Going green in Asia
175 minutes for chemistry
Dr. Andrew Hunt, a senior researcher from the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at the University of York, spent 5 weeks in September and October 2016 promoting the importance of green chemistry and interdisciplinary sustainable science at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand.
“When I was invited by the Faculty of Engineering at KKU to come to visit Thailand to encourage the application of green and sustainable chemistry into chemical engineering, I was thrilled. I jumped at the chance to help inspire a generation of sustainable scientists in a part of the world in which green chemistry is still developing. I was fortunate enough to be able to deliver courses on aspects of green chemistry, catalysis, elemental sustainability and also scientific writing/literacy.”
Green chemistry and the 12 principles
A key workshop to undergraduate students at KKU was on the principles of green chemistry. This workshop was student directed and promoted the significance of working in teams to solve or formulate answers to problems. Although the students were aware of environmental issues related to the chemical industry, none had heard about the 12 principles of green chemistry or sustainability. “I was overwhelmed at how enthusiastic the students were to actively participate in presenting their thoughts on what the 12 principles of green chemistry should be! Many of the students were inspired by these principles and discovered the importance of applying them to their studies or research projects. In teams, the students then went on to develop their own 12 principles of green chemical engineering. I was really pleased that the students made this event a true success."
“A course I delivered on catalysis to younger students was another real highlight for me. The students learnt about the importance of catalysts in controlling air pollution from cars and how we should think sustainably about the elements we use in catalysts. This led to discussions within the class on the recycling and recovery of elements at their end of life. Students were shocked to hear that many elements still have relatively poor rates of recycling. To engage further discussion the class was even split into four teams based on the houses from the Harry Potter books. Quizzes and questions sessions on catalysis were used to win points for each house. Needless to say that Gryffindor team won!”
A promising future
Mr. Pongsakorn Nonsi, a 4th year student at KKU said “Over the past few weeks in KKU, Dr. Hunt taught us so many things, mostly about green chemistry. This is very important for us as chemical engineering students in order to gain the knowledge and understanding of catalysts and green chemistry. From what we have studied, we have learned the importance of green chemistry and elemental sustainability. This highlighted that it is important for the engineer to create processes to recover substances without releasing waste. Thank you so much for your time and experience that you shared with us, we really appreciated it and one day we hope we will meet again.”
“I want to thank Dr. Hunt for coming and sharing his knowledge about green chemistry. We have learnt a lot, not only about green chemistry, but from the course activities we learned how to present science in an interesting way. I believe that what you gave to us can be applied in our daily and working lives, especially English communication skills. Thank you again for coming.” Mr. Narubeth Lorwanishpaisarn, master student at KKU.
“I went to Thailand to inspire students to go green but, I myself left feeling inspired. I feel honoured that I was able to help increase the popularity of science and promote green issues to a wonderful group of students. I see a promising future for green, sustainable and multidisciplinary research in Thailand and throughout Asia.”
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
Tell us your story
If you've been involved in an event or activity, or just have an interesting story to tell, we want to hear from you! Please get in touch using the online form or tweet us @RoySocChem using #time4chem.