
Integrated into our popular GC&E Poster Session & Reception, the Showcase will feature companies who are using the design principles for sustainable and green chemistry and engineering to create or contribute to innovative products. Participating companies will present a “hands-on” display of the product and describe the products greener technical innovations.
- For your abstract to be considered for presentation the following must be included:
Describe how the principles of green chemistry and green engineering are used in the design of the product. - Describe how the product improves (or is expected to improve) the health, safety and/or environmental impact compared to existing products. Please include metrics, third-party testing, certification, and description of chemistry when possible.
- Describe the scientific or process innovations going into this product.
- Include a picture or link to your product (or describe how you plan to include a hands-on component).
- If you are a B2B, please give an example of an end consumer product.
Symposium Organizers: Samy Ponnusamy, Fellow & Global Manager – Green Chemistry, MilliporeSigma and Srinivasan Ambatipati, Assistant Professor & Co-Ordinator of Chemical Engineering, McNeese State University
This session highlights the processes that are inspired by novel design strategies leading to successful application of technologies to enable a circular-sustainable economy. Case studies should illustrate how industry/academia/NGO have successfully implemented the novel design in chemistries, synthetic pathways and processes. This would enable a circular, more sustainable economy and the strategies that ultimately worked out for its end use to achieve its targeted goals. The examples should clearly describe the design and approaches taken, the challenges faced and how a solution for the challenge was achieved. Also, highlight the importance of implementing sustainability as a basic design criterion to successfully achieve a closed-loop economy.
Symposium Organizers: Elizabeth L. Day, Assistant Professor, University of Texas – El Paso, and Alexey Leontyev, Assistant Professor, North Dakota State University
Since the initial conception of the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, there have been efforts to infuse the undergraduate curriculum with green, and lately, sustainable chemistry. These efforts have been the subject of many reviews, detailing the laboratory exercises, demonstrations, online activities, case studies, curricular materials and curricula. This work underscores the importance of engaging all students in thinking about the outcomes and connections of the central science to the larger environmental, human health, and socio-political systems around us. Despite multiple efforts to develop a green chemistry curriculum or embed green chemistry into existing courses, assessment of the impact on student learning is missing. One potential barrier to adoption is assessing student learning. For researchers and practitioners in chemistry education, the challenge of knowing what students know is necessary to the design and implementation of curricular materials and learning environments. To support partnerships in curriculum development and implementation, there is a need to elicit evidence of student understanding of green and sustainable chemistry and/or systems thinking.
This symposium is intended as a set of presentations of green chemistry education experts to show the assessment strategies they use to gather evidence of student understanding of green and sustainable chemistry. The focus of these presentations should be on the ways in which an expert would expect a novice to demonstrate their understanding and use of green chemistry principles, sustainability, life cycle analyses, and/or systems thinking. When discussing the assessment efforts, presenters are encouraged to reflect on what does a student performance on reported assessment look like if they “know” or “doing” green chemistry. For presenters with IRB approval, examples of student responses that are illuminating would be welcome, although all interested parties are invited.
This symposium seeks to answer the broad questions:
- What assessment methods are suitable for the evaluation of green chemistry instruction?
- What do green chemistry education experts want students to know and do with that knowledge?
- What evidence from students’ performances would convince green chemistry educators that students understand green and sustainable chemistry or systems thinking?
The symposium organizers welcome abstract submissions from faculty and green chemistry education experts interested in designing assessments for their current courses; chemistry education researchers interested in designing assessments that could be used as research tools; green chemistry experts interested in influencing the design of curricular materials and teachable units. Participants from ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s Green Chemistry Module Development Program are encouraged to apply and share their assessment strategies.
Symposium Organizers: Madushanka Mevan Dissanayake, Technology Development Engineer, Intel Corporation, Natalie O’Neil, Director of Higher Education, Beyond Benign, and Juliana Vidal, Postdoctoral Researcher, McGill University
This symposium aims to fulfill an unmet need for a dedicated informative session focused on the numerous career paths available to students under the general umbrella of green chemistry and engineering. Simultaneously, this symposium would aim to demonstrate the benefits that a background knowledge in green chemistry and engineering has in the eyes of an employer. It is not uncommon for students involved in this community (and STEM fields in general) to be unaware of the value of their transferable experience, and the breadth of career options that are available to them after graduation.
By assembling a series of career path examples, this symposium would directly address students’ ubiquitous question of what career options are available to them, and how they might go about pursuing them. In addition, this careers-focused symposium would be intentionally composed of speakers that are willing to speak to students about careers, providing an additional networking opportunity for both the student attendees and the speakers themselves, especially from the perspective of potential employers. We would also welcome anyone in established careers with a curiosity to learn about the career paths that their colleagues have pursued, or mentors to students seeking resources.
Symposium Organizers: James Dorman, Associate Professor, LSU, and Francisco Hung, Associate Professor, Northeastern University
Over the past few years there have been significant advances in the breakdown of plastic waste into commercial materials without cracking/pyrolysis processing. This session will focus on the upcycling of waste plastics for the production of value-added products. Specifically, this session will focus on a comparison between traditional (thermal) and non-traditional (mechanical, electrochemical, electromagnetic, etc.) routes to depolymerize waste plastics. Additionally, this session will include theoretical aspects with highlight polymer degradation mechanisms and the polymer-catalyst dynamics.
Symposium Organizers: Mark Mascal, University of California Davis;
This symposium will focus on direct chemical and catalytic conversions of biomass into products that have a realistic path to market. The subject matter of these sessions will differentiate themselves from those that involve fermentative, biocatalytic, and thermochemical approaches to feedstock valorization. It will also emphasize alternatives to petroleum that contribute to sustainability in a practical way, i.e. the development of technologies and products that have real commercial potential and hence the capacity to displace meaningful volumes of petroleum. A mix of symposium speakers from industry, academe, the military, government, environmental advocacy groups, and sustainable technology outreach platforms will be included.
