Pub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101058
Alessandra Tolomelli, Tommaso Fantoni, Davide Carboni, Lucia Ferrazzano, Walter Cabri
Aqueous chemistry is a key platform for advancing sustainable organometallic and enzymatic catalytic technologies relevant to API manufacturing. Effective implementation requires minimizing process mass intensity (PMI), increasing reaction mass efficiency, ensuring final product quality, and managing the impact of water-waste contaminants. Recent advances in palladium cross-coupling show how water or aqueous cosolvents can deliver highly efficient transformations: micellar water/sodium dodecyl sulfate/cyclopentylmethyl ether systems with new monodentate basic phosphines enable 0.125–0.5 mol% Pd and PMIs near 20 on complex architecture, while bidentate nitrogen ligands in hydroxyethyl pyrrolidone/water achieve 0.1–0.005 mol% Pd, turnover numbers up to 17,800, and >90% Pd recovery. Enzymatic innovations, including Merck’s free-enzyme cascade for islatravir and subtilisin-engineered peptide ligation for liraglutide, demonstrate how aqueous biocatalysis can provide selective, scalable, and greener API-relevant processes.
{"title":"Water-enabled organometallic and enzymatic catalysis: Sustainable technologies supporting API manufacturing","authors":"Alessandra Tolomelli, Tommaso Fantoni, Davide Carboni, Lucia Ferrazzano, Walter Cabri","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101058","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101058","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Aqueous chemistry is a key platform for advancing sustainable organometallic and enzymatic catalytic technologies relevant to API manufacturing. Effective implementation requires minimizing process mass intensity (PMI), increasing reaction mass efficiency, ensuring final product quality, and managing the impact of water-waste contaminants. Recent advances in palladium cross-coupling show how water or aqueous cosolvents can deliver highly efficient transformations: micellar water/sodium dodecyl sulfate/cyclopentylmethyl ether systems with new monodentate basic phosphines enable 0.125–0.5 mol% Pd and PMIs near 20 on complex architecture, while bidentate nitrogen ligands in hydroxyethyl pyrrolidone/water achieve 0.1–0.005 mol% Pd, turnover numbers up to 17,800, and >90% Pd recovery. Enzymatic innovations, including Merck’s free-enzyme cascade for islatravir and subtilisin-engineered peptide ligation for liraglutide, demonstrate how aqueous biocatalysis can provide selective, scalable, and greener API-relevant processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101058"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146070962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101055
Vânia G. Zuin Zeidler , Caroindes J. Corrêa Gomes
This paper aims at exploring the role of sustainable chemistry to address regenerative practices, dynamics, and systems as the ones related to agriculture, food production, and processing, including topics such as valorization of agro-industrial waste, biorefinery, biomass, bio-based materials and related flows or processes, renewable resources and energy, considering the links to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
{"title":"Regeneration and sustainable chemistry: Current dynamics, interconnections, and perspectives","authors":"Vânia G. Zuin Zeidler , Caroindes J. Corrêa Gomes","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101055","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101055","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper aims at exploring the role of sustainable chemistry to address regenerative practices, dynamics, and systems as the ones related to agriculture, food production, and processing, including topics such as valorization of agro-industrial waste, biorefinery, biomass, bio-based materials and related flows or processes, renewable resources and energy, considering the links to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 101055"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145618198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-25DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101054
Himanshu Gupta, N. Raveendran Shiju
The rapid expansion of lithium-ion battery (LIB) applications over the past decade—driven by the rise in portable electronics and electric vehicles—has led to a significant increase in battery waste. While the recovery of valuable metals such as lithium and cobalt from spent LIBs has received considerable attention, the recycling of separator materials remains largely neglected. These separators, typically made from polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), are critical to battery function yet are often discarded through landfilling, raising environmental concerns due to their non-biodegradable nature. This mini-review highlights the emerging need to address the end-of-life management of LIB separators, discusses recent advances in their reuse and recycling, and outlines potential pathways to incorporate these materials into circular economy models. Greater focus on separator recovery could enhance the overall sustainability and resource efficiency of LIB recycling processes.
