INTEGRATING SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CURRICULUM: METRICS OF A SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC CHEMICAL PROCESS

Chemical sciences have deeply improved the life of billions of people over the last two hundred years, providing basic human needs and delivering our most complex services, but at the same time, chemical process have been energy-intensive, have used non-renewable feedstock and hazardous materials and have generated wastes that could harm human health and the environment. Sustainable development has been defined as development which meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The need of university students to be instructed according to criteria and values related to sustainability were included as priory objectives in the UNESCO Sustainable Development Educational Program 2005-2014 and Rectors Conference of Spanish Universities (CRUE) guidelines about sustainability introduction in the university curriculum. The capacity to analyze the social and environmental impact of the technical solutions and the use of ethical and sustainable criteria in decisions are included in the general and transversal learning competences associated with the Organic Chemistry discipline in the Chemical Engineering Degree at Technical University of Cartagena. To contribute to the reaching of those competences, the study of the new concept of the metrics of the organic chemical processes, according to chemical sustainability has been included in that organic chemistry discipline. This paper describes the different concepts related to that new metrics and its instructive methodology.