Green chemistry education in the Middle East

2.1 Estidama

One way to understand the ME context of GC is to appreciate the Arabic word for sustainability, Estidama, and understand its meaning. The ME context of Estidama includes the ability to build thriving civilizations in regions where nature offers formidable challenges. The concept is thus familiar to the ME and suggests a minimalist philosophy of living, a concept akin to GC.

In the ME, sustainability has preceded GC. Dubai is a recognized world leader in sustainability and its gleaming metropolis is renowned for its sustainable infrastructure. At the individual level, at the Canadian University of Dubai, Professor Hoshiar Nooraddin [4] has been very active in promoting education for sustainable development. Saudi Arabia has also incorporated sustainability for society, economy, and future needs through sound business practices and social responsibility, sometimes referred to as “People, Planet and Profit” [5]. So there is a need for cogent governmental strategies to integrate and promote synergy between industry and academia. The ME needs to transition from where it is now to a more sustainable society, and this is being done with education for sustainable development (ESD).

Although some countries have made great strides in achieving sustainability, fewer have devoted as much effort into GC. The overall strategy first deploys sustainability, and then sustainable chemistry before GC. In contrast to GC which is more pure chemistry, sustainable chemistry has a more applied context, and includes social responsibility; in a nutshell, it is chemistry and society. Sustainable chemistry thus promotes economic, environmental, and social responsibility as a new paradigm. Hence sustainable chemistry takes place at the intersection of science, technology, and culture, and embodies a interdisciplinary context. Therefore, the transformation from sustainability to GC is taking place incrementally rather than in broad swaths, and GCE, although on the periphery of the sustainable movement in the ME, is still playing an important role by pressing for change. In this paper, those discrete efforts to promote GCE will be examined.

2.2 Geography

Technically speaking, a textbook definition of ME geography would denote that it encompasses 17 countries from Turkey on the west to Afghanistan on the east, traversing both northern Africa and western Asia. But Middle Eastern culture and religion also stretch across all of Saharan Africa from where Morocco meets the Atlantic Ocean, to Egypt on the Gulf of Suez. Moreover, the state of Israel, not being a member of the European Union, is also a Middle Eastern country. Therefore, in this paper, the Middle East designation will be more inclusive than what a textbook definition might offer, and also, for example, include those countries located in Saharan Africa, expanding the ME data base to many more countries, and about 250 million people [6].

2.3 Population

By 2050, several factors are predicted to transect creating an apocalyptic scenario. Overpopulation is forecast to stretch the capacity of the earth to support 2.5 billion more people than its current population of 7.3 billion people [7], half of whom may live in a totally different and perhaps unkinder climate [8]. Although half of the population increase is projected [9] to come from Africa, India, Indonesia, and the USA, the ME Muslim population is predicted to increase by about 37 % by 2030. Egypt, the most populous ME country, is projected to increase its population to about 114 million by 2050 [10].

One goal of climate treaties being negotiated is to decarbonize the world by 2050 through decreasing petroleum usage, and by widespread implementation of mitigating emissions through carbon capture and carbon storage technologies. But as the global population grows, game changing technologies will be required to ensure a sustainable society, and to correct problems associated with water, waste, pollution, natural resources, and energy. These problems will be solved through collaborations between industry, government, and education. ESD and GCE will need to play an important role in educational curricula.

2.4 Pollution and waste

With increasing population, more waste and pollution are generated, and more renewable and nonrenewable resources are required to sustain society. Although the Blacksmith Institute [11] does not rank any middle eastern country as owning one of the world’s worst pollution problems, major petroleum producing countries periodically cause oil leaks, generate waste products, and damage the aquatic environment through oil spills. Thankfully, in the ME there haven’t been any disasters on the order of the Exxon Valdez (1984), or Bhopal (1984), demonstrating that ME countries have learned from some of history’s greatest chemical tragedies.

However, one pressing problem in the ME is air pollution. For example, according to an article published in Environmental Science and Technology [12], Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which has a normal population of about 2 million and swells to 6 million during pilgrimages, suffers from heavy air pollution.

