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

摘要

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 hazardousmaterials and have generated wastes that could harm human health and the environment. Sustainabledevelopment has been defined as development which meets the needs of current generations withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The need of university students tobe instructed according to criteria and values related to sustainability were included as priory objectives inthe UNESCO Sustainable Development Educational Program 2005-2014 and Rectors Conference ofSpanish Universities (CRUE)guidelines about sustainability introduction in the university curriculum. Thecapacity to analyze the social and environmental impact of the technical solutions and the use of ethicaland sustainable criteria in decisions are included in the general and transversal learning competencesassociated with the Organic Chemistry discipline in the Chemical Engineering Degree at TechnicalUniversity of Cartagena. To contribute to the reaching of those competences, the study of the newconcept of the metrics of the organic chemical processes, according to chemical sustainability hasbeen included in that organic chemistry discipline. This paper describes the different concepts relatedto that new metrics and its instructive methodology.