The ’brain’ that’s helping reduce carbon emissions

From their base halfway across the globe in Singapore, Cambridge researchers are working with colleagues from around the world to reduce carbon emissions in industry. Jurong is an ideal laboratory for looking at ways to reduce emissions and improve sustainability. Markus Kraft For a chemical engineer, Jurong Island is a kind of paradise. The artificial island, built upon seven smaller islands off the Singapore mainland in the 1980s and 1990s, is now home to nearly 100 global petroleum, petrochemical and speciality chemical companies, indicating Singapore's status as a global crossroads. All those plants and factories produce a lot of carbon emissions - in fact more than half of global emissions come from industries like those based on the Island. With so many companies in such a small space, Jurong is an ideal laboratory for looking at ways to reduce emissions and improve sustainability. Little wonder that it has become the centre of Singapore's efforts to cut its emissions intensity by 36% (compared with 2005 levels) by 2030.