ABSTRACT
Acknowledgment................................................................................................................ 624
References .......................................................................................................................... 624
The manufacture of fine and specialty chemicals in batch processes has commonly been
associated with the production of large quantities of toxic wastes due to the widespread use
of traditional reagents such as mineral acids, strong bases, stoichiometric oxidants, and toxic
metal reagents. The practice also has other drawbacks including handling difficulties, inor-
ganic contaminants of organic products, and poor reaction selectivity leading to unwanted
isomers and side-products. The trend towards the integration of attractive economics with
low environmental impact in chemical manufacture (‘‘enviroeconomics’’) is expected to
continue in the future as traditional environmentally unacceptable processes are replaced
by cleaner alternatives. The widespread application of environmentally benign processes such
as clean catalytic processes in benign solvents will continue to play a pivotal role in the drive
towards environmentally responsible technologies with minimal waste generation.
