Engineering & Technology Review Article –1: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF
CHEMICAL AND ALLIED INDUSTRY The attention of world today is focused on
sustainable development. Thedepletion of natural resources due to their
recklessexploitation,thedestruction of environment due to the pollution
of land, waterandair and the global warming have threatened our
existence onthis planet. The need of the hour is to develop such
technologies thatwill conserve our natural resources; reduce or stop
the generation ofpollutants and effectively treat, reuse, recycle them
and ealized thegeneration of greenhouse gases, harnessing renewable,
non-pollutingenergy sources; leading to sustainable development. Some
of the identified technologies for sustainable development of chemical
and allied industry are as follows:* Manufacturing processes leading to
the conservation of raw materials and energy* Manufacturing, handling
and control processes for waste ealizedion / zero emission* Treatment
and recycling of wastes, viz: gaseous and particulateemissions,
wastewater, solid wastes like fly ash, blast furnace slag,rice husk,
etc* Renewable energy sources like hydrogen, biomass (bio-diesel,
bio-oil, methanol, ethanol, biogas), hydro, solar, wind, tidal*
Environment friendly energy generationlike fuel cells, photovoltaic
cells * Environment friendly materials like bacterial concrete,
bio-degradable plastics, environmental catalysts The list is not
exhaustive and the new themes and technologies willkeep adding.
Understanding the importance of the subject, the UnitedNations has
dedicated 2005-2014 to be the decade of education forsustainable
development. The enormity of the problem requires that efforts are
initiated ondifferent fronts simultaneously. The sustainable catalysis
aims atwaste minimization and emissions clean-up; promotion of
sustainableindustrial production through technology innovations to
conservenatural resources, energy and reduce harmful emissions; and
thedevelopment of catalytic technologies to reduce the greenhouse
gasemission. The bio-fuels, namely bio-diesel and bio-oil are
renewableand CO2-neutral. However, their manufacturing technology is
not yetfully developed and the limitation on their large scale use, on
accountof certain operating problems, need to be resolved.
The hydrogen
is thelightest and one of the most abundant elements found in the
nature. Theproduction (in some cases) and the utilization of hydrogen
is emissionfree, which makes it an ideal candidate for sustainable
energy for thefuture. The one-step thermal decomposition of water by
solar energy toproduce hydrogen, deserves attention, as the next
technology. The fuelcells are devices which convert the free energy of
chemical reactiondirectly into electricity (and some heat). They can
use different typesof fuel like methane, ethanol, biogas, methanol,
gasoline, besideshydrogen. It should be noted that fuel cells will
contribute to thesustainable development only when the fuel is
renewable, like hydrogenor methanol/ ethanol/biogas produced from the
biomass. There issubstantial scope to recycle the solid/liquid wastes,
generated in hugequantities form the industrial and domestic sources,
to the industrialstream. They could be either used as a partial
substitutes for the rawmaterials or the fuels, provided the safety and
the environmentalaspects are properly taken care. The business leaders
today haverealized that business cannot succeed in societies that fail.
The WorldBusiness Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) works
forsustainable business practices. The members believe that
globalizationcan be made to be inclusive and that the leading global
companies ofthe future will be those that do business in ways that
address thechallenges of sustainable development effectively. Ref:
Bapat J. D., Theme paper at the National Seminar on
SustainableDevelopment in Chemical and Allied Industries, The
Institution ofEngineers (India), Pune, India, 4-5 September 2004