(47d) Sustainability in the Chemical and Energy Industries

There is clearly much interest in environmental protection, greener chemistry, and the general notion of sustainability within the chemical processing and energy industries. But what does sustainability mean, especially in the context of long term raw material availability, energy intensity, global warming, and the desire for economic growth? In this presentation, population and living standard trends, material and energy resource data, and elementary systems engineering principles are applied to help elucidate sustainability issues related to global economic growth, raw material choices for the chemical and energy industries, the satisfaction of expected energy needs, and greenhouse gas impacts. Simple concepts from chemical structure and oxidation state, stoichiometry, and thermodynamics are useful for understanding and screening among raw material and energy alternatives at present and going forward. Such analyses can provide guidance for evaluating and optimizing overall future sustainability performance of the global chemical and energy industries.