(170c) Role of Process Systems Engineering (PSE) in Strategizing the Path to Carbon Neutrality

Despite the clear mandate towards the goal of carbon neutrality, the current pace of progress for the transition to renewable energy and the decarbonization of chemicals production is rather slow. The key challenge facing government and industry is identifying low-carbon solutions that are economically feasible yet impactful in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Process systems engineering (PSE) is a field of research that applies methodological guidelines and systematic tools for process synthesis, design, operation, and evaluation. In this regard, PSE plays a critical role as an intermediary, bridging bench-scale R&D to higher-level policy and deployment decisions. In this talk, we examine the various paths to achieving carbon-neutrality including recycling, carbon capture and conversion, (CCU) and bioconversion, and important factors for them to succeed. We discuss the role of PSE tools, e.g., modeling, optimization, and life-cycle analysis, to assess their feasibilities and to build the most realistic path forward by combining them. Computer-aided tools for analysis and synthesis can be extremely helpful and a recently developed software tool for this purpose named ArKaTAC3 will be introduced.