The session aims to build awareness of the challenge and highlight the roles chemical engineering expertise can play in addressing the system integration challenges and technology needs resulting from the interconnected nature of global water-energy-food issues. To view the full program and speakers of the session, click on the Read More link below.
This session has been planned by prominent leaders of international chemical engineering organizations. AIChE and IChemE are collaborating under the auspices of the World Chemical Engineering Council to help make this session a success. We hope to help address this challenge by identifying specific projects in which IfS (Institute for Sustainability) and CEI (Center for Energy Initiatives) can participate.
To prepare engineers to engage with policy-makers and the community at large, AIChE¹s Public Affairs and Information Committee (PAIC) is guiding the Institute, and its members, toward a deeper understanding of the grand-challenge issues that impact society.
The World Café will focus on the most prominent public policy issues of importance to the chemical engineering profession: the energy-water-food nexus; climate change and carbon management; and advanced manufacturing.
Energy-Water-Food Nexus:
Energy, water, and food are central to basic human needs and quality of life. An understanding of the complex interplays among these global resource systems is necessary for engineers seeking to inform public policy, identify advanced technologies to address nexus problems, and train the next-generation workforce.
This session describes the nexus as an integrated system challenge and provides an overview of AIChE activities addressing the nexus.
Climate Change and Carbon Management:
The August 2015 announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the Clean Power Plan, as well as other regulations, have significant implications for chemical engineers, especially those working in industries that produce or are dependent on fossil fuels.
This session will consider the role of chemical engineers in this changing landscape. Topics include: the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requirements to disclose material risks arising from climate change; tools for managing risk; public sentiment; expectations for the post-Kyoto-Treaty 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris; and more.
Advanced Manufacturing:
Manufacturing is a hot topic worldwide. Much of the focus, however, has been on manufacturing using machines and assembly lines, and overlooks the role of the process industries. A key area of involvement for chemical engineers is in Smart Manufacturing, a cyberinfrastructure for the breadth of manufacturing enterprises, encompassing sensors and controls, product supply chains, physical and cybersecurity, predictive maintenance, enterprise decision-making, and environmental and safety issues.
This session will also explore process intensification, including new-process innovations.
Session Chair:
- Dale Keairns, AIChE and Booz Allen Hamilton
Session Co-Chair:
- Henry T. Kohlbrand, AIChE and Consultant
- Mary Ellen Ternes, Crowe & Dunlevy