Adding Value to Chemical Products

E.L. Cussler

Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, USA

Chemical engineering as an organized discipline is almost exactly 100 years old. For the first fifty years the discipline served many separate industries, including agriculture, metals, paints, and fuels. For the next fifty years – those just ended – the industry became focused on petrochemicals. It was enormously successful: for example, the industry made textile fibers which literally changed the clothes on human backs.

As it enters the next fifty years, chemical engineering is broadening its focus dramatically. This broader focus can be conveniently discussed around three headings. First, the petrochemically focused industry, which stopped growing about thirty years ago, remains an important commodity business. It has had two characteristics: an effective use of digital computation, and a deep level of science which sought small commercial advantages. While this part of the chemical enterprise will not grow dramatically, it will require continuing effort from chemical engineers.

Second, chemical engineering will focus on new energy sources, the result of increased demand for liquid fuels and an increased concern for the environment. Energy is certainly a major social problem. My concern is that any new research will be used as an excuse to postpone social changes needed for energy conservation. In the short term, any energy crisis can be eased not so much by scientific invention as by changes in public behavior.

Third, chemical engineering will focus on products where process adds significant value. Learning how to design such products, and teaching others how to undertake this design, will probably offer the greatest potential growth for chemical engineering. Adding value can be organized around a four-step template: identifying consumer needs, generating ideas which satisfy these needs, selecting the best idea, and manufacturing the product. This paper will detail how this third goal of adding product value can be effectively accomplished.

Degrees Held (All in Chemical Engineering) B.E. (with honors) Yale University 1961 M.S. University of Wisconsin 1963 Ph.D. University of Wisconsin 1965.

Career Summary 1961-65 Research Assistant, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin (Chemical Engineering); 1965-66 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Adelaide, South Australia (Physical Chemistry); 1966-67 Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University (Chemistry); 1967-70 Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University ; 1970-73 Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University 1973-80; Professor of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University; 1980-95 Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota; 1991-92 Visiting Professor of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 1996- Distinguished Institute of Technology Professor, University of Minnesota; 1998-99 Visiting Professor and Zeneca Fellow, Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Awards: Alan P. Colburn Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1975. Ryan Undergraduate Teaching Award, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1975. Minnesota Institute of Technology Teaching Award, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1993,1995, 1996, 1998, 2004. George Taylor Distinguished Teaching Award, 1987. Danckwerts Lecture, Institution of Chemical Engineers, London, 1997. ASEE Union Carbide Lectureship, 1998. W. K. Lewis Award, AIChE, 2001. American Chemical Society Separations Science Award, ACS, 2002. National Academy of Engineering, 2002. Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Lund University, 2002. Yale Science and Engineering Society Award, 2003.

Service Journal of Membrane Science, Editorial Board, 1975 - present. Chair, Gordon Conference, 1988 (Separations) and 1995 (Membranes). Director, Vice President, President, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1989-1995 Chair, American Association of Engineering Societies, 1996 AIChE Journal, Associate Editor, 1996 - present

More: http://www.cems.umn.edu/about/people/facdetail.php?cemsid=20174