Open AccessPreliminary evaluation of value—added bio-based building blocks
Author(s) -
Bill Jang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
impact
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2398-7081
pISSN - 2398-7073
DOI - 10.21820/23987073.2020.4.6
Subject(s) - circular economy , underpinning , reuse , incentive , exploit , variety (cybernetics) , work (physics) , process (computing) , business , resource (disambiguation) , fossil fuel , industrial ecology , computer science , environmental economics , engineering , sustainability , economics , waste management , civil engineering , computer security , mechanical engineering , ecology , computer network , operating system , artificial intelligence , biology , microeconomics
The global economic system is currently organised to exploit fossil fuel-based technologies. Resources are extracted from the earth and undergo a multitude of different processing steps to become a myriad of different and essential everyday products. Unfortunately, most of these products are disposed of soon after use and can cause huge waste disposal and environmental problems. In addition, the manufacturing process itself can cause further problems. This linear system has proven extremely effective at production; however, it is, ultimately, unsustainable. The dream future for both the environment and resource conservation is an economy that is capable to reusing used end-products – a circular economy. The path to a circular economy, however, is a winding and treacherous one. To make it work, it is necessary to consider the whole system and the wide variety of stakeholders therein. It is essential to work out the incentives for manufacturers, users and potential re-users, as well as those of governments and nations. Most importantly, the technology underpinning it has to be as good or better than those that are currently in use. Researchers at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan are working to develop one important section of the linear fossil fuel economy into a more circular form. The team, led by Dr Guang-Way Bill Jang, are working on producing polymers from biological sources. They are also working on developing new materials and chemicals from these sources.