Future chemical technology development guide

Agrochemicals, which increase crop yields but lead to fish kills and groundwater degradation;

Chemicals make materials last, but they also accumulate in our bodies and in our biological chains.

While there have been many cases where simplified approaches have failed, we still often use the framework to address sustainability challenges, focusing only on isolated individual indicators (such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy or freshwater consumption), rather than sustainability as a comprehensive, systemic, multidimensional issue.

Much of the current sustainability efforts in the chemical industry focus on incremental improvements in products and processes through increased efficiency, but this approach is imperfect. Instead, we need disruptive changes to meet the demands of a sustainable society in the future.

It is necessary to propose solutions from the overall plan to ensure that there are no deviations or accidents. Therefore, the traditional approach of simplification must be combined with integrated systematic thinking to provide guidance for the design of sustainable societies in the future.

For example, knowing the properties of a molecule is only a minimum requirement, as is knowing the potential harm of such a molecule. The way a single problem is addressed may create other challenges (for example, the use of biofuels may increase pressure on land use and competition for food).

There are now so-called "collaborative solutions," or solutions that advance multiple sustainability issues in concert.

For example, there is a rich metal catalyst on Earth, which can use sunlight to decompose water to produce hydrogen, achieve energy storage, and can produce water after hydrogen combustion for energy recovery.

Another example is designing a future fuel that is produced in a "carbon neutral" way, which can simultaneously achieve the dual purpose of reducing air pollution emissions and improving engine efficiency.

While the debate about cascading nonlinear problems is still ongoing (e.g., increased fossil energy extraction → greater pressure on freshwater use → refugee migration → social unrest and military conflict), it is possible to solve these problems through systematic thinking and design of "collaborative solutions", where "less talk and less action" will create more results with less effort (e.g. Using CO2 to convert waste into raw materials → avoiding the use of toxic agents such as phosgene → reducing CO2 emissions → slowing rising CO2 levels → mitigating global climate change).

Expand the definition of performance from a technical function to a sustainability function

To achieve fundamental change in the chemical industry, the concept of performance needs to be redefined.

Since commercial synthetic chemistry began with the introduction of Perkin purple dye in the mid-19th century, chemical products have always been judged by performance. Performance is almost entirely defined as the ability to perform narrowly defined functions efficiently (e.g., the color of a dye, the stickiness of a glue, the insecticidal ability of an insecticide).

However, focusing on a single function can lead to other undesirable outcomes. We must broaden our definition of performance to include all aspects beyond functionality, especially sustainability.

This expanded definition of performance requires process designers to understand not only the mechanics of the technical functions of chemical products, but also the hazards that these substances can cause.

This extended definition of performance implies that anyone who designs, invents, and intends to manufacture a chemical product must have knowledge of product-related hazards, which may be global, physical, or toxicological.

After more than a century of incidents or accidents with adverse consequences for human health and the environment, we still do not incorporate toxicology into chemistry training curricula. To think about chemical hazards in the same way that we think about chemical properties, we need to have courses in our education that extend the definition of function as well as technology to include the attributes of sustainability.

The redefinition of performance also directly affects the business model of the chemical industry, as part of the strategic reallocation is to reduce the amount of materials required, thereby reducing the potential harm to the entire ecosystem.

The "F-factor" section contains the concept of maximum performance, which is to maximize the function while using the least amount of chemicals, similar to the application of Moore's Law on integrated circuits today.

The concept of material minimization is to reduce the use of raw materials, energy consumption in processing and transportation, waste generation, waste management and associated hazards.

This philosophy can also be applied to other businesses and shift the way to profit from selling the material itself to providing related peripheral services (such as the coloring, lubrication or cleaning of the material) while reducing harm.

This shift in philosophy is in line with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization's emphasis on "chemical leasing" - selling chemicals for function, rather than quantity.