{"title":"Recycling and reuse of olefinic separators in lithium-ion batteries: A mini review","authors":"Himanshu Gupta, N. Raveendran Shiju","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101054","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101054","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid expansion of lithium-ion battery (LIB) applications over the past decade—driven by the rise in portable electronics and electric vehicles—has led to a significant increase in battery waste. While the recovery of valuable metals such as lithium and cobalt from spent LIBs has received considerable attention, the recycling of separator materials remains largely neglected. These separators, typically made from polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), are critical to battery function yet are often discarded through landfilling, raising environmental concerns due to their non-biodegradable nature. This mini-review highlights the emerging need to address the end-of-life management of LIB separators, discusses recent advances in their reuse and recycling, and outlines potential pathways to incorporate these materials into circular economy models. Greater focus on separator recovery could enhance the overall sustainability and resource efficiency of LIB recycling processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 101054"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145571722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The growing ammonia demand and the need to mitigate its toxicity have raised interest in solid-state ammonia sorbents as a safe alternative to conventional storage systems. This review paper focuses on the development of ammonia storage and thermochemical energy storage, based on research published from 2022 to 2024. Results demonstrate that the two applications have reached different technologies’ maturity. For ammonia storage, the aim was to enhance the sorbent’s performance by novel synthesis routes, whereas a recent shift toward the optimization of systems has been observed for energy storage applications. In our opinion, one should aim for a simplification of the sorbent synthesis route while keeping a look at novel developments to combine the enhancement of both efficiency and stability.
{"title":"Recent advancements in solid-state ammonia sorbents","authors":"Janna Attari , Valentina Mendoza Martinez , Farid Akhtar , Anastasiia Karabanova","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101050","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101050","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing ammonia demand and the need to mitigate its toxicity have raised interest in solid-state ammonia sorbents as a safe alternative to conventional storage systems. This review paper focuses on the development of ammonia storage and thermochemical energy storage, based on research published from 2022 to 2024. Results demonstrate that the two applications have reached different technologies’ maturity. For ammonia storage, the aim was to enhance the sorbent’s performance by novel synthesis routes, whereas a recent shift toward the optimization of systems has been observed for energy storage applications. In our opinion, one should aim for a simplification of the sorbent synthesis route while keeping a look at novel developments to combine the enhancement of both efficiency and stability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 101050"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145571721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-23DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101053
Yaleeni Kanna Dasan , Uganeeswary Suparmaniam , Man Kee Lam , Inn Shi Tan , Sie Yon Lau , Fui Chin Bridgid Lai
Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels demand urgent, scalable solutions that decarbonize the energy sector without compromising sustainability. Algae-based carbon capture stands at the frontier of innovation, offering rapid CO2 fixation, low resource input, and versatile biofuel applications. This short review explores recent advances in seaweed and microalgae cultivation for CO2 mitigation, emphasizing their role in the emerging blue bioeconomy. Evaluation of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and cost trade-offs from both life cycle and techno-economic perspectives demonstrate the potential of algae as a viable climate solution and a sustainable renewable resource. A harmonized life cycle assessment framework is proposed to guide commercialization of marine biomass for biofuel and successful integration into coastal carbon strategies. The review concludes by identifying key challenges and future directions to scale algae technologies as nature-based carbon sinks for a net-zero future.
