Green ChemisTree Foundation is honoured to have received the opportunity of conducting this Workshop, as led by Mr. Nitesh Mehta, Co- Founder and Director of Green ChemisTree Foundation and assisted by Ms. Karolina Mellor, Project Manager at Centre for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University. The Workshop was hosted by the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC), Sri Lanka, under the dynamic leadership of Mr. Mr. Gamini Gunasekera, Chairman, NCPC; Mr. Samantha Kumarasena, CEO, NCPC; and their enthusiastic team at NCPC.

This intensive facilitators’ training initiative was attended by a diverse group of senior representatives from Academia, Industry, Govt. bodies, Institute of Ceylon; and Gujarat Cleaner Production Centre.

The workshop covered all depths of green chemistry right from its role in sustainable development to green chemistry principles and their industrial implementation. The workshop gave the participants an insight into various concepts like Life Cycle Assessments, GC&E tools, techniques and metrics, etc. The content for the Workshop was designed by Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale, and incorporated relevant topics such as toxicity, catalysis, solvent and its impact on process greenness, green solvents, industrial ecology, use of renewable resources, etc.

The five day intensive workshop triggered the understanding and the necessity of implementing green chemistry, making way for ideas from diverse sectors that participated. The participants from academia started to think in the direction of initiating a dedicated course on Green Chemistry, while Govt. bodies flagged an idea of Sri Lanka to become a “green-knowledge-economy” driven country. Industrial participants shared as to how the workshop have opened up them to various tools and techniques for working towards developing green products and processes. The key outcome from this deliberation has been the start of pro-active dialogue amongst diverse stakeholders to come together for collectively working towards creating sustainable development through Green Chemistry implementation in Sri Lanka.

Welcome addresses by Ms. Geena Malhotra, Cipla Ltd and Ms. Krishna Padia, Green Chemistree Foundation emphasized the need for green chemistry and how the awareness stage is complete and industrialization stage now needs to be driven.

Welcome address by Ms. Krishna Padia, Green Chemistree Foundation

This was followed by presentations by 4 senior members of the industry who shared their vast knowledge of green chemistry principles and gave their inputs on implementation of the same.

Design of green processes, strategies, tools and metrics in Pharma API industry

Dr. Gopalan stressed on the need for green metrics and the importance of “atom economy” in every process.

Dr. Gopalan – CSO & Executive Director, Drug Discovery, Orchid Pharma Ltd. & Green Chemistry Task Force Member, DST, Govt. of India

He shared some examples of green chemistry which are in the thought process stage which if implemented at plant level can be beneficial from the point of view of environment as well as economics. The examples were of environmentally benign synthesis steps, value addition of by-product, use of water as a solvent, use of a non-toxic cyanide source, etc. He also spoke of the future prospects and the challenges in research, implementation and education.

Process research as a tool to attain GC in Pharma Industry

Dr. Krishnamurthy highlighted the huge savings that can be brought about by green chemistry in the 4 trillion dollar worth chemical industry.

Dr. Krishnamurthy – VP and Global Head, API R&D, Piramal Enterprises Ltd

Green chemistry by design should be used to design different routes to reduce waste in the chemical processes. He spoke about the need for the route selection process to have a short time line, reducing the API budget and also making the process cost effective by utilizing services of highly competitive scientists. The route selection process should start early with flexible capacity building with in house team and partners.

Overview – Environmental and Regulatory norms

Dr. Naidu spoke about pollution increasing at alarming proportions and the need for environmental and regulatory norms to protect human health and environment.

Dr. Rashmi Naidu – Director (Technical Services), NS Support Services Pvt. Ltd

She spoke at length about REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization & restriction of Chemicals) and how it applies to the Pharma Industry. She drew our attention to the lack of knowledge about environmental policies and suggested that Pharma associations should provide technical assistance so that companies can be prepared for the ever evolving landscape.

“Recycle at Source” approach for existing conventional process having with maximum E-factor – as first step towards implementing Green Chemistry

Mr. Mehta talked about the ineffectiveness of current methods of waste management such as ETP, CETP and Industrial Ecology.  The need of the hour is to start industrialization of ready green chemistry based technologies so that we can start seeing the environmental and economic benefits.

Mr. Nitesh Mehta – Founder-Director, Newreka Green Synth Technologies Pvt Ltd

He shared 3 case studies of Newreka’s Recycle@Source^TM Solution for recycle of sulphuric acid, neutral stream and salt containing stream. He suggested that chemical companies start implementing green chemistry based technologies with high E-Factor products, big volume molecules and molecules in II and III stage of clinical trials.

Dr. D. R. Rao – R&D (API) Head, gave the vote of thanks and mentioned that such programmes are very important for driving companies towards taking measures for pollution prevention.

This seminar was a platform to build on the existing awareness of Green Chemistry and to encourage and motivate the participants further towards this topic by the sharing of case studies and providing an opportunity to interact with experts in this area.