Week Four Assignments - Green Chemistry

Catalyst of the Week:

So this was a little more complicated for me, but eventually I figured out that hydrogen is a catalyst in the hydrogenation process, which among other things produces margarine, one of my least favorite foodish substances. (For some reason Wikipedia mentions nickel as part of this process, and in another article there was mention of transition metals being involved in some way – however, other than repeating verbatim what the article says I am only going to mention it here, because I don’t honestly understand how it works….).

Basically, hydrogenation is the process the food industry uses to convert vegetable oils and fats from a liquid state to a solid or semi-solid state. There is some history associated with the invention of margarine in particular, which has to do with Napoleon wanting a substitute for butter and the subsequent work of the chemist Hippolyte Mege-Moutird, which ultimately resulted in the invention of margarine in 1869. Later on, margarine became popular here in the US, due to its being less expensive than butter, and also because it has a longer shelf life; as a result it is the predominant fat used in baked goods.

One of the side effects of the hydrogenation process, however, is that there ends up being leftover product from the process; some but not all of the double bonds of the molecule are reduced which results in an incomplete hydrogenation – hence the term “partially hydrogenated” – the leftover product are the trans fats which have been linked to heart disease.
There is much debate about whether butter or margarine is worse for us health wise; on the one hand you have the whole fat and animal product issue with butter, while on the other hand there is this issue with margarine. Personally, I don’t like the taste of margarine, and the whole chemical process required to create it makes me uncomfortable as well – so my choice is to go with butter in moderation. Probably less fats overall is the ultimate answer here.

My Opinion of Green Chemistry as Social Movement:

I think that the discussion we had in class about organic foods and their availability to the public at large is a good example of the sociopolitical aspect of this concept. While there seems to be no doubt that organic foods are a good thing, and that everyone would benefit from the switch, there is still a predominant paradigm particularly in this country that makes it prohibitive for people of a lower socioeconomic status to take advantage of healthier food. When basic survival skills are the foremost concern for low income families, and for people who are in danger of losing their jobs, spending substantially more for food that is organically grown is sometimes asking too much.

This speaks of a more basic underlying structure that exists where privilege is extended to a small minority of the population and IMO there is a certain callousness that has become the predominant attitude among the privileged that for some reason people of a lower social group are there because they haven’t worked hard enough or been smart enough or in some way are responsible for their own reduced circumstances.

At any rate, the way this applies to green chemistry is that this overall social paradigm has driven our administration for a very long time, and so any prospective advance in scientific thought or activity has been perceived as some type of threat and therefore been politicized. To embrace a “the world is not flat” opinion has been perceived as radical thought under this social environment, and therefore those who have done so have in some ways been labeled as activists.
Hopefully the new administration, with its renewed commitment to scientific thought and research will help to dispel this way of thinking.

On Atom Economy:

Well, while all the math is WAY beyond my understanding, I get the basic concept being discussed, which is the attempt by chemists to use all of the materials in a chemical reaction so as to reduce or eliminate waste material which may be toxic or harmful to humans or the environment – which is something I can get behind.