Green Catalysis for Waste Minimization: Strategies for Resource-Efficient and Sustainable Industrial Chemical Processes

Sheuli Debnath

July-Aug-Sep

Abstract
The production of industrial chemicals is essential to modern society and requires significant amounts of raw materials, solvents, energy, and water, and produces solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes. One of the significant steps to mitigate them is green catalysis, which involves improving the selectivity of the reactions, atom efficiency, energy efficiency, catalyst recovery, and use of waste feedstocks in the production of valuable products. In this context, the reduction of waste generated and the processing of the chemicals in an environmentally friendly way are discussed critically with regard to the use of green catalytic technologies. A systematic literature-based research design was followed. Relevant literature on green catalysis and waste minimization, waste valorization, catalyst recycling, and sustainable catalysis, which, was deemed relevant for the topic of this review, was sourced using a combination of terms from a variety of major scholarly databases. Peer-reviewed publications were identified by searching the major scholarly databases with combinations of the following terms: green catalysis, waste minimization, resource efficiency, sustainable catalysis, waste valorization, catalyst recycling, and circular economy. Only those studies that were relevant to the issues of conversion, selectivity, recyclability, resource utilization, and environmental performance were considered and only those studies that were found to have the appropriate methodological standard were evaluated. The evidence reviewed confirms that heterogeneous catalysis, biocatalysis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, single-atom catalysis, and catalytic waste valorization can contribute to reducing the amount of waste due to their ability to achieve more selective transformations, less stoichiometric (excess) amounts of reagents, less harsh reaction conditions, re-use of the catalysts, and use of renewable or waste material as starting materials. But there are some limitations, like catalyst deactivation, critical material requirements, solvent effects, separation requirements, scale-up, economy, and life cycle assessment. This green catalysis should be combined with the ideas of process intensification, renewable energy, design for circular economy and quantification of sustainability to make industrial chemistry truly resource efficient.

Keyword: Green catalysis, Waste minimization, Resource efficiency, Sustainable chemistry, Waste valorization, Circular economy

Research Area: Chemistry

Country: Bangladesh

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