Symposium Organizers: Nick Uhlig, Senior Scientist – Chemical Development, Sage Therapeutics; John M. Wasylyk, Associate Scientific Director, Bristol Meyers Squibb; Michael J. Di Maso, Senior Scientist, Process Research & Development, Merck & Co.; Mark T. Zell, Scientific Fellow, Takeda
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
This session will focus on novel implementations of process analytical technology (PAT) with flow chemistry, and the application of such combination systems in chemical synthesis. Particular emphasis will be given to discussing applications involving automation, self-optimizing systems, and data-rich experimentation. The use of PAT in flow to enable self-optimizing systems and greater degrees of automation represents a powerful interface between computer science, engineering, and chemistry. Benefits of incorporating PAT into flow chemical processes include reduced offline or human-interface sampling, rapid and data-rich experimentation and optimization capabilities, and real-time monitoring and control of chemical processes at lab or production scale. These benefits have great potential to facilitate process intensification and greater efficiency in chemical processing via reductions in energy and material usage, smaller instrumentation footprints, improved process safety & control, and greater flexibility in scale. This session will feature a mix of invited and submitted abstracts from a diverse array of speakers of both industrial and academic backgrounds. The target audience includes anyone who has an interest in chemical engineering, flow chemistry, or computer science.
Symposium Organizers: Stephen DeVito, Branch Chief, Data Analysis and Dissemination Branch, Data Gathering and Analysis Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Charlie Snyder, Environmental Protection Specialist, Data Analysis and Dissemination Branch, Data Gathering and Analysis Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Many industries are implementing product design practices that minimize negative environmental, economic, and societal impacts during the production, use, and decommissioning of products. There remains, however, profound and unrealized opportunities at the local, regional, and national level to identify, develop, and adopt these practices. These opportunities to advance sustainable production and circular economy are intrinsically cross-disciplinary. This session is intended to bring together experts from government, academia, industry and nonprofit organizations who can provide insight on success stories, barriers impeding implementation, and resources and strategies to further green/sustainable chemistry and engineering practices, and sustainable design and production of products.
The organizers encourage submission of abstracts for oral presentation in any of the following areas:
- Examples of successful substitution in products or green chemistry implementation in sectors, particularly through the use of analytical tools or data-driven approaches;
- Chemical selection strategies or tools that consider a variety of sustainable design goals (e.g., sustainable plastics work) and non-technical drivers and barriers in designing from a value chain perspective;
- Engineering challenges and barriers to designing products for sustainability or implementing green chemistry in manufacturing;
- Sustainable production practices within disadvantaged communities;
- Methods to amplify outreach about the above.
The session will conclude with a panel discussion focused on strategies (e.g., communication/feedback mechanisms/analytical tools) developed or needed to overcome value chain barriers and strategies for ensuring sustainable practices at each production stage. Speakers will also provide recommendations for how to systematically translate knowledge from academia to business; how to expand shared knowledge base; and how best practices could be more widely incorporated globally.
Symposium Organizers: Laura Hoch, Material Innovation, Patagonia
Many processes used in the manufacturing of textiles, apparel, and footwear are very chemically intensive. The ubiquity of these products combined with the large global footprint of this industry makes it a compelling area to highlight opportunities for systems thinking and designing for sustainable use. This session is designed to showcase new chemical technologies and strategies for reducing impact during the manufacture of textiles, apparel, and footwear, as well as new processes and new ways to design products with sustainability and end of life in mind.
This session will provide a forum for innovators in both industry and academia to come together and share ideas and challenges. Suggested topics to be addressed include (but are not limited to):
Greener Wet Chemical Processing:
- New dyes or dye processing technologies that can reduce water an energy use
- Design of more sustainable dye molecules (e.g. biobased or biodegradable dyes, dyes with reduced hazards profiles, etc.)
- More environmentally friendly functional finishes (e.g. non-fluorinated water repellants, biobased wicking finishes, metal-free antimicrobial finishes, etc.)
- Safer solvents and auxiliaries
- Tools to assess chemical hazards or environmental impact
Circularity:
- Mechanical and chemical recycling technologies for post-industrial and post-consumer textile, apparel, and footwear waste
- Technologies/strategies for handling complex mixtures of materials to enable recycling
- Material and chemical considerations to design consumer products for recycling at end of life
New Materials
- Novel fiber types, especially bioderived, biodegradable, or recyclable at end of life
- Strategies for addressing microfiber pollution (e.g. novel coatings, polymer additives, etc.)
- Safer, more sustainable adhesives
Symposium Organizers: Brian Price, Rockwater Energy Solutions, and Dave Horton, CES Energy Solutions
The oil and gas industry faces increasing demands to clarify the implications of energy transitions for their operations and business models, and to demonstrate the contributions that they can make to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The challenge for the oil and gas industry is to both engage and adapt to a changing policy and investment landscape, but also to evolve in ways which don’t simply support but contribute and perhaps even lead efforts toward carbon neutrality such as carbon capture, utilization and storage. Becoming carbon-neutral is not the only challenge this industry is dealing with. With oil-price volatility particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are actively looking to optimize their business in order to reduce costs and increase profitability across their core functions including upstream, midstream and downstream operations. With funding already constrained in the traditional oil and gas markets and continued investment substantially now flowing to projects and companies with robust and materially relevant ESG practices, there is a significant push towards the ways to improve sustainability benchmarks.
While there have been significant efforts over the past 20 years to develop new commercial processes to bio-based and renewable as platform molecules, there have not been as many advances in water reuse. The oilfield chemistry industry has increasingly sought to increase the volume of fracturing fluid water that is reused—given that between 1.5 and 16 million of gallons of water are used per well. As much of this water is from fresh water sources and is ultimately removed from the geosphere through deep-well injection, it would be a considerable sustainability advance to recycle even a portion of the water used in hydraulic fracturing. However, the technical demands of treating and reusing spent hydraulic fracturing fluids when combined with significant differences in the chemical composition of formation waters are considerable.