Another extensive problem facing the ME is waste. Middle Eastern countries with large populations have generated so much per capita waste that it has overwhelmed cities. Some countries have been forced to adopt recycling and waste-to-energy conversion measures. In Iraq, for example, solid waste production is commonly disposed of in unregulated landfills because of a depleted infrastructure, and as a result, these landfills have sometimes caused fires, water pollution, and large greenhouse gas emissions [13]. In 2007, the National Solid Waste Management Plan (NSWMP) for Iraq was developed to promote sustainable development [14].

2.5 Water

According to a UN Human Development Report titled: Water Scarcity Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa [15] published in 2006, water has been a scarce commodity in the ME and North Africa since the 1970s. The current efficiency of water usage is only 40 %, and with a rising population and increased urbanization, water must be managed more effectively [16]. Currently, irrigated agriculture consumes most of the water, and much of that is lost from evaporation.

All renewable freshwater resources are being consumed in Saudi Arabia and its neighbors: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the UAE, and Yemen. Moreover, the same can be said of Israel, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank. Furthermore, these countries suffer from poor water quality: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia. In 2008, a severe water shortage caused the Jordanian government to enact an emergency strategy to deal with demand among its 5.7 million population and hundreds of thousands of refugees [17]. In Egypt, raw sewage contaminates the water ways which serve as makeshift garbage dumps. Egypt has also voiced concern over Africa’s immense Grand Millennium Dam, a hydroelectric dam under construction on the Nile in Ethiopia [18]. The problem of water scarcity and pollution has also advanced a new concept, “Eco-peace” that has spurred cooperation between Israel and Jordan to save the Jordan River [19].

In Saudi Arabia, Riyadh is supplied with desalinated water that is pumped from the Persian Gulf nearly 500 km away. Water is also brought in as needed using trucks that patrol the streets. The grand Al Ahsa Oasis supports an enormous agricultural industry involving dates and rice, but one of its biggest problems is that water is being pumped from the ground at a faster rate than it can be replenished [20]. Moreover, pesticides and fertilizers are over-used and are leaching into the ground water [21]. To solve these problems, groundbreaking agricultural practices such as drip irrigation [22] and natural pesticides, as invented in Israel, must be substituted for more harmful practices. Moreover, extracting drinking water from the air may become necessary using technology like that invented by the Water-Gen [23] company in Israel. Abdallah El Maaroufi suggests a three-part strategy to resolve environmental problems, consisting of partnerships between countries, improving resource management, and strengthening participating institutions.[24]

2.6 Economics

Within the expansive area of the ME are both rich and poor nations. Israel, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are wealthy, while Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman have good incomes [25]. For the remaining countries, income is a challenge for many citizens. However, as the ME becomes more industrialized and independent, GC may provide jobs. For example, according to Pike Research [26] , the global GC market will reach $5.3 trillion by 2020, and the Middle East GC Market will save the industry $65 billion by 2020 [27].

2.7 Organizations

Many organizations are actively promoting GC, GCE, and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the ME, among them being the powerful UN (United Nations), the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and some regional scientific entities. In this section and subsequent ones, the contributions to GCE from such organizations will be described in more detail. Although the UN has published much about sustainable education, it has done little regarding GC and sustainable chemistry (SC). However, the UN acknowledges and recognizes the importance of GC and what must be done to institute it. For example, during the United Nation’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development from 2005–2014, supported by the American Chemical Society, all member countries educated their citizens on the importance of sustainability [28]. Sustainability came first, and GCE will come later.

2.8 Education

In order to understand how GCE fits into the ME context, one must understand something about ME educational systems. The United Nations publishes a Human Development Index (HDI) every year, which includes an Education Index [29]. Many ME countries are ranked as having high Education Indices. The 2013 report [30], for example, showed that Israel had the highest Education Index at 0.85, while Saudi Arabia was at 0.723, with Norway having the world’s highest value at 0.91. Thus, generally speaking, the ME possesses the educational system needed to support a GCE curriculum.

2.9 Academia

Although GCE has not been a priority in the ME, both industrial and academic researchers are very active in the field of GCE and have disseminated it in a variety of creative ways, sometimes using social media, such as ResearchGate, YouTube, and Slide Share. Their social postings may seed GCE as a GC social movement.

