A methodology to evaluate process sustainability

Chemical and engineering research over the past several years has seen a dramatic increase in activity in the area of green chemistry. As these developments continue, it is reasonable that some of these chemistries or technologies have the potential to be implemented on the plant scale. With this in mind, a new green technology will most certainly have a potential impact on the sustainability of a process. It should also be noted that although a "green" technology may appear environmentally friendly, there currently is no all-inclusive methodology for assessing the actual sustainability of the chemical reaction or process. In order to assess a process, a set of sustainability indicators, or metrics, are required. Research within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has laid the foundation for an indicator model, GREENSCOPE (Gauging Reaction Effectiveness for the ENvironmental Sustainability of Chemistries with a multi-Objective Process Evaluator), that evaluates a particular reaction or process for sustainability in the following areas: Environment, Energy, Efficiency, and Economics. These four Es provide a quantitative definition of process sustainability, and allow for a direct comparison between two similar processes with differing reaction chemistries or process technologies. These aspects of sustainable chemical research will also be of importance as bench processes are scaled up to sustainable industrial processes.