The primary goal of The US-India Chemical Engineering Conference and Workshop on Energy, Environment and Sustainability, to be held in Mumbai, India, December 27-30, 2013, is to promote interactions between academia, industry and government from India and the United States on frontier topics in energy, environment and sustainability. Energy is important to all sectors of the world economy. Concerns about rapidly depleting crude oil supplies amidst growing global demand for energy have spurred research and development aimed at developing sustainable and affordable alternate sources of energy. Given that energy powers the businesses and industries that create jobs and enable trade around the world, the aforementioned energy challenges are foremost in the strategic science and technology initiatives of the U.S. and Indian governments. As evidence, both governments are investing billions of dollars annually in energy-related R&D.
The proposed joint conference will focus on traditional, non-traditional and future energy, environment and sustainability issues including (1) Oil and Natural Gas, Petroleum; (2) Coal; (3) Bioenergy; (4) Hydrogen & Fuel Cells; (5) Solar Energy; (7) Wind, Geothermal, (8) Water Resources, and (9) Life Cycle Analysis. In each topical area, there will be invited lectures by experts from both countries. Specifically, the conference will provide a unique forum for scientists and engineers in academia, industry and government from both countries to discuss the following aspects: (i) the many energy-related grand challenges facing the global community, including economic and sociopolitical issues; (ii) ongoing energy-related research activities in academia, industry and government laboratories, and (iii) particularly in the Workshop, discussion of future research needs aimed at developing mutually beneficial collaborations.
The conference participants will benefit from state-of-the-art reviews and presentations by leading experts, by exchanging the latest advances on frontier research subjects relating to energy, environment and sustainability, and by debating controversial points with their peers. The meeting will provide an excellent opportunity for interaction and cooperation among the academic, industrial and government researchers, from India and the U.S. The award of travel funds are expected to attract young researchers, who have an opportunity to interact with each other and with experienced researchers in the field, which will positively influence their professional development. By placing emphasis on problems related to energy, environment and sustainability, the foremost concerns of the 21st century, the knowledge disseminated in the joint conference and workshop will benefit the society at large. We expect that the lectures and the proposed workshop will stimulate many collaborative investigations on these important topics. The resulting research and development activities will generate new sustainable energy technologies that will enhance the quality of life in society.
, held in Mumbai, India, December 27-30, 2013, promoted stimulating interactions between researchers from academia, industry and government from India and the United States. The joint conference was held at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Mumbai, India and focused on grand science challenges related to the following energy sources. (1) Oil and Natural Gas, Petroleum; (2) Coal; (3) Bioenergy; (4) Hydrogen & Fuel Cells; (5) Solar Energy; and (6) Wind, Geothermal. Key issues relating to sustainability and assessment, including (7) Water Resources, and (8) Life Cycle Analysis, were also addressed. In each topical area, invited lectures were given by experts from both countries, including members of the US National Academy of Engineering. The speakers representing the US side included Rakesh Agrawal (Purdue), P. M. Ajayan (Rice University), David Allen (University of Texas at Austin), Sanjoy Banerjee (City College of New York), Aditya Bhan (University of Minnesota), Liang-Shih Fan (Ohio State University), Ignacio Grossman (Carnegie Mellon University), Bala Subramaniam (University of Kansas), Sankaran Sundaresan (Princeton) and Arvind Varma (Purdue). Speakers from the Indian side included leaders from academia, national laboratories and industries. The conference participants benefited from state-of-the-art reviews and presentations featuring the latest advances in these areas, and the subsequent discussions. The conference culminated in a workshop that identified topics for scientific collaborations between the US and India in energy-related areas, including new issues such as water resource management amidst increasing demand for energy crops. It was also suggested that the US and India consider a bilateral agreement wherein India could provide cost-effective pilot-scale and demonstration-scale activities for commercializing a number of renewable energy technologies emanating from the ARPA-E and other federally funded programs. Such a collaboration could ultimately benefit not only the US and India but also the global society in general.
