Materials for a Sustainable Future

Professor Trevor M. Letcher is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is a past-Director of the International Association of Chemical Thermodynamics and his research involves the thermodynamics of liquid mixtures and energy from landfill. He has published over 250 publications in peer review journals and edited and co-edited 8 books in his research fields. His latest edited and co-edited books are: Heat Capacities (2010), Climate Change (2009) and Waste (2011). Janet Scott is the co-ordinator of the University of Bath Doctoral Training Centre in Sustainable Chemical Technologies and a Senior Research Fellow. She has held lectureships at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (1992-1995, concurrently with her PhD studies) and Monash University, Australia where she was also the Deputy Director of the ARC funded Centre for Green Chemistry. She has also held positions in industry as R&D Manager, Fine Chemicals Corporation, South Africa and as Marie Curie Senior Transfer of Knowledge Fellow held at Unilever R&D, Port Sunlight, UK, followed by a period as Director of a consulting company (continuing). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a previous recipient of the Royal Australian Chemical Society's Green Chemistry prize.

• Introduction;ELEMENTS THAT COULD SOON BE IN SHORT SUPPLY: Base metals;Improving materials/energy balances in metal recovery;Rare Earths;Gold;Platinum metals;Non-metals;Uranium;SUSTAINABILITY RELATED TO BIOMASS: Aquatic biomass for the production of fuel and chemicals;Chemicals from Sugarcane;Biomass for the production of chemicals;Plastics from biomass;Sustainable Aviation fuels;SUSTAINABILITY RELATED TO FEEDSTOCKS - CH4 AND CO2: CH4 for transport fuel production;CO2 capture ;CO2 as a chemical feedstock in the production of chemicals and fuels;CO2 in the manufacture of plastics;CO2 as a solvent;MATERIALS RELATED TO ENERGY CONVERSION, STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTION: Battery and fuel cell materials;Materials for photovoltaics;Materials for water splitting;Materials for storing hydrogen;SUSTAINABILITY RELATED TO MATERIALS IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND TO WATER: Compounds used in membranes for water purification and recycling;Glass and new technologies;Sustainable materials in building and architecture;Biomass in composite materials;Subject Index