Transportation remains one of the largest contributors to global carbon dioxide emissions with the majority of vehicles using fossil-based fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Therefore, alternatives that come from a renewable feedstock and create fewer carbon emissions are urgently needed. Biodiesel, an alternative to fossil-based diesel fuel, can be produced from renewable or waste feedstocks such as biomass, animal fats and industrial wastes making it much more sustainable. However, challenges remain in improving and refining the properties of biodiesel, developing production processes and choosing feedstocks with optimal sustainability. Focusing on recent advances in the areas of feedstocks for biodiesel, production processes, and testing and enhancement of properties, Developments in Biodiesel provides a balance between academic and industrial viewpoints across a range of topics. It is an ideal reference for both academics and industrialists interested in sustainable energy, sustainable fuels and biomass/waste valorisation.

Many of the polymers we use every day are highly flammable. Historically, a large number of home fires were caused by ignited polymeric materials until legislation was introduced requiring fire retardants to be added to these materials. Fire retardants increase the time it takes for materials to ignite, providing valuable time to prevent a fire or escape. However, it has become apparent that many of the traditional treatments used as fire retardants are harmful to human health and highly persistent in the environment. With evermore polymeric materials in our homes and lives it is still highly valuable to be able to make fire retardants, but consideration must be given to their environmental impact and sustainability. Green Fire Retardants for Polymeric Materials looks at both the choice of different materials and treatments for improving the fire retardancy of polymeric materials, as well as green approaches to synthesising these fire retardants. It is a timely resource both for green chemists interested in real world applications for their work and polymer scientists keen to increase the sustainability of their products and processes.

Oligopeptides and oligonucleotides, jointly defined as TIDES, have been neglected in the past as potential drugs due to their short half-life and practical difficulties in the manufacturing processes. The consolidation of iterative synthetic techniques, allowing for design of new chemical entities with better pharmaceutical profiles, has led to renewed interest in these compounds. Large scale manufacturing is therefore now required, and it is important that sustainability and green chemistry are considered from the outset. As the two classes display many similarities, advances in sustainable approaches can easily be adapted from one class to the other. This book brings together all of the information on green synthesis of oligopeptides, which is well established, and all of the preliminary data on green oligonucleotides synthesis, creating a resource that will help chemists to bridge the gap between these two areas.

There is an increasing awareness that materials and chemicals produced from fossil fuels are not sustainable, both in terms of the pollution caused by the extraction and production processes, and the fact that there is only a finite supply of these fossil fuels. Therefore, there is a strong incentive to find sources for chemicals and materials from source materials that we know we can continue to generate. Plants are a source of a wide variety of chemicals, many with interesting properties, and these chemical feedstocks are considered renewable rather than finite. Green Chemistry and Green Materials from Plant Oils and Natural Acids covers the application of these natural materials in producing polymers, lubricants and plasticisers.

This book discusses a spectrum of approaches to designing the food-energy-water nexus at different spatial-urban scales. The book offers a framework for working on the FEW-nexus in a design-led context and integrates the design of urban neighbourhoods and regions with methodologies how to simultaneously engaging residents and stakeholders and evaluating the propositions in a FEW-print, measuring the environmental impact of the different designs. The examples are derived from on the ground practices in Sydney, Tokyo, Detroit, Amsterdam and Belfast.

Environmental engineers support the well-being of people and the planet in areas where the two intersect. Over the decades the field has improved countless lives through innovative systems for delivering water, treating waste, and preventing and remediating pollution in air, water, and soil. These achievements are a testament to the multidisciplinary, pragmatic, systems-oriented approach that characterizes environmental engineering. Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges outlines the crucial role for environmental engineers in this period of dramatic growth and change. The report identifies five pressing challenges of the 21st century that environmental engineers are uniquely poised to help advance: sustainably supply food, water, and energy; curb climate change and adapt to its impacts; design a future without pollution and waste; create efficient, healthy, resilient cities; and foster informed decisions and actions.

This book serves as a timely and comprehensive overview of the latest science for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), covering the development of methods for assessing PFASs in biological fluids and tissues as well as the current knowledge regarding their toxicity to vertebrate organisms. This book includes chapters on human and wildlife exposure/body burdens, reviews of metabolism and toxicological effects by organ system/developmental stage and aspects of PFAS toxicity that are driving PFAS research and regulatory oversight. Toxicological Effects of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances provide critical assessments of the most controversial topics surrounding toxicological evaluation of PFASs to give readers an expert perspective on the issues. Emphasis is placed on the integration of modes and mechanisms of action with functional endpoints that are relevant to human and wildlife health. This book will be a useful resource for toxicologists, environmental chemists, risk assessors and researchers with an interest in the class of compounds known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent, meticulously researched, and groundbreaking book about the ways in which chemicals in the modern environment are changing—and endangering—human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale, from renowned epidemiologist Shanna Swan. In 2017, author Shanna Swan and her team of researchers completed a major study. They found that over the past four decades, sperm levels among men in Western countries have dropped by more than 50 percent. They came to this conclusion after examining 185 studies involving close to 45,000 healthy men. The result sent shockwaves around the globe—but the story didn’t end there. It turns out our sexual development is changing in broader ways, for both men and women and even other species, and that the modern world is on pace to become an infertile one. How and why could this happen? What is hijacking our fertility and our health? Count Down unpacks these questions, revealing what Swan and other researchers have learned about how both lifestyle and chemical exposures are affecting our fertility, sexual development—potentially including the increase in gender fluidity—and general health as a species. Engagingly explaining the science and repercussions of these worldwide threats and providing simple and practical guidelines for effectively avoiding chemical goods (from water bottles to shaving cream) both as individuals and societies, Count Down is at once an urgent wake-up call, an illuminating read, and a vital tool for the protection of our future.

PFAS (per and polyfluoroalkylsubstances) are known to be extremely difficult to degrade in the environment and to be bioaccumulative and toxic. Exposure to PFAS is suspected to increase the risk of adverse health effects, such as impacts on the thyroid gland, the liver, fat metabolism and the immune system. This study estimates the socioeconomic costs that may result from impacts on human health and the environment from the use of PFAS. Better awareness of the costs and problems associated with PFAS exposure will assist decision-makers and the general public to make more efficient and timely risk management decisions. Findings indicate that the costs are substantial, with annual health-related costs estimated to 2.8 – 4.6 billion EUR for the Nordic countries and 52 – 84 billion EUR for all EEA countries. Overall non-health costs are estimated at 46 million – 11 billion EUR for the Nordic countries.Upon request the excel spreadsheets used for the monetarisation and valuation in this report can also be provided along with a guidance on how to use the estimation of costs for value transfer. Please contact any of the consultants or members of the steering group from the Swedish Chemicals Agency or the Danish Environmental Protection Agency if you are interested in receiving these excel spreadsheets.