This session aims to introduce and discuss current advancements in both drilling and hydraulic fracturing water reuse, the chemical and formulation approaches that enable reuse, the post-drilling and fracturing chemical processes required to effectively treat water for reuse, and identify the challenges and opportunities for developing novel chemicals and chemical technologies via biological and/or chemical pathways.
Symposium Organizers: Ed Brush, Professor of Chemical Sciences, Bridgewater State University; Grace Lasker, Teaching Professor, University of Washington; Jane Wissinger, Distinguished University Teaching Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
This symposium will bring together the green chemistry community to discuss and explore key issues and big ideas in green and sustainable chemistry education. The world presents us with problems whose complexity and impact we can barely imagine, but that we must solve. As educators, our mission is to prepare our students to do exactly that. The integration and scaffolding of green and sustainable chemistry, systems thinking and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into an equitable and inclusive undergraduate curriculum can inspire students to take ownership of their education, and graduate with the satisfaction that their classroom knowledge allows them to understand and contribute to solving big global problems. The SDGs are the world’s “to-do” list, a global agenda to improve the lives of people by addressing world-wide challenges of poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring prosperity for all. Students can envision chemistry career paths that have excellent potential to make significant contributions in achieving these goals. Green chemistry provides the technical and practical knowledge required for the design of new chemical products and processes, while minimizing adverse impacts on human health and the environment. Systems thinking addresses the interconnectedness of local and global systems interjecting a holistic and life cycle approach to assure the design and use of sustainable chemistries. Framing chemistry education through the SDGs will help advance the chemistry enterprise in achieving sustainability, assist those being trained to enter the workforce, and help better communicate the societal benefits of green and sustainable chemistry technologies.
Symposium Organizers: Chen Wen, Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; David J. C. Constable, Science Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
The Green Chemistry Challenge Awards are now in their 26th year and continue to recognize leading green chemistry innovations. With over 1800 nominations and 128 award winners, there is a compelling case to be made that innovations benefiting from the application of green chemistry and engineering have achieved sufficient commercial success to justify implementation in all chemical processing sectors. The goals of the panel are to describe the prestigious EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Awards, co-sponsored by the American Chemical Society, and showcase award winners from the current and past years. The winners will describe the innovative technology they were recognized for, share lessons learned from participation, and describe the benefits of being recognized by the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program.
Symposium Organizers: Paul Scott, Executive Director – Green Chemistry & Sustainable Design, The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.
Personal care and household consumers are increasingly savvy and, with recognition of the climate crisis at an all-time high, demand more sustainable, yet high performing product options of manufacturers. At the same time, the existing sustainability frameworks well understood by consumers (e.g natural ingredients or the lack of certain ingredients of concern) do not necessarily result in formulas that are more sustainable or more aligned with the principles of green chemistry. The pursuit of truly greener products requires understanding of the nuances of ingredient properties, performance, and economics, and engagement of the entire value chain. Quantification and communication of green chemistry performance via the thoughtful use of metrics facilitates this understanding, and can drive greener ingredient innovations and choices.
This symposium will provide a forum to share case studies and success stories of designing more sustainable personal care and household ingredients and products through green and sustainable chemistry approaches. It will also create a dialog around remaining unmet industry needs. Some of the ideas to be discussed include:
- The use of metrics (including the ELC Green Score Tool) to quantify green chemistry performance and facilitate greener product development and innovation.
- The use of data analytics and Artificial Intelligence approaches in sustainable product design.
- Examples of using a system thinking and life cycle approach ensure principles are considered throughout the whole value chain.
- Examples of success stories in leveraging the principles of green chemistry and life cycle thinking to develop more sustainable ingredients, products, and processes.
- Strategies for enabling and ensuring the economic competitiveness of truly greener processes and technologies in the consumer goods industry.
Symposium Organizers: David J. C. Constable, Science Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
The GC&E Posters Session and Reception draws the entire Conference together for 2 hours of poster presentations and refreshments. This is an excellent opportunity to share your research!
Abstracts submitted to the poster session must meet the following criteria:
• Meets the definition of green chemistry or green engineering
• Potential impact on the field
• Development of idea
• Originality
• Conclusions supported by data
Symposium Organizers: Alexandra Maertens, Research Associate, Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Johns Hopkins University; Thomas Hartung, Doerenkamp-Zbinden Chair for Evidence-Based Toxicology and Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Johns Hopkins University, and; Emily Golden, Doctoral Student, Johns Hopkins University
Green Chemistry Principle #4, which states that “Chemical products should be designed to preserve efficacy of function while reducing toxicity”, has been described as the least developed principle of green chemistry. While other aspects of green chemistry—such as atom economy—have simple and well-developed metrics, hazard and exposure are more difficult to measure in ways that allow chemists to incorporate them into their design.
Green Toxicology is an emerging discipline that seeks to provide a framework for integrating the principles of toxicology into the design of safer chemicals using 21st century toxicology tools (e.g., including high-dimensional data, computational approaches, and systems level thinking) to look not just at chemicals in isolation but their exposure scenarios, as well as transformation and degradation products.
Symposium Organizers: Mengbin Chen, Senior Scientist, Merck & Co.; Brenden Derstine, Chemical Development, Neurocrine Biosciences; Kevin Maloney, Director, Merck & Co.
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
The pressing need to develop green and sustainable processes for pharmaceuticals and commodity chemicals requires unconventional approaches. Leveraging on their unparalleled chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity, biocatalysts are powerful tools to access pharmaceutically relevant molecules. The broad synthetic utility of enzymes is manifested in their capabilities to transform molecules of divergent sizes and structures, ranging from amino acids to proteins of tens of kilodaltons. These molecules can serve as building blocks for advanced Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) or trigger desired immune response. The session will cover how computational design and enzyme discovery accelerates the development of novel transformations. In addition, the session will highlight the emerging integration of biocatalysis with photocatalysis and electrocatalysis that capitalizes on the best of both worlds.
