Chapter 15 – Future Trends

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the trends in sulfur research, industrial production, use, and. There are presently two key questions regarding energy. One concerns the balance between consumption and reserves; the other concerns the choice of the candidate material that will most likely prove to be the cheapest replacement for oil and gas. The chemistry will influence future events in many forms: the present and future research will determine the limits of the society's ability to produce, use, and recover sulfur, the theoretical limits of coal's utilization, and the society's ability to make maximum use of the beneficial properties of sulfur, or to limit the damage caused by inadvertent by-products. The chemical knowledge will determine the limit of the engineer's ability to translate currently available chemistry into practical, commercially viable processes; the judicious use of chemical facts by industry and government will determine the lowest possible energy price, and the physical quality of the environment.