{"title":"CO2 mitigation via seaweed and microalgae farming for sustainable biofuel production in the blue bioeconomy","authors":"Yaleeni Kanna Dasan , Uganeeswary Suparmaniam , Man Kee Lam , Inn Shi Tan , Sie Yon Lau , Fui Chin Bridgid Lai","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101053","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101053","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rising carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) levels demand urgent, scalable solutions that decarbonize the energy sector without compromising sustainability. Algae-based carbon capture stands at the frontier of innovation, offering rapid CO<sub>2</sub> fixation, low resource input, and versatile biofuel applications. This short review explores recent advances in seaweed and microalgae cultivation for CO<sub>2</sub> mitigation, emphasizing their role in the emerging blue bioeconomy. Evaluation of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and cost trade-offs from both life cycle and techno-economic perspectives demonstrate the potential of algae as a viable climate solution and a sustainable renewable resource. A harmonized life cycle assessment framework is proposed to guide commercialization of marine biomass for biofuel and successful integration into coastal carbon strategies. The review concludes by identifying key challenges and future directions to scale algae technologies as nature-based carbon sinks for a net-zero future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 101053"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145520869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-21DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101049
Jules Armand Wilhelmina Harings , Hendrik Ballerstedt , Lars Mathias Blank
The plastic crisis is in full swing, requiring our collective attention to limit its adverse impact on the environment and human health. Here in, we argue that the high recycling quota required can be more easily achieved when using recycling-privileged plastics, for examplem i.e., plastics that, at the end of their life, are in a technological environment readily depolymerized into their monomers or building blocks of higher, but controlled order (chemistry). Incidentally, recycling rates or recycling quotas are mandated targets, expressed as a percentage, for the amount of waste that must be collected and recycled, often by governments and regulatory bodies. These quotas, such as the EU's overall 65% packaging recycling goal by 2025, aim to promote a circular economy, reduce landfill waste, conserve resources, and decrease pollution. They are calculated as an output-oriented rate, meaning only waste that is successfully reused is counted towards the target. Once degradation pathways are understood, this can be achieved by crossing multiple length scales down to the molecular level to intercept them on time. These recycling-privileged plastics typically contain heteroatomic bonds and are classified as polycondensates, such as polyesters or polyamides. These plastics can consist of novel monomers and/or of modified material, tailored not only for the application but also for recycling. It goes without saying that any future plastic economy relies on alternative carbon sources (biomass, CO2, plastic waste). We state the challenges, present the state-of-the-art of recycling-privileged polymers, and discuss the many possibilities at the end-of-life when polymer physics is used to tailor material properties during and after the utilization phase.
{"title":"Recycling-privileged plastic polymers","authors":"Jules Armand Wilhelmina Harings , Hendrik Ballerstedt , Lars Mathias Blank","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101049","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101049","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The plastic crisis is in full swing, requiring our collective attention to limit its adverse impact on the environment and human health. Here in, we argue that the high recycling quota required can be more easily achieved when using recycling-privileged plastics, for examplem i.e., plastics that, at the end of their life, are in a technological environment readily depolymerized into their monomers or building blocks of higher, but controlled order (chemistry). Incidentally, recycling rates or recycling quotas are mandated targets, expressed as a percentage, for the amount of waste that must be collected and recycled, often by governments and regulatory bodies. These quotas, such as the EU's overall 65% packaging recycling goal by 2025, aim to promote a circular economy, reduce landfill waste, conserve resources, and decrease pollution. They are calculated as an output-oriented rate, meaning only waste that is successfully reused is counted towards the target. Once degradation pathways are understood, this can be achieved by crossing multiple length scales down to the molecular level to intercept them on time. These recycling-privileged plastics typically contain heteroatomic bonds and are classified as polycondensates, such as polyesters or polyamides. These plastics can consist of novel monomers and/or of modified material, tailored not only for the application but also for recycling. It goes without saying that any future plastic economy relies on alternative carbon sources (biomass, CO<sub>2</sub>, plastic waste). We state the challenges, present the state-of-the-art of recycling-privileged polymers, and discuss the many possibilities at the end-of-life when polymer physics is used to tailor material properties during and after the utilization phase.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"56 ","pages":"Article 101049"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145335168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-04DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101048
Regina M.B.O. Duarte, Armando C. Duarte
The concepts that help us to better understand the atmospheric chemistry, including the composition and dynamics of air particles and gaseous species, and their impact on climate and human health, rely on the development of sensitive and selective analytical methods that allow one to measure an ever-increasing range of analytes, whose physicochemical features vary both in time and space. Motivated by the ongoing awareness of the need to adopt eco-friendly practices, this perspective highlights analytical practices with the potential to meet green and sustainable requirements and that have offered an almost unexplored playground for deciphering and mapping the intricacies of atmospheric chemistry. The most promising green metrics currently available to estimate the environmental impact and efficiency of analytical methods are also highlighted. Rather than presenting new quantitative data, this perspective offers a critical and conceptual discussion aimed at advancing the adoption of sustainable analytical solutions in the highly challenging field of atmospheric chemistry analysis.
