Organometallic catalysis has its origins in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, the emphasis was on achieving remarkable chemical transformations, but today the focus is increasingly on sustainability. This article summarises the current promising approaches with special regard to those that have commercial potential, including non-aqueous and water immiscible solvents, modified enzymes, micellar catalysis, catalysis with low loading, metal-free catalysis and catalyst recycling. Environmental metrics, a key evaluation tool for any industrial chemical process, are used in micellar catalysis to demonstrate their usefulness, especially to achieve streamlined protocols, reduce losses and eliminate toxic materials.

It has long been recognised that sustainability is crucial to business and Johnson Matthey’s sustainability goals for 2017 reflected this (1). But the reverse is also true. Developments in sustainability will be heavily reliant on business involvement, and private sector companies are expected to play a leading role in this. At the United Nations (UN) summit in September 2015, the UN...

The remarkable benefits associated with the attraction of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-containing nanomicelles to metal nanoparticles in water allows for varying types of important catalysis to be done under very mild and green conditions.

Introduction “Sustainability Calling” is focused on the definition of new paradigms to define a new concept of sustainability. Pierre Massotte has worked for IBM in Quality Assurance and then Advanced Technologies. He spent several years in IBM’s research and development laboratories in the USA, then became Scientific Director in EMEA Manufacturing to improve the competitiveness of IBM’s...

This themed issue focuses on ‘Sustainable Industry’ from the perspective of research advances and technological solutions. Starting with a high level policy context, it is clear that the roles and responsibilities of industry are broader than technology and go way beyond what happens within industry. People have been thinking about the issues and options encompassed in the word...

Trends such as population growth, climate change, urbanisation, resource scarcity, conservation of energy and water, and reduction of waste and toxicity have led to the development of sustainable practices in industry, education and society. The desire to improve ways of living, the need for performance materials, and the urgency to close the gap between developed and emerging nations have propelled creative and innovative solutions based on green and sustainable chemistry to the forefront. This article provides an overview of the main impacts of green chemistry on industry, academia and society in the USA in the past ten years, as well as a summary of the drivers and barriers associated with the adoption of green chemistry practices. It also describes how researchers, policy makers, educators, investors and industries can work together to “build innovative solutions that transform and strengthen the chemical enterprise” (1) while addressing environmental and social challenges. The goal of this article is to understand why green chemistry is still primarily viewed as Joel Tickner, Director of Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3), University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA, puts it: as “an environmental activity rather than one that, as experience shows, yields economic benefit, and it has yet to be integrated into the fabric of the chemical enterprise, educational systems, or government programs” (1).

Introduction “Green Catalysts for Energy Transformation and Emission Control” is book 1184 in the ACS Symposium Series, which has been published since 1974 and is peer-reviewed, consisting of original research papers and review articles. The purpose of the series is to publish comprehensive books based on current scientific research presented at ACS sponsored symposia. The content of this...

The International Platinum Group Metals Association (IPA) carried out the first ever industry-wide life cycle assessment on platinum group metals (pgms) which included data from a majority of the industry in both primary and secondary production, as well as one major application of pgms, i.e. their use in a car exhaust catalyst. The results, discussed in this paper, identify that the major impact (72%) of the production of pgms on the environment is from power consumption during mining and ore beneficiation; they also demonstrate that the impacts of pgm production are mitigated by the use of pgm-based automotive catalysts. The exercise provides benchmarking for the industry and a greater understanding of the impacts and benefits of pgms.

Numerous European industries are heavily dependent on imported rare earth element (REE) raw materials. This has created a need for the European Union (EU) to ensure a sustainable supply of REE minerals, as well as develop from the ground up the currently non-existent European REE extraction and processing industry. In order to support this, the European Commission, through the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) scheme, funded the EURARE project which runs from 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2017. Through the EURARE project, selected European REE deposits have been researched and in certain cases identified resources were successfully processed for REE production. Several REE deposits across Europe have been the focus of detailed geological field and laboratory work. Mineral concentrates obtained from the Norra Kärr deposit in Sweden, the Kringlerne deposit in Greenland and the Kvanefjeld deposit in Greenland, Rødberg ore from Norway and bauxite residue from Greece were tested from laboratory to pilot scale by means of conventional and innovative metallurgical processing. The novel technologies developed provide efficiency and selectivity in various steps of the metallurgical processing, from ore beneficiation to metal production. A road map for sustainable REE production in Europe is now being developed, which includes an evaluation of the environmental benefits and risks of the EURARE technologies.

