Feature article - Designing chemicals for performance and planet

Vishal Sharma, ED and CEO of Godrej Industries, says we must reimagine how we design and produce chemicals

Modern life depends on chemicals in ways that often go unnoticed. Chemicals make life-saving medicines, improve the yield of crops to feed a growing population, add strength to building materials that make our houses and cities and play a role in practically every product we consume and use. Chemicals are famously known as the ‘mother of all materials’. 

Despite their indispensable role, chemicals are largely perceived as harmful and toxic. This is not surprising, considering how decades of reliance on petrochemicals has contributed significantly to climate change and ecological damage, whose effects are becoming increasingly unmanageable and severe. 

The writing is on the wall: the future of the chemicals sector depends on our commitment to a just transition towards a chemical regime that has a reduced negative impact on the planet. This is a moment of reckoning for chemical manufacturers. Industry leaders, scientists and engineers have a major responsibility to make chemicals greener and safer for the environment. 

The solution lies in reimagining how we design and produce chemicals. Studies show that creating chemicals in bulk from biomass, instead of petro-based feedstock, can result in savings of more than 100% in non-renewable energy use.1 Moreover, chemicals that were produced in a biorefinery instead of a typical oil refinery were shown to have drastically reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, up to 88%.2 

Through biotechnology and green chemistry, we can reap the twin benefits of reduced dependence on fossil fuels and lower GHG emissions. These are essential steps in the national and global fight against climate change. If chemicals are the building blocks of modern life, then biochemicals will be the foundation of a sustainable future.

The dual challenge

The shift toward chemicals that are healthier for the planet is not about producing less but producing better. For biochemicals to emerge as a viable alternative, they must be as, if not more, efficient as their petrochemical counterparts. A biodegradable plastic or a bio-fertiliser, even if it is eco-friendly, will not gain market acceptance unless it works as well as their synthetic alternatives.

To enable optimal performance and viability of biochemicals, we need to pay greater attention to production methods, feedstock sourcing, and life cycle impacts. For example, the biomass balance approach integrates renewable feedstock into pre-existing processes, causing minimal disruption to the production system and ensuring that the product performance is maintained.3 This promotes sustainable sourcing, cost-effectiveness, and most importantly, is comparatively easier for manufacturers to adopt. 

Balancing performance with sustainability requires constant evaluation and tenacity to detail. Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) are a valuable tool to understand the environmental impact of a product, from cradle to grave. 

Rigorous LCAs help shed light on which manufacturing processes are most effective and environmentally friendly and also reveal the most suitable types of bio-feedstock for particular operational contexts. This helps manufacturers make better decisions and mitigate trade-offs. As development of biochemicals is still in a nascent stage in India, LCAs act as a compass to improve their viability at an industrial scale. 

The science of safety 

Beyond environmental outcomes, chemicals also have an impact on ecosystem balances and human health. This is where ecotoxicology becomes essential. 

By studying how chemicals interact with living organisms on land and in water, scientists can assess and address potential risks before products reach the market. For example, ecotoxicological research for biochemicals help manufacturers test for possible bio-contamination in the soil or water bodies, ensuring that biochemicals are safe to use as pesticides and surfactants. 

Ecotoxicology includes hazard assessment, feedback mechanisms, and interdisciplinary research. This helps identify toxicity risks early on in the development process and enables data-driven refinement of chemical formulations. 

This builds better and stronger chemical design protocols, where sustainability is expanded beyond fossil fuel reduction to actively include the wellbeing of ecosystems. Integrating ecotoxicology into product development ensures that biobased chemicals are not just superficially ‘green’ but genuinely sustainable over the long term.

Biodegradability & circular design

The future of chemicals involves a calculated return to nature. Biodegradability, ensuring that materials break down safely after use, circular economy principles, where waste becomes feedstock for new products, and optimal but safe performance must become non-negotiable in chemical design.

This is only possible through holistic efforts and active collaboration between sectors. Industry leaders need to work proactively with regulatory bodies, academia, and international organisations to make headway on the commercial adoption of biochemicals. 

R&D must be prioritised to identify the best ways to implement circular economy principles in granular and context-specific ways, such as closing the nutrient loop, identifying optimal bio-stocks, developing fermentation technologies and advancing material engineering for biobased materials.

However, efficient sustainability cannot be achieved through labs alone. Making biochemicals a viable reality for the chemical industry requires policy incentives, addressing operational challenges by improving infrastructure, and incorporating inputs from local communities. 

Additionally, building consumer awareness on the importance of the bioeconomy as a whole will shed light on the benefits of biochemicals and encourage them to make informed choices. Finally, industry leaders must set hard organisational targets to demonstrate their commitment and to set an example for their peers. 

By reimagining how chemicals are designed and produced, we can create a future where industrial growth and environmental health go hand in hand. We already have the tools we need– all that’s left is the will. 

References:

1. B.G. Hermann, K. Blok & M.K. Patel, Environ. Sci. Technol. Nov 2007, 15;41(22):7915-21: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18075108/

2. K. Huang et al., ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2021, 9(43): https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c04836