CHISA 2021 virtually – Worldwide Chemical Engineers Meeting

Abstract

CHISA 2021 virtually – Worldwide Chemical Engineers Meeting You have just accessed a special issue of Chemical Engineering & Technology which is composed of contributions presented at the 24th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA held virtually on March 15–18, 2021 due to the pandemic of covid-19. Despite the difficult situation for both the organizers and the participants in regard to a new conference format, I feel that a nice virtual meeting of chemical engineers from all over the world was organized. However, it is clear that face-to-face discussions and meeting others in person cannot be easily replaced. The CHISA 2021 congress addressed the full spectrum of chemical and process engineering topics, such as reaction and catalysis engineering, separation processes, fluid flow and multiphase systems, computer-aided process engineering, and pharmaceutical engineering. Many interesting lectures and talks were presented, some of which are part of this special issue. The presented topics reflect the current focus of chemical engineering research on socially relevant subjects, such as decreasing environmental pollution. Studies on this topic deal with, e.g., introducing a new technology for efficient cleaning and heat recovery of flue gas from small-scale boilers, optimizing combustion processes via plasma activation while minimizing harmful emissions or removal of VOCs using an ionic liquid membrane. Another important topic is the transition from coal to green energy sources and the utilization of energy from waste; this is covered in studies on biomass gasification/combustion and fast pyrolysis of biomass and PE waste. Also included are studies of two-phase flow CFD modeling and image analysis of flow maldistribution during boiling in parallel minichannels and the utilization of catalytic processes to produce alkanes, biofuels, or synthesis gas. This is just a small sample of studies contained in this issue and I wish every reader to find a topic of interest. I want to thank the CHISA 2021 Scientific and Organizing Committees for providing an excellent platform and I hope that the next conference in 2022 will be in the usual format, allowing us again to meet in person in Prague. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lucie Obalová Institute of Environmental Technology, CEET, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava Lucie Obalová