Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2025
07:59
A Customizable Approach for the Enzymatic Production and Purification of Diterpenoid Natural Products
Published on: October 4, 2019
9.9K
Planet-compatible pathways for transitioning the chemical industry
Fanran Meng1, Andreas Wagner2, Alexandre B Kremer2
1Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK.
Summary
Achieve sustainable chemical production by 2050 through resource efficiency and circular economy strategies. These planet-compatible pathways reduce demand, shift feedstocks, and decarbonize energy for net-negative emissions.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Chemical Engineering
- Sustainable Chemistry
Background:
- Modern lifestyles depend on chemical products like plastics and fertilizers.
- Chemical production, use, and disposal cause significant environmental damage.
- The chemical industry faces challenges to its operational sustainability due to environmental impacts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present seven planet-compatible pathways for the chemical industry to achieve sustainability by 2050.
- To explore demand-side and supply-side interventions for environmental impact mitigation.
- To estimate the investment costs associated with these sustainable pathways.
Main Methods:
- Modeling of demand-side interventions focusing on resource efficiency and circularity.
- Analysis of supply-side interventions including feedstock replacement and energy decarbonization.
- Calculation of cumulative investment costs for proposed pathways.
Main Results:
- Resource efficiency and circularity can decrease global chemical demand by 23–33%.
- Transitioning to biogenic/air-capture sources and decarbonizing energy can lead to net-negative emissions.
- Proposed interventions could achieve net-negative emissions of 0.5 GtCO2eq y-1 for non-ammonia chemicals.
Conclusions:
- Implementing resource efficiency and circular economy principles is crucial for sustainable chemical production.
- Shifting to sustainable feedstocks and decarbonizing energy are key to achieving net-negative emissions.
- The chemical industry can maintain essential services while significantly reducing its environmental footprint.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Amino Acid Biosynthetic Pathways
56
Amino acid biosynthesis is essential for cell growth, protein synthesis, and metabolic regulation. Cells generate essential and non-essential amino acids from metabolic intermediates to sustain vital biological functions. These intermediates originate from key metabolic pathways: glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and the pentose phosphate pathway. Important precursors include α-ketoglutarate, pyruvate, oxaloacetate, phosphoenolpyruvate, and erythrose-4-phosphate, which...
56
01:27Effects of Chemicals: Overview
1.3K
Drugs, encompassing various chemical compounds from natural sources, lab synthesis, or genetic engineering, elicit different biological responses in living organisms. Some of these responses are desirable or therapeutic, while others are undesirable. The primary goal of administering a drug is to achieve a therapeutic effect, that is, to address a specific disease or health condition. Any concurrent effects outside of this therapeutic outcome are considered undesirable. These undesirable...
1.3K
01:24Other Glycolytic Pathways
95
The pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) operates in parallel with glycolysis, facilitating the metabolism of both pentoses and glucose. This pathway consists of two distinct phases: the oxidative and non-oxidative phases. While it does not directly generate ATP, the intermediates formed during the process can integrate into glycolysis, contributing to cellular energy metabolism when required.Oxidative Phase: NADPH ProductionThe oxidative phase of the pentose phosphate pathway is primarily...
95
01:28Carbon-dioxide Fixation
47
Carbon dioxide fixation in prokaryotes enables the assimilation of inorganic carbon into organic molecules, supporting biosynthetic pathways, sustaining ecosystems, and contributing to the global carbon cycle. It also has industrial applications in carbon capture and bioproduct synthesis. Autotrophic organisms rely on this process to utilize CO₂ as a carbon source in diverse environments.The Calvin CycleThe Calvin cycle is the most widespread carbon fixation mechanism, primarily used by...
47
02:13Energy Diagrams, Transition States, and Intermediates
16.9K
Free-energy diagrams, or reaction coordinate diagrams, are graphs showing the energy changes that occur during a chemical reaction. The reaction coordinate represented on the horizontal axis shows how far the reaction has progressed structurally. Positions along the x-axis close to the reactants have structures resembling the reactants, while positions close to the products resemble the products. Peaks on the energy diagram represent stable structures with measurable lifetimes, while...
16.9K
02:24Predicting Reaction Outcomes
8.5K
Kinetics describes the rate and path by which a reaction occurs. In contrast, thermodynamics deals with state functions and describes the properties, behavior, and components of a system. It is not concerned with the path taken by the process and cannot address the rate at which a reaction occurs. Although it does provide information about what can happen during a reaction process, it does not describe the detailed steps of what appears on an atomic or a molecular level. On the other hand,...
8.5K