Tools and Literature
Green Chemistry Expert System
The Green Chemistry Expert System (GCES) allows users to build a green chemical process, design a green chemical, or survey the field of green chemistry. The system is equally useful for new and existing chemicals and their synthetic processes. It includes extensive documentation.
Instructions and to download the Green Chemistry Expert System.
The GCES features are contained in five modules:
- The Synthetic Methodology Assessment for Reduction Techniques (SMART) module quantifies and categorizes the hazardous substances used in or generated by a chemical reaction, based on information entered by the user. Reactions can be modified in the SMART module and re-evaluated to optimize their green nature.
- The Green Synthetic Reactions module provides technical information on green synthetic methods.
- The Designing Safer Chemicals module includes guidance on how chemical substances can be modified to make them safer; it is organized by chemical class, properties, and use.
- The Green Solvents/Reaction Conditions module contains technical information on green alternatives to traditional solvent systems. This module also allows users to search for green substitute solvents based on physicochemical properties.
- The Green Chemistry References module allows the user to obtain additional information using a number of search strategies. The user may also add references to this module.
Green Chemistry Assistant
The Green Chemistry Assistant (GCA) , a Web application currently under development at St. Olaf college, is based on the Synthetic Methodology Assessment for Reduction Techniques (SMART) Review module of the Green Chemistry Expert System. It allows improved input of reaction data and a more thorough analysis of overall process mass inputs and outputs. The GCA does not yet incorporate the hazard tiers from the GCES SMART module.
Other Resources
Green Chemistry Resource Exchange
The ACS Green Chemistry Institute
developed the Green Chemistry Resource Exchange
as a place for users to exchange green chemistry information resources.
Green Chemical Alternatives Wizard
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed the Green Chemical Alternatives Purchasing Wizard to reduce the
hazardous waste profile in research labs, an effort that ultimately saves MIT, and its researchers, money while reducing hazard potentials and the burden to our environment.
Next Generation Environmental Technologies: Benefits and Barriers
Next Generation Environmental Technologies (NGETs) focus on the redesign, at the molecular level, of manufacturing processes and products, with the aim of reducing or eliminating the use of hazardous materials. This report makes known the broader context for the use of NGETs and serves as a resource to systematically assess their benefits. In addition to the main report, an appendix examines 25 existing NGETs that span a range of development, from early research to full use in profitable businesses.