The position taken in this paper is that if researchers are in a ME academic institution doing GC, then GCE is involved because the training of future GC workers counts as GCE. Like in the U.S., in the ME, academic institutions are offering GCE, but indirectly through research. One can argue that students are picking up GCE pedagogy through a secondary channel. They are using the pedagogy of the field, but toward a different end, that involving research. Eventually, as more workers are trained in interdisciplinary fields, even in Education or the Social and Political Sciences, more GCE will evolve.

3.1 Types of green chemical educators

There appear to be three classes of ME green chemical educators, all working at academic institutions: Type I): trained research chemists who may for example, specialize in green organic chemistry, Type II): non-chemists working in an interdisciplinary field, and Type III): trained GC educators of which there are currently few in the ME, partly because there are no formal GC academic programs that confer academic degrees. In the next sections, contributions to Middle Eastern GCE will be reviewed, demonstrating how it has evolved.

3.2 Organizations

Now that the context of GC in the ME has been examined with respect to economics, education, and problems involving natural resources, GCE specifics can be addressed. In this section will be surveyed those UN supported ME-GCE projects for selected countries that surround part of the Mediterranean basin. However, admittedly, Lebanon, Libya, Israel, and Turkey are not covered in this section. Moreover, although there are a lot of acronyms in this section, the reader should focus on the main idea, that is: how and what kind of GCE is being promoted in the ME. Many of the GC programs described in this section involve UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), which has long been involved in promoting sustainability, and more recently, GC. Other programs described in this section have been run jointly with the European Union (EU), NATO, and IUPAC, and as a result of these collaborations, a number of worthwhile programs involving GCE in the ME have been instituted.

This section will begin with the UNITWIN (University Twinning and Network Program) of UNESCO founded in 1992, which promoted international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing, shared governance, and collaborative work [31]. Certain programs are promoting GC to jointly meet economic and environmental needs through collaborations between industry, government, and academic institutions.

One program that promoted GC and GCE was instituted in 2005 when G8 Ministers for Research founded a research and training network on green sustainable chemistry called the International Green Network (IGN) whose hub was located in Venice [32]. Some IGN objectives were to sponsor, coordinate, and provide information for GC scientific collaborations, and to provide training for young scientists.

Another very important and effective program was initiated in 1993, when INCA (The Interuniversity Consortium, Chemistry for the Environment) was founded to promote environmental research among its thirty-three Italian member institutions [33]. Its host office is in Venice. INCA has been supported by UNESCO and NATO-ASI (Advanced Sciences Institute). Some of the work currently being done by INCA now includes sustainability and GC, and as will be later shown, INCA has evolved to serve the ME.

The INCA Summer School on GC served ME countries, especially those in the Mediterranean basin. It was held from 1998 to 2005, often in Venice, Italy, and after 2005, it was then supported under a NATO-ASI banner [34]. It was originally funded through a grant from the European Commission’s IV Framework Programme (FP) Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) program, and continued within FP-TMR as part of an improved program, but it has also received funding through INCA. For example, the 7th summer school held on Servolo Island in 2005 received UNESCO support [35].

With respect to GCE, one highlight of the 2006 NATO-ASI summer school (IX) was a workshop titled “New Organic Chemistry Reactions and Methodologies for Green Production.” This workshop was supported through a program that was co-directed by: Prof. Pietro Tundo, (Consorzio, INCA) in Marghera, Italy; and Prof. Ahmed Tawfic, of Suez Canal University in Ismailia, Egypt [36]. Although it isn’t obvious, the 2008 summer school program objectives involved GCE because the published program indicated that “The teaching will be divided in basic themes (Atom economy, Industrial Processes, Alternative Solvents, New Feedstocks and Products, New Reactions and New Synthetic Methods), and special topics selected according to the availability of the teachers. In addition, topics related to current research in GC will be addressed with the aim to familiarize the students with the strategies behind the planning and designing of efficient and “greener” synthetic routes.” [37]. Although the summer school programs just described emphasized GC research over GCE, at these events there has been a substantial amount of teaching and training, some of it involving the ME. For example, the 1998 conference featured Paul T. Anastas while the 1999 program featured Guy J. Martens of Belgium-Solvay [38]. These programs emphasize educating younger chemists on green research in chemistry, so that they will become part of the network of European green chemists.

