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Xperimania online chat: tackling the challenge of climate change

Lighter cars and energy efficient houses - new approaches to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions are discussed in the Xperimania chat on 6 November at 14.00 CET. Secondary school students are invited to pose their questions to Enrique Espi, Senior Technologist at Repsol YPF, in the first Xperimania chat held in Spanish.

Due to high investment and efforts in Research and Development in the chemical industry, petrochemistry is continuously providing new solutions to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Petrochemicals contribute to innovations of many downstream users, such as clothing, computers, paper, housing, or transportation.

For example, today 75% of the heat inside a building escapes through its external walls. Using efficient foam insulation materials may cut down the energy costs by as much as 60%. Lightweight plastic films keep food fresh for longer, and save energy in transport, thus helping to save 42,600,000 tons of CO2 every year in Europe.

Even wind energy gets a little help from petrochemistry. Plastics mixed with rubber, known as acrylic impact modifiers strengthen the adhesives used to assemble wind turbine blades and epoxy resins are used in the production of rotor blades for wind turbines.

Since 1992, the chat expert, Enrique Espi, has worked at Repsol YPF, a Spanish petrochemical company, in internal, national and international projects about polymeric materials for different applications. His work has covered applications for agriculture, aquaculture, automotive industry, energy and packaging. He studied Macromolecular Chemistry at the University of the Basque Country, Spain, before obtaining his PhD in Chemistry from the same University. He holds seven patents and is the author of two books and over sixty journal publications.

Interested in taking part in the Xperimania online chat in Spanish? Schools can register by sending an email to xperimania@eun.org  with the subject “Xperimania chat”.

Background article

In addition, contributions of the chemical industry will be displayed at the “Building Blocks for Climate Change Solutions” Expoquimia at the Fira de Barcelona on 20-24 October.  Your school is invited to visit this exhibition upon request to pnavarro@firabcn.com