Chemical engineering has an enormous impact on a wide range of industrial and commercial sectors, and now, with the continuation of university-led research and the introduction of new specialized courses in sustainability, chemical engineers are also helping to address urgent environmental issues in industry. In addition to tackling climate change, environmental pollution and the lack of cost-effective renewable materials, new research in chemical engineering is also playing an important role in developing new chemical technologies associated with solar energy and other renewable energy sources. In studying the chemistry behind the generation of clean energy, the recycling of plastics and the reduction of harmful factory emissions, chemical engineers are prepared with the skills and knowledge needed to solve some of today’s most challenging ecological issues in industry.
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Reducing Emissions from Industry
Chemistry is at the heart of scientific study, leading not only to a greater understanding of the world but also to improving the sustainability of natural and man-made processes. With a huge range of job opportunities, chemical engineers are in demand and, through a combination of in person tutorials and online study materials, chemistry and chemical engineering course providers ensure further education students are equipped with the tools they need to undertake vital research. One of the environmental issues associated with heavy industry is the production of harmful pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO), a naturally occurring chemical compound consisting of one carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms. While CO2 is essential for life on earth, it is a greenhouse gas which, in high concentrations, contributes to global warming. In the UK, researchers at the University of Birmingham have recently created a recycling system to drastically reduce CO2 emissions produced in steelmaking. Current sustainable changes to the steel industry involve the introduction of arc furnaces run on electricity from renewable sources but this recycling system can easily be fitted to existing power plants.
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Increasing the Use of Renewable Resources
The chemical industry has traditionally been heavily reliant on fossil-fuels but, through the greater use of renewable resources, it could become more sustainable in the future. Research is ongoing into the development of gasoline from sources of biomass such as vegetable oils and cellulosic crops that could provide an alternative green fuel for the industry. Gas and oil are currently cheaper and easier to use than renewable biomass resources, especially when large quantities of fuel are required, but they cause damage to the environment and result in substantial volumes of waste. A current research project is aimed at finding new ways of utilizing abundantly available lignocellulose biomass and waste products such cooking oil to produce surfactants that perform as well, or even better than, traditional fossil fuels.
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Optimizing Plastic Recycling
Plastic is used in a number of commercial industries but particularly in the food and drinks industry where it is used to package products. Although discarded plastic food wrappers, bottles and shopping bags are causing serious damage to the environment, only 9% of plastic waste is currently recycled. High temperatures can be used to thermally decompose plastic and create more valuable chemicals in a process known as pyrolysis. However due to the amount of heat needed to extract the chemicals, there is some controversy over the sustainability of such a process. In response, chemical engineers at Pittsburgh University are looking at ways to optimize the efficiency of pyrolysis. Through the use of sophisticated computational analysis, researchers have found that they can better predict the outcomes of the process and ensure that more plastics are safely recycled and reused without causing harm to the environment.
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Improving the Efficiency of Solar Energy
As chemical engineering involves studying the reactions of materials, it already plays an important part in the development of solar cells. The focus is now on advancements in solar technology, and engineers in Australia have recently been awarded a prize for their innovative work on improving the efficiency of energy conversion in solar arrays. Their work on reflecting unused photons back into solar cells to prevent the process of recombination will contribute to an increase the performance of solar energy systems as well as lower the long-term cost of harnessing solar power.
While chemical engineering is at the heart of many essential industrial operations, some of its processes have been damaging to the environment. To address this issue, researchers at universities around the world are looking at ways to ensure that the chemical industry improves its green credentials through the use of improved techniques for recycling plastic in the food and drinks sector and the reduction of harmful pollutants in heavy industry. With further contributions to renewable fuels and energy systems, chemical engineering is continuing to become more sustainable and cause less damage to the environment.
