Editorial: An Eye Toward 2025

The New Year is here, and with it comes the sense that time is moving too quickly. It doesn’t feel all that long ago that we were celebrating the dawn of the new millennium. Now here we are, a quarter of a century later, living in an age of smartphones, media streaming, and high-speed 5G networks (although flying cars still have yet to make their debut).

While it’s impossible to predict what this year has in store for us, there are a few clear trends that I believe will be shaping the chemical process industries in 2025. Here are just a few:

Generative AI and AI-powered scientific discovery. In this digital age, progress is swift. In the past year alone, generative AI has become almost ubiquitous in the lives of Americans. AI assistants like Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and Meta AI are helping boost productivity in the workplace and in our personal lives. For me, ChatGPT has become a trusted helper. In the past day alone, I’ve used it to summarize a portion of the U.S. Copyright Act (to determine what qualifies as fair use), find relevant conferences for a niche field within bioengineering, and suggest a snappy subject line for a marketing-type email.

AI has accelerated the pace of scientific innovation by allowing us to analyze vast datasets and identify trends within mere seconds, whereas more traditional forms of computation-based modeling might take hours to set up and process. AI-powered predictive analytics (which drive digital twins) are making chemical processes safer and more robust by flagging leading indicators of potential problems.

Green/blue hydrogen and ammonia. Judging by the number of manuscript submissions CEP has received recently on this topic, green and blue hydrogen and ammonia are gaining widespread attention in the chemical process industries. The article on pp. 37–43 discusses a relatively new way of producing blue ammonia via autothermal reforming. The beauty of this process, the authors suggest, is that hydrogen is used for fuel in the fired heater, which reduces CO₂ emissions in the fluegas and simplifies carbon capture downstream.

Carbon capture and sequestration. With the second Trump presidency, there’s a chance that the U.S. could exit the Paris Agreement once more, which would slow efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions domestically. Despite shifting American priorities, carbon capture and sequestration remains a major area of investment for global companies that must meet climate action targets mandated by corporate policies and other countries of operation. For example, the article “Geologic Carbon Storage in Saline Formations,” published in CEP’s December 2024 issue (pp. 26–31), discusses ExxonMobil’s efforts to accelerate the deployment of carbon storage in spent oil and gas reservoirs.

Curbing of federal regulatory power. Perhaps the most impactful event that will have far-reaching consequences for the chemical process industries in 2025 is the end of the legal precedent known as the Chevron deference and the rollback of federal regulatory power. By ending the deference, the Supreme Court weakened the powers of federal agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The column on p. 18 discusses other changes likely to come with the new administration, with reduction of regulatory restrictions on industry and business being a common theme.

Ready or not, 2025 is here.

Emily Petruzzelli, Editor-in-Chief