Overview

Engineering the circular economy involves the design and management of sustainable technology, research into environmental and social impacts, and a good understanding of the limitations of management of resources using a ‘cradle to cradle’ life cycle approach (i.e. doing more with less).

This presentation covers two key sustainable engineering concepts - life cycle thinking and industrial symbiosis in engineering design. Life cycle thinking assists engineering innovation of products and processes (e.g. resource recovery, remanufacturing, multi-functional devices, energy storage system, digitization) during the product/service life cycle to help achieve closed-loop material flow and to decouple emissions and resource use from economic growth.

Industrial Symbiosis, encourages collaboration between neighbouring industries where waste or by-products of one company become a resource for another company. This symbiotic relationship development (e.g. NOx emitted from a refinery could be a potential resource for an adjacent fertiliser industry) results in enhanced material efficiency and waste management supporting the principles of both circular economy and green economy.

Speaker

Wahidul Biswas Deputy Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group at Curtin University

Wahidul is the Deputy Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group at Curtin University and Co-lead of the Sustainability transformation for the low carbon transition Program in the HILT CRC (high-intensity low carbon transition). He is ranked in the top 1% of scientists worldwide by Elsevier and he is a mechanical engineer. He has carried out extensive life cycle assessment research on greenhouse gas emissions from the Australian agricultural, alternative fuels, building and construction, manufacturing, mining and water sectors.

Wahidul teaches and coordinates postgraduate units on Cleaner Production Tools, Global Sustainability Studies, Environmental Studies, and Sustainable Energy and a core undergraduate Engineering unit, Engineering for Sustainable Development. He just published his textbook on Engineering for Sustainable Development: Theory and Practice which he developed based on his 17 years teaching at Curtin.

The material presented has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenters' own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the Queensland Member Group. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.