Symposium Organizers: Glenn Hurst, Associate Professor, York University; David A. Laviska, Assistant Professor, Seton Hall University, and; Michael Wentzel, Associate Professor, Augsburg University
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect (DEIR) are among the core values of the American Chemical Society. Over the last several decades, we have seen dramatic evidence that scientific advancement across all specializations is enhanced by welcoming and encouraging the creativity of a diverse population of researchers, teachers, and students. This is especially true in green chemistry and engineering, since greener innovation necessarily invokes broader concerns of sustainability and stewardship of the environment on a global scale. The need for placing explicit value on DEIR in science is underlined by initiatives such as the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which require synergy among the diverse communities of our planet while attempting to address large-scale challenges.
This fast-paced and engaging symposium will provide educators of all levels (K-12, undergraduate, and graduate) with the opportunity to share their innovations and initiatives for highlighting issues relevant to diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR) while incorporating green chemistry and engineering content in lecture, laboratory, and outreach. Speakers whose curricular innovations explicitly focus on the value of DEIR through the inclusion of concepts relevant to green chemistry, thinking in systems, design for sustainable use, stewardship of the environment, and/or global initiatives such as the SDGs are welcome. Other representative topics of interest include the use of renewable feedstocks, greener synthetic methods, function-based design, intended use/end-of-life considerations, and leveraging diversity among faculty collaborators or within the student population (classroom or laboratory). Contributions of these methods to improving safety or understanding toxicology would also be welcome. Preference will be given to abstracts describing initiatives directly or indirectly relevant to highlighting DEIR. The rapid-fire session format will allow presenters seven minutes (with optional use of three minutes for content or questions) to engage the audience with a snapshot of their work and prompt audience participation.
Symposium Organizers: Chad Landis, Research Associate, PPG; Kristin Nuzzio, Group Leader, PPG, and; Se Ryeon Lee, Group Leader, PPG
This session aims to showcase the implementation and challenges of realizing sustainable components into existing industrial manufacturing systems. There is a strong pull from consumers as well as governments to implement sustainable materials and processes into manufacturing. This is not as simple as substituting sustainable raw materials or changing to more energy effective processes. Thorough understanding of risks in changing industrial processes need to be understood, including the use of sustainable raw materials on product specifications and potential disruptions due to changes in the supply chain. Also of interest is determining effects of sustainable raw material changes on life cycle analysis and any potential new or future regulatory risks.
Examples of implementing efficient and sustainable material sourcing and manufacturing in this session could demonstrate new material incorporation, cost-benefit analysis, and business cases for the implementation of the changes. Examples can also include risk assessments, supply chain robustness, consumer reception, and business cases for extracting value from improved processes. Presentations describing all or some aspects of implementing sustainability in the life cycle process are welcomed.
Symposium Organizers: William Farrell, Associate Research Fellow, Pfizer Global R&D – La Jolla; John M. Wasylyk, Associate Scientific Director, Bristol Myers Squibb
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
Analytical Chemistry remains a cornerstone for the drug product life cycle by providing quantitative and qualitative data essential to the drug substance and drug product pipeline. The provided data drives process knowledge and ultimately, process control and it remains critical that scientists consistently improve approaches via sustainable methods. This translates to a continual pursuit for better ways to deliver quality decision-making insight to our partnering teams through new and innovative approaches in capturing real-time data. Miniaturization, in-line and at-line tools that offer more controlled oversight of reaction chemistry while reducing waste, saving time and energy consumption.
To achieve these sustainability objectives, the adoption of new analytical tools, techniques, and more innovative approaches are required such as real-time analyses and process analytical technologies. Recent advances include miniaturized designs in the area of separation sciences and vibrational spectroscopy. These are intended to enable improved process control and understanding while reducing waste, time, and costly resources. This session will provide insights into the latest analytical chemistry approaches that enable the advancement of pharmaceutical products from early discovery through manufacture and will feature a mix of invited and submitted abstracts from a diverse array of speakers of both industrial and academic backgrounds.
Symposium Organizers: Bichlien H Nguyen, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research; Jake A Smith, Senior Applied Scientist, Microsoft Research, and; Karin Strauss, Senior Principal Research Manager, Microsoft Research
In the past decade, there has been a tremendous amount of research and development directed towards building sustainable IT infrastructure. While early efforts focused primarily on procuring green electricity for datacenter sustainability, life cycle assessment approaches have revealed significant environmental debts from physical infrastructure accrued during end-of-life. Alternative materials engineered with end-of-life in mind for use in datacenter construction, energy storage, electronics development, and data storage are therefore of great interest to the IT community.
We aim to bring researchers and practitioners from the IT and materials worlds together to consider the issue of sustainable computing infrastructure on the system scale. The IT sector has substantial need for materials designed from square one to minimize life cycle footprint to meet industry leaders’ commitments to eliminate atmospheric carbon emissions, reduce water consumption and waste generation, and maintain healthy ecosystems. IT offers powerful capabilities but requires domain expertise to achieve substantive impacts. We invite collaborators across chemistry, biology, material science, computer science, and engineering disciplines to help us envision a future where computing and infrastructure are truly sustainable and develop the materials and methods to achieve it.
This symposium will create a dialog about the design of environmentally benign materials on the life cycle scale using the latest advances in chemistry and synthetic biology for incorporation into the IT industry. Closing the circle, it will generate discussion on the role advanced molecular modeling and simulations can play in accelerating the development of those green materials critical for a sustainable future.
