Sustainable Resources and Energy Supply

To maintain our accustomed standard of living, our resource demands must continue to be met and sockets must still provide electricity. At the same time, however, the environment cannot continue to be damaged as it has been. We need innovative strategies for energy and raw material supply – an exciting task with great responsibility for future engineers! This interdisciplinary course of study at RWTH meets these challenges: It focuses on both aspects of a sustainable, resource-conserving raw material and energy supply: environmentally compatible extraction and utilization of raw materials on the one hand and provision of sufficient quantities of energy on the other.

Would it not be frightening to think if we did not have any more raw materials – we could not produce smartphones and without energy, we could not charge them? We would literally lose contact with the outside world.

To maintain our accustomed standard of living, our resource demands must continue to be met and sockets must still provide electricity. At the same time, however, the environment cannot continue to be damaged as it has been. We need innovative strategies for energy and raw material supply – an exciting task with great responsibility for future engineers! This interdisciplinary course of study at RWTH meets these challenges: It focuses on both aspects of a sustainable, resource-conserving raw material and energy supply: environmentally compatible extraction and utilization of raw materials on the one hand and provision of sufficient quantities of energy on the other.

In order to meet humanity's need for raw materials long-term, methods for finding and mining these so-called primary resources must be improved. However, even if technology is improved, raw materials cannot be infinitely mined. Resources are limited. Thus, the importance of promoting technologies to recover raw materials is even greater. Recycling plays a key role in this effort as secondary raw materials can be used to produce new products.

A suitable raw material is at the center of energy supply. Fossil fuels, which have a bad reputation, play just as important of a role as renewable energies. Coal, gas, and oil on the one hand and biofuel, sun, wind, and water on the other – they all contribute to a basic supply. The impending withdrawal of nuclear energy from our energy supply means a good mix of consistently available resources and intermittent energy sources is needed.