In 2006, The Mediterranean Basin Green Chemistry Network (MEGREC) was founded with UNESCO-UNITWIN funding in order to catalyze the transformation to green and sustainable chemistry and technologies in the Mediterranean basin through conferences, seminars, workshops, and collaboration [39]. Its home institution was the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. One of MEGREC’s stated goals was to increase the effectiveness of teaching and training activities in GC by integrating education and fundamental research. MEGREC’s ME members institutions are: Mentouri University of Constantine in Algeria, Suez Canal University in Egypt, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Morocco, and the University of Gabès in Tunisa, and other non-ME institutions in Greece, Spain, and Serbia as well.

Building on the success of MEGREC, the Sustainable Middle East Development Initiative (SUSMEDI) project promoting GC centers of excellence was founded in 2012 [40]. For example, Morocco became a green catalysis hub, and Cairo focused on energy research while Tunisia centered on decontamination; Algeria became a center for environmental analysis. SUSMEDI was designed to have far reaching GCE effects, as for example, was shown by the development of a K-12 GCE outreach curriculum that (a) developed 12 lesson plans, one for each of the principles of GC and (b) developed a GCE outreach program for 5th graders.

Established in 1990, TEMPUS Joint European Projects [41] supported a curriculum reform project on sustainable environmental development. Later, TEMPUS was sponsored by the European community, and Italian Interuniversity Consortium that also runs INCA, Chemistry for the Environment. There were several phases of TEMPUS programs offered: a) TEMPUS III was carried out between 2000 and 2006 while b): TEMPUS IV between 2007 and 2013. In 2007, the TEMPUS program was initiated by the European Union (EU) and partner countries to reform and modernize higher education through a consortium of partner universities and university associations in neighboring countries such as those that surround the Mediterranean basin. TEMPUS is managed by the Education, Audiovisual, and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

In 2012, TEMPUS emphasized sustainable development and environmental monitoring of the Mediterranean region (SUSMED). All member countries took part. Some examples of ME TEMPUS projects are described below [42].

1. In 2002, project 30031-2002 in chemistry and biochemistry supported a curricular project on upgrading sustainable environment development with regard to university courses on environmental sustainability and GC, and to establish a consulting service for industry. The grant holder for this project was Tundo Pietro of INCA, and the coordinator was Tawfic Ahmed Mohamed – Suez Canal University Environmental Impact Assessment Unit – Ismailia, Egypt.

2. Project 32005-2004 supported a Master of Science Course in Applied Environmental Geosciences and Water Resources Management at Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

3. Project 30057-2002 was carried out at the Jordan University of Science and Technology supporting the creation of a education center on renewable energy.

4. In Lebanon, project 33056-2005 supported a master’s program on sustainable energy at the American University of Beruit.

5. Project 31141-2003 supported a Master’s program on environmental sustainability with the Palestinian Authority.

6. Project 31109-2003 assisted curriculum development and faculty training on renewable energy programs at Damascus University.

7. Project 33048-2005 promoted laboratories and training in solar energy in Syria, and in Algeria, while Project 31062-2003 addressed a Masters Degree in Environmental sustainability and pollution modeling.

8. TEMPUS ME projects in 2003 involved: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, and Tunisa.

3.3 Egypt

This section will highlight GC educators in Egypt, where several leaders work at these institutions: University of Cairo, Suez Canal University, and Ain Shams University. In a published paper titled “Sustainable Chemistry,” Mohamed Tawfic Ahmed, a Suez Canal faculty member in Agriculture, provided a vision for Egypt’s GC education programs by describing its challenges in the context of the Egyptian experience [43]. He noted the need for safe, environmentally friendly products, and the need for a chemical strategy that will provide a sustainable future for its citizens. He explained that Egypt has not yet embraced preventive measures to stop pollution, and needs to develop new, clean energy resources such as solar, and to use sustainable chemistry to develop a sustainable future by reducing waste through life cycle analysis.

Interdisciplinary courses at Suez Canal University, which emphasize environmental science, and sustainability, instruct students on green strategies such as the chemistry of recycling processes, renewable, safety, green energy, and photo-catalysis, a process that takes advantage of Egypt’s abundant sunlight [44]. Another goal of Suez Canal University environmental programs is to extend current GCE programs to the elementary and secondary school curriculums.