Symposium Organizers: Dean Campbell, Professor of Chemistry, Bradley University; Ettigounder “Samy” Ponnusamy, Fellow & Global Manager, Green Chemistry, MilliporeSigma, and; Natalie O’Neil, Director of Higher Education, Beyond Benign
Training the next generation of chemists and engineers to use sustainable practices, while thinking in systems will allow for future understanding of the health and environmental impacts of the molecules they are designing. To achieve a sustainable future, it is vital the next generation thinks about the impacts of their chemistry on our systems and explores ways to reduce the effects in the design, manufacture, or synthesis, use or characterization, and disposal in teaching and research laboratories. Many of our global challenges can be solved with chemical solutions and industry along with consumers are demanding safer working conditions and products. This demand requires a shift in teaching and research practices to ensure the most sustainable and system compatible innovations are created by future generations.
This symposium will highlight the design and use of curricula and initiatives that infuse green chemistry and sustainable chemistry concepts into teaching and research. These approaches include systems thinking approaches, life cycle analysis, and leverage the circular economy to engage students in the chemical systems their education is preparing them for. We cannot advance to a sustainable circular economy if the next generation of scientists are not equipped with the principles and practices of green chemistry during their training and beyond to ensure they are designing for sustainable use. This symposium aims to spotlight designing sustainable labs practices and how many approaches can be utilized to bring systems thinking into the teaching curriculum as well as research culture to achieve a sustainable future.
Symposium Organizer: Ben Andrews, Investigator, GSK
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
Oligonucleotides are gaining traction as a new therapeutic modality with 12 products approved for use and many more following on. However, these compounds face significant sustainability issues, the chief of which is the large amount of waste generated during manufacture (4300 kg waste per kg of drug substance produced). Several new technologies are in development to address these issues such as solution phase chemistry, P(V) chemistry, solvent recovery, enzyme catalysed synthesis and alternative purification techniques to name but a few. The aim of this session is to highlight some of the recent developments in these areas and the potential benefits they bring to oligonucleotide sustainability. We invite abstracts on the topic of improving oligonucleotide sustainability from interested parties in academia and industry.
Symposium Organizers: Michael Kopach, Senior Research Advisor, Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Lilly
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
The first therapeutic synthetic peptide oxytocin was introduced in 1962, and as of 2020 over 60 peptide drugs have been approved in the U.S., Europe and Japan, more than 150 drugs are currently in active clinical development, and >260 have been tested in human clinical trials. Peptides have gained increased interest as therapeutics over the past few decades, largely due to their advantageous properties including high specificity and affinity, as well as superior safety and tolerance. Merrifield’s landmark invention of solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) consisting of anchoring and growing the peptide on polymetric solid support has enabled the synthesis of longer peptides that were previously unobtainable and allows for facile incorporation of non-coded components. However, recent studies have revealed that at least 10 metric tons of solvent and materials are used to synthesize 1 kg of peptide drug substance produced by SPPS which is orders of magnitude higher than most small molecule syntheses. In addition, many of the reagents and solvents utilized in peptide syntheses are classified as environmentally problematic substances by the ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) under the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation. Current and impending regulation by REACH could result in future disruption of industrial production of therapeutic peptides.
Recognizing the unmet environmental needs the ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable recently founded a team focused on improving sustainability practices in peptide development and has funded academic research over the past five years. The groups initial contribution is focused on stimulating innovations in peptide syntheses (J. Org. Chem., 2019, 84 (8), pp 4615–4628).
Several new technologies are now in development to address these unmet environmental needs such as tag assisted liquid phase peptide synthesis, chemoenzymatic peptide synthesis, alternative purification strategies and use of green solvents. The aim of this session is to highlight some of the recent developments in these areas and the potential benefits they bring to peptide sustainability. We invite abstracts on the topic of improving peptide sustainability from interested parties in academia and industry.
Symposium Organizer: Alan Steven, Senior Principal Scientist, CatSci
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
Whilst the most sustainable solvent is the solvent that is not used, the use of a solvating medium is typically necessary as part of chemical processing. Savvy solvent choice offers the biggest opportunity to reduce the amount of waste generated by chemical processing and to contribute to Net Zero ambitions. Working backwards from the target attributes of a manufacturing process offers the opportunity to choose the solvent or solvents that work best in a holistic sense. The symposium will feature a mixture of submitted and invited talks to examine how solvent selection can empower holistic process design. For submitted talks, the organizers are particularly interested in:
- Stories where the impact on the overall manufacturing profile of a product, rather than the performance in any one operation, influences the choice of solvent
- Sharing data-rich approaches to selecting solvents
- Raising awareness of the risks and opportunities associated with solvents with respect to equipment cleaning and solvent disposal
- Highlighting where the use of solvent mixtures and engineering solutions can bring advantages.
We hope to attract contributions from pharmaceutical, agrochemical, flavors and fragrances, fine and specialty chemicals, metal processing, pigments and other industries. We also aim to schedule a panel discussion with thought leaders on the subject. Attendees will leave the session with an improved appreciation of opportunities to streamline solvent use across an entire manufacturing process without compromising product quality, tools that can help with solvent selection, and where challenges remain.
Symposium Organizers: David Leahy, Sr. Director CMC, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, and Dan Bailey, Scientist, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
The development of new synthetic methodologies and strategies has been the cornerstone upon which sustainable industrial processes are built. The pure research advances arising from academia fuel the world’s industrial innovation, while also training the scientific leaders of tomorrow. This special session highlights the research of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars across the broader, global organic chemistry community which has the potential to impact sustainable industrial chemistry.
Students and postdocs who are accepted into this session will be provided $1000 travel grants from the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable to facilitate travel to the GC&E Conference.