{"title":"Integrating sustainability in atmospheric chemistry analysis","authors":"Regina M.B.O. Duarte, Armando C. Duarte","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The concepts that help us to better understand the atmospheric chemistry, including the composition and dynamics of air particles and gaseous species, and their impact on climate and human health, rely on the development of sensitive and selective analytical methods that allow one to measure an ever-increasing range of analytes, whose physicochemical features vary both in time and space. Motivated by the ongoing awareness of the need to adopt eco-friendly practices, this perspective highlights analytical practices with the potential to meet green and sustainable requirements and that have offered an almost unexplored playground for deciphering and mapping the intricacies of atmospheric chemistry. The most promising green metrics currently available to estimate the environmental impact and efficiency of analytical methods are also highlighted. Rather than presenting new quantitative data, this perspective offers a critical and conceptual discussion aimed at advancing the adoption of sustainable analytical solutions in the highly challenging field of atmospheric chemistry analysis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"55 ","pages":"Article 101048"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145121198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101047
Nor Adilla Rashidi , M. Devendran Manogaran
To date, functionalised biomass-based activated carbon has attracted a high demand due to its enhanced physicochemical properties, which contribute to an improved performance as compared to its pristine materials. However, complexity, high cost, and time-consuming nature of the postmodification techniques has prompted a growing interest in in situ functionalization methods. Thus, this article reviews various in situ functionalization methods, including the chemical enrichment, heteroatom doping, and gas-phase functionalization, toward the improvement of physiochemical properties and performance in gas adsorption and electrochemical energy storage. Moreover, challenges, emerging trends, and future work related to the in situ functionalization techniques are highlighted in this review. Overall, this review article aims to serve as a valuable resource for future work in high-performance biomass-based activated carbon production.
{"title":"In situ functionalization of biomass-based activated carbon for environmental remediation","authors":"Nor Adilla Rashidi , M. Devendran Manogaran","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101047","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101047","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To date, functionalised biomass-based activated carbon has attracted a high demand due to its enhanced physicochemical properties, which contribute to an improved performance as compared to its pristine materials. However, complexity, high cost, and time-consuming nature of the postmodification techniques has prompted a growing interest in <em>in situ</em> functionalization methods. Thus, this article reviews various <em>in situ</em> functionalization methods, including the chemical enrichment, heteroatom doping, and gas-phase functionalization, toward the improvement of physiochemical properties and performance in gas adsorption and electrochemical energy storage. Moreover, challenges, emerging trends, and future work related to the <em>in situ</em> functionalization techniques are highlighted in this review. Overall, this review article aims to serve as a valuable resource for future work in high-performance biomass-based activated carbon production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"55 ","pages":"Article 101047"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145121265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-11DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101043
G. Akay , A.R. González-Elipe , A. Gómez-Ramírez
{"title":"Comment to ‘Plasma catalysis for gas conversion—Impact of catalyst on the plasma behavior’","authors":"G. Akay , A.R. González-Elipe , A. Gómez-Ramírez","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101043","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101043","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"55 ","pages":"Article 101043"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145049268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-18DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101042
Mohamed Chaker Necibi, Borhane Mahjoub
{"title":"Special issue on green sorbent materials","authors":"Mohamed Chaker Necibi, Borhane Mahjoub","doi":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101042","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cogsc.2025.101042","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54228,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry","volume":"55 ","pages":"Article 101042"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144860802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}