Sustainable processes-The challenge of the 21st century for chemical engineering

The 21st century inherits stark challenges for human society: environmental degradation, global warming and shrinking fossil resources. All these problems are paired with a dramatic growth of the economy in China and India, home to 2.3 billion people. We need to make more from less and we need to do this while reducing our impact on nature by the order of magnitudes. This challenge is particularly tough for chemical engineering. This sector is on the one hand responsible for providing most of the products of daily consumption, the base for modern agriculture as well as energy carriers for power generation, transport, heating and cooling. on the other hand chemical engineering has a considerable impact on the environment, via its resource consumption, its emissions and the impact of its products. Chemical engineering will have to explore new ways in order to stay ahead of these challenges. The paper discusses some of the aspects of the changes that process engineering will face in the 21st century as it will widen its raw material base to include more renewable resources and simultaneously reduce its environmental impact. As a result, the structure of process industry will be transformed dramatically. Existing design principles and methods will also be challenged and adapted to the new challenges of sustainable development. Given the strong impact that the challenge of sustainable development will pose to process technology engineering education will have to change accordingly. For the first time in decades, process engineers will again be faced with developing new processes rather than process optimization. They will need to understand how to integrate processes into the ecosphere, how to set up raw material logistics and will have to deal with stake holders outside industry. The process concept will become more encompassing and include the life cycle of products. All these new skills must be taught to students today to make them fit for their carrier in the 21st century. (C) 2008 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.