Chemical future vision

Education received considerable attention at the 6th World Congress, from the discussion of its historical role in the development of the profession presented in Chapter 2, to consideration of the new curricula required to equip us for various visions of the future. The tone was set by Lord May (Chapter 1) in offering this as part of his future vision I believe the widening sweep of the Biotechnological Revolution has implications for Chemical Engineering practice beyond the dreams of its wildest chauvinists , and he goes on to suggest some elements of an appropriate curriculum. 

Benson and Ponton (1993) and Ponton (1996) have speculated on the ultimate results of continuing efforts for process minimization. They envision a twenty-first century chemical industry totally revolutionized by technological innovation, automation, and miniaturization. Small, distributed manufacturing facilities would produce materials on demand, at the location where they are needed. Raw materials would be nonhazardous, and the manufacturing processes would be waste free and inherently safe. While their vision of future technology is speculative, we are beginning to see progress in this direction. 

There is great interest in the electrical and optical properties of materials confined within small particles known as nanoparticles. These are materials made up of clusters (of atoms or molecules) that are small enough to have material properties very different from the bulk. Most of the atoms or molecules are near the surface and have different environments from those in the interior—indeed, the properties vary with the nanoparticle s actual size. These are key players in what is hoped to be the nanoscience revolution. There is still very active work to learn how to make nanoscale particles of defined size and composition, to measure their properties, and to understand how their special properties depend on particle size. One vision of this revolution includes the possibility of making tiny machines that can imitate many of the processes we see in single-cell organisms, that possess much of the information content of biological systems, and that have the ability to form tiny computer components and enable the design of much faster computers. However, like truisms of the past, nanoparticles are such an unknown area of chemical materials that predictions of their possible uses will evolve and expand rapidly in the future. 

Utilizing this projection of future advances, develop a vision for the future of chemical imaging. Discuss the convergence of factors that make this vision timely. Identify major goals that could provide direction for prioritizing research aimed at advancing the field in the next 5 to 20 years. 

Genetically designed enzymes, cells and organisms will produce or modify chemicals in a way that even today is unimaginable. We caimot be sure about how things will be in ten years time, but one thing is certain imagination will be a key driver of the future. Companies with a vision and the aspiration to achieve it will then drive the speed of development For example, the chemical industry only developed environmentally advanced processes when it inspired this move itself, after major incidents of pollution. 

Investigations so extensive will certainly be utilized in the near future when the improvement of biochemical and chemical knowledge provides a clearer vision. 

In attempting to construct a set of visions of the future, it helps to understand how chemical engineering came to be. The objective of this chapter is to outline the development of the discipline and profession of chemical engineering starting from origins in the last part of the eighteenth century. 

It would be presumptuous to say that I have a vision for the future of Chemical Engineering. A vision has value only if it is a shared one, and only if it is reached after focused and thorough discussions with those involved. 

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