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The Environment Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century (2003) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Pages 1-6

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From page 1...
... Over the last several decades, chemists and chemical engineers indeed, the entire chemical enterprise have made remarkable progress on several fronts. Earlier practices of disposing of chemical waste directly into the air, waterways, and soil largely have been replaced with approaches that have much lower environmental impact.
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From page 2...
... Workshop participants provided a broad range of experience and perspective, and their discussions and presentations identified a wide variety of opportunities and challenges in chemistry and chemical engineering. These opportunities and challenges, which are documented throughout this report (including many of
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From page 3...
... Conclusion: Chemistry and chemical engineering have made major contributions to solving environmental problems. Specific areas of accomplishment include · major increases in analytical capabilities detection, monitoring, and measurement; · increased understanding of biogeochemical processes and cycles; meets)
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From page 4...
... Input and expertise from a broad array of scientific, engineering, and social disciplines will be an essential part of developing the necessary tools. Conclusion: Solving environmental problems will require intensive mathematical modeling, complex optimization, and computational resources.
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From page 5...
... Examples include the need to understand (or better understand) · structure-toxicity relations; · chemical processes at the molecular level; · biological and physicochemical interactions in response to environmental stresses; · fate and transport of anthropogenic chemicals; · biogeochemical cycles; · gas-to-particle conversion in the atmosphere; · functional genomics and the chemical processes that govern organismenvironment relationships; and .
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From page 6...
... If the necessary investment is made in these new directions, chemists and chemical engineers will be able to make major strides in improving environmental quality. Conclusion: Strong and continued support of the chemical sciences will be an essential part of the federal research investment for understanding, improving, and protecting the environment.
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Key Terms

  • chemical engineers
  • chemical processes
  • raw materials
  • manufacturing sequence
  • green chemistry

  • computational resources
  • complex optimization
  • fundamental understanding
  • pollution prevention
  • greatly reduced

  • manifold challenges
  • continued support
  • workshop organizing
  • environmental quality
  • surely transfer

  • chemistry offer
  • simulation techniques
  • complex research
  • intensive efforts
  • challenges described

  • major increases
  • engineers indeed
  • increasingly complex
  • require intensive
  • currently exist

  • engineering exist
  • substantial contributions
  • industrial ecology
  • industrial laboratories
  • sample acquisition


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