A5.8 Atom Economy
How “green” is a chemical manufacturing process?
The answer to this question can be expressed as the chemical’s percentage atom economy. To evaluate the atom economy, this equation is used:
Worked example 🖊️
What is the atom economy of the manufacture of ethanol by: i. fermentation of glucose? ii. hydration of ethane? Method i. molar mass of desired products molar mass of reactants
(of course, in practice this reaction is even less efficient as the reaction usually stops before all the glucose has been changed into ethanol!) Method ii. Atom economy = 100% as there is only one product.
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