Over the last two years I have began teaching a course in Green Chemistry as an elective for junior/senior Chemistry and Chemical Engineering students at Texas AM University. During this period the class size has been limited to 36 students, and over two-thirds of these are Chemical Engineering students. The course focuses on catalytic processes, with a significant component dedicated to polymerization reactions. We begin the semester (15 weeks) with the formation of the EPA and its initial treatment or abatement of pollution to the 1990 Pollution Prevention Act which led in 1991 to green chemistry becoming a focus of the agency, and in 1995 to the establishment of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.
This is followed by the fundamentals of green chemistry, including the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry, atom economy/E factors, life cycle assessment, and the use of renewable resources. Special attention is paid to choosing greener organic solvents based on EHS and life cycle assessment issues. The main body of the course deals with catalysis and how developments in this area have led to greener chemical processes. In this section, the fundamentals of catalysis and organometallic chemistry are introduced. Alternative greener solvents, such as water, supercritical carbon dioxide, ionic liquids are covered during this portion of the course. The final section of the course deals with global warming and renewable energy sources. The course concludes with short student presentations/papers on their chosen topic from green issues in reaction or process chemistry.