IGC summit opens up new

vistas in industrial green

chemistry and technologies
The Industrial Green Chemistry Workshop (IGCW-2009) held from 4th to 6th
December 2009 at Hotel Renaissance, Powai, Mumbai was a major milestone
event organized by Newreka Green Synth Technologies Pvt Ltd, in association with
Green Chemistry Network Center- Indian Chapter of ACS-GCI and Chemical Industry
Digest, to create awareness and provide the momentum for green chemistry and
engineering technologies.

IGCW-2009 addressed the need of Indian Chemical Industry’s future direction with
global trends in sustainability, besides exploring opportunities for leveraging
industrial green chemistry models for business differentiation and competitiveness.

This event served as an interaction and learning platform for over 300 Chemical
Industry stakeholders, with 64% participation from Chemical Company
representatives, 16% participants from Academic & Research Institutes, 13%
students and 7 % officials from Government, Associations and Societal bodies.

Principally designed on the basis of 9-Eye (I) Approach, each ‘eye’ or the session
theme at IGCW-2009 expanded the vision of participants by engaging them into
emerging views of Industrial Green Chemistry paradigms and its implementation to
create tangible and intangible benefits economically and ecologically.

The chief guest of the event, Dr. T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and
Technology (DST), GOI, inaugurated the event and felicitated Prof Paul Anastas and
Prof John Warner for completion of 12 years of 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and
Engineering and released a background position report, “Industrial Green Chemistry
and Technology: Mapping Transformations” to cover the last 25 years of journey in
industrial green chemistry and technology in the Indian and global context.
IGCW-2009, for the first time in the history of Chemical Industry, brought together
active participation and leadership from leading experts of green chemistry of the
world: Prof. Paul Anastas and Dr. John Warner, considered as the fathers of green
chemistry, Dr. Bob Peoples, Director of the American Chemical Society, Dr. John
Peterson Myers, CEO & Chief Scientist, Environmental Health Services, USA; Dr. Kira
Matus, Sr. Policy Analyst, Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale
University, USA.

Several leading scientists and Industry experts from India: Prof. G D Yadav, Director,
ICT; Dr. Murali Sastry, CSO, Tata Innovations Center; and other success case studies
from Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Jublilant Organosys, Corning Inc and Orchid Pharma.
All the presentations deliberated over the three days addressed various challenges,
dynamics and global trends of Industrial Green Chemistry (IGC), please visit
www.IndustrialGreenChem.com to view the IGCW presentations.

IGCW-2009 recognized outstanding research and initiatives in Green Chemistry and

Engineering to promote pollution prevention models. IGC award winners include PI
Industries and Catapharma Pvt Ltd in large and medium scale categories
respectively. Through IGC Award, these upcoming companies received national
recognition for their outstanding chemical technologies that incorporated the
principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacturing, and use, and
that have been or can be utilized by them in achieving their pollution prevention
goals.

Out of seven shortlisted categories from Academia category, the winner was IICT,
Hyderabad, for their work on Technology for Enzymatic Degumming of Rice Bran Oil
and the students IGC awards category was accredited to the Biosynth Group from
IIT-B for their work on Biodiesel Synthesis from Waste Vegetable oil.

The workshop deliberated towards bridging the gap between industrial and
academic world with respect to perspective from both the worlds and how it could
be utilized for implementation of Green chemistry and engineering based solutions.
It also discussed green chemistry implementation barriers, policy regulations and
other dimensions like human mindset apart from technology implementation
barriers, including very interesting Panel discussion that concluded the event.
As an extension to the IGCW-2009 deliberations that primarily addressed Industry
specific requirements, the Green Chemistry Foundation, also organised a one day
seminar for Chemical Engineering students at IIT-B on 7th December and a one day
workshop for teachers on 8th December, in collaboration with the Beyond Benign
Organisation, an institute dedicated to generate, gather and disseminate green
chemistry information to a wide audience through a ‘minds’ on approach.
IGCW-2009 was an all-encompassing event with a prolific stream of powerful
presentations, case-studies and industry examples, with global exchanges of views
& ideas together marked the start of an emerging future for exploring sustainable
manufacturing in the Indian Chemical Industry.