Sustainable Process Systems through Nature-Inspired Chemical Engineering

Tackling Grand Challenges in energy and sustainable manufacturing, framed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but also economic requirements, requires step-changes through transformative approaches and interdisciplinary thinking, beyond incremental variations on traditional designs. We turn to nature for inspiration, because nature provides us with examples of solutions, perfected over the eons, to similar challenges as those we encounter in technology, such as scalability, efficiency, and resilience. However, such solutions from nature cannot be copied: their underpinning mechanisms need to be understood, before adopting and adapting them to the different context of industrial applications. This can be achieved via a systematic, nature-inspired solution (NIS) methodology, developed and applied at UCL’s Centre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE), to accelerate innovation and sustainable development. I will illustrate this approach with examples related to chemical engineering (NICE) for process intensification, from fluidized beds to hierarchically structured catalysts, fuel cells, and membrane separations.