Green Chemistry. Innovation in the Chemical Industry

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Economics - Innovation economics grade: 10 Athens University of Economics and Business course: BWL - Innovationsmanagement language: English abstract: That the global chemical industry with a worth of $2 trillion has an enormous impact on economy society and the environment is undisputed. However with regard to the nowadays unstable economic and political situation worldwide an increasing rate of development in science and technology and higher customer demands chemical companies have to struggle for competitive advantages. A key factor for a company to maintain its market position and even enlarge it is successful innovation. Furthermore the direction of innovation plays a major role for sustainable growth of a company. Nowadays the basis of innovation in chemical industry is defined by sustainability and environmental protection due to climate change pollution and therefore stricter regulations. But of course every manufacturing company as most of the companies in chemical industry manufacture searches for ways to produce more efficient faster and cheaper. So might there be a way to combine both desires and transform the chemical industry to be more sustainable and increase their economic benefit at the same time? Even if one can hardly imagine green chemistry is about to achieve both of these goals and leads to transformational changes in chemical industry due to green innovations in various chemical fields. Pike Research a market research and consulting firm predicts that green chemistry represents a market opportunity that will grow from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $98.5 billion in 2020 and which is also extremely promising for chemical companies that green chemicals will save industry $65.5 billion by 2020. Various chemical inventions and technological developments for example in the expanding field of catalysis set the basis for the production of new less-hazardous and mult