Neal Amundson initiated a tidal change in our profession by providing a scientific basis for the design of chemical reactors and plants. Even so, his approach maintained a strong engineering orientation. Since then our profession has put increasing emphasis on science while engineering has receded into the background. Today, engineers graduate without a feeling for the cost and economic implications of their research, a capability that previous generations had in the fingertips.

We face a large challenge in the near future, the peaking of all our fossil fuel reserves during the life spans of our children or grandchildren. Whether this occurs in the next twenty years or fifty years, the problem is very large due to the constraints of human and economic resources. It will take at least that length of time to switch to non-fossil energy sources or even to switch to non-conventional fossil fuel sources. This paper will show that by improving existing technologies we can achieve the required goals. It will be a challenge to our profession to formulate such a plan in a cost-effective way and to deal with all the systems problems that will result from the changeover.

Recent experience with the “hydrogen economy” and with other large-scale research programs shows that there is a strong need for better system analysis and cost and design considerations. My own personal experience indicates that the education required by those who will be prepared to help meet these objective will include a thorough training in reaction engineering and design as pioneered by Neal Amundson.