Processes of the Future

As shown in chapter 5, increasing temperatures produce an exponential rise in the rate of xylose disappearance, thus reducing the reactor size dramatically. A process requiring a huge apparatus at 150 °C calls for no more than a pipe when carried out above 200 °C. In addition, in the present processes permitting furfural losses by employing a nonboiling reac- 

Finally, on another front, an understanding of the reasons for the present huge losses in industrial furfural reactors has shown a way towards the 100 % yield routinely obtained in the analytical furfural process discussed in chapter 7. 

All of these considerations give a colorful picture of potentially revolutionary new processes. Although so far none of these processes has gone beyond the pilot plant scale, they deserve particular attention as they hold the key to progress. 

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Solvent Dyeing. Solvent dyeing generaUy refers to dyeing in nonaqueous media. In the early 1970s, solvent dyeing was expected to become the dyeiag process of the future and was discussed and researched extensively (32). This interest did not materialize into practical acceptance and the technique has not achieved importance. 

Even if these liquefaction processes are still not accepted worlwide (for instance in Europe), they should grow within the next few years. We do really believe that they are the processes of the future, and especially the process of pressing / pomace liquefaction because it is an easy process, it allows the production of quality juice combined with high yields within a great flexibility. Such high yields, low production cost and flexibility to process different fruits make that fruit juice producers are more and more choosing the pomace liquefaction. 

Acetic anhydride may be produced by three different methods. The first procedure involves the in situ production from acetaldehyde of peracetic acid, which in turn reacts with more acetaldehyde to yield the anhydride. In the preferred process, acetic acid (or acetone) is pyrolyzed to ketene, which reacts with acetic acid to form acetic anhydride. A new process to make acetic anhydride involves CO insertion into methyl acetate. This may be the process of the future. 

The environmental group Grassroots Recycling Network is developing a Zero Waste Policy Paper for consumer products. The net result is that society is beginning to expect that the products and processes of the future will not generate waste and are recyclable or biodegradable. 

We must also remember that coal mining and transportation processes of the future may require increasing use of freshwater resources to mine and transport the coal. The effluents discharged and the receiving ecosystems—mainly riverine and lacustrine—will require careful study to ensure adequate food resource and public health protection. 

The trend in chemical feedstocks is towards less expensive, more available ones and away from the expensive, more reactive feeds. For example, the extensive use of acetylene as a feedstock in the 1930-1940 s has been replaced in the 1960-1980 s by olefins and diolefins. The future trend appears to be towards paraffins and synthesis gas (Figure 20). Continued developments in fundamental catalyst science will serve as the basis for the design of the catalytic single-step processes of the future which will efficiently utilize inexpensive, readily available feeds. 

To enable the engineering of E-textiles, research in the textile sector must be focused towards the products of highly added value, development of which demands an interdisciplinary approach and collaboration of scientists across various scientific fields (Connect, 2014). Not only the end product, but the production process of the future itself has to bring technological innovations and sustainability (Parac Osterman et al., 2010) and thus form a circle in which advancements are possible whilst maintaining the balance with nature and the surroundings (Gardetti and Torres, 2013 Parac-Osterman et al., 2007). 

Mechanical engineering education is not challenged to prepare students for the environment of interviewing and the variety of interview processes of the future. 

New paradigms of chemical reaction engineering will appear the processes of the future should be more intensive, more selective, and more product-oriented, because of global competition and environmental aspects. A broad-minded view is needed to meet the... 

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