IGC summit opens up new vistas in industrial green

chemistry and technologies The Industrial Green Chemistry Workshop (IGCW-2009) held from 4th to 6th

December 2009 at Hotel Renaissance, Powai, Mumbai was a major milestone

event organized by Newreka Green Synth Technologies Pvt Ltd, in association with

Green Chemistry Network Center- Indian Chapter of ACS-GCI and Chemical Industry

Digest, to create awareness and provide the momentum for green chemistry and

engineering technologies.

IGCW-2009 addressed the need of Indian Chemical Industry’s future direction with

global trends in sustainability, besides exploring opportunities for leveraging

industrial green chemistry models for business differentiation and competitiveness.

This event served as an interaction and learning platform for over 300 Chemical

Industry stakeholders, with 64% participation from Chemical Company

representatives, 16% participants from Academic & Research Institutes, 13%

students and 7 % officials from Government, Associations and Societal bodies.

Principally designed on the basis of 9-Eye (I) Approach, each ‘eye’ or the session

theme at IGCW-2009 expanded the vision of participants by engaging them into

emerging views of Industrial Green Chemistry paradigms and its implementation to

create tangible and intangible benefits economically and ecologically.

The chief guest of the event, Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and

Technology (DST), GOI, inaugurated the event and felicitated Prof Paul Anastas and

Prof John Warner for completion of 12 years of 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and

Engineering and released a background position report, “Industrial Green Chemistry

and Technology: Mapping Transformations” to cover the last 25 years of journey in

industrial green chemistry and technology in the Indian and global context.

IGCW-2009, for the first time in the history of Chemical Industry, brought together

active participation and leadership from leading experts of green chemistry of the

world: Prof. Paul Anastas and Dr. John Warner, considered as the fathers of green

chemistry, Dr. Bob Peoples, Director of the American Chemical Society, Dr. John

Peterson Myers, CEO & Chief Scientist, Environmental Health Services, USA; Dr. Kira

Matus, Sr. Policy Analyst, Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale

University, USA.

Several leading scientists and Industry experts from India: Prof. G D Yadav, Director,

ICT; Dr. Murali Sastry, CSO, Tata Innovations Center; and other success case studies

from Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Jublilant Organosys, Corning Inc and Orchid Pharma.

All the presentations deliberated over the three days addressed various challenges,

dynamics and global trends of Industrial Green Chemistry (IGC), please visit

www.IndustrialGreenChem.com to view the IGCW presentations.

IGCW-2009 recognized outstanding research and initiatives in Green Chemistry and

Engineering to promote pollution prevention models. IGC award winners include PI

Industries and Catapharma Pvt Ltd in large and medium scale categories

respectively. Through IGC Award, these upcoming companies received national

recognition for their outstanding chemical technologies that incorporated the

principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacturing, and use, and

that have been or can be utilized by them in achieving their pollution prevention

goals.

Out of seven shortlisted categories from Academia category, the winner was IICT,

Hyderabad, for their work on Technology for Enzymatic Degumming of Rice Bran Oil

and the students IGC awards category was accredited to the Biosynth Group from

IIT-B for their work on Biodiesel Synthesis from Waste Vegetable oil.

The workshop deliberated towards bridging the gap between industrial and

academic world with respect to perspective from both the worlds and how it could

be utilized for implementation of Green chemistry and engineering based solutions.

It also discussed green chemistry implementation barriers, policy regulations and

other dimensions like human mindset apart from technology implementation

barriers, including very interesting Panel discussion that concluded the event.

As an extension to the IGCW-2009 deliberations that primarily addressed Industry

specific requirements, the Green Chemistry Foundation, also organised a one day

seminar for Chemical Engineering students at IIT-B on 7th December and a one day

workshop for teachers on 8th December, in collaboration with the Beyond Benign

Organisation, an institute dedicated to generate, gather and disseminate green

chemistry information to a wide audience through a ‘minds’ on approach.

IGCW-2009 was an all-encompassing event with a prolific stream of powerful

presentations, case-studies and industry examples, with global exchanges of views

& ideas together marked the start of an emerging future for exploring sustainable

manufacturing in the Indian Chemical Industry.