3.4 Malta

In this section, GCE highlights will be taken from the Malta Conferences [52]. In 2003, the University of Malta introduced a group of first year students to GC in a GCE project run under the supervision of the Department of Educational Studies of the University of York (UK). Students participated in GC extra-curricular activities spread over a whole year. Students participated in seminars, teamwork, poster sessions, and small group discussions. Malta Conferences have been run every two years since, at various locations.

In a program [53] called: “Frontiers of Chemical Sciences: Research and Education in the Middle East,” at the 7th Malta Conference, a visionary roadmap for research and education in the Middle East was established by bringing together a total of 15 Middle Eastern nations including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates. Participants studied the need for green and sustainable chemistry to overcome waste, pollution through alternative energy, and discussed the need of education for the purpose of attracting students to the field of chemistry. Moreover, the roadmap suggested reforming ME chemical education by making it greener, using exchange programs, forming a ME virtual campus, and extending sustainability to other fields such as pharmacy, toxicology, and clinical chemistry. Among the sponsors of Malta VII were UNESCO, ACS (American Chemical Society), the ACS Division of Chemical Education, AAAS (the American Association for the Advancement of Science), and the Committee of Concerned Scientists. Significant financial support was also received from the Carnegie Foundation of New York, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany).

One example of GCE at Malta VII, was Rachel Mamlok-Naaman’s (Weizmann Institute, Israel) seminar: Learning About Sustainable Development in Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Chemistry Lessons on Bio-Plastics [54]. In another presentation, Walter Kohn’s [55] presentation on “A World Predominantly Powered by Solar and Wind Energy” indicated the enormous and urgent problems facing the planet Earth if alternative energy sources are not immediately adopted.

At Malta 3, Middle East participation was highlighted in IUPAC’s Chemistry International publication [56]. Additionally, a workshop on Science Education and Green Chemistry was co-chaired by Boshra Awad (Egypt), Farouk Fahmy (Egypt), and Ann Nalley (USA), while the workshop on Alternative Energy Sources [57] was co-chaired by Hani Khouri (Jordan) and Hassan Zohoor (Iran).

3.5 Israel

In Israel, applied GC (Type I workers) garners more attention than academic GCE, but there are a few exceptions. For example, Shwartz et al. [58] studied the context and ramifications of GC in order to help high school students transfer and apply content knowledge to new situations. Both qualitative and quantitative critical reasoning skills were addressed. Results showed that through the project, students improved their cognitive skills. Another research question posed in the study was: Can a GC context-based curriculum increase higher-order cognitive skill learning? Students studied five online GC papers, and then completed five different tasks in two domains that involved GC: (a) chemistry content knowledge and (b) social-scientific. Students showed the most success in the later domain, by increasing their skills in: comparing, and in social-scientific argumentation, but students also increased their ability to communicate effectively with regard to scientific argumentation.

In another study, Hofstein et al. [59] described a curriculum that includes the primary goal of content learning while educating students to become scientifically literate and environmentally responsible citizens, by integrating sustainability into chemical education pedagogy. The author described a unique chemical education curriculum for preservice chemistry teachers that were designed to not only imbue the concept of science literacy and social responsibility, but to address issues of sustainability, the chemical industry, and the environment through case studies. While addressing environmental issues, students were exposed to different pedagogical strategies incorporating active learning through debates and field trips. Also, an internet website provided students with access to up-to-date information on industry, sustainability, and environmental issues. Recently, a module was developed and implemented in upper secondary classes, consisting of world-wide topics on water quality and global warming.

At Israeli Universities, all GC faculty are Type 1, mainly engaged in GC research. For example, in the school of chemistry at Tel Aviv University, Green Chemistry [60] is featured as an area of study, and three academic GC researchers are featured: Prof. Sergey Cheskis, Prof. Moshe Kol, and Prof. Arkadi Vigalok (who was a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the 1st Israel Conference on Green Chemistry, Tel Aviv 2005). At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both Li Malesis and Jochanan Blum perform organic GC research. On the other hand, at Bar Ilan University, GC is featured as part of the “Cleantech” curriculum which searches for sustainable substances.

The first GC Conference [61] held in Israel took place in 2007 at Tel Aviv University in its Porter School of Environmental Studies where the roles and future of both academic GC and industrial GC were discussed. The conference, entitled “Green Chemistry – Applications, Research and Trends,” mainly addressed industrial GC with the goal of initiating more attention in academia and government work, to find breakthrough solutions to overcome pollution problems, including those caused by munitions producers, and energy generators.

