Green Chemistry
By
Prof.Nagendrappa
The new Boots-Hoechst-Celanese Synthesis
The new synthesis avoids MeCOCl, AlCl3, alkali, acid, ethyl chloroacetate, hydroxylamine, etc., most of which do not form part of the final product. This demonstrates how the original process causes huge amounts of waste generation resulting in not only cost enhancement, but environmental pollution through the wrong use of resources.
In the new method, there is hardly any product that can be considered as waste. The only by-product is acetic acid which can be converted to acetic anhydride. All other chemicals are either catalysts (Raney nickel, PdCl2-Ph3P, HF) which are recoverable or reactants that form part of the product (Ac2O), H2, CO), and solvents (MEK and others not shown in the equation).