| Popis: |
Sustainable development builds on the recognition of limitations of resources, and the need for preservation of life and life-supporting natural systems. Growing in recognition in the late 20th century, it has evolved into a guiding principle for human development for the 21st century. Recently, new design philosophies for functional materials, separation, and reactor systems have been developed to serve as a basis for sustainable design in chemical engineering. An emerging design philosophy for the design of new materials, products, and processes is based on inspiration from nature. In this chapter, we introduce the concept of nature-inspired chemical engineering (NICE) and critically examine how this approach differs from biomimicry, as it is usually applied, by copying nature. NICE provides innovative solutions to challenging problems, following a systematic methodology based on fundamental mechanisms. The scope of application of the NICE approach is demonstrated via examples ranging from nano- to macroscale. |