Symposium Organizers: Amie Norton, Research Chemist, USDA; Deanna Scheff, Scientists, USDA; Leanne Gilbertson, Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
Sustainable agriculture practices are designed to safeguard the environment and societal health. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) outlines three goals for sustainable agriculture: 1. Increase profitable farm income, 2. Promote environmental stewardship, and 3. Increase production for human food and fiber need. These goals become increasingly important with the expected future global population growth of 30% by 2050. As a result, demand for food production is anticipated to increase by 60-110%. One way to improve food security is by increasing efficient food production and distribution, which has inspired development of new solutions and the application of advanced methods to evaluate current agriculture practices. This symposium will focus on the application of chemical and material innovations that address current challenges in food production and distribution. Examples include development of green methods for valued added products, food processing and technology, antimicrobial resistance, chemical contamination in agriculture, sanitation and quality standards, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology in agriculture, and green technology in storage methods.
Symposium Organizers: Michael R. Thorson, Senior Chemical Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories; Karthikeyan Ramasamy, Senior Chemical Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, and; Zia Haq, Senior Analyst, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories
Demand for liquid aviation fuels is currently 3.6 EJ and is projected to double in the next 30 years. In ground-transportation, fuel use is expected to decline due to emerging technologies such as electrification, or due to engine efficiency improvements; no such opportunities exist in aviation due to the high energy density requirement; however, aviation fuels are expected to require liquid fuels for the foreseeable future. Thus, there is a need, and large opportunity, to discover and deploy pathways for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Jet fuel chemical composition specifications are unique from other fuel classes (e.g., gasoline and diesel) in that fuel quality is essential, with no heteroatoms, metal contaminants, alkenes, or trace water allowed. Further, there is a strong desire to displace the aromatic content to reduce sooting behavior and increase energy density. In the nearer term there are opportunities for aviation original engine manufacturers (OEMs) and airlines to reduce emissions of CO2, soot, sulfur, contrails, and NOx while also maintaining the other mandatory operation (safety) and performance metrics of the fuel.
This session will focus on the following gaps:
- Development of novel sustainable chemistries and/or process that utilize lower-cost waste carbon sources
- Understand the chemistry interactions to address knowledge gaps in structure-function relationships, blending behavior and decision optimization (i.e., identification of chemical structures and blends that optimize emissions reductions, thermal stability and energy content, while maintaining other key fuel requirements)
- The value conferred from these improved fuels is undefined
- Reduce costs associated with producing and/or deploying SAF
Symposium Organizers: Michael Kirschner, President, Design Chain Associates, LLC, and Leo T. Kenny, Founder and Principal Technologist, Planet Singular
The electronics industry and its supply chain continue to labor under government, environmental NGO, investor and customer pressure to reduce the presence of toxic substances in products and manufacturing processes. While the industry has generally had a degree of success replacing some of these substances, growing pressure and awareness of continued use of toxic and non-sustainable substances in parts and materials in electronic products, and in their manufacture, continues to raise concern and result in additional—and not always harmonized—regulation worldwide. Honed for efficiency and cost-effectiveness over decades, chemistry and toxicity has not been a focus area. Today it must be. The extraordinary potential and opportunities (maybe for a new Moore’s Law of toxicity reduction?) for creativity and improvement in this area result from the lack of optimization. This session will demonstrate the creativity and leadership up and down the electronics industry supply chain. Presentations on green chemistry in electronic products and throughout the electronics supply chain are welcome from academia, environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and industry are of interest for this session.
Symposium Organizers: Feng Peng, Associate Prin. Scientist, Merck, and Juan C. Colberg, Senior Director, Pfizer
Co-Sponsor: ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable
Sustainability requires collective efforts from all of us on innovation in the face of declining natural resource. Correspondingly, the onus is on us chemists to invent sustainable ways to produce pharmaceuticals, polymers, and other consumables to minimize environmental footprint. Along these lines, sustainable catalysis, including organocatalysis and Earth-abundant metal catalysis, can access different mechanistic pathways to catalyze known transformations, or affect new ones. Understanding these mechanisms for catalyst design will not only enable the discovery of new reactions, but also advance the application of Earth-abundant metals/organocatalysis.
This symposium will bring together experts in academia, industry and government in the areas of:
- Novel Earth-abundant metal catalysis/organocatalysis development for applications in pharmaceuticals, energy, and other industries
- Mechanistic studies of earth-abundant metal chemistry/organocatalysis, including kinetics and spectroscopy
- Industrial-scale production using Earth-abundant metal catalysis/organocatalysis
Symposium Organizers: Lindsay Soh, Associate Professor, Lafayette College; Melissa Gordon, Assistant Professor, Lafayette College; Joseph Stanzione, Associate Professor, Rowan University
This symposium will highlight the contributions made towards fundamentally understanding, developing, and commercializing biobased polymers via sustainable production processes as well as identify challenges to overcome. Specifically, we invite submissions from individuals across academia, government and industry that address various challenges in this field by: (1) designing complex polymers and polymer composites from a combination of biobased monomers and other biomass constituents, (2) understanding the fundamental processing-structure-property-toxicity relationships of the chemicals, monomers, and resins utilized to produce biobased polymers and polymer composites, (3) applying the principles of green chemistry and engineering towards biobased polymer production as effectively and economically as possible and (4) conducting quantitative economic and life cycle assessments of biobased polymers and polymer composites. Presenters will be asked to participate in a panel to share their perspectives on the growth, challenges, and potential of the field at the conclusion of the session. Abstract submissions from individuals across varied sectors, backgrounds and career stages are encouraged.
Symposium Organizer: Joseph Sabol, Chemical Consultant
Co-Sponsors: ENFL, I&EC, SCHB, CEI
This symposium brings together diverse approaches on viable, scale-able industrial processes that can make chemicals, fuels, and industrial materials more efficiently and with reduced energy use. Broad approaches and cross-pollination between scientists and engineers will highlight topics around 1) reduction/elimination of raw materials derived from underground coal, oil, and gas sources; 2) synthesis of chemicals, including hydrogen, from renewable sources, e.g., solar capture, plant-based, algae; 3) increases in chemical reactor efficiency and active capture of by-products, including carbon dioxide capture and re-use; 4) direct use of solar energy in chemical synthesis processes; and 5) insight into the techno-economic analysis of chemical and energy inventories, regulatory challenges and incentives, and market forces.
