Climate change is one of the greatest threats of this century, with greenhouse gases (GHG) resulting from human action being the main contributors. One of the majority components of GHG is CO2 (carbon dioxide), predominantly originating from the burning of fossil fuels.
Studies indicate that other activities such as agriculture and massive deforestation as a source of fuel lead to the decomposition of plant material and the release of carbon from the soil resulting in GHG, as forests play a fundamental role in the absorption of CO2.
The global increase in temperature on Earth represents a widespread concern not only at a scientific level but also at a political one. The threat to coastal zones is already felt due to the rising sea levels caused by the phenomenon of melting glaciers, which are estimated to represent 10% of the Earth's surface.
In socio-economically less developed countries, there is an increase in human rights inequality. Devastating climatic events are most felt among the most disadvantaged populations, such as in Africa, for example, which may face extreme difficulties regarding the right to health due to the unavailability of drinking water and food.
Energy Transition is the main instrument to halt the rise of the planet's global temperature. The objectives are to reduce the need for fossil fuels by resorting to low or zero carbon emission energy based on renewable sources, the so-called green energies.
The European Parliament established the new Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) which sets the target of 32% of energy coming from renewable sources in the European Union by 2030.
Despite the urgency of the energy transition and the political advances through European Standards with outlined goals, it is essential that government support continues to be provided for the development of new, more efficient technologies.
Although there is a strong commitment to renewable energies, such as solar, wind, and hydraulic energy, these also present disadvantages. The technologies used for the production of renewable energy have a long return on investment, requiring government support to be economically sustainable. They are energy sources that depend on weather conditions, that is, on lighting and meteorological cycles, where production periods may not correspond to consumption needs, creating the necessity for storage. For this reason, it is fundamental that investment is also made in the technological development of batteries that can accumulate this energy.
Often, in the context of environmental policy, the final result of the legislative process translates into symbolic legislation, of limited or even impossible application. Such pieces of legislation are like those decorative objects placed on tables to show to visitors but which we always remove whenever it is necessary to use the table.
Symbolic legislation is innocuous regarding the solution of environmental problems. But it is not innocuous when it increases bureaucracy and context costs, making life more difficult for families and companies. And this symbolic legislation becomes dangerous when it hinders the continuation of technical solutions existing in the market, sold at reasonable prices and with adequate levels of environmental protection.
The circular economy is a good idea, but it is not a new idea. In Portugal, there are numerous areas of action in the field of waste management where the private sector offers integrated solutions that are an application of the best intentions of the circular economy announced by Brussels.
I fear that the Portuguese legislator, when we reach the stage of transposing future Directives, will want to add another dose of bureaucracy (“gold-plating”), making the application of European Union standards even more difficult and threatening the continuity of the virtuous examples we have in Portugal regarding waste management.
Eng. Célia Pedro
I write and present slides daily to government officials, CEOs of private companies, and investment funds, but speaking to you is a complicated task because it forces me to introspect on everything I have achieved over the last twenty years since completing my Chemical Engineering degree in 2002.
My first memory is of the fantastic group I was lucky enough to spend five years with. At the time, forty of us entered each year and the minimum duration of the course was five years; it was indeed a special group. It was a diverse group - individuals with exceptional work ethics, very distinct personalities and ambitions - of whom I hold very important memories. There are so many stories they wouldn't fit on this page, nor do I have the mastery of the Portuguese language to describe what we lived through. I miss the conversations with our late Mr. Vítor, Mrs. Mafalda’s smile, and the look of panic on Mr. Gândara’s face when we invaded the terminal room at the "Chimico," not always very quietly.
With the perspective of having later studied and taught at Imperial College London, I say with great pride that I studied Chemical Engineering in Coimbra. I had professors who were deeply human and of the highest scientific caliber. I run the risk of a reprimand when I next visit the DEQ, but how can I not mention Professor Maria Margarida Figueiredo, Maria Helena Gil, Lino, Pedro Nuno, or Fernando Bernardo as examples - as for Jorge Coelho, I have other stories I can tell over a beer and some lupin beans in the square. However, my professional career was truly marked by Professor José Almiro e Castro and Professor Pedro Saraiva.
During my research project in the fifth year, in September 2001, I began working with Professor Almiro on the Fortran 77 modeling and simulation of the VCM polymerization pilot reactor at CIRES in Estarreja. I started traveling to Estarreja then, and it was my first industrial experience. My professional internship was formalized in 2002, after finishing the degree with the Organic Chemistry course. CIRES was thus my first job as a Chemical Engineer - a big thank you to Pedro Gonçalves, Alexandre Henriques, and Paulo Resende.
It was around that time that I also began working with Professor Pedro Saraiva - PRODEQ and Bluepharma. After unsuccessfully applying for a PhD scholarship from the FCT, the chance arose to move to London and pursue a doctorate at Imperial College London in partnership with Professor Stratos Pistikopoulos. After breaking a leg playing football and watching Portugal lose the Euro final, I emigrated to the UK in September 2004. Those were four years of hard work; I published ten book chapters on optimization, six articles in world-renowned journals such as Automatica and the Journal of Global Optimization, and more than 20 conference papers. Professor Pedro Saraiva’s guidance and the memory of Professor Almiro were always with me on this adventure.
When everything pointed toward an academic career in the United States, I decided that the academic world was not for me. As I finished my PhD in 2008, job opportunities in London were scarce, so I decided to accept an invitation from an Imperial College spin-off, Process Systems Enterprise (gPROMS, now part of Siemens), and went to work with Professor Costas Pantelides. Things did not go as hoped, and I moved to Aspen Technology in 2009. It was there that I first crossed paths with "children of the DEQ," in this case, Patrícia Aguiar.
Two and a half years later, tired of driving two hours a day to Reading, I decided it was time to leave behind simulators, energy flows, and exponential grid discretizations. In 2011, I embraced a new challenge as a consultant at Nexant-Chemsystems (now NexantECA). I had significant exposure to the corporate world and the commercial component of any investment in the chemical industry.
Perhaps it was my own fault, but I believe this is perhaps the most lacking topic in my Chemical Engineering training in Coimbra. The ability to project chemical product prices, raw materials, consumption volumes, and production is just as important as designing and optimizing chemical processes and unit operations. The technical perspective I learned at the DEQ is undoubtedly one of my greatest professional advantages, but I had to learn very quickly how to financially structure a loan to build a petrochemical plant (Professor Gaudêncio would kill me if I wrote "plant" instead of "factory") or how to perform due diligence on a private company.
In the last 11 years, I have been very lucky with the projects I’ve been involved in; notably, I represented the banks in the loan to Dow and Aramco for the construction of Sadara Chemicals in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia - where I found more children of the DEQ: Arménio Costa, Arnaldo Costeira, Norberto Sousa, and Carlos Preciso. More recently, I led the team that conducted the technical due diligence for Indorama’s acquisition of Oxiteno.
In June 2022, I accepted an invitation from Wood Mackenzie in London to lead and support the expansion of our activities in the chemical industry. Throughout this journey, I remain in contact with Professor Pedro Saraiva and many of my classmates. The only thing that still gets in the way is how to translate "Licenciatura" and explain that a five-year degree was just the minimum - if only they knew we had to learn Kalman filters.
Along the way, I gained a British passport, lost some hair, and have two daughters: Isabella, with her Sicilian mother, and Beatriz, with my current partner from Trinidad and Tobago.
A hug and good luck,
Nuno Faísca
