Green Chemistry: Harpin Technology

Harpin is a naturally occuring bacterial protein that is being used to replace the pesticide (and more specifically, soil fumigant) , methyl bromide. This protein can be isolated from proteins. When applied to plants it initiates plant defenses against bacterial, viral, and other types of diseases. The harpin initiates the plants "hypersensitive response" and physically barricades infection from spreading. Another benefit to harpin use may be that pests can not form an immunity to it because it indirectly affects them. Additionally, harpin has no effect on the plant's DNA, it is only able to activate the plant's innate defenses. The benefits of harpin technology are plentiful: it's production only produces biodegradable waste, harpin itself has low toxicity, and it can also act as a plant growth stimulant!

Green Chemitry Application: TAMLs Catalyst

As a catalyst for cleaning, tetra-amindo macrcyclic ligand activators (TAMLs) have been explored to possibly destroy stubborn pollutants by accelerating hydrogen peroxide cleansing reactions. This is a very important application of chemistry because it shows how green chemistry can lessen some of the damage to the environment caused by traditional chemistry.

Benefits of TAML studies:

-applying the catalyst to waste water can reduce staining and hazardous chemicals. (greatly reduce smells and colors)
-the catalyst could possibly be used in the future to disinfect drinking water
-the catalyst could possibly be used to clean up bioterror attack contamination

If broadly adopted it is speculated that TAMLs could save millions of dollars in cleanup costs.