Atom Economy

Atom Economy

I was excited to find a practical application for knowing the mass of an element! I like things to be practical. So I saw how calculating the mass of benzene and of phenol, then allows you to figure out the percentage yield, and also the percentage atom economy. I was interested to read the part about how yield is only part of the story, that you also have to take into account the reactants, and what is left over from them that then might have to get thrown away somewhere. When I was in the little window about figuring out the yield, before reading the other part, I was confused, thinking "ok, I see how they calculated the mass of benzene, and I see how they calculated the mass of phenol, but what about these other things in here? Well, part of it is water, but what about the sodium-sulphur-oxygen thingie in the middle, what's that and what happens with it? Why aren't we calculating its mass too?" And then I read the other part, called "the problem with yield" which was saying exactly that, and I find it really disturbing that this is a new idea, the concept of setting up your chemistry to not make so much waste that you then have to dispose of, when I, not really knowing jack about chemistry, looked at this equation and said "yeah, but what do we do with this other stuff??" Wouldn't you think that actual chemists would have asked that too, at least a hundred years ago? I'm pretty sure we're talking about a lot of people who were smarter than me...

But in the "better late than never" category, it is encouraging to see that ibuprofen is now being produced with an atom economy close to twice what it used to be. It seems to me that the companies making stuff should have their chemists calculating yield and atom economy, to find the best process, and then NOT use a "deliberate excess of reactants" which the web site says that many processes do.

I shouldn't be so harsh, I know I'm not as efficient and economical as I could be either....yes, I put trash out at the curb every week...