The importance of green chemistry in process research and development

Green Chemistry or Sustainable Chemistry is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as "the design of chemical products that reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous substances" In recent years there is a greater societal expectation that chemists and chemical engineers should produce greener and more sustainable chemical processes and it is likely that this trend will continue to grow over the next few decades. This tutorial review gives information on solvents and solvent selection, basic environmental metrics collection and three industrial case histories. All three case histories involve enzymatic chemistry. Pregabalin (Lyrica®) is produced using a lipase based resolution and is extremely unusual in that all four manufacturing steps to make pregabalin are performed in water. Sitagliptin (Januvia®) uses a transaminase in the final chemical step. Finally a rosuvastatin (Crestor®) intermediate is produced using a deoxy ribose aldolase (DERA) enzyme in which two carbon-carbon bonds and two chiral centres are formed in the same process step.