Process Deasign and Sustainable Development

Abstract

This review paper describes some historical facts, the state of the art of process design and sustainable development. In the Introduction the most important global megatrends are presented and the European Union response to them, the European Green Deal. Process design and sustainable development are dealt with separately and holistically. Organization of professionals from the area, their conferences and publication are supporting the two topics. A short analysis of the published documents in two most popular databases shows that environmental dimension is prevailing, followed by economic one while social pillar of sustainable development is undervalued. The most important design tools for sustainability are described. An important practical case, the European chemical and process industries are analyzed and their achievements in sustainable development are shown; in particular their strategies are presented in more detail. The conclusions are embracing the most urgent future development areas of process industries, carbon capture with utilization or storage, the process analysis, simulation, synthesis and optimization tools; zero waste, circular economy and resource efficiency are already playing an important role. But deeper changes are needed in the future decades including de-growth with changes of habits, lifestyles, and business models. Lifelong education for sustainable development will play a very important role in the growth of democracy and happiness instead of the consumerism and neoliberalism.