Another way that GCE is indirectly being advanced in Israel is through the Israel Chemistry Society which annually awards its Green Chemistry Industry Prize [62]. Although the Prize is awarded to industry, in the award ceremonies, GCE is indirectly addressed, by for example, talks presented by leaders like John Warner. GCE is also given publicity through news media outlets.

3.6 Iran

Iran is one of the foremost GCE leaders in the ME, already claiming a long and famous scientific tradition that traces its roots to ancient Persia. With respect to GC, at the prestigious Iran University of Science and Technology, GC is a focal point of research where these professors are green chemistry experts [63]: Seyed Hashemianzadeh (green analytical chemistry), Mohammed Dekamin, Shahzad Javanshir and Mohammd Naimi-Jamal (green organic applications). Furthermore, the young scientist Dr. Mehdi Mohammadi is one of only six researchers who was awarded support from UNESCO’s PhosAgro Green Chemistry for Life project [64], also supported by IUPAC. It promotes breakthrough sustainable use and design of chemicals and chemical processes. Selected from among 119 applications, Dr. Mohammadi’s proposal addressed the enzymatic production of biodiesel from waste oil by using two lipases covalently immobilized on a magnetic silica nanocomposite.

3.7 Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest producers of oil, while Iraq, Iran, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait are also in the top ten. SABIC, the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation [67] is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; it was the third largest chemical company as of 2014. The company produces industrial polymers such as: polyethylene, polyolefinics, and polypropylene, and chemicals such as ethylene glycol, MTBE, fertilizers, and metals. The petroleum and petrol-chemicals industries of the Gulf States have given rise to a host of environmental problems, so there is no question that GCE is needed. But the conundrum facing one of the world’s top petroleum producers is that invoking carbon constraints on the Kingdom would trigger dire socioeconomic consequences, and some Saudis argue that social-economic factors should therefore be factored in when determining measures to combat climate change. Furthermore, the Saudi Arabian oil minister has indicated that the country has already vigorously implemented carbon-reducing measures [68], for example, by injecting carbon dioxide into the ground, using CO₂ as a polymer feedstock, and reducing overall carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion sources, like automobiles. In addition, the Saudis have enacted some very strong environmental legislation.

Saudi Arabia currently imports a lot of its technical workers, but according to Nature magazine [69], the chemical research future is bright for Saudi Arabia with the advent of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) founded only in 2009. At KAUST, graduate-level chemical research is on par with that performed at premiere Western universities. Not mentioned in the article is the new joint venture with Dow Chemical, a company heavily invested in GC. How quickly Saudi Arabia transforms to a knowledge-based economy, will in large part depend on the quality of its universities.

One strategy to get scientists and educators to collaborate on GC at the intersection of academia, industry, government and education is to focus their efforts toward a designing and deploying GC, GCE, and sustainable strategies that protect both the environment and the health of the populations while also protecting economic sustainability.

3.8 UAE

At the Petroleum Institute based in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, chemical engineering faculty [76] have learned how to integrate the concepts of GC and green chemical engineering into the curriculum. While their work isn’t strict GCE, because it is not being done in a chemistry academic setting, it is quasi-GCE because training in GC is involved, and students are imbued with GCE concepts. All faculty (Type I GC) are listed in the Department of Chemical Engineering: Dr. Maaike Kroonin researches green solvents, while Dr. Samuel Stephen studies GC smart adsorbents. Moreover, the Department of Chemical Engineering offers several courses [77] touching on GC and sustainability. For example, the department offers CHEM 566, Construction Materials and Green Chemicals as a graduate level course in their curriculum; it surveys green chemicals that can be used in oil well drilling. CHEM 565 on fuels and alternative energy covers sustainable energy, and the disadvantages of fossil fuels, including carbon capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide. Another course, CHEM 560: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND WATER TECHNOLOGY investigates environmental pollution caused by chemicals, and describes prevention methods.

Moreover, at the University of Sharjah [78], a Emirati private national university located in University City, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, Dr. Kamrul Hasan investigates both renewable energy and GC catalysis as a organometallic chemist.

