Science & Technology

How to Transform the Chemical Industry — One Reaction at a Time | Miguel A. Modestino | TED

Chemical plants create many of the materials found in everyday items, from the shoes you wear to the car you drive to the cell phone in your pocket. But the massive carbon footprint from chemical manufacturing is leading to climate breakdown. Sustainable engineering researcher Miguel A. Modestino presents his team’s pioneering work on electrochemical engineering…

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Chemical plants create many of the materials found in everyday items, from the shoes you wear to the car you drive to the cell phone in your pocket. But the massive carbon footprint from chemical manufacturing is leading to climate breakdown. Sustainable engineering researcher Miguel A. Modestino presents his team’s pioneering work on electrochemical engineering — the design and implementation of new chemical reactions that source their energy directly from electricity, as opposed to fossil fuels — and explains how it could reduce the world’s dependence on oil and gas, protect its natural treasures and keep the economy humming.

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46 Comments

  1. Dr. Ryan

    September 12, 2022 at 9:07 pm

    I recently developed a machine thay stores live Beehives on my farm here in Florida. The Bees wpuldnt keep up with supply n demand so I turn machine on and what it does is shake the Beehives like a Paint Can Shaker. I have a remote so I can see the honey bees from a distance get so Mad but doing this results in MORE HONEY then normal. I have it patented so dont try and steel my idea

    • Robbie Robinson

      September 12, 2022 at 9:13 pm

      You’re violating,” BEE’s rights”. You should be in jail.

    • Bernardo Patiño

      September 12, 2022 at 9:22 pm

      if the future looks like this i hate the future

    • Bernardo Patiño

      September 12, 2022 at 9:22 pm

      @Robbie Robinson the bee movie unironically

  2. Bernardo Patiño

    September 12, 2022 at 9:17 pm

    *viva Venezuela mi patria queridaaaaaaaa quien la libertó mi hermano fue simón bolívaaaaaaaaaar * [venezuelan noises]

  3. Bernardo Patiño

    September 12, 2022 at 9:24 pm

    tan bello e inteligente dios me lo bendiga

  4. JAMAiCAN UNiVERSE

    September 12, 2022 at 9:31 pm

    They destroyed the TARTARiAN FREE ENERGY BUiLDiNGS….plus in da world we have NATURAL NUCLEAR REACTORS research Da elites dont care they want it worst den dis…WE HAVE TO DO IT

  5. John Smiff

    September 12, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    We may also consider expanding our use of biocatalysis since enzyme design is becoming increasingly accessible and versatile.

  6. D Y

    September 12, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    Greed won’t allow this genius way to prosper or be implemented… Human $$$ greed…😔

  7. Don Chonealyo The O'NEAL

    September 12, 2022 at 9:37 pm

    That sounds great unfortunately there’s not enough people in the world that will agree to do this and it’s too late we are never going to reverse the damage that we have done until the Earth takes control and it is right now unfortunately it’s going to be to the demise of most of humanity possibly all and the Earth will eventually complete its Cycles and recover and destroy all of the man-made structures until it looks like we were never here but possibly if Humanity survives we will be able to repopulate and move on who knows

  8. Tami Keller-Capotorto

    September 12, 2022 at 9:43 pm

    GROW TREES & PLANTS! YOU’RE DESTROYING HUMANS! SHUT DOWN FACTORIES. THEY’RE WORSE THAN ALL VEHICLES! YOU’RE KILLING PEOPLE INSTEAD, YOU MAKE ME SAD!

  9. Tami Keller-Capotorto

    September 12, 2022 at 9:46 pm

    More synthetics, thats what put us in this mess!

  10. Gianmarco Miroddi

    September 12, 2022 at 9:59 pm

    Food waste is not enough but there is a solution (not involving consumption of soil). Anyway, good job✌️

  11. Ken__Shanzy 😁😎

    September 12, 2022 at 10:08 pm

    A $43,000 profit sent to my portfolio each week, Ms. Angela cole car is amazing.