Symposium Organizers: Gerardo J. Ruiz-Mercado, Senior Research Chemical Engineer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Andrés Muñoz G., Manager – Production Partner Management, NESTE
Co-Sponsor: AIChE Environmental Division
Given the many challenges the environment is facing, and to support society, government, and industry to make informed decisions, scientists and engineers are conducting research and development contributions to synthesize, design, and evaluate plastics (novel and existing) to minimize or eliminate the impacts of plastics on human health and the environment. Also, it is critical to find logistics, processes, technologies, and reactions for transforming the conventional linear plastics cycle into a circular system for upcycling, recycling, and reusing instead of their disposal and requiring fresh fossil raw materials for the production of new materials. This symposium will provide data and information to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions towards sustainable plastics production and management practices.
This symposium consists of contributions describing novel green chemistry and engineering developments for addressing technological constraints and advancing the sustainability of plastics and their life cycles. These efforts include the design of new monomers/polymers, synthesis routes, processes, technologies, replace-creation of new materials, policy considerations, renewable feedstocks, and sustainable end-of-life (EoL) management of plastics and ensuring a safer circular life cycle. Also, the symposium seeks developments on identifying current and potential links and gaps between industry sectors at the EoL stage (e.g., recycling facilities) and industry sectors at upstream plastic life cycle stages (e.g., manufacturing).
Symposium Organizers: Anna Klinkova, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo; Joseph Sabol, Chemical Consultant
Co-Sponsor: ACS Division of Small Chemical Businesses (SCHB)
Electrosynthesis of renewable fuels from abundant sources (e.g., water, air) and waste (e.g., CO2, wastewater) powered by sustainable electricity sources has been attracting increasing attention as one of the key technologies for combating energy and environmental challenges of the 21st century. Major research efforts have been focused on developing electrode materials and electrolytes for efficient and selective electrochemical transformations, such as CO2 reduction to synthesis gas, hydrocarbons and ethanol, water reduction to hydrogen gas, and nitrogen reduction to ammonia, which is becoming an emerging alternative fuel. However, systems approach to designing synergistic electrolyzers with overall net performance and input energy requirements that could accelerate (or justify, in some processes) their industrial implementation is currently less widespread.
Thinking in systems for these electrosynthesis technologies necessitates interdisciplinary efforts between chemistry, chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering, environmental science, and economics and policy. To this end, in the past few years international research efforts have led to shifting paradigms in designing electrolyzer devises, including co-electrolysis employing both electrodes of the cell in useful or complementary reactions, conceptually new cell configurations tailored to unusual combinations of materials, reactions and conditions, and decoupled electrolysis which enables cell operation with no membrane, thereby minimizing operational costs (including by minimizing reliance on technology-critical elements) and enabling scalability of the process. These research advancements resulted in new large-scale technology startups with promising implications for achieving sustainable development goals. Various advancements in electrosynthesis technologies have been facilitated by early stage technoeconomic and life cycle assessment approach for targeting products and process performance metrics from both perspectives of feasibility and environmental benefits associated with the technology transition. Further technological developments in this extremely important area will rely on combining complementary solutions capable of offsetting cost requirements greater than the sum of the parts and a feedback loop between multiple aspects of the system design efforts.
This symposium proposes to put these new developments in the spotlight and highlight the importance of system thinking in this particular domain of green chemistry and engineering research. Speakers are thought to highlight new conceptual approaches to scalable and sustainable electrolysis for fuel production beyond a single component (electrocatalyst, electrolyte, membrane, additive) development.
Symposium Organizer: David J. C. Constable, Science Director, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
The application of systems thinking to chemistry is a relatively new phenomenon and still rapidly evolving. Chemists generally have not been taught from a systems thinking perspective and therefore lack the vocabulary to talk about systems in chemistry and the understanding of why and how to apply systems thinking in education or to their research and development. This workshop will expose participants to the vocabulary and tools that can be employed to assist chemists as they apply systems thinking to the design of experiments, processes and products.
Symposium Organizers: Mark Shiflett, University of Kansas; Edward Maginn, University of Notre Dame; Ichiro Takeuchi, University of Maryland; David Vicic, Lehigh University; Haoran Sun, University of South Dakota, and; Ralf Kaiser, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Refrigeration and air-conditioning systems are widespread throughout modern society, from the refrigerated cold chain that provides fresh foods and storage of medicines to the air conditioning of homes and buildings. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol phased out chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants because of their high ozone depletion potential (ODP). The replacements, typically mixtures of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are safe for the Earth’s ozone layer, but most have high global warming potentials (GWPs). HFCs account for 7.8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, with 63% of that from “indirect” emissions (i.e., energy for running the system). As a result, 197 countries signed the Kigali agreement in 2016 to phase out high-GWP HFCs and more recently the the AIM Act, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, directs EPA to phase down production and consumption of HFCs in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years. A global HFC phasedown is expected to avoid up to 0.5° Celsius of global warming by 2100. The symposium will focus on technological innovations for the design of new refrigerants, cooling technologies, and refrigerant recovery processes to shift the refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) industry towards a more circular economy with lower environmental impact.
