The need for hotspot-driven research

Abstract

The entire life cycle of a product, from the obtaining of the raw materials by mining or agriculture to the end of life (recycling or disposal), consists of many steps, some of which are much more harmful than the others. Whether we're considering global warming, ecotoxicity, or resource consumption, there are typically only one or two steps that cause the vast majority of the harm of the entire life cycle. These steps, known as hotspots, are the ones that we, as green chemists and chemical engineers, should be working on. There is little benefit to be obtained by fixing a step in the life cycle that is a minor contributor to harm. However, traditional practice in the field of green chemistry has been to spend time, energy, and materials to make a selected step greener without first checking whether the selected step is the one causing most of the harm. Therefore there is a need for greater utilization of life cycle assessments (LCA) of existing processes to identify the hotspots and for that identification to be the driver for the selection of new research projects and directions. Hotspot-driven research will maximize the environmental benefit of green chemistry research.