Credit: Brad Zangwill Photography
Green Chemistry Challenge Awards recipients show off their awards with members from the US Environmental Protection Agency and American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute.
On Sept. 26, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced the winners of the 2024 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards at a ceremony held at the Yale Club in New York City as part of Climate Week NYC. The venue and timing with Climate Week are a first for the awards, which are a part of a series of green chemistry events. They include a discussion among sustainability leaders on how sustainable and green chemistry is critical to advancing climate solutions and a first-of-its-kind ACS-Change Chemistry Sustainability Leader Summit for sustainability leaders in business.
“I think it’s a pretty good rule of thumb that the less sexy something is, the more environmentally significant it might be,” Meredith Williams, director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, joked as she mentioned her colleagues in San Francisco who are working on sanitary sewer overflows. Williams said it’s a lot easier to garner support from the public, media, and funders to protect a charismatic megafauna, and a new technology-based solution is more likely to get attention than energy conservation and weatherproofing. “And I work in toxins,” she said. In Williams’s experience, that topic is near the bottom on the hierarchy of “fun stuff” to do environmentally. And toxins rarely—if ever—gets the attention it warrants. “It’s dealing with our legacy of how we have produced and used chemicals,” Williams said. “I’ve heard estimates of between 200,000 and 400,000 sites in California alone that are somehow contaminated, yet nobody’s really excited to really work on those issues necessarily. They’re tough, tough issues. And that’s all the more reason, I think, to appreciate the work that is being recognized tonight.” Williams said the award recipients work on projects that don’t always get all the funding or interest of the public at large, but the solutions matter.
“The Green Chemistry Awards is just one of the programs that really leads the way to a greener future. It really recognizes the transformative technologies that are protecting the environment and really stopping pollution at its source,” said Jennie Romer, deputy assistant administrator for pollution prevention at the EPA.
The awards “promote the environmental and economic benefits of developing and using novel green chemistry.” These efforts include incorporating principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacturing, and use. One academic researcher and four companies were recognized for developing synthesis and catalysts that offer greener alternatives, reducing energy and water use, and increasing efficiency in production.
Dionisios G. Vlachos, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, won in the academic category for developing synthetic processes to create renewable lubricant base oils, which are commonly used in machinery and vehicles. These oils are traditionally produced with petroleum-based materials, but the new synthetic method uses biomass, such as plants or food waste. Lubricant base oils make up about 75–90% of commercially formulated lubricants, and lubricants represent about a $60 billion market. Vlachos and his team have developed three classes of biolubricant base oils with different properties, providing performance that is comparable to or better than that of existing technologies.
Viridis Chemical was recognized in the small business category for developing a synthesis for renewable ethyl acetate. The catalyst enables the production of ethyl acetate from corn ethanol, an alternative to the typically used chemicals produced from coal or natural gas processing. In addition to using corn ethanol, the process produces hydrogen gas as a by-product, which helps reduce the production plant’s energy needs, as it’s used to generate about 40% of the energy required for operation.
Merck & Co. won in the greener synthetic pathways category for breaking barriers in sustainable manufacturing of biologics—specifically, innovating a process for its cancer treatment drug Keytruda, or pembrolizumab. Currently, the monoclonal antibody is produced in large batches, and a onetime filtration process takes place at the end of a batch. The new filtration process takes place continuously instead of at the end of batches, which allows for the production of more pembrolizumab per reactor volume. Merck can thus use smaller equipment, shrinking the facility’s physical footprint. The new process also reduces energy and water use and increases efficiency in the use of consumables like filters.
Pro Farm Group, a subsidiary of Bioceres Crop Solutions, was recognized in the design of safer and degradable chemicals for creating RinoTec, a microbial pesticide for crops. Crops it can be used on include corn, cotton, soy, and wheat. The microbe it’s based on has natural pesticidal effects, and Bioceres has engineered the growth of the microbe to produce more of the natural pesticide compound. The microbe is grown in large vessels, killed, and incorporated into a seed treatment package that coats seeds before planting. The pesticide is priced competitively and has comparable efficacy to that of its synthetic alternatives; it’s also considered safer for humans and the environment.
PhoSul won in the climate change category for developing an organically enhanced rock phosphate fertilizer. The enhanced rock phosphate fertilizer avoids the need for acid processing, which creates a waste—gypsum—that is contaminated with heavy metals and radioactive material from the raw material. This new process helps eliminate phosphate runoff, which is associated with ecological damage. In addition to avoiding associated waste, the performance is better than that of existing phosphate fertilizers. The fertilizer consists of spherical granules of phosphate rock with other materials that improve phosphate availability for plants.
“We know that it is critically important for us to maintain a strategic look at this industry to make sure that we are doing all that we can to create a more sustainable environment,” said LaTrease Garrison, chief operating officer of the American Chemical Society. ”Our commitment to this prestigious award and this program really helps us to think about, How do we demonstrate the impact these innovative technologies are having for us?”
The EPA has acknowledged companies for greener innovations in chemistry since 1996 through the Green Chemistry Challenge Awards program. This summer, ACS, who cosponsors the awards, and the EPA signaled their commitment to the awards with a renewed 5-year agreement. Garrison, in her welcome speech, acknowledged what the winning technologies have done: eliminating 830 lb (about 376 kg) of hazardous chemicals and solvents, saving over 21 billion gal (about 80 billion L) of water, and preventing 7.8 billion lb (about 3.5 billion kg) of carbon dioxide from being released into the air.
The EPA is accepting nominations for the 2025 Green Chemistry Challenge Awards, which Romer noted includes a category focused on circularity. “This is really the design of fewer chemicals and materials—including plastics—that can readily be recycled and reused or even continuously reused.” The application deadline is Dec. 13. Learn more about next year’s categories, selection criteria, and the nomination and selection process by visiting epa.gov/greenchemistry.
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