Sustainability & Environment

Krithiga Ganesan is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. She presented a poster at the E3-2010 Conference in St. Paul, MN based on her research thesis.

DECHEMA, a German-based Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and AIChE are joining forces to gather international science and technology leaders at the first Global Conference on Energy Sustainability in the Process Industries (ESPI). The conference this June in Kong Kong will present a the topic of energy efficiency across a number of industries.

More sunlight strikes the earth in one hour than all of the energy currently consumed on the planet in one year. As the world’s energy consumption rate is projected to double by 2050, and triple by 2100, the sun holds great potential as a sustainable energy source.

Maybe the U.S. nuclear renaissance hasn't fizzeled. Maybe the whole paradigm has simply shifted away from building single 1,000+ megawatt behemoths, to mass producing small modular reactors ranging in size from 45 to 300 megawatts.

Enerkem is readying its full-scale municipal waste-to-biofuels facility. It will convert wood, plastics, textiles, and other materials.

Pioneering flywheel developer Beacon Power is becoming one of the success stories of the evolving power grid.

Sitting on a scenic bluff overlooking the central California coast, Diablo Canyon, the state’s only remaining nuclear power plant, could close in 2025 after an agree

Just discovered: an alloy that converts heat directly into electricity, and which might have a wide-ranging impact on generating eco-friendly electricity from waste heat.

As China produces increasing amounts of pollution and CO2, it is also progressing by leaps and bounds in carbon-capture and storage projects.

High costs have constantly bedeviled lithium-ion battery developers, making fossil fuels cheaper than alternatives for so long that most people thought the industry had hit a wall and faced the ign

Paddy Padmanathan, CEO of ACWA Power, who has built cutting-edge solar and desalination plants across the Middle East and Africa,

Matt Scullin plans to corner a big chunk of the energy market. He's not an oil or gas guy, or a renewables guy.

The plant giant miscanthus (GM), a grass of Japanese origins, is proving to be a viable contender for a land-efficient biomass source of biofuels. A patented hybrid has been developed that can yield 25 tons/acre (5 times more that switchgrass), and produces a bio-oil that can be used as boiler fuel, further processed into other fuels or value added products, or reformed to generate hydrogen.

An elaborate district energy system owned and operated by NRG Therman in Minneapolis serves 130 blocks downtown and was originally established in 1926 for ten buildings.

The U.S. is highly dependent on foreign countries for rare earth elements (REEs) and strategic and critical materials (S&CMs). Dr. Tedd Lister and Dr. Eric Peterson of the Idaho National Laboratory propose “urban mining” to address the concerns associated with traditional mining.

For thin-film mega-company First Solar, the two-year crisis caused by the solar module supply glut may be almost over. The largest manufacturer of solar panels in the United States surprised silicon valley by announcing that it will buy startup TetraSun, which makes high-capacity silicon solar cells.

Can Omnigrid Micropower (OMC), a small energy services startup, help change the way a sprawling, chaotic country like India delivers energy to the poor?

Catalina Island, a low-key tourist destination 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, has a crippling problem — besides already losing millions of tourist dollars to Las Vegas, Disneyland, an

Battered and reeling from falling global coal prices, by the time St.

Dutham, North Carolina-based startup Semprius has taken the transfer-printing technology it originally developed for flexible electronics and applied it to solar cells. It's now producing low-cost cells the size of a ballpoint pen tip and able to convert 41 percent of solar energy into electricity.

New "shrouded" wind turbines near San Francisco will be tested to determine if they are less lethal to birds and bats than traditional turbines. Plus, they're more efficient than similar-sized turbines on the market.

Wind power in the US is poised to take off and provide almost as much electricity in 2050 as coal-fired power plants do today, according to an

In Tanzania, like many African countries, the rapid spread of mobile phones has outpaced the slow creep of grid-connected electricity, where 85% of the population still lives off-grid and relies on

Apple and a select group of US companies are starting to sell renewable power to the electricity grid, a domain traditionally controlled by monopoly utilities and third party power plants. 

In his keynote address to the AIChE Spring 2011 Conference, Dr. F. Emil Jacobs, VP of R & D, ExxonMobil Research and Development Company, discussed the company's views on the outlook for energy over the next 20 years, taking into consideration population growth and economic activity expansion and how they will affect energy use and demand.

In the Cecil Award Lecture, sponsored by the Environmental Division, Mikkel Vandebergh and Anita Luong presented on policy topics they had researched this summer as participants in the Washington Internships for Students in Engineering (WISE) program.

In the most recent editorial in the series, Cindy Mascone looks at sports and the efforts the industry is making towards sustainability.

Solana Station, constructed with six hours of molten storage that allows it to produce energy into the evening, shows off CSP's advantage over solar modules.

Students in the Department of Materials Science at Sweden's Luleå University of Technology have developed a new bio-based water filtration system that will be tested in an industrial setting in Spa

ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel company, joined by LanzaTech, the world's leading waste-gas-to-biofuels developer, and Primetals Technologies, a seasoned steel plant construction firm, sai

Several years ago, General Motors made a deal to turn Detroit municipal waste into steam, which helped to power one of its local plants in 2014.

What is the "true north of capitalism?" It's a vital question asked by the film Circularity: Preparing for the New Economy. 

While 1.8 billion people have Internet access, nearly one billion people lack access to adequate amounts of fresh water, according to a comprehensive new Living Planet report by the WWF and Global Footprint.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) recently honored 16 of its member companies for implementing e

The boom in natural gas production in the U.S. may provide nearly 900,000 jobs and an addition of $1,000 to household budgets by 2015, according to a study just released by IHS Global Insight, Denver.

On Wednesday, November 28, more than 260 chemical engineers and related professionals gathered at The Plaza Hotel for the 2012 AIChE Gala. See photos from this magical evening.

Dr Sean Simpson, founder of LanzaTech, tells about an entrepreneurial wild ride, from his first idea to his deal to make jet fuel for Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Alex Avram, a chemical engineering PhD student at UARK who recently joined the three-year AIChE Apprenticeship Program, describes his plans to help communities gain access to potable water.

When TOTE, a shipper that plies the waters between the US and the Caribbean, recently launched a 760-foot container ship from its construction drydock in San Diego, it carried a special distinction