Our journey today began at Titan Cement where we got to experience the full scale of a cement plant. The presenters discussed the operation and how the whole operation at the Titan Cement plant we visited was vertically integrated so that most of the supplies they needed and produced where handled directly by their company. It seemed that the company had a very strong set of goals and plans in place to continue their production there for the foreseeable future. What stuck with me the most on this visit, however, was their emphasis on being environmentally friendly which is something I want to help accomplish with my engineering degree. The presenters discussed how Titan Cement is using environmentally friendly fuels such as burning tires or human waste to fuel the kilns in which clinker is produced. Even though these still produce fumes, they are looking to harness the heat energy from them to reutilize part of the waste. I hope that as a future engineer, that I can help contribute to solutions such as these that help to implement more sustainable practices wherever I end up working to help our planet remain healthy. In addition, they are also looking into making a carbon dioxide (CO2) collection facility to capture any CO2 created from the kilns. I was especially interested in this CO2 aspect as Dr. Enick the head of the gas, renewables, and oil engineering department mentioned that this field is one of the few that actively use this captured CO2. I am excited to learn about how the natural gas field can utilize this waste in a beneficial way. In addition to this sustainable aspect, I want to look into other such methods that can help to make a more sustainable society by making use of previously harmful or wasted byproducts.

The second of our two visits today was to the Athens International Airport. This visit was also very informative on sustainability as the airport has a solar panel grid to completely power every aspect of the facility. The airport has also replaced each of their transport vehicles with electric ones to make use of this energy. However, this visit helped show me another perspective that was different than Titan Cement. The tour we had of the terminal management system was interesting as we got to see how they manage the millions of visitors coming into and departing from Athens. What I took away from this visit was to be understanding of the people I work with and to have a positive attitude when dealing with the end user of my products. The team at the airport seemed really positive and excited about their jobs even if they had to deal with stuck up flyers.