On July 28th 2015, a half-day workshop on Green Chemistry was organized by Green Chemistree Foundation at Cipla, Vikhroli, Mumbai. It was attended by around 45 Cipla employees from different departments such as R&D and Production.
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@SourceTM 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.
Industrial Green Chemistry World 