Innovation starts with thinking outside the box

and going against the norm.

GREENION™ ESTERIFICATION, 

a method to produce ester compounds in environment-friendly and high-efficient ways,

is just like that developed by innovative thinkers at WOODWARD BIO.

An ester compound having the general chemical

formula R-COO-R' is obtained by an esterification reaction 

of a carboxylic acid with formula R-COOH and an alcohol with formula R’-OH

through dehydration/condensation reactions

that produce water as by-product.

The water(H₂O) must be removed generally requiring the dried approach to drive the reaction,

where the ester compound formed can easily be cleaved back into its original components,

carboxylic acid and alcohol, through reaction with water(hydrolysis).

Therefore, catalysts are required to avoid side reactions such as hydrolytic cleavage.

By far the most common method to achieve a high esterification yield

has been the use of such chemical substances

as thionyl chloride, etc. as the catalyst,

p-toluenesulfonic acid, etc. as the solvent.

However, such chemicals are hazardous 

and pose significant drawback in safety and quality of the final product;

for example, causing explosion when reacted,

giving off pollutant fume like sulfurous acid gas(SO₂),

or rendering problems caused by remaining solvents such as toluene and so on.

GREENION™ ESTERIFICATION,

one of Woodward Bio's original source technologies developed

after a long period of research, began with inverse approach of addition of water,

exactly opposite to elimination of water in traditional methods.

It is the world-first technology for preparing high-quality ester compounds

in an environment-friendly way. 

The innovative technology arising from the inverted thinking uses alkali metal salts dissolved in the seawater,

meaning that it is enabled to obtain any ester compounds with high purity in high quantitative yield

without relying on hazardous chemical substances,

thus posing no harm to the humans and the environment. 

WOODWARD BIO is now and always contributing to promoting environmental sustainability

with relentless efforts toward greener technology.