Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences 30 (2018) 1

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Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences

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Editorial

Sustainable design: A new frontier for chemical engineering

The chemical process industries are characterized by the
tremendous use of natural resources and the discharge of substan-
tial amounts of wastes. With the growing awareness of the
importance of conserving natural resources and mitigating the
negative impact on the environment, sustainable design of indus-
trial processes is emerging as an effective framework for support-
ing sustainability initiatives and enacting paradigm shifts in
practice, research, and education. Sustainable design of industrial
processes may be defined as ‘‘the design activities that lead to eco-
nomic growth, environmental protection, and social progress for
the current generation without compromising the potential of
future generations to have an ecosystem which meets their needs”
(El-Halwagi, 2017a). The primary objectives of sustainable design
include conservation of natural resources (raw materials, water,
mass and energy utilities, etc.), prevention and mitigation of pollu-
tion and emissions, enhancement of yield and profitability,
increase in capital productivity, improvement in inherent safety.
The complexity of these objectives and factors necessitate the
use of an integrated approach which addresses the interactions
among the different unit operations and technologies within the
process as well as the interactions of the industrial processes with
the surrounding communities and natural resources. It is also
important to reconcile the often-competing objectives dictated
by economics, the environment, and society. Recent approaches
have been proposed to quantify sustainability metrics (e.g.,
Sikdar et al., 2017) and to trade off the competing metrics (e.g.,
El-Halwagi, 2017b). Ongoing research includes the development
of multiscale systems approaches that address the micro-, meso-,
and macro-scales associated with the chemical process industry.
The net results will be the development of new chemical pathways,
catalysis, reactors, separators, and technology schemes. Further-
more, integrating multiple processes into an eco-industrial park
can create platforms where mass and energy integration is
facilitated among several facilities via industrial symbiosis (e.g.,
Noureldin and El-Halwagi, 2015). Finally, to prepare the next
generation of chemical engineers, it is important to introduce the
concepts of sustainability and sustainable design throughout the
curriculum. This can be achieved using the principal techniques
in chemical engineering with new applications geared towards
sustainability. The results will be a positive impact on education,
research, practice of the profession, economic growth, social
progress, and environmental protection.
References
El-Halwagi, M.M., 2017a. Sustainable Design through Process Integration:
Fundamentals and Applications to Industrial Pollution Prevention, Resource
Conservation, and Profitability Enhancement. second ed., IChemE/Elsevier.
El-Halwagi, M.M., 2017b. A return on investment metric for incorporating
sustainability in process integration and improvement projects. Clean
Technol. Environ. Policy 19, 611–617.
Noureldin, M.M.B., El-Halwagi, M.M., 2015. Synthesis of C-H-O symbiosis networks.
AIChE J. 64 (4), 1242–1262.
Sikdar, S.K., Sengupta, D., Mukherjee, R., 2017. Measuring Progress Towards
Sustainability: A Treatise for Engineers. Springer.
⇑
Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi
The Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering,
TEES Gas and Fuels Research Center, Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843-3122, USA
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering,
King Abdulziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
⇑ Address: The Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering,
TEES Gas and Fuels Research Center,
Texas A&M University, College Station,
TX 77843-3122, USA

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