The solutions being developed for a sustainable future are technologically complex and demanding; relying on ‘high-tech’ raw materials. Many of these materials face significant supply risk. Business, government, national and international organisations are increasingly focusing on these critical raw materials (CRMs). This paper describes the strategies and innovations being developed to manage supply risk using rare earth elements and magnets as examples. The ongoing need to find substitute materials and improve efficiency, recycling and recovery of CRMs provides exciting opportunities for fundamental research and commercial innovation.

Batteries are present in all areas of life, from electronic devices to electric cars, fork lift trucks and more. But there is a lack of awareness that runs even to the highest levels of the complexities in the battery industry: the chemistries; the applications; the cell sizes; the risks; the legislation. As uptake of batteries grows across many applications there will inevitably be growth...

Introduction “Algae and Environmental Sustainability” is a compilation of 14 chapters contributed by different authors and collected by Singh and Bauddh (Central University of Jharkhand, India) and Bux (Durban University of Technology, South Africa). It is the seventh book in the Developments in Applied Phycology series from Springer. The chapters can stand alone, and together they cover...

Introduction The International Workshop on Plasmas for Energy and Environmental Applications (IWPEEA) was held in Liverpool, UK, between 21st–24th August 2016. The event was organised by the Technological Plasmas Research Group at the University of Liverpool, UK. It included five plenary lectures, four invited lectures, 36 oral and 42 poster presentations. The workshop brought together...

At a time of consolidation and increased regulation of the rare earth sector in China, Greenland may become an important new source of rare earth elements, particularly the elements critical to the growing magnet sector. Greenland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and is the world’s largest island, 2.2 million km2, of which approximately 80% is...

A literature based study on the health impacts of three platinum anticancer drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin) was undertaken. The published evidence for health benefits is presented and assessed. A model was developed to quantify the health gain of adding platinum based drugs to cancer treatment at the population level for the UK and the USA. The economic value of using platinum drugs (in terms of quality-adjusted life year (QALY)) in addition to other cancer treatments can be estimated at over £556 million for the UK and over US$4.8 billion for the USA, depending on the scenario chosen.

As the editor describes in the introduction, “This book offers an overview of a project where a number of leading personalities in the research and development of the methodology in sustainability field agreed to join forces in the development of a comprehensive edited publication covering the major aspects and issues of assessing and measuring the environmental impact and sustainability”....

Many of today’s key technologies are reliant on the properties of specific elements, such as cobalt (Co), tellurium (Te), selenium (Se), neodymium (Nd), indium (In), gallium (Ga) and heavy rare earth elements (HREE) – collectively described as ‘e-tech’ elements. An example is low carbon energy generation. Changing Energy Use Significant changes in the way energy is generated and utilised...

Introduction “Surgical Tools and Medical Devices” 2nd Edition provides a comprehensive overview containing 23 chapters written by experts in each field. The chapters are not grouped together according to specific topics, but rather each chapter covers a range of aspects of surgical tools, medical device manufacturing and characterisation, surface engineering and interactions between...

1. Introduction The World Hydrogen Energy Conferences (WHEC) are biennial events focusing primarily on the hydrogen for fuel cells sector. The 2016 event, the 21st in the series, was held in Zaragoza, Spain, from the 13th–16th June 2016 and attracted approximately 1000 delegates (mainly academic) from around 60 countries. The conference was organised by the Spanish Hydrogen Association on...

Johnson Matthey Plc, along with many similar companies and institutions, have found that sustainability can and should form the basis for their business of the future. These companies are setting aggressive targets for reducing the resources consumed in producing a unit of product, and finding these targets achievable when the whole workforce is engaged in addressing the issues. It starts...