The Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) and the Global Chemistry

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Chapter 11

The Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) and the Global Chemistry Enterprise: Building a Sustainable Development Strategy Vitor Francisco Ferreira* President, Brazilian Chemical Society Universidade Federal Fluminense, Instituto de Química, Departamento de Química Orgânica, CEG, Campus do Valonguinho, Brazil *E-mail: [email protected]

In recent years, the changing landscape of science, technology and innovation in emerging nations, such as Brazil, China and India, has had a major impact on the international community, placing these countries within the most promising economies in the globalized world. In this scenario, the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) is committed to contribute to the development of chemistry in Brazil, a country with fantastic natural resources and the potential to become a global leader in sustainable chemistry. The vision for 2025 includes the alignment of SBQ’s global strategies with the principles of sustainable development, highlighting the research on biodiversity, alternative sources of energy, and green chemistry. SBQ is committed to playing an important role in the solution of social and environmental global problems, particularly those that afflict public education at all levels.

Introduction The “Sociedade Brasileira de Química” (SBQ), was founded in 1977 and will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2017. It is the leading chemical society in Brazil and is devoted to the development and growth of the Brazilian chemical community, the dissemination of chemistry information, and the applications of chemistry to the development of the country and to the improvement of quality of life. © 2014 American Chemical Society In Vision 2025: How To Succeed in the Global Chemistry Enterprise; Cheng, H., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.


SBQ has discussed with the Brazilian government and other stakeholders the importance of chemistry to the economy of Brazil, always emphasizing that the chemistry of the future must be clean and sustainable. This is the vision of SBQ. We believe that innovation, education, science and technology are strategic drivers in ensuring the social and economic advancement of the country. With respect to clean and sustainable chemistry, SBQ has adopted several global strategies: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Research in biodiversity and conversion of biomass in feedstock. Alternative sources for clean energy and green chemistry. Sustainable production of chemicals and drugs. Actions to alleviate social and environmental global problems, mainly those that afflict public education at all levels. Agricultural productivity to feed the increased population. Improvement of the quality of drinking water. Discovery of new drugs for old and new diseases.

These strategies address many of challenges in the world. We know, for example, that by 2050 the world’s population will likely reach 9 billion. Currently at least 40 million people in the world have no access to drinking water. Chemistry can help with all of these challenges. In this article, the author will discuss the first two strategies in detail.

Biodiversity and Conversion of Biomass in Feedstock Brazil is a country with huge natural resources. It has the potential to become a global leader in sustainable chemistry. Nevertheless, it needs to place human beings as the focus for sustainable development, bringing to the discussion issues such as hunger, food production, and diseases. The chemical industry is important not only in generating jobs but also in contributing to human welfare. In fact, there is no country with sizable economic production that has not also a large chemical production. Furthermore, the countries that are today the most economically dynamic can be easily identified by their prominence in chemical production. In Brazil chemical industry is in transition. In the past the chemical feedstocks came primarily from fossil materials (e.g., coal, oil, and natural gas). We have learnt in the past 100 years how to convert fossil feedstocks into organic, polymeric, and fine chemicals for commercial use. In the future it is expected that the fossil materials will decrease in importance, and there will be a progressive increase in the use of renewable feedstocks for the chemical industry. We need to learn then how to transform biomass materials into new organic, polymeric and fine chemicals. Most countries in the world have biomass that can be gathered and utilized. The availability of biomass is a connecting point for all these countries. Perhaps the cultivation or the processing methods are different. Perhaps the plants or the species are different. Yet, most of the biomass contain carbohydrates (including 96 In Vision 2025: How To Succeed in the Global Chemistry Enterprise; Cheng, H., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.


cellulose, hemicellulose, starch, and sucrose), lipids, lignin, proteins, amino acids, chitin, or terpenes. The chemistry of these materials is very rich and may form the cornerstone for the development of new businesses that are important in the future. Because most of these materials are present in all countries, the technologies developed in one country can be applied to another country, thereby permitting fruitful collaborations. Another corollary is that the chemistry professionals need to adapt to this new reality in their work. Educators also need to revise their curricula to give greater emphasis to the chemistry of biomass and its various components. An example of sucrose may be cited here. Sucrose is the most abundant disaccharide in the world and a major product of Brazil. In Brazil in the 2011/2012 season, 6.9 million tons were produced, mostly from sugar cane. In the same period, 5.12 million tons were exported. Yet, sucrose is also an excellent starting material for a large number of chemical products (Figure 1). The most well known product is bioethanol (to be discussed in the next section). Other chemicals can be useful synthons for the syntheses of drug molecules, specialty chemicals and polymers. There are a lot of opportunities in this area for the creative scientists to come up with good ideas for new products.

Clean Energy and Green Chemistry Brazil is very active in deploying alternative sources for clean energy and green chemistry. Most of the sources come from either ethanol or lipids. Brazil is outstanding as the world’s most intensive user of ethanol from sugarcane as the alternative to gasoline. It is producing 27 billion liters of ethanol from 405 manufacturing plants. The ready availability and low cost of sugarcane makes the bioethanol economically feasible.

Figure 1. Scheme of reaction pathways from which new products can be made from sucrose. 97 In Vision 2025: How To Succeed in the Global Chemistry Enterprise; Cheng, H., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.


Another large program in Brazil is biodiesel. Increasingly cars and buses run on biodiesel in Brazil. The main lipid sources for biodiesel production in Brazil are shown in Figure 2. Currently most of it comes from soybean oil.

Figure 2. Main lipid sources for biodiesel production in Brazil. A major consideration when we formulated our strategies is the competition in the production of biofuels versus food on arable land. This is the rationale to convert waste biomass to biofuels. Some examples of the waste biomass being considered are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Examples of waste materials for use in biomass conversion.

Conclusions From the examples shown above, it is clear that SBQ’s vision is to align its global strategies with the principles of sustainable development. Certainly clean energy, green chemistry, and biomass conversion and utilization are among the main themes. For many years SBQ and ACS have a very good relationship. We hope to continue our interactions and collaborate in areas of mutual interest. 98 In Vision 2025: How To Succeed in the Global Chemistry Enterprise; Cheng, H., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.


SBQ has also been active in publishing journals and in organizing meetings. In fact, SBQ is hoping to bring IUPAC 2017 to São Paulo. For more information, interested readers may check the following website: http://www.sbq.org.br/IUPAC2017.

99 In Vision 2025: How To Succeed in the Global Chemistry Enterprise; Cheng, H., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2014.

The Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) and the Global Chemistry

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