The Annual Conference for Teachers and Advisers 2021

Chemical engineering is broadly defined as the branch of engineering uses chemical, physical, biological, mathematical, and economical principles to use, produce design, transport, and transform energy and materials. While it has been traditionally very linked to the energy sector, especially oil and gas, and the chemical industry, it is a discipline that is central to addressing the main challenges of the 21st century.

These critical challenges cannot be considered separately, as they are independent. The overall issue is how to address the growth in energy, food and water demand that is predicted to occur over the next 50 years in a manner that does not negatively impact our environment and drains our resources. Environmental impacts of current technology can have various forms, including disposal of wastes that harm ecological habitats, or greenhouse gas emissions that are impacting on our climate and are already causing irreversible damage.

There is an urgent need to implement greener processes and technologies so that these challenges can be addressed in a sustainable manner. Chemical engineering is a discipline that is at the heart of this great challenge, as the discipline is arguably one of the best prepared to develop and implement large scale technologies that address this growth in energy, water and food while mitigating environmental impacts.

We will be looking into different ways chemical engineers contribute to sustainable technologies and how the discipline is key for developments in this area.

Delegates will take away from the session:

• What is chemical engineering?
• The energy-water-food trilemma.
• Environmental impacts caused by current technologies.
• How chemical engineering can be used to design sustainable processes.