Society, Industry, and the Environment: the Engineer's Approach

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Society, Industry, and the Environment: the Engineer's Approach
by Theodore Bechlivanis \| 20-02-2020 19:17 0
Every engineer who wishes to work in any kind of industry - chemical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, etc. - must first acquire certain management and decision-making skills. Those engineers can be mechanical, electrical, industrial, or chemical engineers. The latter are specifically trained in an array of topics like reactor design and chemical plant management. During the course of our training, there is a focus on sustainable production management. A core element of this theory is the interaction between society, industry, and the environment. Chemical engineers are taught that while industry and its surrounding communities interact through the cycle of supply and demand, the environment is often burdened with the harmful byproducts of manufacture. Engineers always strive for maximum efficiency, and in the context of traditional industry that means maximizing profits no matter what. However, as sustainability becomes increasingly crucial for the industrial complex to survive, production that doesn't harm the environment has come to the forefront of plant design. As a result, the modern engineer must answer questions like: - what is the reaction with the least harmful byproducts? - what manufacturing technique will produce the least thermal waste, which severely impacts the local ecosystems? - how should the packaging be designed to minimize its impact on the environment? What alternative or biodegradable materials should be taken into consideration? - what alternative or renewable energy sources could be harnessed to make production more sustainable? The bar for good engineering is constantly rising - and these days, it's as important to create useful, low-cost products as it is to know how the state of the environment informs the capabilities of your production systems. After all, greening the economy begins with the things that stimulate its growth in the first place: green products.

Dormant user Theodore Bechlivanis