Session Organizer: Andrew Sutton, Team Leader – Chemical Energy Storage, Los Alamos National Laboratory

In attempts to “replace the whole barrel” and drastically reduce our petroleum dependency, it’s important to consider what a barrel of oil is used for. In the US, 76 % is used to make fuel and 16 % is used for chemicals, but with both markets having similar economic value a typical initial focus is the small volume, higher profit chemicals market. However, in order to have the most effect on environmental impacts (such as reducing CO¬2 emissions), the larger fuel market must not be neglected as a long-term focus. In order to develop technology that is truly sustainable, evaluation using both techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life-cycle analysis (LCA) are key to understanding the overall impact. This session will highlight new advances and technology involved in replacing petroleum with renewable carbon sources in the context of TEA and LCA.

Session Organizers: Edward Brush, Professor, Bridgewater State University; Grace Lasker, Senior Lecturer, University of Washington Bothell

Green Chemistry is the science of making smart choices in how we design, make, use and dispose of chemicals and chemical products. Chemicals provide the function we demand in consumer products. However, chemists also need to be aware of the potential unintended consequences of chemicals on human health and the environment. Hazardous chemicals have disproportionately impacted children and adults in low income, minority neighborhoods, while the presence of naturally-occurring and human made chemicals effect access to clean air and water. This violates our definition of social and environmental justice where all people, regardless of race or economic status, have the right to live, work, play and learn in healthy, safe environments.

This symposium will build on the engaging and energetic discussions at the 2016 and 2017 GC&E conferences by expanding our current knowledge in defining, identifying and understanding these issues. This will be accomplished through contributed papers and workshop-style discussions aimed at: (1) sharing knowledge across disciplines and fields; (2) determining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; and (3) developing educational resources and research collaborations. We are also planning to offer a unique workshop-style discussion over dinner.

Session Organizers: Robert Giraud, Director, The Chemours Company; Vince Shen, Chemical Engineer, National Institute of Standards and Technology; Dave Sullivan, Senior Scientist, Kraton Chemical, LLC

Using greener chemistries requires greener chemical processes. At the heart of virtually every chemical process is a chemical separation. These separations account for over 40% of the energy consumption and over 50% of the capital investment of chemical processes because they almost exclusively rely on today’s energy-intensive approaches such as distillation. Emerging mass separating agent (MSA)-based approaches offer the ability to perform the same separations for a fraction of the energy consumed by distillation. However, despite offering significant improvement in environmental performance (especially carbon footprint), application of membranes and adsorbents for chemical separations faces a number of innovation challenges. Sustainable products depend on sustainable processes, and sustainable processes depend on sustainable separations. Simply put, product innovation using greener chemistries necessitates innovation in separations technology. Nowhere is there more true than in organic chemical separations from dilute aqueous solution required to produce the bio-based platform molecules of the future, chemicals production via organic reactions in water, and home and personal care products requiring impurity removal.

The session will concentrate on the main ALTSEP-identified R&D needs to drive discussion toward a deeper understanding across the range of relevant disciplines of the research required to meet these needs.

Session Organizer: Samy Ponnusamy, Fellow, Green Chemistry, MilliporeSigma

This session will highlight industry innovations based on green chemistry and engineering principles, focusing on the development and design process. Case studies will be presented to illustrate how companies in different sectors have successfully implemented green chemistry and engineering principles into their processes. These examples will describe the design and development process, the challenges faced, and how these barriers were overcome. Additionally, this session will discuss the important collaborations along the value chain and with the academic community. From the session, attendees should be able to understand at a high level how industry develops products and processes, and the many factors that contribute to the launch and commercialization of new green technologies. Presenters will be from industry and academia in order to share the valuable insights of a diverse group on the challenges and opportunities in bringing sustainable chemistries and processes to market.