    • Rodriguez Hall

      September 12, 2022 at 10:17 pm

      I also needed her info too I’ll write her thanks

    • Nkemjika Chris-Ken

      September 12, 2022 at 10:17 pm

      Such information we don’t it get from most Youtubers, I am getting in touch with her right away

    • Taylor Flores

      September 12, 2022 at 10:18 pm

      Count me in,I’m placing my trades with Expert Angela Cole Carr Thanks for the information

    • Best

      September 12, 2022 at 10:18 pm

      good woman ❤️

    • Olivia Lopez

      September 12, 2022 at 10:19 pm

      @Beula Degraffenreid Thank you, I have contacted her and she responded

  12. Buildings1772

    September 13, 2022 at 3:15 am

    A boring name for very interesting talk.
    Super underatred.

  13. Sergey Nebolsin

    September 13, 2022 at 8:43 am

    Отличное выступление! Коротко, четко, все по делу! Браво!

    • Amena Begum Rokeya

      September 13, 2022 at 12:02 pm

      Hm

  14. Maxim

    September 13, 2022 at 9:11 am

    чувак изобрел электролиз?

  15. Bernard Lease

    September 13, 2022 at 11:37 am

    Impressive

    • Amena Begum Rokeya

      September 13, 2022 at 12:02 pm

      Ok..

  16. Leokadia Pumeks

    September 13, 2022 at 11:47 am

    Decarbonisation equals de-civilization. We are trying to put humans back on trees, to the times before they even invented fire. This is plainly RIDICULOUS.

  17. Amena Begum Rokeya

    September 13, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    Hm.

  18. Amena Begum Rokeya

    September 13, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    Ok.

  19. Kei Arai

    September 13, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    We must keep balance between economic growth and protecting eco-system.
    We need use our wisdom.
    Human can create idea….!!

  20. 4DCResinSmoker

    September 13, 2022 at 12:42 pm

    There’s too many people on this planet to both save it and satisfy the individual aspirations of everyone. At most, maybe 25% of the worlds population is sustainable given the current standards of “Western” life. Thus read between the lines for what the means for the other 75% of you…

    • Buildings1772

      September 17, 2022 at 8:24 am

      This isn’t true.

      Look at Tony sebas work on cellular agreculture.

      We could support 30billion people living more than a western life style and re Green the entire world in the process.

  21. ronkirk50

    September 13, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    The chemical industry needs to develop chemical manufacturing processes the produce less hazardous toxic waste (gases and liquids) which now have to be incinerated using fossil fuels and the combustion products further treated. The waste heat produced is generally not recovered either. These waste incineration processes create CO2 adding to the greenhouse gas problem causing global warming. The reason the chemical industry incinerates toxic waste is based entirely on economics – it is the cheapest solution.

  22. Fina gog

    September 13, 2022 at 5:56 pm

    فكرة رائعة اتمنى ان تحققوا ذلك في القريب العاجل

  23. frozen house

    September 13, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    I believe we do know that fundamentally the wave-particle duality is not binary, as an exciton can be ‘bound’ to a photon, and based on how this is done you can tune the resultant quasi-particle to act in a way that is partially wave-like and partially particle-like in different ratios. This has been used to test the properties of different 2D materials especially ones with properties similar to topological insulators.

  24. David Enrique López

    September 14, 2022 at 2:11 am

    🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪

  25. Theodor Hankammer

    September 14, 2022 at 10:22 am

    First of all, very nice video and thanks for bringing up such an important topic!
    I have never considered electrochemical reactions as a solution to decarbonize the chemical industrie. Great research you guys are doing, keep it up!
    I would be very interested in your opinion on electrical steam crackers as BASF is working on. The advantage obviously is that there is only one process to be optimized and in the next step you can continue to use steam for your production. Do you think that electrochemical reactions will become more efficient (in an economic way) than this technology?

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