3.9 Bahrain

One exceptional ME GC educator is Dr. Saeed Al-Alwai who at the University of Bahrain, taught a GC course [79], and later organized workshop courses to instruct chemical workers on how to minimize waste, and utilize cleaner production practices, for example, at the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) conferences.

3.10 Turkey

Several important international conferences incorporating GCE have been held in Turkey. One example is the 18th International Conference on Chemical Education that was held in Istanbul, Turkey in 2005 [80]. It featured GC, environment-friendly chemistry experiments, microscale chemistry, all contributed from experts across the ME and elsewhere.

At the 1st International Conference on Green Chemistry and Sustainable Technologies (2015) held in Izmir, Turkey, T. Gunter et al. [81] presented an interesting GCE Turkish college study titled: “The effect of problem based learning (PBL) on students’ comprehension levels in the subject of green chemistry and sustainability.” Researchers investigated how students construct green chemical knowledge using a problem-based learning approach in a analytical laboratory experiment on the qualitative analysis of cations. The control group (N = 31) performed the lab experiment using a traditional approach while the experimental group (N = 63) used PBL pedagogy, which modified the lab experiment by making students: perform research on a relevant problem, use the scientific method to devise hypotheses, collect information, and work in cooperative groups. The effect of the PBL lab exercise on students’ comprehension levels of GC and sustainability was studied using an assessment titled: “Green Chemistry and Sustainability Comprehension Level Test” which was composed of open-ended questions deployed as pre- and post- tests. Based on the content analysis results, the authors concluded that their PBL pedagogy:

1. Increased student comprehension of GC and sustainability.

2. Increased student understanding and reduced misconceptions about GC and sustainability.

3. Could be applied to increase student understanding of GC and sustainability issues.

4. Could be applied to other situations to increase students’ ecological and environmental awareness.

3.11 Palestine

In a poignant article [82] expressing the desire of millions living in the middle east, Z. M. Lerman published “Chemistry and Chemical Education as a Bridge to Peace.” In this paper, the author advocated using chemistry education, including GCE, as a focal point on which Middle East nations can collaborate to solve their numerous problems. Her paper was presented at a Malta Conference, and is available on ResearchGate. Lerman’s paper was visionary for it depicted the plight of the ME in context, for example, as being an important supplier of nonrenewable petroleum over which wars have been fought. She further elaborated the ME context by describing problems such as water scarcity and pollution through fossil fuel combustion, and how collaboration to solve such problems can bring nations together to find common solutions. She used many brilliant analogies to put across her point that the wider and more important issues of decreasing poverty are the ones that humanity should focus on. Her work has led to scientific collaborations between Palestinian and Israeli universities, and there have been numerous ongoing collaborations between scientists in Palestine, Israel, Kuwait, Iran, Jordan, and Egypt, especially in producing a database for water purification [83]. Moreover, Nobel Laureate Professor Roald Hoffmann held workshops for Middle Eastern graduate students from Jordan and Egypt [84]. As a result of GCE discussions, one idea suggested with respect to GCE was that GC should be integrated into ME science curricula using SATLC, and as a result, a collaborative effort resulted with the Israel Institute of Technology.

3.12 ChemRAWN

In 1976, IUPAC established a standing committee called ChemRAWN (Chemistry Research Applied to World Needs). ChemRAWN [85] conferences and projects to advance the concept of sustainability using chemical technologies have taken place across the globe. To extend the concept of sustainability to GC, in 2001 IUPAC assembled a work group on Synthetic Pathways and Processes in Green Chemistry [86], and created a interdivisional sub-committee on GC. In regard to the ME, the ChemRAWN Committee has internationalized its participation, by for example, adding Nadia Kandle from Egypt [87]. In addition, at the ChemRAWN XIX Conference, papers were presented on green catalysis, herbal medicines, and water in the ME. In addition, Mustafa Sözbilir became chair of the IUPAC standing committee on chemical education in 2014 and, Professor Ehud Keinan of Israel became an elected member to the IUPAC Bureau [88].

3.13 ME outreach in GC

It is also notable that during the International Year of Chemistry, GC outreach was performed by Abdelkrom Cheriti in Algeria [89] and Kuppusamy Uthaman Kuwait [90]; outreach is an important mechanism to disseminate GC, and there must be many more examples that are not widely reported.