报告题目：Sustainability Assessment of Fuel and Energy Production

主讲嘉宾：Prof. László T. Mika

邀请人：陈熙 副教授

时间：2026年07月10日 14:30

地点：低碳学院四楼431会议室

Sustainability Assessment of Fuel and Energy Production

Prof. László T. Mika

Department of Chemical and Environmental Process Engineering,
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary. Műegyetem rkp. 3. H-1111

laszlo.t.mika@edu.bme.hu

The transition toward sustainable energy and chemical production requires a critical reassessment of how sustainability is defined and evaluated. This lecture discusses the evolution of sustainability concepts from the Brundtland definition and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to a thermodynamics-based approach on the rates of resource consumption and environmental regeneration. Emphasis is placed on the limitations of existing sustainability metrics and the frequent confusion between sustainability and economic or political suitability.

The presentation demonstrates that fossil-based energy and chemical production systems are inherently unsustainable because fossil resources are consumed orders of magnitude faster than they can be naturally replenished, while greenhouse gas emissions exceed the Earth's natural assimilation capacity. Since the chemical industry remains indispensable to the production of fuels, pharmaceuticals, polymers, fertilizers, and countless everyday products, the challenge is not simply to replace fossil feedstocks but to redesign production pathways in line with circular and renewable carbon principles.

Examples from industrial chemistry, including high-value pharmaceutical synthesis, illustrate that sustainability cannot be simply evaluated. Instead, a comprehensive assessment should consider resource utilization, process efficiency, and the balance between resource utilization and natural regeneration. The lecture argues for a science-based framework in which sustainable technologies are defined by their ability to operate within the regenerative capacity of natural systems while maintaining the societal benefits provided by modern chemical manufacturing.

References

1. Mika, L. T.; Cséfalvay, E.; Németh, Á. Chem. Rev., 2018, 118, 505. 
2. Cséfalvay, E.; Akien, G.; Qi, L.; Horváth, I. T. Catal. Today, 2015, 239, 50.
3. Horváth, I. T, Cséfalvay, E.; Mika, L. T.; Debreczeni, M. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng., 2017, 5, 2734.
4. Cséfalvay, E.; Horváth, I. T. ACS Sustain. Chem. Engi. 2018, 6, 8868.