New Directions for Chemical Engineering (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Unfortunately, the discoveries of chemical engineers have also been responsible for the production of chemicals that will persist in the environment indefinitely, greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, plastic materials that accumulate in landfills and the oceans, and the chemicals of war that have inflicted long-term or permanent damage on humans and the environment. Thus the field of chemical engineering today faces opportunities and challenges not only to innovate for the future, but also to innovate in ways that repair the unintended consequences of the past.
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The field of chemical engineering continues to make important contributions to the scalability, delivery, systems integration, and optimization of the mix of energy carriers that will meet energy needs across different regions and sectors of society with lower carbon emissions and costs. Chemical engineers will enable technological advances at every point in the energy value chain, from sources to end uses, and bring to bear the systems-level thinking necessary to balance the economic and environmental trade-offs that will be necessary to transition to a low-carbon energy system.
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In the long term, achieving net-zero carbon emissions will require significant advances in photochemistry, electrochemistry, and engineering to enable efficient use of the predominant source of energy for Earth -- the solar flux. To this end, novel systems will be required to improve the efficiency of photon capture and conversion to electrons; improve the storage of electrons; and advance the direct and/or sequential conversion of photons to energy carriers via reactions with water, nitrogen, and CO2 to produce hydrogen, ammonia, and liquid fuels, respectively.
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ENGINEERING TARGETED AND ACCESSIBLE MEDICINE There are few areas of science and engineering in which the rate of progress has been, and continues to be, more rapid than advances in biology and biochemistry aimed
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Since the first attempts to isolate small molecules from biological organisms and control and reengineer cell behavior, the development of biologically derived products has increased, with major advances resulting from recombinant DNA technology, the sequencing of genomes, the development of polymerase chain reaction, the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells, and the discovery and implementation of gene editing. All of these challenges present opportunities for chemical engineers to apply systems-level approaches at scales ranging from molecules to manufacturing facilities, and to coordinate and collaborate across disciplines.
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In the transition from a linear to a circular economy, specific opportunities for chemical engineers include redesigning processes and products to reduce or eliminate pollution, developing new ways to reduce and utilize waste, designing products to be used longer and to be recyclable, and designing processes and products using sustainable feedstocks. Recommendation 6-1: Federal research funding should be directed to both basic and applied research to advance distributed manufacturing and process intensification, as well as the innovative technologies, including improved product designs and recycling processes, necessary to transition to a circular economy.
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In particular, chemical engineers have a unique role to play in the continued development of polymer science and engineering because of their understanding of chemical synthesis and catalysis, thermodynamics, transport and rheology, and process and systems design. Chemical engineering is also the logical home for research and development of complex fluids and soft matter.
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While the list of tools and capabilities -- many of which will drive innovation when used in combination -- is virtually endless, this report focuses on data science and computational tools, modeling and simulation, novel instruments, and sensors. Developing tools that synthesize available data in real time and frameworks or models that transform data into information and actionable knowledge could become one of chemical engineers' key contributions to society over the next decades.
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Data science and statistics may be delivered most effectively in a separate course embedded within the core curriculum and taught with specific emphasis on matters of chemistry and engineering. In addition, experiential learning is important, and the majority of industrial and academic chemical engineers interviewed by the committee discussed the importance of internships and other practical experiences.
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Recommendation 9-1: Chemical engineering departments should consider revisions to their undergraduate curricula that would help students understand how individual core concepts merge into the practice of chemical engineering, include earlier and more frequent experiential learning through physical laboratories and virtual simulations, and bring mathematics and statistics into the core curriculum in a more structured manner by either complementing or replacing some of the ed ucation that currently occurs outside the core curriculum. Recommendation 9-2: To provide graduate students with experiential learning opportunities, universities, industry, funding agencies, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers should coordinate to revise graduate training programs and funding structures to provide opportunities for and remove barriers to systematic placement of graduate students in internships.
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research enterprise are imperative. This report outlines the numerous opportunities for chemical engineers to contribute in the areas of energy; water, food, and air; health and medicine; manufacturing; materials research; and tools development.
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