Symposium Organizers: Hua-Jun Shawn Fan, Professor & Dean, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering; Ying Lei, Assistant Professor, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, and; Chun Zhao, Associate Professor, Chongqing University
The purpose of proposed symposium is to promote, fill the knowledge gap, and advance the current green chemistry research and development in the energy storage device. The emphasis to move away from the traditional coal-based production and toward cleaner forms of power generation has been a consensus among all nations. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the renewable power delivered is up to 25 percent in 2020. With more renewable energy being produced from solar, hydroelectricity, wind power, biomass, tidal power, and geothermal energy, researchers realized there are needs to develop capable storage technology not only to store of excessive electric energy produced, but also to smooth out energy surge and reduce power grid fluctuation. From the traditional lead acid batteries to all vanadium redox flow battery, their application is mainly in the application of emergency power supply, power plant, and electric cars.
The symposium welcomes talk and discussion to fill the knowledge and practice gap current green chemistry research and development in the energy storage device. From cobalt-free lithium-ion battery to sodium-ion battery, from the modeling to experiment design, from the materials to electrolytes, this symposium is intended to bring the computational modeling, experimental design, and manufacturer of energy storage together to provide current state of energy storage device.
Symposium Organizers: Richard Engler, Director of Chemistry, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C., and Ligia Duarte Botelho, Manager, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.
A circular economy requires new thinking about what we make, what we make it from, and where it goes at the end of its useful life. An important but often overlooked aspect of new product development is an understanding of the regulatory framework and landscape that will govern the commercialization of the new product. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulates the manufacture, use, processing, and disposal of industrial chemicals. TSCA requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review new chemicals and determine whether they would adversely impact human health or the environment. If EPA determines that a new chemical may pose a risk, EPA can either prohibit the use of the new chemical or require restrictions on the chemical to mitigate risks. Currently, EPA reviews and regulates new chemicals based solely on hazards, without regard to whether exposures are reasonably foreseen. EPA also does not consider sustainability benefits that may accrue by the introduction of a new chemical.
This symposium will be a panel discussion that explores the “new chemicals bias,” as it is called, and how it continues to pose a barrier to market acceptance of novel chemistry and sustainable thinking. The session will also include discussions on possible policy changes that could eliminate or alleviate current regulatory challenges to chemical innovation. The session will help attendees understand the regulatory landscape of TSCA implementation and how and whether EPA might change its approach to reduce barriers to circular economy innovations. It will include company representatives, EPA scientists and invited speakers from non-governmental organizations. The moderator will introduce the topic, and then each panelist will give brief introductory remarks, followed by at least 30 minutes of practical discussion among the panelists, including a question and answer session to engage with the audience.
Symposium Organizers: Marta Gmurczyk, Portfolio Manager, ACS Safety Programs; Kirck Hunter, 2021 Chair Committee on Chemical Safety, American Chemical Society
Co-Sponsor: ACS Office of Safety Programs
One of the most transformative and significant contributions to chemical safety education has been integrating the risk management concept into laboratory safety practices. The key American Chemical Society (ACS) recommendation has been that all laboratory activities should begin by identifying hazards and risks, considering the methods needed to control those risks, and preparing for emergencies. This seemingly simple concept has profoundly changed the way we think about safety in laboratory and outreach activities. A rigid, rule-based safety culture is being transformed into an empowering, risk-based safety culture. The result is that chemistry practitioners are engaged in critically considering and researching hazards and then implementing the most effective safety controls. In many cases, environmental sustainability and chemical safety and health are impacted by the same chemical hazards. Integrating risk-based safety into undergraduate education and risk management practices in graduate education will then serve as a starting point toward nurturing a commitment to the safe, ethical, responsible, and sustainable practice of chemistry and recognition of a responsibility to safeguard the health of the planet and the people who live on it through chemical stewardship. Most chemistry and chemical engineering graduate students are employed by industry. Industrial representatives have reported that as new hires come on board many companies spend weeks on remedial safety training before new hires can work in the laboratory. Industrial representatives are advocating for ACS to provide greater chemical safety preparation of Ph.D. graduates.
The proposed symposium will inform the ACS discussions focused on safety preparation of Ph.D. chemists for industrial careers and explore the following context:
- “Safe–Sustainability Continuum” where safety serves as a starting point toward commitment to sustainability.
- Specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) related to safety and sustainability required to be successful in R&D industrial careers.
- Examples of programs effectively developing safety and sustainability knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Symposium Organizers: David Reed, Sr. Staff Scientist, Critical Materials Institute, Idaho National Laboratory; Hongyue Jin, Assistant Professor, Critical Materials Institute, University of Arizona; Denis Prodius, Assistant Scientist III, Critical Materials Institute, Ames Laboratory, and; Yoshiko Fujita, Distinguished Staff Scientist, Critical Materials Institute, Idaho National Laboratory
Much of the world is highly dependent on foreign markets for the supply of critical materials. These materials are essential for magnets and batteries in computers, smart phones, and electric vehicles, and to produce vital components in medical and scientific equipment and for national defense. Although in many cases these materials are found in various locations of the world, mining and processing costs as well as environmental challenges have deterred investment. New technologies are needed to promote critical material production and decrease supply risk for these materials. Greener options are needed for mining and processing, as well as improved approaches for reuse, recycling, and substitution of critical materials.
In response to the growing recognition that shortages of certain materials may constrain our necessary transition to a clean energy economy and fulfillment of our climate goals, government agencies, in recent years, have provided substantial funding to address some of the challenges associated with maintaining domestic supplies of critical materials. Because of the criticality of these materials for the prosperity of future generations, the goal of this symposium is to bring together a variety of stakeholders to teach, learn and brainstorm ideas for how we might address critical material challenges to support a more sustainable future.
Session presentations may include the current status of critical material supply chains and predictions for the future, how technoeconomic and life cycle analyses and other modeling efforts can help guide technology development, the state-of-the-art technologies that are both green and economically viable, gaps or opportunities for further development, and how technologies might be implemented or leveraged for integration into critical material supply chains. Presentations providing perspective on technical, industrial or policy challenges for the sustainability of critical material supplies are welcome.
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