Gadi Rothenberg is Professor and Chair of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University. For the past 30 years, he has been teaching courses on catalysis, scientific writing and innovation and entrepreneurship. Rothenberg was voted 'lecturer of the year' by the chemistry students. He has published five books and 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals, invented 16 patents and co-founded four companies. His current research interests include clean energy, biomass conversion, and creating value from waste.

Preface xiii
Note on the Text xv 1 Understanding the Principles of Sustainable Chemistry 11.1 Background: Chemistry and the Global Importance of Sustainability 2
1.2 Sustainable Chemistry as the Key to Sustainable Development 5
1.3 What Is 'Sustainable Chemistry'? 5
1.4 Industrial Examples 25 2 From Sustainable Science to Sustainable Business 352.1 Evaluating Sustainable Chemistry Ideas, Projects and Products 36
2.2 The SWOT Analysis 40
2.3 The PEST Analysis 44
2.4 Life-cycle Assessment: Quantifying and Qualifying Sustainability 51
2.5 Converting an Idea into a Business 53
2.6 Creating and Capturing Value in a Sustainable Business 61
2.7 Specific Barriers for Sustainable Chemistry Start-Ups 66
2.8 Co-Founders to Steal Horses with 67
2.9 Intellectual Property (IP) 68
2.10 Raising Investment 73
2.11 Further Reading 82 3 What's in the Water? 933.1 Taking Part in Europe's Researcher Mobility Programme 93
3.2 An Invention on the Beach 95
3.3 Water Quality Monitoring: A Real-Life Problem 97
3.4 First Experiments and Proof-of-Principle 100
3.5 Written Agreements and Patent Application 104
3.6 The Theory and Working Principles of the Sorbisamplers 107
3.7 The Founding of Sorbisense 111
3.8 Sampling Nitrate and Phosphorus in Rivers and Streams 113
3.9 Growing the Company and Entering the Market 116
3.10 Shifting to the Netherlands and a New Market: VOCs 119
3.11 Growth Pains: The Challenge of Business Scale-Up 124
3.12 Wastewater Sampling: A New Product and a New Market 126
3.13 Takeover by Eurofins 128
3.14 So What Have We Learned? 129 4 Do-It-Yourself Chemical Company 1334.1 Focus, Hard Work and Organic Growth 134
4.2 Hydrogen and More 138
4.3 Diversifying to Other Catalytic Processes 141
4.4 A Catalyst Development Company 143
4.5 Growing the Company and Moving 148
4.6 Investing Knowledge in Other Companies 151
4.7 Further Growth and a 'Special Sauce' 155
4.8 Expanding into Three Business Areas, All Catalysis Related 156
4.9 Hire Good People and Keep Them Forever 160
4.10 A Solid Company 163 5 CO2 Conversion with Microbes and Electricity 1755.1 The Players Involved 175
5.2 A Short Overview of the Chemistry and Technology 176
5.3 How It All Started 181
5.4 Mimicking a Three-Billion-Year-Old Natural Process 185
5.5 Practical Barriers and Challenges 186
5.6 A Working Process and a Scale-Up in Progress 190
5.7 So What Did We Learn? 193 6 Biomass Valorisation to Energy and Fuels 1976.1 A Short Overview of Petroleum Diesel and Biodiesel 197
6.2 The Rise of Biodiesel in the Beginning of the 21st Century 202
6.3 Esterification of Free Fatty Acids 204
6.4 A Much Larger Market: Transesterification of Triglycerides 212
6.5 An Overwhelming Market Interest 220
6.6 The Founding of Yellow Diesel BV 221
6.7 Building a Continuous Biodiesel Microplant 223
6.8 Solarix: Making Biodiesel from the Ground Up 225
6.9 More Exotic Variants: Jatropha Oil and Algae Oil 229
6.10 Biodiesel: From Boom to Bust 230
6.11 So What Did We Learn? 231 7 Flight of the Phoenix 2357.1 An Exciting Hydrogen Carrier Concept 236
7.2 Improved Technology at Small Scale 238
7.3 The Solid Fuel Paradigm Shift 240
7.4 Searching for a Stable Catalyst for Hydrogen Release 244
7.5 Scaling Up the Technology: MOSES and JOSHUA 254
7.6 For Lack of Hydrogen, the Phoenix Burns 258 8 Waking Up the Sleeping Giant 2618.1 Contract Research or Own IP? 262
8.2 The Secret Meeting and the Furanics 'Bible' 267
8.3 Scaling Up from Grams to Tons: Too Big to Succeed? 271
8.4 First Contract with NatureWorks 273
8.5 Coca-Cola, Danone and the 'Golden Bottle' 274
8.6 Completing the Route from Sugar to Plastic 277
8.7 The Big Money: A Joint Venture with BASF 278
8.8 Even More Money: Avantium Becomes a Publicly Listed Company 279
8.9 The End of the Affair: BASF Steps Out of the JV 283
8.10 A Positive Outlook for PEF, with a Sprinkling of Patience 285
8.11 So What Have We Learned? 287 9 Once in a Lifetime 2939.1 The Rocker Chemist 293
9.2 Inspiration in Monterey 294
9.3 The Incredible Accidental Discovery of Sticky Goo 295
9.4 Media Attention and Lots of Opportunities 303
9.5 The Boardroom Table and the Big Oven 306
9.6 The Founding of Plantics BV 308
9.7 Too Many Applications? 309
9.8 A New CEO and a Business Vision for the Company 311
9.9 R&D Projects Turning into Real Products 313
9.10 Scaling Up Production to Multi-ton Scale 314
9.11 Appointing an Advisory Board 316
9.12 A License Business Model and a Broad Technology Platform 317
9.13 More People, New Equipment and a New Building 319
9.14 A New Strategic Partner: Saint-Gobain Invests in Plantics 324
9.15 So What Did We Learn? 324 References 326
Index 329