Session Organizers: Jane E. Wissinger, Professor, University of Minnesota; Michael T. Wentzel, Assistant Professor, Augsburg University

This fast-paced and engaging symposium will provide educators of all levels with the opportunity to share their innovations in making green chemistry content in lecture, laboratory, and outreach an important topic in teaching chemistry. The interdisciplinary nature of green chemistry opens the door to illustrating how greener organic synthesis, inorganic/enzymatic catalysts, renewable/degradable polymers and materials, biotechnology, toxicology, and more can be used to inspire innovation in today’s students. Abstracts are welcome which share how instructors are integrating new green chemistry materials in their curriculum to prepare students for their future careers. The rapid-fire session format will allow presenters up to seven minutes to present the highlights of their work with three minutes for questions. Speakers must be willing to then participate in a panel discussion at the end of the session to create a forum for exchange of ideas and provide additional details according to the interest of the audience. More than one submission by an author will be allowed to in order to include a breadth of topics.

Session Organizers: Robert Giraud, Principle Consultant, The Chemours Company; Brett Howard, Director, American Chemistry Council; Tony Kingsbury, Founder and President, TKingsbury LLC

Users make chemical selection decisions every day. These users include research chemists choosing reagents and solvents for new syntheses, formulators making up new product mixtures, and consumers making purchasing decisions. What types of factors do they consider in selecting which chemicals to use? How do their needs and viewpoints affect their criteria for making these decisions? What techniques exist to help users achieve the best overall balance of outcomes? These are some of the key questions that need to be answered to translate the NRC’s Framework to Guide Selection of Chemical Alternatives into everyday chemical use decision-making. This symposium will focus on the application of decision science to making effective chemical use decisions. Learning outcomes include improved understanding by the green chemistry community about what’s achievable through the application of decision science to chemical selection.

Session Organizer: Sharon Papke, Head CAS NAFTA Advocacy and Business Support, Covestro, LLC

There has been a great deal of focus on biobased material development, and much of this focus has been by the biobased material providers describing their efforts in developing possible raw materials for commercial use. This session takes the biobased development to the next step, with presentations covering the actual use and incorporation of biobased materials in commercial applications. We seek papers that demonstrate manufacturers incorporation of biobased chemicals and materials, including the actual applications. This session would begin with presentations, followed by a panel discussion with a combination of biobased producers and industrial manufacturers discussing the next steps for developments and innovation. Questions we will address during the session include: What are the main drivers for biobased chemicals and polymers? What are the chemical or engineering challenges that need to be overcome to increase use of biobased materials? Are there particular applications where biobased material fit, and why? What does a collaboration model look like for biobased materials? What are the current chemical and process engineering challenges in furthering the use of biobased materials?

Session Organizer: David Entwistle,Head of Process Chemistry, Codexis, Inc.

This symposium session focusses on how biocatalysts have been discovered, developed and applied to solve synthetic issues in a sustainable manner.

Integrated into our popular GC&E Poster Session & Reception, the Showcase will feature companies who are using the design principles of 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 were used in the creation of the product.
• Describe how the product improves the health, safety and/or environmental impact compared to existing products.
• Describe the scientific or process innovations that went into this product.
• Include a picture or link to your product. If you area B2B, please give an example of an end consumer product.

For more information, please see our Product Innovation Showcase Page.

Session Organizer: Michael E. Kopach, Research Advisor, Eli Lilly and Company

Peptide and Oligonucleotide products are an area of significant growth within the biopharma industry. However, the current state of the art in peptide and oligonucleotide syntheses utilize primarily legacy technologies, with little focus on green chemistry and engineering. Waste generated from current peptide and oligonucleotide processes ranges from 3,000-15,000 kg/kg API (10-50 mer products) with multiple usages of highly hazardous reagents and solvents. Contributing to the poor environmental profile is the pervasive and extensive use of chromatography to produce peptide and oligonucleotide products with required quality attributes. This session will explore how improved synthetic methodologies, safer coupling reagents, solvent selection, and minimization of chromatography play a vital role in improving the green chemistry profile for peptide and oligonucleotide processes.